ORLEANS — A smoky fire in an electrical panel at Comcast's facility on Locust Road Wednesday, Jan. 4 led to a temporary service shutdown on the Lower Cape. Deputy Chief Geof Deering said the department got the call from Comcast employees at 5:22 p.m. The building was evacuated as firefighters wearing breathing apparatus searched the basement for the fire. One Comcast employee was evaluated for smoke inhalation...

ORLEANS — Selectmen Chairman Sims McGrath, whose term ends this May, is ready to move on if somebody else will step up. “I will not categorically say that I will not run, but I do feel that it's someone else's turn,” he said Tuesday. “So I hope someone, some qualified people, will take out papers, and I hope to get a vacation. But I'll do it again if I absolutely have to.” The board's vice chairman, David...

ORLEANS — In a world full of gadgets, it's refreshing to visit the candle maker on Main Street. “It's very traditional, non-high tech,” Agostino Di Bari said of his work. “It's rewarding.” The sales area at the front of Honey Candle Co. at 37 Main St. is replete with various sizes, shapes and colors of beeswax candles and tapers. Behind that is a compact work space that includes the tools of his trade as ...

ORLEANS — In many ways, the last quarter of the year was a watershed for water quality efforts. In October, town meeting voted 369-98 to spend $3.2 million by June 2017 on the next stage of a coordinated effort to reduce nitrogen levels in local waters, including investigation of treated wastewater disposal sites, experiments with innovative nitrogen removal schemes, engineering studies for a downtown sewer ...

ORLEANS — We all want to be home for the holidays. But what if we can't remember where home is? For people with Alzheimer's Disease, the familiar becomes unfamiliar. They can walk out the front door and forget how to come back home. About 10 years ago, a local resident was reported missing. It wasn't known that he had Alzheimer's. Public safety personnel and volunteers began what turned into an 18-hour se...

ORLEANS — The town will ask the Nauset Regional School District to allow testing at the middle school to see whether its running track area can serve as a backup site for discharge of effluent – treated wastewater – from a proposed treatment plant for a downtown sewer system. Meeting Dec. 14 with AECOM staff and town consultant Mike Domenica, the board reviewed a list of nine sites ranging from the Overland ...

ORLEANS — Some Massachusetts towns are struggling with the cost of replacing their high schools, with price tags reaching the hundreds of millions. Nauset Public Schools is pursuing a more conservative path, seeking to upgrade the existing Nauset Regional High School in Eastham so it can last another two decades or more. “The campus is tired,” said Superintendent Tom Conrad, who was principal of Nauset High ...

ORLEANS — Now the Lower Cape can get its locally-grown food faster and fresher. The Orleans Winter Farmers Market at Nauset Regional Middle School has a new, weekly schedule through April. Almost 40 vendors will take turns sharing the school's cafeteria every Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon except Dec. 24 and 31. On Dec. 3, customers were lined up and ready to shop when market manager Elise Waldron rang the tra...

ORLEANS — The many moving parts of the town's long campaign to remove excess nitrogen from its waters were on display in great detail at the Nov. 30 selectmen's meeting. The board reviewed the plan of attack through next June 30 with engineering firm AECOM and the town's consultant, Mike Domenica, looking at an updated timeline that included decision points for the board to act. Case in point: the oyster ...

ORLEANS — If you're reading this on Thursday, Dec. 1, why not call Lower Cape Community Access Television at 508-694-3500 to book a slot for today's PSA Day? This invitation to tape a brief public service announcement is for members of the nonprofit community with connections to the five towns Lower Cape TV covers: Brewster, Eastham, Orleans, Wellfleet, and Truro, but it illustrates the welcoming nature of t...

ORLEANS — For preservers of the town's past, the board members of the Orleans Historical Society spend a lot of time thinking about the future. You'll have to forgive them, though, as the near horizon holds tantalizing prospects for creating a heritage center of several buildings at their location between River Road and Main Street. More room for exhibitions, more space for concerts and special events, even ...

ORLEANS — If you thought the presidential election was a close one, take a look at the race between Coastal Engineering and Orleans Bowling Center/Big Dogs Barbecue for Business of the Year. The board of the Orleans Chamber of Commerce couldn't decide between the two nominees, so for the first time, the vote was opened to the general membership. After three weeks of voting, a tie was declared. Coastal CEO an...