ORLEANS – As chair of the town's recreation advisory committee, Tracy Murphy sees what the town has the potential to offer residents and visitors in terms of programming. But speaking before the select board last week, she couldn't ignore what is currently lacking. As the summer draws to a close, Murphy said the recreation department has fallen behind in its offerings compared to neighboring towns. While Brews...

ORLEANS – Multi-colored post-it notes canvassed the walls of the cafeteria in the public works building on Giddiah Hill Road Monday afternoon. Together, they may offer a vision for a new community center in town. That's the hope of the town's community center feasibility task force, which held a public workshop to get input on what residents and town officials want to see out of a new building. The workshop...

ORLEANS – With approval from the conservation commission earlier this month, the Sipson Island Trust is ready to begin work restoring the island to its natural condition this fall. The island went up for sale in 2018, and the nonprofit trust was formed the following year in an effort to protect the island for public access, research, education and recreation. Following an extensive campaign that raised more...

ORLEANS – To what extent should the town administrator have the authority to supervise town staff, and when should that authority fall to the select board? It's a question that's being posed by a potential change to the town charter at October's special town meeting. The charter review committee participated in a joint meeting with the select board Aug. 10 in which the committee presented several proposed c...

Interim Principal Sought To Lead Middle School in 2022-2023 ORLEANS — Nauset Regional Middle School will not have a new principal named to the post in time for the coming school year. A search committee charged with identifying and interviewing candidates for the position has not yet “found the right candidate,” and will restart its search this fall, Nauset School Superintendent Brooke Cenchy said in a...

ORLEANS —  As the old saying goes, opposites attract. Perhaps that’s how Gordon Wright and his wife, Carol, came to be.  “He was more of a mountain man than an ocean person,” Carol said of her late husband, who before moving to the Lower Cape spent time living in Burlington, Vt.  “I was the ocean person.” But over the course of more than four decades on Cape Cod, Mr. Wright came to embrace the region every ...

ORLEANS – When Wendy Cullinan first started with Habitat for Humanity Cape Cod as the organization’s resource development director in 2013, she made fast friends with Bob Renn. In her new role, Cullinan was the staff liaison to Habitat’s faith relations committee, of which Mr. Renn was a member. “ We went to breakfast one morning,” recalled Cullinan, who is now the nonprofit’s CEO. “He invited me to go ...

ORLEANS — Low-income housing tax credits have been awarded to the Pennrose housing development planned for the site of the former Cape Cod Five headquarters on West Road. The project is one of 26 across 16 towns statewide to receive financing through the tax credits, the Baker-Polito Administration announced July 26. In total, $50 million in direct funding and $89 million in tax credits are being allocated acr...

ORLEANS — The select board plans to open up a draft of its proposed short-term rental bylaw to public discussion later this month. While questions regarding parking and what to charge property owners for a registration fee are still unsettled, the board will have a draft prepared for a public hearing on Aug. 24. The board has been working with Town Counsel Michael Ford in recent months crafting languag...

ORLEANS – Skaket Corners is under new ownership. The shopping plaza at 9 West Rd., which houses a Shaws supermarket, a CVS, a liquor store and the vacant former Hearth n' Kettle building among other businesses, was sold in June to Skaket Corners Orleans LLC for $33.1 million. Town Assessor Brad Hinote said in an email last week that the property is assessed at just under $17 million. "We were quite surpr...

ORLEANS – As talks continue over how to best regulate short-term rentals in town, including those managed by commercial businesses, one property has emerged as an example of what residents and officials are looking to avoid. Beachside Properties closed on property at the intersection of Barley Neck Road and Sea Mist Drive in February. The property includes two homes, one with five-bedrooms and the other with f...

ORLEANS — As the cost of goods and services continues to rise, it can be tough these days for families to cover all of their needs. With the start of a new school year just a few weeks away, that also includes paying for back-to-school supplies. The Homeless Prevention Council helped provide approximately 250 new backpacks full of supplies for students and families on the Lower and Outer Cape in 2021, and Hadl...