ORLEANS — Town Meeting agreed Monday to spend $47 million on wastewater infrastructure over the next three decades, pending a favorable debt exclusion vote at the town election May 21, but rejected spending $1.5 million to acquire a conservation restriction on 18 acres of Sipson Island. “We have the Main Street sewers in the ground,” Paul Davis said from the floor, “on time and under budget. This article ton...

ORLEANS — Beaming like Shakespeare's Prospero, Alan McClennen descended a long flight of stairs to welcome visitors to Sipson Island last week. No tempest drove the electric-powered vessel Friends of Pleasant Bay ashore; in fact, the floating classroom disembarked its passengers in knee-high water. After striding through the surf like General MacArthur making good on his “I shall return” vow, the group of en...

ORLEANS — With the agreement of the board of selectmen, the town's new affordable housing trust will fund the purchase of a half-acre lot on which Habitat for Humanity of Cape Cod will build a two-bedroom ranch home. Voting separately May 1, the board and trust took an initial step toward creating 85 new rental units and 15 home ownership opportunities within the decade, a goal proposed in the recent town ho...

ORLEANS – Pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) systems encourage users to separate out recyclables; disposal of their remaining trash requires purchase of specially marked bags.  In a presentation to the selectmen and the board of health last week, DPW/Natural Resources Director Tom Daley said that, on balance, it's mostly free to recycle compared to municipal solid waste disposal costs of $95 a ton. Economically and envir...

An Eastham man died while paddleboarding off Nauset Light Beach Sunday afternoon, having apparently suffered a medical emergency while in the water. Because of shoaling at Nauset Inlet, the closest rescue boats had to come from Chatham, about 12 miles to the south. And had the tide been lower, some of those rescuers might also have been prevented from responding because of shoaling in Chatham Harbor. Respon...

ORLEANS — The finance committee voted 5-3 last week to recommend against the town's purchase of a conservation restriction that would guarantee public access to Sipson Island in Pleasant Bay. “It's too difficult for most residents to access unless they have a boat in Pleasant Bay or a kayak,” member Peter Monger said. “The cost of $1.5 million could be better spent elsewhere given the parlous state of Orlean...

ORLEANS — Selectmen Chairman Alan McClennen had a message for last week's Orleans Citizens Forum about the principal wastewater article on the May 13 annual town meeting warrant. “Being incredibly conservative,” he told about 80 listeners at the senior center April 25, “I think there's a possibility we could end up with a situation where the taxpayers don't have to pay a penny for this $47 million project.” ...

ORLEANS – The historical commission, in the midst of an effort to promote historical districts that could preserve the town's built heritage, faced another request to demolish a part of that heritage last week. The board imposed a one-year demolition delay on the 1810 Alice Collins Hanvey house at 21 Great Oak Rd. in East Orleans. Members did the same for the historic Kendrick-Sparrow House more than a year ago, ...

ORLEANS — The mystery buyer-backer helping the Friends of Pleasant Bay preserve Sipson Island isn't a stranger. Rich Nadler and his wife Cheryl have lived year-round in Orleans since 2010. He's visited Sipson as a member of the town's conservation commission. “We had hoped to remain anonymous,” he wrote to The Chronicle last week, “but with the evolving role of the town in funding the conservation restr...

ORLEANS — In its annual report and letter to the town, the finance committee has some advice for voters: “(There's) a lot of stuff going on at once. Some might say too much. But there are good reasons for getting all this work done now.” In plainspoken language, the letter states that funding for the comprehensive water resources management plan “is still the elephant in the room, and the temptation is to sa...

ORLEANS — Eleven men are stretching their limbs, and maybe their lifespans, at the senior center. The town's recreation director, Alan Harrison, is calling out directions and encouragement. “Excellent,” he says. To which one man responds, “Glad you think so.” It's another easygoing session of the adult men's fitness class, one of several new offerings provided by Harrison. “We had nothing for the senio...

ORLEANS – Climate change was very much in the foreground at Saturday's town hall on environment and energy issues at the Nauset Regional Middle School auditorium. Some 130 people heard the latest updates on actions being taken to adapt to or mitigate climate change from government and non-government leaders who in turn called on the audience to become more actively involved in efforts to make the towns, instit...