ORLEANS — In comic books, secret identities are, well, secret. You're not supposed to let anyone know that you have super powers. This year, Orleans Elementary School has upended that expectation. From the moment kindergarten to fifth grade students walked through the doors last week, they have been encouraged to express their own super powers. Don't expect to see kindergartners flying faster than locomot...

ORLEANS — A 108-year-old tradition was renewed in Orleans Friday when Town Clerk Cynthia May awarded the Boston Post Cane to the oldest resident of the town, Sarah Harris. And the tradition is only a bit older than the honoree. Harris turned 103 in June. “I don't mind being old,” Harris quipped. From the comfort of her living room easy chair, she received the congratulations of Selectmen Jon Fuller and Alan...

ORLEANS — Dogs love the beach, and no dog ever loved Nauset Beach more than Riptide Windjammer. The golden retriever, who lived with the Fancy family, passed away almost 40 years ago. But his legend lives on in “Riptide,” a book by Orleans author Frances Ward Weller. First out in 1990, it's back in a new edition courtesy of publisher David R. Godine. Fran and Frank Weller were seasonal visitors in Orleans...

ORLEANS — With enough events to qualify as a World's Fair, the Orleans Pond Coalition's Celebrate Our Waters Weekend Festival returns Sept. 15 to 17. Praising the donors and volunteers who make it happen, OPC President Jim McCauley said, “We do this for the town. I think the town really appreciates it. Sometimes the politics gets a little tough in Orleans, but I don't think anyone is angry at us over Celebra...

ORLEANS — In recent years, the town has been marching down the field toward its goal of cleaning its waters. At next month's special town meeting, selectmen will ask voters to support grinding out a few more yards now to set up a full-scale attack on the end zone at annual town meeting in May. Some members had higher ambitions for the Oct. 16 meeting, but with four positive votes required to put borrowing qu...

ORLEANS — Selectmen planned to hold their clear-the-air work session on water quality projects last night (Aug. 30) with decisions pending on wastewater collection and treatment options and alternative ways in which the system could be designed, built, and operated. And there's more to come: at the board's Aug. 23 meeting, Selectman Mark Mathison said the shellfish and waterways improvement advisory committe...

ORLEANS — Sharks are becoming a fact of life in the waters off Cape Cod, and the town needs to alter its beach rescue operations. “The regularity of white sharks being in the vicinity of the beach justifies a new approach to ocean rescue,” Natural Resources Director Nate Sears told selectmen Aug. 23. “I no longer feel comfortable sending lifeguards a considerable distance offshore to rescue persons in distre...

ORLEANS — The word “decision”appeared three times on the selectmen's Aug. 17 agenda, but the only decision the four voting members could agree on was to hold another meeting to clear the air on the way forward with water quality remediation projects. Colleague David Currier remained sidelined due to a potential conflict of interest if he discusses or votes on the design of a wastewater collection system for ...

ORLEANS — On a day when 40,000 marched to Boston Common to protest hate speech, Cape Codders held a unity rally to show their support. “Love stops the hate,” the Rev. Sally Norris of Federated Church of Orleans told more than 125 people gathered in an arc before her on the village green Aug. 19. “Goodness stops the evil.” Norris and the Revs. Ken Campbell and Wesley Williams, co-chairs of the MLK Action T...

ORLEANS  —  Members of the "Martin Luther King Action Team" of the Nauset Interfaith Association will gather on the Village Green in Orleans on Saturday, August 19 at 1:30 PM to celebrate "Unity in Diversity." Organizers seek to acknowledge equal rights and justice among all members of the local community. "We repudiate the idea that our country or any part of our country belongs to any particular group of ...

ORLEANS — In 2003, Iraq felt the fire and fury of an American-led invasion. In 2017, on Cape Cod, Iraqi refugee families enjoyed the fun and friendliness of a Cape Cod weekend arranged by the Nauset Interfaith Association. On Friday, host families from Brewster, Eastham, Harwich, Orleans, and Yarmouth welcomed 18 refugees who have settled in the Worcester area at St. Peter's Lutheran Church in Harwich. They ...

ORLEANS — Tonight (Aug. 17) at 7, the board of selectmen and the finance committee will meet for a joint work session on wastewater issues, leading off with a workshop on a multi-variable matrix of options for funding a sewer and treatment system. The boards were to hear as well what sort of assurances bond counsel would require if the town uses state land at Route 6's Exit 12 for the system's primary dispo...