ORLEANS — As a choreographer, educator, hair stylist, and planning board member, Andrea Shaw Reed has looked to bring out the beauty in people and places. Now she wants to bring what she’s learned to another board, where she hopes to learn more. “The board of selectmen is five people,” she said in a recent interview. “You have to wrestle with ideas, to listen to the people you’re talking to so you can move for...

ORLEANS — The countdown clock has been reset for the acquisition of Sipson Island as a natural preserve, a destination for public access, and an educational resource. With just under a million dollars left to raise, the Friends of Pleasant Bay and other organizations involved in the effort announced an extension of the closing date from Jan. 30 to the end of March. “We had a strong finish in 2019, with ge...

ORLEANS — There’s disagreement about the medicine to make Uncle Harvey better. The marine and fresh water quality committee met last week with consultants to review a proposed timeline for treatment of the pond, which is subject to blooms of cyanobacteria, as soon as June. The committee has endorsed an application of alum to bind with the culprit substance, phosphorus, and drop it out of the water column; mone...

ORLEANS — An interim report on conditions at the fire station include plenty of reasons for alarm. Consultants have documented problems with airflow. No ventilation air is being introduced into the apparatus and rescue vehicle area, and two exhaust fans “do not appear to be functional,” MacRitchie Engineering, Inc., of Braintree, wrote. The presence of union-purchased exercise equipment in the same location “i...

ORLEANS — This Webb site might draw a lot of attention. And this site would be real, not virtual. F.W. Webb Company, purveyor of plumbing, lighting supplies and more, wants to demolish two buildings at Bayberry Square, also known as the Underground Mall, on Route 6A near the Brewster line and build a 32,000-square foot building. For comparison’s sake, the former Hearth & Kettle at nearby Skaket Corners is ...

ORLEANS — With solemn faces, members of the fire and rescue department sat in the rear of the Nauset Room Jan. 22 as the board of selectmen discussed the process of finding a successor to Chief Tony Pike, whose last day before retirement will be Feb. 22. If a new leader isn’t found by then, Deputy Chief Geof Deering, who sat with his colleagues during last week’s meeting, would become acting chief. The board d...

ORLEANS — The town’s projected budget for fiscal year 2021, which begins July 1, includes a 2.9 percent decrease in the tax rate and no property tax increase. On the other hand, the first look at operating expenses for the non-school budget shows a 4.7 increase, a bit over the board of selectmen’s 4 percent cap. But there could be good news there, too, if the Cape Cod Municipal Health Group sets coverage rates lo...

ORLEANS – That the problem of mass incarceration is alarming is seen not only in the statistics but in the strong and passionate commitments of those aware of and concerned about over-incarceration in America today. Many know there is a problem, but how it came to exist and how to address it are often less clear. The Honorable Donald L. Cabell, the guest speaker at this year’s Martin Luther King Day Breakfast at ...

ORLEANS — “New occasions teach new duties,” James Russell Lowell wrote. That thought may be helpful as Nauset Regional School District taxpayers weigh a high school reconstruction project that will benefit not only the district’s children but also some from other Cape towns as well as adult learners from the system’s four communities. The Eastham high school’s student body is a mix of pupils from Brewster, Eas...

ORLEANS — Recent studies of sediment types and shellfish resources, and preliminary consultations with regulatory agencies, have not dredged up any issues that would stall efforts to improve navigation in Nauset Estuary, a stakeholder group learned Monday. Woods Hole Group senior coastal geologist Leslie Fields said core samples identified areas that were primarily sandy, which would mean dredged materials c...

BREWSTER — The first cuts of next fiscal year’s budgets for the Nauset Regional middle and high schools should please selectmen. Both are showing an overall increase of less than 4 percent, the cap requested by the Orleans board. At the Jan. 9 regional school committee meeting in Brewster, middle school principal Julie Kobold’s $8,485,859 budget showed a proposed increase of 2.91 percent over the current yea...

ORLEANS — At the town’s community building on Main Street, things are quieter than when firetrucks raced out the door, but that doesn’t mean the former fire and police station is any less busy. Many programs have activities there, and the potential of the structure has yet to be fully realized, some say. “It’s a small building, but a hub of activity,” JoAnna Keeley, chairperson of the Orleans Cultural Distri...