ORLEANS - Thanksgiving is still a week away, but inside the former Olympia Sports in Skaket Corners, it's already starting to feel a lot like Christmas. On an unseasonably warm late fall afternoon last week, a handful of volunteers busied themselves setting up decorations and organizing paperwork in anticipation of this year's Adopt-a-Family program. The annual holiday workshop, which is organized by the Homel...

ORLEANS -- For Geof Deering and his staff at the Orleans Fire Department, the Oct. 27 nor'easter, which left almost all of Orleans without power, made for an intense but memorable workweek. Over the course of three days, local officials and Eversource staff worked to restore power to almost the entire town. On Oct. 27, about 91 percent of Orleans residents and businesses were left without power due to the nor'...

Wreckage of a plane that was reported missing early last week has been located, but there is still little information about the man who was piloting the aircraft. State police divers, accompanied by Chatham and Harwich harbormaster personnel, located wreckage from the 1979 Piper Dakota aircraft early in the afternoon Nov. 4 about two miles east of Nauset Beach, Chatham Harbormaster Stuart Smith said. Four days...

ORLEANS – The town is ready to enter into host community agreements with two recreational marijuana businesses, even as litigation lingers in the background. The select board on Nov. 3 voted to authorize Town Administrator John Kelly to enter into agreements with Seaside Joint Ventures, LLC, and Ember Gardens Cape Cod, LLC, the two entities the board first voted to grant licenses to in June. The process has...

ORLEANS – The town's police and fire chiefs say their departments are feeling the impacts of being understaffed, and the select board has pledged to help them bring their numbers up. Fire Chief Geof Deering and Police Chief Scott MacDonald each gave the board quarterly reports Nov. 3. Between retirements, resignations and injuries, both said they have been making do with fewer personnel. Deering said the fi...

ORLEANS – For the first time since June, the select board is at full membership. Voters at Tuesday’s special town election backed Michael Herman to finish out the term vacated by Cecil Newcomb last summer. Herman, who ran unopposed for the seat, garnered 1,475 votes. There were 41 write-in votes and 33 ballots left blank. "Excited to serve, thankful for the trust and confidence of those who voted for me and...

ORLEANS – The world's largest coffee chain could be coming to Orleans. The site plan review committee has given an informal review to a concept plan for a proposed Starbucks at the site of the former Hearth n' Kettle on West Road. George Meservey, the town's director of planning and community development who also chairs the site plan committee, updated the select board Oct. 13 on the plan from TRT Orleans, ...

Wreckage of a plane missing since Sunday has been located, according to Chatham Harbormaster Stuart Smith. State police divers, accompanied by Chatham and Harwich harbormaster personnel, spent the morning and part of the afternoon searching an area about a mile and a half off Nauset. They returned to the Chatham Fish Pier about 2:45 p.m. The wreckage was found about two miles east of Nauset Beach, Smith sai...

ORLEANS – Where to begin with plans for the Governor Prence Inn property? Town officials say a tour of the 5.5-acre parcel might be a good start. The first meeting of the Governor Prence Planning Committee was held Oct. 21. The seven-member board, which is comprised of one member each from the town’s select board, planning board, affordable housing committee and affordable housing trust board as well as th...

by Ryan Bray ORLEANS – As town officials and Eversource crews worked around the clock to restore power in the days after last week's nor'easter, special efforts were made to residents of the town's two senior housing developments. Almost all residents and businesses in Orleans were without power Oct. 27, including those at Tonset Woods and Rock Harbor Village. The developments, which are managed by the Orle...

ORLEANS – For the first time since June, the select board is at full membership. Voters at Tuesday's special town election backed Michael Herman to finish out the term vacated by Cecil Newcomb last summer. Herman, who ran unopposed for the seat, garnered 1,475 votes. There were 41 write-in votes and 33 ballots left blank. Four ballot questions also were put before voters on Tuesday. A request for $365,000 t...

ORLEANS – Voters at Monday's special town meeting approved $100,000 for an expanded fire station feasibility study, but the funding will not be used to explore property owned by the Nauset Regional School District. Article 10 on the warrant for the special session sought authorization to use free cash to finance the expanded study to explore possible options for siting a new fire station. That was to inclu...