ORLEANS – Town officials are turning to a seasoned department head to provide stability in the recreation department through the summer. Judi Wilson, the town's council on aging director, worked with Interim Town Administrator Charles Sumner in hiring Patricia MacDonald as the town's new recreation director this spring. But with MacDonald's resignation from the job last month, Wilson has now been tasked with o...

ORLEANS – A new era in Orleans town government is set to get underway early next month. Kimberly Newman will begin work as town manager on July 1, select board chair Michael Herman confirmed last week. When she starts, Newman, who is the current town administrator in Mendon, will become Orleans' first new full time manager in more than 26 years. Newman was chosen from a field of four finalists who were inte...

ORLEANS – A rental registration bylaw adopted through town meeting last month is currently before the state Attorney General's office, but it could go into effect at the start of the year. Interim Town Administrator Charles Sumner gave an update on the status of the new bylaw to the select board May 31. He said Attorney General Andrea Campbell's office has 90 days to review the bylaw, a timeline that puts pote...

ORLEANS — For the past 10 summers, local volunteers have turned out in numbers to the Church of the Holy Spirit to prepare, package and deliver meals to children taking part in summer recreation programs on the Lower and Outer Cape. Food 4 Kids Cape Cod returns for its 11th summer in Orleans later this month, but as the start of programming nears on June 26, the nonprofit organization still needs volunteers to...

ORLEANS – In 1965, Andrew DeLory registered with the Selective Service Board, through which he applied for and was approved status as a conscientious objector. "It's a great nation that allows men and women on philosophical or religious grounds with conscience to serve without weapons, to do no harm, to object to warfare," DeLory, an Orleans resident who served in the Vietnam War as a specialist in the U.S. Ar...

ORLEANS – Sometimes a little neighborly competition is healthy. When Justin Alex saw Chatham's Art In the Park initiative a few years ago, it got him thinking about what the Orleans Chamber of Commerce could do to help support its local businesses. "I grew up in Chatham, but I used to surf a lot in Orleans," said Alex, who is president of the chamber's board of directors and director of sales for The Chroni...

ORLEANS – Imagine on Putnam Farm a cleaner, healthier habitat for plants, birds, frogs, turtles and other native wetland wildlife, and a place more accessible for public viewing. That's the vision for two wetland areas in the center of the farm brought before the town's conservation commission last month. Ian Ives of Mass Audubon and Tom Biebighauser, a wetlands biologist based out of Kentucky, are proposin...

ORLEANS – On Monday of last week, the Girls on the Run team at Orleans Elementary School made their way around the school grounds. The route was the same one the 14 runners have been following twice a week since March, but this day was different. Teachers, staffers and family members gathered outside to cheer the team in one of their final practices before heading to Boston for this Saturday's Girls on the Run...

ORLEANS – With funding secured through town meeting earlier this month, a task force will work to further plans for a new Snow Library. The Snow Library Feasibility Study Task Force is charged with looking at options for building a new library at the site of the existing building near the corner of Main Street and Route 28, as well as alternative sites for a new facility. The select board unanimously approved ...

ORLEANS – Carl Trevison had heard about the growing anti-war sentiment back home in America during his year-long tour of duty in Vietnam. But it took returning home to realize how many people had begun to turn against veterans such as himself. "I was not aware that it was that bad," said Trevison, an Orleans resident who served in the U.S. Army from 1966 to 1968. "I know guys had told me that when you processe...

ORLEANS – Town officials had high hopes for Patricia MacDonald when she began work as the town's new recreation director May 1. But after just three weeks on the job, MacDonald resigned last week, just months ahead of the start of summer programming. Interim Town Administrator Charles Sumner broke the news to the recreation advisory committee May 18, saying that MacDonald submitted her letter of resignation ea...

ORLEANS – Brian Junkins can still recall in detail the circumstances surrounding his parents' purchase of Friends' Marketplace. "My mom was a middle school teacher at the school right behind here," said Brian, who owns the Main Street market with his wife, Monila. "She was driving to school one day and noticed that the store might be available for sale. That's how my dad found out about it. He rushed down from...