ORLEANS — Local organizations are seeking a combined total of more than $1 million in Community Preservation funds for historic preservation, community housing and recreation initiatives. Over the next months, the community preservation committee will interview applicants and make recommendations. Town meeting will have the final say in May. Topping the wish list is a $500,000 request from the Academy of Per...

You could do a whole December’s worth of shopping with one stop at the Orleans Farmers Market in the cafeteria of Nauset Regional Middle School on a Saturday morning. And everything you’d carry out is locally sourced and perhaps even benefits a charity. If December shopping isn’t for you, this market will continue every Saturday through the end of April. Then it returns to its outdoor venue at Depot Square. ...

ORLEANS — What services are as basic to residents as the sea breezes they inhale just by living here? Which are the ones they should pay for each time they use them? Selectmen spent an evening Nov. 28 delving into the old question of which town services should be supported by all taxpayers and which by user fees, searching for a combination that would take the pressure off an annual operating budget that can...

ORLEANS — You'd hardly have known from the selectmen's discussion last week on raising revenues that a revenue committee created by town meeting spent many months looking at that very question. The committee had its differences with the board, and even with town meeting, which approved some of its initiatives and passed by others. John Laurino, chair of the now-defunct committee, watched the Nov. 28 selectme...

ORLEANS — A piece of the town's history – albeit one that was born next door in Eastham – goes on the auction block next week. The former Academy Ocean Grille at 2 Academy Place will be auctioned by the Daniel P. McLaughlin Co. of Boston Dec. 8 at 1 p.m. in Orleans. A $25,000 deposit is required at the sale for the 4,000-square-foot building on a 37,026-square-foot parcel. The Academy Ocean Grille's closu...

ORLEANS — Firefighters respond to fires, accidents, and medical emergencies. Next week, members of the local department hope that townspeople will join them in responding to the needs of those who are “Homeless for the Holidays.” For the first time, Orleans will join the roster of Cape towns whose firefighters take turns sleeping outdoors in the cold to raise awareness about homelessness and collect food, to...

ORLEANS — When riders ask Orleans Cycle manager Barry Martin how to get to Chatham, he never suggests the direct route down Route 28. Martin puts the cyclists on the Cape Cod Rail Trail, which runs by his Main Street shop, for the 18-mile journey into Harwich and onto the spur that runs back into Chatham. In an interview last week, he said he's concerned about visitors who are “oblivious” to the reality that...

ORLEANS — You don't see a bill for the water you use in July and August until the following February. A lot can happen in that time, including leaks that send water into the ground unused after the town has paid for pumping, treating, and distributing it. In some cases, surprised homeowners are faced with bills for thousands of dollars. They ask for abatements, and more revenue is forfeited. The board of water a...

ORLEANS — “Thank a veteran” has been a byword for many years. “Ask a veteran” is another step those who served wish people would consider. “Talk to a veteran sometime over coffee,” Selectmen Chair Jon Fuller, a retired senior chief petty officer, told his listeners at Veterans Square Saturday during the town's commemoration of Veterans Day. “Let them tell you of their experience.” In biting cold, the crow...

ORLEANS — With erosion eating away about 12 feet of Nauset Beach a year, next summer was to have been the last for Liam's restaurant on its familiar perch above the waves. The building, which is owned by the town, was to be torn down and Liam's relocated to a new structure farther back in the parking lot. But last week, the potential cost of that stopgap measure convinced the board of selectmen that Liam's s...

ORLEANS — Volunteers handy with a hammer and saw built a garage for the town's fire truck on Main Street back in 1925. H.K and Theresa Cummings donated the land and town meeting chipped in $7,000. The police department moved in in 1954, and both departments moved to their new building in 1967, at which point the recreation department started using what had become known as the Old Firehouse. After some period...

ORLEANS — In planning their budgets for the fiscal year that begins next July 1, department heads can propose up to a 4 percent expenditure increase over the current year. Selectmen set the standard, which applies to town and school budgets, last week. “Last year, I told the board we were at a crossroads,” Town Administrator John Kelly told selectmen Nov. 1. The standard 2.5 percent annual increase was becom...