ORLEANS – With funding secured through town meeting earlier this month, a task force will work to further plans for a new Snow Library. The Snow Library Feasibility Study Task Force is charged with looking at options for building a new library at the site of the existing building near the corner of Main Street and Route 28, as well as alternative sites for a new facility. The select board unanimously approved ...

ORLEANS – Carl Trevison had heard about the growing anti-war sentiment back home in America during his year-long tour of duty in Vietnam. But it took returning home to realize how many people had begun to turn against veterans such as himself. "I was not aware that it was that bad," said Trevison, an Orleans resident who served in the U.S. Army from 1966 to 1968. "I know guys had told me that when you processe...

ORLEANS – Town officials had high hopes for Patricia MacDonald when she began work as the town's new recreation director May 1. But after just three weeks on the job, MacDonald resigned last week, just months ahead of the start of summer programming. Interim Town Administrator Charles Sumner broke the news to the recreation advisory committee May 18, saying that MacDonald submitted her letter of resignation ea...

ORLEANS – Brian Junkins can still recall in detail the circumstances surrounding his parents' purchase of Friends' Marketplace. "My mom was a middle school teacher at the school right behind here," said Brian, who owns the Main Street market with his wife, Monila. "She was driving to school one day and noticed that the store might be available for sale. That's how my dad found out about it. He rushed down from...

ORLEANS – Nauset Regional Middle School has its next principal, and he's due to start work next week. Nauset School Superintendent Brooke Clenchy announced in a statement May 16 that Dr. Peter Cohen had accepted the principal position. He'll begin working alongside Beth Deneen, the school's interim principal, June 1. "The final few weeks of the school year will include ample transition time as both Dr. Cohe...

ORLEANS – Funding from the state Department of Housing and Community Development has been awarded to the affordable housing project at 107 Main St., putting the development on track to potentially break ground this fall. Gov. Maura Healey's administration on May 19 announced that $246 million in subsidies and tax credits were awarded in total for more than a dozen projects statewide. Of that figure, $1.7 milli...

ORLEANS – Nicole Boyce literally found herself going down an internet rabbit hole. The Nauset Regional High School junior was looking up "free rabbits" on Craigslist, and she was surprised to find a number of listings. "I thought that was really interesting," she said. Many of the ads were from well meaning people who were trying to find a good home for their pet, but she found that wasn't always the cas...

ORLEANS – This year’s annual election ballot was the largest in Orleans’ history, but there were no surprises to speak of at the polls, according to preliminary numbers released Tuesday night. Voters passed a total of 27 ballot questions, including overrides to cover the town’s share of the new Nauset Regional High School and Cape Cod Regional Technical High School budgets and a debt exclusion for prelimina...

ORLEANS – Last year was a busy one for Kelly Darling and staff in the town clerk’s office, and she’s hoping 2024 won’t be a repeat. Staff and volunteers in the clerk’s office endured a near-constant schedule of election preparation last year. That started with the annual town election, followed by the state primary in September, November’s general election, a special town election in December and an electio...

ORLEANS – The first thing that stands out about the Homeless Prevention Council’s new office on Main Street is the space. Visitors are immediately greeted by an open foyer, where a large conference room is situated to the right. To the left, HPC staff and volunteers occupy a modern, flexible and roomy office space that their former office couldn’t afford them. “ We were past capacity,” said Hadley Luddy...

ORLEANS – There was a period Monday night where things did not look good for advocates of Veterans Memorial Park. An article seeking a $110,000 debt exclusion for irrigation improvements, electrical upgrades and loam and seeding at the downtown park was supported by a majority of voters, 337 to 119, but it failed to garner the three-quarters majority needed for the article to pass. Orleans resident Bruce Ta...

ORLEANS – Come July, property owners in town will have to register their properties with the town in order to rent them. Voters at Monday night’s annual town meeting passed a rental registration bylaw over the objection of some residents who saw it as an intrusion. The article passed 246 to 155. Rental registration is seen by the select board as a necessary first step toward understanding how many propertie...