ORLEANS – Perhaps Finn won't have died in vain. Last week, selectmen ordered the 22-month-old boxer owned by Oneida and Michael Lillis “humanely euthanized” after testimony about the dog biting a man at Kent's Point and a contractor at the couple's home. It was an uncomfortable evening for everyone, made more difficult by confusion over what the town, which does not have a leash law, requires. Dogs must be ...

An interesting description of the salt lakes of Australia is given by a writer in the Sydney Empire, who... says... “Mounds of earth... can be seen for miles. The water is clear and soft. It is impregnated with magnesia, soda and alum. It is very palatable to drink, and I think very wholesome...” The Chatham Monitor, Oct. 25, 1871 Alum treatments, which have been used to improve pond health on Cape Cod by...

Today (June 14) through Saturday, registering to vote will be as easy as checking out a book at your local library. Across the Cape and on Martha's Vineyard, libraries will host a voter registration drive organized by Cape and Islands Vote 2018. “It's just been mind-boggling, and it's taken off like a rocket,” said Laurie Veninger of North Truro. She started talking up the idea on the Outer Cape and watched...

ORLEANS — With an MVP, the Celtics might have been playing for the NBA championship this week. Last week, the state provided funding to Chatham and Orleans to add a most valuable player to their efforts to assess climate change vulnerability and create resiliency plans. With erosion-stressed Nauset Beach as a backdrop, state Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Matthew Beaton announced almost $2.2 m...

ORLEANS — You've got to know where you are before you can get to where you're going. Snow Library is developing a space usage and projection study that will lead to upgrades of areas for adults, teens, and children. The library's facilities advisory committee has met with consultant Mary Braney to review a draft needs assessment, which is based on extensive interviews and public forums. “In post-1992 atte...

ORLEANS — Since town meeting decided earlier this month not to ban marijuana sales, town officials and advocates are starting to speak the same language. “Many of us have had personal therapeutic experiences with family members that made us recognize that when you see 'recreational marijuana' on the planning board agenda, the truth is, it's more appropriately 'adult-use cannabis,'” Rick Francolini told the b...

Click here for a slideshow of Memorial Day photos. ORLEANS — On a cold, misty morning, citizens mustered at Town Cove to honor the community's war dead. Some were in full-dress uniform; some wore shorts, heedless of the cool, damp breeze off the water. They gathered closer as the police department's chaplain, the Rev. Sally Norris, asked them to “give thanks for those who have give...

ORLEANS — The three men's names are set apart from the others on the town's World War II memorial. They appear under the words “DIED IN SERVICE.” We can never know what lives S. Hilton Atwood, Albert P. Nassi, and Allen B. Walker would have lived, but by following the thread of one's man's story and that of his survivors, we may better understand his sacrifice. Albert Nassi was born into a world of music....

ORLEANS — Reuben Hopkins held a full house in thrall last week as he shared his eyewitness account of the July 21, 1918 German U-boat attack off Nauset Beach, the only World War I attack on U.S. soil. The Coast Guardsman's voice was clear, his memory sharp. After he spoke, Hopkins was unable to join a panel of historians to take questions at the initial event of the Orleans 1918 Commemoration Committee. That...

ORLEANS — Fifty years ago in this town, a mother whose son had aged out of special education services founded Nauset Workshop to provide opportunities for people with disabilities. This week, the organization, now known as Cape Abilities, announced its return to Orleans, having purchased the Universal Masonic Lodge as one of its centers for services. “It is a wonderful legacy that we are honored to continue,...

ORLEANS — Town meeting said no to a $75,000 survey of Beach Road that would have allowed further consideration of laying out the route to Nauset Beach as a public way, potentially building a “Safe Pedestrian Sidewalk” along it. On a voice vote, the petitioned article fell short of the required three-fourths majority. “Beach Road is bigger than the residents on Beach Road,” Katy Day told town meeting as she u...

ORLEANS — Town meeting was in a mood to approve some big-ticket items Monday night, including a $37.1 million operating budget for the town and schools and $4.2 million for continued work on water quality projects, but members were downright penny-pinching when it came to raising fees. The meeting voted down the finance committee's proposal to review all fees annually with an eye toward eventually bringing t...