ORLEANS — If a dog is man's best friend, who's a dog's best friend? Karl Oakes might try to deflect the praise, but one can imagine that tails wag at the mention of his name. Oakes has become the town's leading advocate for dogs that love to visit the beach and their owners who love to join them there. Brought up in apartment buildings, he couldn't have a dog and never owned one until “my daughter kind of fi...

ORLEANS — The board of directors of Cape Abilities is scheduled to vote today (Aug. 1) on whether to sign a letter of intent to allow the town's affordable housing trust fund to explore developing housing at the agency's 107 Main St. property. On July 24, the trust fund board voted unanimously to sign the letter. Cape Abilities bought the property last year for $480,000. It includes the former Universal Lodg...

ORLEANS — Lots of new faces have been showing up at selectmen's meetings lately. Many of them belong to dog owners who are hoping for fewer restrictions on walking their animals, but on July 17, that contingent was joined by dozens who turned out for the annual summer informational meeting. Several town department heads gave updates and took questions. Snow Library Director Tavi Prugno reviewed a building prog...

ORLEANS — The town had hoped to use part of the former Nauset Knoll Motel property above Nauset Beach for parking during its planned retreat from the town lot below due to erosion. This summer season has indeed seen parking at the site, but very much not the way the town wanted. The new lease holders for what is now the Nauset Beach Inn have put up signage inviting beach goers to take a right just before the t...

ORLEANS – With a backdrop of downtown traffic and many drivers beeping their horns in support, a group of about 120 protesters gathered on the Orleans Town Green last Friday afternoon to express their concerns over the current immigration policies and practices of the United States and the treatment of immigrant families, especially children, on its southern border. This was one of 15 “Lights for Liberty Vigil...

ORLEANS — The affordable housing trust fund board and the affordable housing committee exercised their legs and their imaginations July 10 on a site visit to the Cape Cod Five Cents Savings Bank operations center on West Road. The bank, which will be moving its HQ to Hyannis soon, agreed to let the town study the possibilities of converting the property to affordable rental units. With the caveats that any a...

ORLEANS — For almost two decades, Skip Norgeot engaged in hand-to-hand combat with addiction. From his big chair not far from the door of Pause A While, the meeting space for a variety of 12-step recovery programs, Norgeot, “a big man with white hair, would literally reach out his hands... Skip had big, powerful hands... and shake hands with incredibly welcoming smiles,” said Paul Dart, president of Pause A ...

ORLEANS — Thirty years ago, boat builder and designer Tony Davis traveled from Nova Scotia as far south as the Chesapeake looking for the perfect “hurricane hole.” He dreamed about buying a yard in a protected harbor at the end of a dirt road. When he clapped eyes on Arey's Pond Boat Yard, he said, “This has got to be it.” Three decades on, Arey's remains more than a safe harbor for watercraft. It's a sanctu...

ORLEANS — The selectmen and town administrator are working on including a wide-ranging discussion about rules for dogs and their owners on the agenda for their July 17 meeting. “We had agreed to get into this after [last year's] dangerous dog hearings,” Selectman Mefford Runyon said at the board's July 3 meeting. “We were talking about soup to nuts, regulations, enforcement.” Earlier, he observed, “Everybody...

Thanks to fine summer weather and plenty of patriotism, crowds of holiday revelers attended the annual Independence Day parade in Orleans Thursday. The theme of the July 4 parade was "Orleans Rocks!" And the rockin' procession started at Eldredge Park Way and Route 6A, making its way to Main Street and Route 28 and back to the start. Awards will be given to the top business, non-profit and family floats. Fi...

WELLFLEET — It was a hazy morning at Marconi Beach, but the message of those gathered on the bank above was clear: the six towns from Chatham to Provincetown and the Cape Cod National Seashore are working together on the challenge dealing with sharks in local waters. Seashore Superintendent Brian Carlstrom hosted a press conference July 2 with Lower Cape town administrators and public safety officials to dis...

EASTHAM — The Nauset Regional High School Building Committee shared facts and figures about addition and renovation plans for the 1970s-era campus with the region's town administrators and members of boards of selectmen and finance committees June 26. An option that retains 60 percent of the existing buildings has been selected, with a conceptual cost of $140,030,000. The Massachusetts School Building Authority (...