ORLEANS – Captain John Mead has been fishing the waters off Rock Harbor for almost 50 years, all aboard the same boat. He began working for his uncle as a mate aboard the Flying Mist in 1975, and has been captaining the boat full time since 2004. Charter fishing is a tradition that goes back generations in Mead's family, and it's one he hopes to keep alive. But with a local charter fleet that's dealing with ri...

ORLEANS – Flagging programming. Staffing issues. Miscommunication. Overlong and indecipherable reports. The disorganization facing recreation in Orleans has been a sore spot for the town's recreation advisory committee in recent years, and committee members said earlier this month that a lack of leadership is leaving them with little hope of any kind of turnaround. At their Sept. 14 meeting, recreation comm...

ORLEANS – Normally members of the Orleans Fire Department have to go to Barnstable once a year for training. This year, the regional fire academy came to them. The department held live fire training at the site of the town's former public works headquarters on Bay Ridge Lane last week. The Barnstable County Fire Academy brought its 53-foot training trailer to the site for all of the department members to use. ...

ORLEANS – The board of health may be warming up to the idea of bringing a pay as you throw program to Orleans, but town officials say there are still questions that need answering before anything can be rolled out. By charging residents according to what they throw out and recycle, the select board hopes pay as you throw can help curb the amount of solid waste handled by the town's transfer station operation, ...

ORLEANS – Inside the Church of the Holy Spirit on Monument Road, volunteers busied themselves once again this summer preparing and delivering meals to those who most need them. For the 10th year, free meals were provided to participants in youth recreation programs from Harwich to Provincetown through Food 4 Kids Cape Cod, a summer meals program based in Orleans that's funded in part by the U.S. Department of ...

ORLEANS – In the parking lot between the Nauset school administration building and Nauset Regional Middle School, a large solar canopy stands covering a fleet of school buses. By year's end, the structure will start saving the school district considerably on its energy costs. After fits and starts, the canopy is expected to go live by Thanksgiving, if not sooner, according to Jim Nowack, assistant director of ...

BREWSTER – Some books are harder to find than others, and next week, they may turn up in the places you'd least expect. Book stores will participate in a Cape-wide scavenger hunt for banned books next week, where patrons can walk away with a free book if they spot one out in the wild. Jessica Devin, who owns the Brewster Book Store on Route 6A, is organizing the first annual Cape and Islands Banned Book Sca...

ORLEANS – With drought conditions expected to become the new norm for future Cape summers, town officials last week discussed how to balance water conservation with the need to bring in revenue from water use. The Cape is currently in the midst of a Level 3 drought following an unusually warm and dry summer season that has produced very little rainfall. The drought has led officials across the Cape, including ...

Jamestown Township, Mich., is 924 miles away from Orleans. But the small, rural community caught the attention of the Snow Library Board of Trustees last week. Library Director Tavi Prugno updated the board Sept. 7 about how township voters rejected a funding measure last month that caused its public library to lose more than 80 percent of its anticipated operating budget. The reason? Residents took exception ...

ORLEANS – Approximately $4.1 million in spending requests are set to go before voters at next month's special town meeting. This year's fall session is set for Oct. 17 in the Nauset Regional Middle School auditorium. The select board on Sept. 7 made their recommendations on articles to be included on the town meeting warrant, which went to press last Friday. The largest expenditure being put before voters i...

ORLEANS – With more than 50 miles of coastline and over 63 ponds, Orleans offers residents and visitors unique access to the Cape's waterways. But with those natural resources comes a responsibility to protect them. Now in its 19th year, the Orleans Pond Coalition continues its work advocating for clean water in town. A big part of that effort comes by way of the nonprofit's annual Celebrate Our Waters weekend...

ORLEANS – Parking is free at Rock Harbor, but that could change come next summer. An article is set to appear on the warrant for the special town meeting next month that would create a paid parking program and associated fees for non-residents for the bay-front lot. Town Administrator John Kelly told the select board Aug. 31 that with large capital projects planned in the coming years, including a full dred...