ORLEANS — The town will ask the Nauset Regional School District to allow testing at the middle school to see whether its running track area can serve as a backup site for discharge of effluent – treated wastewater – from a proposed treatment plant for a downtown sewer system. Meeting Dec. 14 with AECOM staff and town consultant Mike Domenica, the board reviewed a list of nine sites ranging from the Overland ...

ORLEANS — Some Massachusetts towns are struggling with the cost of replacing their high schools, with price tags reaching the hundreds of millions. Nauset Public Schools is pursuing a more conservative path, seeking to upgrade the existing Nauset Regional High School in Eastham so it can last another two decades or more. “The campus is tired,” said Superintendent Tom Conrad, who was principal of Nauset High ...

ORLEANS — Now the Lower Cape can get its locally-grown food faster and fresher. The Orleans Winter Farmers Market at Nauset Regional Middle School has a new, weekly schedule through April. Almost 40 vendors will take turns sharing the school's cafeteria every Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon except Dec. 24 and 31. On Dec. 3, customers were lined up and ready to shop when market manager Elise Waldron rang the tra...

ORLEANS — The many moving parts of the town's long campaign to remove excess nitrogen from its waters were on display in great detail at the Nov. 30 selectmen's meeting. The board reviewed the plan of attack through next June 30 with engineering firm AECOM and the town's consultant, Mike Domenica, looking at an updated timeline that included decision points for the board to act. Case in point: the oyster ...

ORLEANS — If you're reading this on Thursday, Dec. 1, why not call Lower Cape Community Access Television at 508-694-3500 to book a slot for today's PSA Day? This invitation to tape a brief public service announcement is for members of the nonprofit community with connections to the five towns Lower Cape TV covers: Brewster, Eastham, Orleans, Wellfleet, and Truro, but it illustrates the welcoming nature of t...

ORLEANS — For preservers of the town's past, the board members of the Orleans Historical Society spend a lot of time thinking about the future. You'll have to forgive them, though, as the near horizon holds tantalizing prospects for creating a heritage center of several buildings at their location between River Road and Main Street. More room for exhibitions, more space for concerts and special events, even ...

ORLEANS — If you thought the presidential election was a close one, take a look at the race between Coastal Engineering and Orleans Bowling Center/Big Dogs Barbecue for Business of the Year. The board of the Orleans Chamber of Commerce couldn't decide between the two nominees, so for the first time, the vote was opened to the general membership. After three weeks of voting, a tie was declared. Coastal CEO an...

ORLEANS — Mixing business and politics isn't everyone's cup of tea, but state Sen. Dan Wolf had plenty to say about both at last week's annual meeting of the Orleans Chamber of Commerce. The Cape Air founder, a Democrat from Harwich, received an award from the Chamber Nov. 15 at the Captain Linnell House for his “years of dedication to our community.” He chose not to run for another term and has been spoken ...

ORLEANS – Water quality issues were the focus at the Nov. 9 selectmen's meeting, with the board starting with an update from consultant Mike Domenica. A draft amended comprehensive wastewater management plan to be presented for informal review to the Cape Cod Commission and the state Department of Environmental Protection was a focus of the discussion. Because the plan contains non-traditional nitrogen removal...

ORLEANS — The announcement over the PA system at Stop and Shop Saturday was about a decidedly different sale. Turkeys were available at a special price, and customers were urged to load the birds into their cars and drive them over to The Farm, on Rock Harbor Road. That's where Sassy Richardson-Roche and her family and neighbors were waiting by a freezer truck to receive the donations to the Lower Cape Outre...

ORLEANS — By a margin of 2,733 to 1,359, voters approved spending $3.2 million to continue water quality projects through June 30. “It's almost two times the largest number of voters who ever voted to clean our waters,” Selectman Alan McClennen said. Selectmen Chairman Sims McGrath said he was “heartened that it's such a significant margin. That tells me people who did not go to town meeting are intereste...

ORLEANS — A glacier that moved through these parts took millennia to shape the Cape we know as home. These days, progress in creating the variety of homes Cape Codders need can seem glacial as well. Not everyone is lining up for another single-family home on an acre lot. In fact, some of the folks in those houses are looking to downsize into something more manageable as they enter their golden years. On the ...