ORLEANS — Selectmen got an overview – and even an underview – of bicyclist and pedestrian safety issues in town when they met with Police Chief Scott MacDonald Aug. 2. The “underview” involved discussion of a potential Cape Cod Rail Trail tunnel under Main Street near Old Colony Way, a vexed intersection with many competing interests. Cyclists are required to hop off their bikes and cross streets as pedestri...

ORLEANS — You won't be breaking the law if you walk down the middle of Main Street between routes 28 and 6A next Wednesday night. If you don't believe us, you can ask all the police officers doing the same thing. From 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. on Aug. 16, that stretch will be closed for the annual Orleans Police Block Party, a downtown tradition since the town's bicentennial in 1997. “I think I have been to every...

ORLEANS — A baseball story is more than a play-by-play and a box score. It's a summertime ritual that enfolds more stories than you can imagine. Take last week's Cape Cod Baseball League game at Eldredge Park between the circuit's top two teams, the Orleans Firebirds and the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox. With just a week to go until the last regular-season contest on Aug. 3 (the Firebirds are in Chatham tonight t...

ORLEANS — Creating housing options that match the town's changing demographics is not impossible, a consultant told the planning board and affordable housing committee last week. Karen Sunnarborg, who's been working on a detailed housing study for Orleans, presented a clutch of short- and longer-term strategies at a public hearing July 25. “So much of this came out of the lively discussions and terrific conver...

ORLEANS — A local organization that keeps the town green has got the blues – but that's a good thing. On Aug. 7, blues artist G. Love will perform a benefit concert for the Orleans Conservation Trust at the Academy Playhouse. Given that fewer than 30 tickets remained as of Monday, we interrupt this story with ordering information: 508-255-1963 or web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/976370 The show will help fund th...

ORLEANS — Town Administrator John Kelly's proposal to add ombudsman duties to the job description of his incoming assistant town administrator ran into a roadblock last week. With the impending retirement of Assistant Town Administrator Myra Suchenicz, Kelly told selectmen July 19, he had chosen Licensing Agent/Procurement Coordinator Liana Surdut for the job after advertising the position internally. In his...

Three broods of unfledged piping plover chicks will keep Chatham's section of North Beach closed to oversand vehicles for the immediate future. Orleans opened its section of the barrier beach to permit-holding vehicles on July 15 under the statewide Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) for Nauset Beach South. Under the plan, vehicles will only be allowed onto and off of the beach during specific times, and must pro...

ORLEANS — Necessity was the mother not of invention but decision at last week's selectmen's meeting. Faced with competing interests – a state remake of Main Street's intersections with Routes 6A and 28 and the need eventually to install sewers and connections in the same locations – the board endorsed a gravity flow system for the sites. Members were facing an end-of-July deadline to get those specs to the M...

ORLEANS — After sampling the unanimous opposition of the architectural review committee to a proposed new CVS building, the owners of Skaket Corners Shopping Plaza withdrew their application last week. The board granted the request without prejudice, allowing the proponents the option of coming back with another plan. During a three-hours-plus meeting July 13, members said the 9,997-square-foot building w...

Three broods of unfledged piping plover chicks will keep the town's section of North (Nauset) Beach closed to oversand vehicles for the immediate future. Orleans was scheduled to open its section of the barrier beach to permit-holding vehicles on July 15 under the statewide Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) for Nauset Beach South. Under the plan, vehicles will only be allowed onto and off of the beach during spe...

  ORLEANS —  The owners of the Skaket Corners Shopping Plaza have withdrawn their proposal to build a nearly 10,000-square-foot new building for CVS at the corner of Route 6A and West Road. Following a lengthy meeting July 13 with the Orleans Architectural Review Committee, whose members commented extensively and unanimously on why the building did not fit with the community character the town wants to pro...

At length we stopped for the night at Higgins's tavern, in Orleans, feeling very much as if we were on a sand-bar in the ocean, and not knowing whether we should see land or water ahead when the mist cleared away. – from “Cape Cod” by Henry David Thoreau   ORLEANS — Townspeople are invited to walk in the tracks of Henry David Thoreau this summer by reading his “Cape Cod” as part of Snow Library's ...