ORLEANS — The controversy over awarding rights to negotiate a community host agreement to sell cannabis in town had its day in court July 1. Barnstable Superior Court Judge Mark Gildea took under advisement B\Well Holdings’s request for a preliminary injunction to block the town from acting on the select board’s decision to give those rights to Seaside Joint Venture or any other applicant that scored lower than...

ORLEANS — “Roll tape” may replace “roll the presses” at the former Cape Codder printery on Namskaket Road if Lower Cape Community Access TV opens a new headquarters there. The non-profit content and community access provider was to go before the site plan review committee yesterday (July 7) for informal review of its plan to build two studios (one with a working kitchen), an audio recording booth, and even a...

ORLEANS — Police Chief Scott MacDonald, a 30-year law enforcement veteran, remembers when “community policing” was more reactive. “When a problem arose, we would connect with the community and try to solve that problem,” he said last week. “Community policing was always on the periphery, not part of the fundamental foundation of law enforcement.” That had to change. “We can’t react after there’s a problem,”...

ORLEANS — The town has received a single proposal – from Housing Assistance Corporation – to develop and operate rental housing at 107 Main St. HAC CEO Alisa Magnotta wrote of plans to build 14 affordable rental apartments “in one structure designed in the style of a historic Cape Cod home, befitting the rich history of the property.” In an area of antique homes, the proposed building follows a traditiona...

ORLEANS — Clashing perspectives on Nauset Estuary were evident again at last week’s public forum on dredging the heavily-shoaled waters in Eastham and Orleans. To some, the condition of the estuary is a clear and present danger to the fishing fleet and recreational boaters and a hindrance to commerce. To others, such risks are known and do not outbalance the potential damage large-scale dredging could do to ...

ORLEANS — The forecast for Sunday, July 4, is for partly cloudy skies, a high of 71 degrees, and zero chance of rain. And although Weather Underground reports only on natural phenomena, it’s a good bet crowds will be gathering well before 10 a.m. to celebrate the return of the town’s Independence Day Parade. “The theme is America is Back!” parade committee chair Jenn Allard wrote in a recent email. “And we t...

ORLEANS — You might say Cecil Newcomb is keeping his own counsel in declining requests to explain why he resigned from the select board last week. Meanwhile, his former colleagues were planning to meet in executive session last night (June 23) to discuss a legal complaint filed by a cannabis company that was not invited to negotiate a host community agreement to open a retail marijuana dispensary. A hearing on...

ORLEANS — The recreation advisory committee is exercised (as in worried or perplexed). “Our committee right now is frustrated and disappointed by what we’ve not been able to improve with the rec department, especially when it comes to programming,” committee chair Tracy Murphy told the select board June 16. “It must be welcoming, low-cost, accessible to all ages, interests, and abilities, responsive to communi...

ORLEANS -- A driver was taken to Cape Cod Hospital after the SUV she was driving collided with an apartment building Thursday morning. The collision happened shortly before 11 a.m. at 36 Old Colony Way, an apartment building known as Hancock III.  Witnesses say the driver, who lives nearby, drove over the lawn and through the parking lot before the vehicle crashed into the first floor of the three-story buildi...

ORLEANS - Cecil Newcomb resigned from the select board today (June 16), effective immediately. "It has been an Honor to serve the Town of Orleans as a member of the Selectboard," he wrote in a letter that did not specify the reason for his action. He had not replied to an e-mailed request for comment by posting time.   It's now up to Newcomb's former colleagues to decide whether to continue as a four-member...

ORLEANS — B\Well Holdings filed a complaint in Barnstable Superior Court Monday accusing the select board of committing legal errors or acting arbitrarily and capriciously in not inviting the company to negotiate a host community agreement to open a retail marijuana establishment. Although B\Well achieved the second-highest ranking from the select board on a matrix of criteria regarding the two available lic...

ORLEANS — Perhaps by the end of the decade, Crystal Lake’s name will no longer be ironic. “Crystal used to be so unbelievably clear,” marine and freshwater quality committee chair Judy Scanlon told the select board last week. “As young teenagers, we’d throw a rock into the deepest waters and retrieve it. You did not need masks to find it.” But 21 years of scientific measurement “show a significant trend i...