ORLEANS — Low-income housing tax credits have been awarded to the Pennrose housing development planned for the site of the former Cape Cod Five headquarters on West Road. The project is one of 26 across 16 towns statewide to receive financing through the tax credits, the Baker-Polito Administration announced July 26. In total, $50 million in direct funding and $89 million in tax credits are being allocated acr...

ORLEANS — The select board plans to open up a draft of its proposed short-term rental bylaw to public discussion later this month. While questions regarding parking and what to charge property owners for a registration fee are still unsettled, the board will have a draft prepared for a public hearing on Aug. 24. The board has been working with Town Counsel Michael Ford in recent months crafting languag...

ORLEANS – Skaket Corners is under new ownership. The shopping plaza at 9 West Rd., which houses a Shaws supermarket, a CVS, a liquor store and the vacant former Hearth n' Kettle building among other businesses, was sold in June to Skaket Corners Orleans LLC for $33.1 million. Town Assessor Brad Hinote said in an email last week that the property is assessed at just under $17 million. "We were quite surpr...

ORLEANS – As talks continue over how to best regulate short-term rentals in town, including those managed by commercial businesses, one property has emerged as an example of what residents and officials are looking to avoid. Beachside Properties closed on property at the intersection of Barley Neck Road and Sea Mist Drive in February. The property includes two homes, one with five-bedrooms and the other with f...

ORLEANS — As the cost of goods and services continues to rise, it can be tough these days for families to cover all of their needs. With the start of a new school year just a few weeks away, that also includes paying for back-to-school supplies. The Homeless Prevention Council helped provide approximately 250 new backpacks full of supplies for students and families on the Lower and Outer Cape in 2021, and Hadl...

ORLEANS – How do town boards and committees invite new members and groom others into leadership roles? The select board hopes a new policy will help balance both needs. The board voted 5-0 July 20 to adopt a new policy that encourages more turnover on boards and committees and a better rotation of chairpersons. The policy comes after weeks of involved discussion among board members on how to get more people ac...

ORLEANS – The increased commercialization of short-term rentals in town has been identified as a growing concern by the select board. But just how big of a problem is it? That was the question posed by Planning Board Chair Debra Oakes during the select board's July 13 meeting. She said rentals have been a fact of life in Orleans at least as far back as when she moved to town in 1993. "The year-round populat...

ORLEANS – Talks on siting a new fire station on Orleans Elementary School land came to an impasse last week, leaving plans for the project up in the air. The town's fire rescue station feasibility study committee voted July 11 to endorse a plan to demolish the existing fire station on Eldredge Park Way and build a new station nearby on an acre of elementary school land. But the committee quickly rescinded its ...

ORLEANS – As the select board continues to look at ways to improve upon its existing noise bylaw, the board opted against removing a clause from the bylaw exempting establishments with liquor licenses. Town Administrator John Kelly said there has been discussion amongst the board about removing the clause and suggested an article could be drafted seeking to remove it for the special town meeting in October. Bu...

ORLEANS — As one marijuana retailer continues to make its way through local permitting, a second expects to begin the process this summer. Ember Gardens plans to open a retail facility at 41 Route 6A, hopefully in 2023, according to the company's CEO, Shane Hyde. The property, located across from the former Lobster Claw restaurant, sits along a stretch of Route 6A that town officials are eying for future ec...

ORLEANS – Three months out from October's special town meeting, the select board still has plenty of work ahead of it in crafting a short-term rental bylaw for voters' consideration. The board has been working with Town Counsel Michael Ford in recent months to craft a bylaw to better regulate the operation of short-term rentals in residential neighborhoods. Of particular concern is the increased commercializat...

ORLEANS – About a week after the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in which 19 students and two teachers were killed, Gussy McKusick came before the select board with a call to action. "I'm here tonight because I'm tired of crying myself to sleep," she said. "I am grieving about what happened in Uvalde, but now I'm frustrated and I'm angry." Encouraging the town to "think globally and act lo...

ORLEANS – Lower and Outer Cape residents now have an urgent care option closer to home. On Saturday, Cape Cod Healthcare opened the doors of its newest urgent care center at 42 Route 6A in Orleans. The new center, located at the site of the former Lobster Claw restaurant, is the provider's sixth urgent care facility, joining others in Falmouth, Sandwich, Hyannis, Harwich and Osterville. Two days before its ...

ORLEANS – Sitting on a tree-lined stretch of South Orleans Road near downtown, the French Cable Station Museum blends in with its quaint, small town surroundings...almost too well. The museum's unassuming look disguises its unique historical significance. The station, built in 1891, served as the end point for a telegraph cable that allowed communication between the United States and France. The existing build...

ORLEANS — During the planning board's meeting last week, George Meservey, the town's director of planning and community development, called attention to an ad on the online rental website VRBO soliciting renters for a property at Sea Mist Drive and Barley Neck Road. The property features two homes, one fronting Sea Mist Drive and the other fronting Barley Neck Road, as well as an in-ground pool, volleyball cou...

ORLEANS — A community center could include any number of different features and programming. But members of the town's community center feasibility task force are adamant about the need for a future building to house one thing in particular. The Lower Cape sorely needs a gym, members said at their June 23 meeting, and any plan for a community center in town should include one. Apart from Nauset Regional Mid...