ORLEANS — When they meet Aug. 1 , the selectmen will be looking at proposed building and site evaluation contracts to help determine whether the Cape Cod Five Operations Center at 19 West Rd. can be reused as affordable apartments. Faced with a lack of options for housing, town meeting voted in May to create a new affordable housing trust and fund it with hundreds of thousands of dollars, some from Community...

ORLEANS — This time, there were no shells flying over the dunes. A crowd gathered in the parking lot at Nauset Beach July 21 to commemorate the centennial of the only enemy gunfire to strike American soil in World War I. In 1918, a German submarine fired at a passing tug and its barges, with stray shells landing on shore. Selectmen Chairman Alan McClennen set the stage. “You all arrived on Beach Road,” he...

ORLEANS — Rather than plunge into a multi-million-dollar plan to preserve Nauset Beach uses, the selectmen will consider treading water for a year. Faced last week with two options presented by DPW/Natural Resources Director Tom Daley – reconstructing rest room and administration facilities in the parking lot or rebuilding up above on the Hubler property – the board asked its consultants to explore a third p...

ORLEANS — The most eloquent witness at last week's dog hearing never made a sound. Sitting placidly or resting on his side, Bear the dog let his human companion, Peter Christian, do the talking as the selectmen responded to complaints about Bear biting people in town. Just weeks before, the board ordered another dog euthanized. Animal control officer Duane Boucher detailed several incidents: a man bitten ...

ORLEANS – The Lower Cape is a place where people can spend $100 on a T-shirt, $200 on a kicky pair of sandals, and $12 on a cheeseburger. It is also where the Lower Cape Outreach Council spent an additional $95,000 on client services from January to May of this year, much of it trying to keep area residents in their homes. “The biggest area of expense is mortgages and rents,” said Larry Marsland, CEO of the Lo...

ORLEANS — Has the opportunity for a Lower Cape option for treating waste from septic systems come and gone? Not according to a 3-1 vote of the board of selectmen July 11 that reaffirmed the town's commitment to include a septage component in its planned wastewater treatment plant. Selectman Mark Mathison, who voted against the measure, said haulers have changed their business model since the Tri-Town plant i...

ORLEANS — Not everyone who sets up a recreational vehicle for a multi-day stay on Nauset Beach is retired. Some have obligations downtown. “If I have an RV out there and I work at night and have to leave the beach at 4 o'clock, I'd like to go back with my wife and kids after the end of my shift,” Selectman David Currier said at the July 11 meeting of his board, gathered as park commissioners. “They're curren...

ORLEANS – “The Girl from Quanset,” an operetta written for the girls at Camp Quanset in 1908, has returned for another summer vacation at the Orleans Historical Society. This staged reading of the musical features volunteer actors as playful campers, Life Savers from the Orleans Station and mischievous pirates who sing their way through jaunty and cheerful tunes. Costume changes are signaled cheekily by differ...

ORLEANS — Jan Biondi's hands are on the oars of the Chester Yawl rowing craft she built this winter, powering herself and a rider across the sun-soaked calm waters of Town Cove. It's only the fourth voyage for Summer Rose, the 15-foot, 100-pound realization of a decades-long dream. Those hands on the oars have turned many of Biondi's dreams into reality. They have sculpted and painted, dug up clams, arranged...

ORLEANS — It seemed that from the ashes of Phoenix Fruit, affordable housing might rise. Paul van Steensel of Cape Dreams Building and Design met informally with the affordable housing committee June 6 to discuss a plan to build six two-family townhouses and four one-bedroom apartments at 14 and 18 Cove Rd., now vacant office space and the former home of Phoenix Fruit. According to draft minutes of the meeti...

Winner in Wednesday's Fourth of July parade were as follows: Business 1st: Little Codders 2nd: The Farm 3rd: Orleans Yacht Club Sailing Camp   Non-Profit 1st: Orleans Firebirds 2nd: Eastham Brownies/Girlscouts 3rd: Sharing Kindness   Family  1st: Stewart Family 2nd: Coast-to-Coast 3rd: Birdsall Family Click here for a gallery of photos from Wednesday's July 4 parade ...

ORLEANS — As you buzz by on your way to Nauset Beach, you've probably admired the historic homes, churches and cemetery along leafy, winding Main Street from Route 28 to Beach Road. There's another way to experience the stretch: walks with historian Bonnie Snow of the Orleans Historical Society. In addition to leading tours of Orleans Cemetery on July 27, Aug. 31, Sept. 28, and Oct. 26, Snow will take walker...