ORLEANS – With a backdrop of downtown traffic and many drivers beeping their horns in support, a group of about 120 protesters gathered on the Orleans Town Green last Friday afternoon to express their concerns over the current immigration policies and practices of the United States and the treatment of immigrant families, especially children, on its southern border. This was one of 15 “Lights for Liberty Vigil...

ORLEANS — The affordable housing trust fund board and the affordable housing committee exercised their legs and their imaginations July 10 on a site visit to the Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank operations center on West Road. The bank, which will be moving its HQ to Hyannis soon, agreed to let the town study the possibilities of converting the property to affordable rental units. With the caveats that any a...

ORLEANS — For almost two decades, Skip Norgeot engaged in hand-to-hand combat with addiction. From his big chair not far from the door of Pause A While, the meeting space for a variety of 12-step recovery programs, Norgeot, “a big man with white hair, would literally reach out his hands... Skip had big, powerful hands... and shake hands with incredibly welcoming smiles,” said Paul Dart, president of Pause A ...

ORLEANS — Thirty years ago, boat builder and designer Tony Davis traveled from Nova Scotia as far south as the Chesapeake looking for the perfect “hurricane hole.” He dreamed about buying a yard in a protected harbor at the end of a dirt road. When he clapped eyes on Arey's Pond Boat Yard, he said, “This has got to be it.” Three decades on, Arey's remains more than a safe harbor for watercraft. It's a sanctu...

ORLEANS — The selectmen and town administrator are working on including a wide-ranging discussion about rules for dogs and their owners on the agenda for their July 17 meeting. “We had agreed to get into this after [last year's] dangerous dog hearings,” Selectman Mefford Runyon said at the board's July 3 meeting. “We were talking about soup to nuts, regulations, enforcement.” Earlier, he observed, “Everybody...

Thanks to fine summer weather and plenty of patriotism, crowds of holiday revelers attended the annual Independence Day parade in Orleans Thursday. The theme of the July 4 parade was "Orleans Rocks!" And the rockin' procession started at Eldredge Park Way and Route 6A, making its way to Main Street and Route 28 and back to the start. Awards will be given to the top business, non-profit and family floats. Fi...

WELLFLEET — It was a hazy morning at Marconi Beach, but the message of those gathered on the bank above was clear: the six towns from Chatham to Provincetown and the Cape Cod National Seashore are working together on the challenge dealing with sharks in local waters. Seashore Superintendent Brian Carlstrom hosted a press conference July 2 with Lower Cape town administrators and public safety officials to dis...

EASTHAM — The Nauset Regional High School Building Committee shared facts and figures about addition and renovation plans for the 1970s-era campus with the region's town administrators and members of boards of selectmen and finance committees June 26. An option that retains 60 percent of the existing buildings has been selected, with a conceptual cost of $140,030,000. The Massachusetts School Building Authority (...

ORLEANS — People can walk their dogs before 9 a.m. and after 5 p.m. on a town property adjacent to Skaket Beach now that the selectmen have scaled back what was a round-the-clock seasonal ban at Willie Atwood Road and Wildflower Lane. It was standing room only in the Nauset meeting room June 19 as more than 70 opponents of the restriction called on the board to reverse its recent decision. Testimony from dog...

EASTHAM — The selectmen of Eastham and Orleans have reached an agreement to move forward on dredging Nauset Estuary. Exactly where the shovels will dig and other issues are unresolved, but the boards, meeting June 24 at Eastham Public Library, saw the wisdom of letting the permitting process provide the information they'll need to make such decisions. At the same time, the boards green-lighted a variety of fie...

ORLEANS — There's at least one moment in the town's history that the historical commission would prefer not to preserve. On May 14, 1996, town meeting considered amending the town bylaws to create the East Orleans Main Street Historic District for “the preservation and protection of the distinctive characteristics of buildings and places significant in the history of the town of Orleans and the Commonwealth ...

ORLEANS – Having devoted many hours to developing and advocating changes for the downtown village center, the planning board has shifted its focus to the potential of the Route 6A corridor through town. “We want to understand what happens along Route 6A,” Director of Planning and Community Development George Meservey said at the board's June 11 meeting. “There are implications for the whole town.” To do tha...