The January session is full and there's just a handful of slots remaining for the Feb. 12 “ Stop the Bleed ” class sponsored by the Orleans Citizens Forum and the Orleans Fire Department . The 90-minute session trains civilians of all ages how to help people injured in accidents and shootings. Go to orleanscitizensforum.org/stop-the-bleed/ to register. Keep your calendar handy to circle another date. On Feb. ...

ORLEANS — When it comes to apportioning sewer betterments, selectmen want to go with the flow. Presented with three options for assigning the cost of building the downtown sewer collection system (the treatment plant and disposal area will be paid for on the tax rate), the board voted 4-0 Dec. 12 to recommend using a property's water usage rather than its assessed value. The chosen method will require town m...

ORLEANS — The finance committee is inviting the public to its Dec. 13 meeting, where there will be a presentation on the financial implications of the Cape Cod Tech building project. Tech school Superintendent Bob Sanborn will speak about the projected cost of the new school building and the ramifications for Orleans and other member towns.   The session begins at 7 p.m. in the Nauset Room at town hall.  Fi...

ORLEANS — The state's expert on library building development had a perhaps surprising answer when asked about “deal-breakers” that could curtail funding for a project. “Not enough parking is a big problem,” Lauren Stara, library building specialist with the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, told the library's facilities advisory committee Dec. 10. “A lot of towns say, 'Everybody walks to our libr...

EASTHAM — It takes much more than a village to raise affordable and workforce housing like the Village at Nauset Green. To build this $23 million, 65-unit development, it takes three neighboring towns and federal, state and private partners, 11 in all. But most of all, it takes the determination of a community to stick with its vision of broadening its housing stock for well nigh two decades. That persistenc...

EASTHAM — Three key social service agencies on the Lower Cape have formed an alliance designed to help improve the efficiency of service delivery and to make services more accessible to people in need. The Cape Cod Children's Place, the Community Development Partnership and the Homeless Prevention Council said the partnership offers the possibility of offering new programs together, as well. The three organi...

ORLEANS — It's a numbers game for the Snow Library facilities advisory committee these days. Looking 20 years into the future, members are debating the number of square feet library users will need in meeting and reading rooms, how many study carrels for individuals versus open tables for cooperative work, and how many adult seats for parents and grandparents in the children's room. It's all part of creating a ...

ORLEANS — The Friends of Pleasant Bay says it has identified a private backer/buyer to purchase Sipson Island. By January 2020, the group hopes to buy most of the 24-acre island from that backer for public open space and recreation, tapping $1.25 million to $1.75 million from the town's community preservation funds. It intends to bolster the CPC money with private fund-raising that will include a major contr...

ORLEANS — This town is known as the business hub of the Lower and Outer Cape, but it's also the human services hub. And that's due in no small part to the business community. With the holidays approaching and the need increasing, the Homeless Prevention Council (HPC) and the Lower Cape Outreach Council (LCOC), both headquartered in Orleans, are working hard to keep Cape Codders from Brewster and Harwich to P...

ORLEANS — They won't have a common plan when they meet with regulators to discuss dredging Nauset Estuary, but the selectmen of Eastham and Orleans will have a common purpose. The boards came together at Eastham's library Nov. 26 to air concerns about the key resource they share, one that Orleans fisherman Bill Amaru called “the prime jewel of the Outer Cape.” But the estuary has lost its sparkle, shoaling u...

ORLEANS — With no simple answers for how seals and sharks are affecting swimming off Outer Cape beaches, the best approach may be coming up with more complex questions. Shark and seal experts joined Cape Cod National Seashore leadership at Nauset Regional Middle School Nov. 14 for a public forum that laid out possibilities for better understanding the animals' behavior and using that knowledge to inform deci...

ORLEANS — The town's first taste of food trucks at Nauset Beach satisfied stomachs and, to an extent, revenue expectations. Payments didn't match those of the legendary Liam's, which in its last season before succumbing to erosion generated about $115,000 for the town, but came to around $63,000. The town spent $25,000 to install electricity and do other utility work, but with that in place things should loo...