ORLEANS — The zoning board has denied the appeal of a building permit issued for 21 Great Oak Rd., a large house under construction that has been listed for short-term vacation rentals for up to 22 people at a time. Vince Ollivier, who lives across the street, filed the appeal based on Hydrangea Properties’ permit request for “construction of a new residential home.” In an interview earlier this month, he sa...

ORLEANS — Fine-tooth combs were the order of the day as the finance committee delved into the details of the Nauset Regional High School building project last week. Its guests included the chairmen of the building committee and the regional school committee as well as Superintendent Tom Conrad. Renovation and construction at the half-century-old Eastham campus could cost up to $140 million, with the district’s...

ORLEANS — Tales of service and sacrifice were shared at the town’s Veterans Day observance Monday. The audience of about 100 learned that National Anthem singer Hannah Novotny’s grandfather served in World War II, that former selectman and Navy veteran Jon Fuller’s vessel was on the gunline in North Vietnam, that middle school band director Megan Anthony’s family feared that her younger brother’s Black Hawk helic...

ORLEANS — To Sean Campbell, there’s nothing out of the ordinary about his family’s house being built on Great Oak Road. “It is unfortunate that we are being singled out for building a private residence (in compliance with town zoning bylaws), it seems, because the home will be used partly as a rental property,” he wrote to The Chronicle last week. “Our view is rental properties are very common in East Orleans,...

ORLEANS — Water is a blessing and a challenge for the town. The beauty of the bays, the peace of the ponds, and the freshness of the drinking water are balanced by the need to manage wastewater and stormwater and to deal with erosion and flooding. With a decades-long plan to address wastewater in place, attention is turning to a possible long-range plan for another pollutant, stormwater runoff. There’s exten...

ORLEANS — “Our family builds charming, neighborly rental homes that fit into their surrounding communities,” reads the letter to neighbors of 21 Great Oak Rd. in East Orleans. The request for a building permit, which was granted in late August, called for “construction of a new residential home.” That permit will be challenged Nov. 6 at the zoning board of appeals by an abutter who says the building, still u...

ORLEANS — For decades, the Peck family has been stewards of the hillside that runs down to Arey’s Pond and the Namequoit River, said to be the site of the town’s last Indian meetinghouse. In 2006, they sold the town 8.2 acres that became the Marion Hadley and Samuel Watson Peck Conservation Area. Last week, three members of the town’s open space committee tramped through the lightly-wooded north two acres of...

ORLEANS — The Centers for Culture and History in Orleans (formerly the Orleans Historical Society) has ended plans to acquire the historic Captain Linnell House. Owners Bill and Shelly Conway have put their retirement plans on hold and are taking reservations for Christmas parties and weddings again. “Next year will be our 32 nd year,” Shelly Conway said in a phone interview Monday. “We’ve weathered a lot o...

ORLEANS — More than a century and a half after Henry David Thoreau of Concord stopped at Higgins’s tavern on his journey to Provincetown, Frank Durant of Salem spoke with a reporter at Ames Pizzeria before setting off to walk in the steps of the sage of Walden Pond. Like Thoreau, Durant is a man of many talents. He’s an actor and producer who studied storytelling at Harvard Divinity School with the one and o...

ORLEANS — Another voice has been added to the conversation about the best use of the town’s transfer station. This afternoon (Oct. 17), the board of health will review a report from Kari Parcell, the county’s municipal assistance coordinator, on how to increase recycling opportunities. After a recent public hearing at which opinions were mixed on a proposed change to single-stream recycling, the board decide...

ORLEANS — The animal control and regulation task force, which includes five members who own dogs and two who do not, want to hear from “constituencies that don’t have an actual seat at the table of the committee,” vice chair Karl Oakes said in an interview last week. For instance, “We don’t know to what extent being perceived as a dog-friendly town is important to the rental community,” he said. “If we chang...

ORLEANS — An override of the tax levy limit in the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2022, will be needed to maintain the current level of services, Town Administrator John Kelly told the board of selectmen Oct. 2. With declining revenue from the beaches and hotel/motel tax receipts being shifted to a stabilization fund to help pay wastewater costs, and anticipated higher costs for factors such as benefits and u...