ORLEANS — There are robots, and then there are ROBOTS. The eerily human-ish automatons of contemporary cinema may provide a chill, but the Snow Library has boldly gone where man has gone before with its warm celebration of the bulky, gleaming toy robots of the last century. The packed display case opposite the entrance doors brings young and old to a standstill as they marvel at the colorful creations of ...

HARWICH – From his boyhood on Cape Cod to this day, “Pleasant Bay has been my playground,” Mon Cochran told an appreciative audience at Pleasant Bay Community Boating last month. “I was out on the bay by the time I was 6 or 7 by myself in a fairly raggedy catboat.” Cochran, executive director of the Cape Cod Climate Change Collaborative and a former president of Friends of Pleasant Bay, crosses the bay on a mo...

ORLEANS – The story of 2019 is how different it was from 2018. Housing Twelve months ago, the affordable housing trust board had yet to hold its first meeting. The town hadn’t bought land to turn over to Habitat for Humanity to build an affordable home, nor had it purchased a condo unit to rent at an affordable rate. Working with the affordable housing committee and consultants, the trust looked at conver...

ORLEANS - The former fraternal lodge property at 107 Main St. could accommodate a mix of 11 to 14 affordable rental dwellings, the affordable housing trust and affordable housing committee was told last week. Contracted to consider the site’s potential, Ted Malone, president of Provincetown-based Community Housing Resources, Inc., spun three scenarios: nine one-bedrooms and two two-bedrooms with a mix of units...

ORLEANS – When Santa gets back to the North Pole this week, he’ll find another wish list waiting for him. Twenty-two applications for Community Preservation funds to support community housing, open space, historic preservation, and recreation efforts have been submitted to the town, twice last year’s number. Formal review by the community preservation committee begins at its Jan. 2 meeting, and a public hearin...

ORLEANS – Most of those who spoke at the state’s Dec. 11 hearing on a proposed roundabout at routes 28 and 39 and Quanset Road thought it was a bright idea, but they didn’t want it to be too bright. “There are 17 light fixtures in this plan,” Selectman Kevin Galligan told representatives of the state Department of Transportation and consultants from VHB. “This is over-lit. Picture coming from a dark space ...

ORLEANS – It’s a watershed moment. Conservation groups in the four Pleasant Bay watershed towns have pledged a total of $326,000 toward the acquisition of Sipson Island, the only island in the Bay that is still privately owned and has no public access. “This level of commitment – recognizing the importance of the Pleasant Bay watershed regardless of municipal lines – sends a powerful message of collaboratio...

ORLEANS – Carl Trevison lives on Doane Road within walking distance of a town landing. It sounds convenient, but he’s not the only one who knows about it. “In the summer, most parking is from out-of-state or Eastham, Brewster, or Harwich,” he told selectmen Dec. 3. “There’s as much as 50 parked cars in this area. Access to the landing is rendered impossible because of the vehicles. You cannot get down there if...

ORLEANS - Forty years ago, a local lad, Tony Pike, became a call firefighter here. Last week, he announced his retirement as chief of the department next June. “Tony, I’ve known you since you were running around way back when,” Selectmen Chairman Mark Mathison said with emotion at the board’s Dec. 3 meeting. “I certainly appreciate the fact that local kids can serve their town and be here such a long period of...

ORLEANS — Some 180 runners braved frigid temperatures Saturday to compete in the annual Santa Stampede, sponsored by the Orleans Chamber of Commerce. Funds raised in the event help support chamber programs. Challe Burns won the kids portion of the race. BARRY DONAHUE PHOTO ...

ORLEANS — The animal control and regulation task force takes a wide view of its responsibility to recommend actions to get things right for the town’s dog owners and non-dog owners. Urging the group to consider future recommendations on “regulations and expectations” on Dec. 2, chairman Karl Oakes advised that “we want to give ourselves flexibility to be able to do certain things by trying to enforce a custo...

ORLEANS — To the poet Goethe, architecture was “frozen music.” To some members of the architectural review committee, plans to modernize the look of an office building on South Orleans Road are out of tune with the community’s design guidelines. According to draft minutes of the committee’s Nov. 14 meeting, the proposal by Del Mar Vacations, Inc., for 24 South Orleans Rd. was withdrawn by Matt Cole of Cape A...