ORLEANS — Since town meeting decided earlier this month not to ban marijuana sales, town officials and advocates are starting to speak the same language. “Many of us have had personal therapeutic experiences with family members that made us recognize that when you see 'recreational marijuana' on the planning board agenda, the truth is, it's more appropriately 'adult-use cannabis,'” Rick Francolini told the b...

Click here for a slideshow of Memorial Day photos. ORLEANS — On a cold, misty morning, citizens mustered at Town Cove to honor the community's war dead. Some were in full-dress uniform; some wore shorts, heedless of the cool, damp breeze off the water. They gathered closer as the police department's chaplain, the Rev. Sally Norris, asked them to “give thanks for those who have give...

ORLEANS — The three men's names are set apart from the others on the town's World War II memorial. They appear under the words “DIED IN SERVICE.” We can never know what lives S. Hilton Atwood, Albert P. Nassi, and Allen B. Walker would have lived, but by following the thread of one's man's story and that of his survivors, we may better understand his sacrifice. Albert Nassi was born into a world of music....

ORLEANS — Reuben Hopkins held a full house in thrall last week as he shared his eyewitness account of the July 21, 1918 German U-boat attack off Nauset Beach, the only World War I attack on U.S. soil. The Coast Guardsman's voice was clear, his memory sharp. After he spoke, Hopkins was unable to join a panel of historians to take questions at the initial event of the Orleans 1918 Commemoration Committee. That...

ORLEANS — Fifty years ago in this town, a mother whose son had aged out of special education services founded Nauset Workshop to provide opportunities for people with disabilities. This week, the organization, now known as Cape Abilities, announced its return to Orleans, having purchased the Universal Masonic Lodge as one of its centers for services. “It is a wonderful legacy that we are honored to continue,...

ORLEANS — Town meeting said no to a $75,000 survey of Beach Road that would have allowed further consideration of laying out the route to Nauset Beach as a public way, potentially building a “Safe Pedestrian Sidewalk” along it. On a voice vote, the petitioned article fell short of the required three-fourths majority. “Beach Road is bigger than the residents on Beach Road,” Katy Day told town meeting as she u...

ORLEANS — Town meeting was in a mood to approve some big-ticket items Monday night, including a $37.1 million operating budget for the town and schools and $4.2 million for continued work on water quality projects, but members were downright penny-pinching when it came to raising fees. The meeting voted down the finance committee's proposal to review all fees annually with an eye toward eventually bringing t...

ORLEANS — Some of the promises made at this week's town meeting will have to be kept right away. On Monday, voters said they wanted to spend $4.2 million to advance water quality projects, $450,000 to fund Other Post-Employment Benefits obligations, $275,000 to seed a new affordable housing trust, and $175,000 for a master plan to relocate facilities at Nauset Beach. Next Tuesday, they'll have to confirm tho...

ORLEANS — Town meeting was in a mood to approve some big-ticket items Monday night, including a $37.1 million operating budget for the town and schools and $4.2 million for continued work on water quality projects, but members were downright penny-pinching when it came to raising fees. The meeting voted down the finance committee's proposal to review all fees annually with an eye toward eventually bringing t...

ORLEANS — Appearances notwithstanding, the Academy of Performing Arts is not preparing an outdoor production of the logging musical “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.” In fact, all the tree-clearing work so evident on Main Street near the theater has been done on a lot abutting the playhouse. “I can tell by the way people look up to the property that there is some concern about the tree removal, but rest...

ORLEANS — For years, town meetings have debated a sewer system in the abstract. When this year's session opens May 7, there will be facts on – make that in – the ground. “Next week, we will finish the first piping for the downtown sewer system,” Selectman Alan McClennen told the Orleans Citizens Forum April 26 at the senior center. “The contractor has been spectacular. He'll be out of there hopefully by May ...

ORLEANS — Fewer Orleans residents died in 2017 than in the previous two years, an even 100 as opposed to 114 in both 2015 and 2016. That's one of the facts in the Annual Town Report for year 2017, now available at town hall and worth a look-through before the May 7 town meeting. One of the 100 deaths in 2017 was that of Jean Finch, the founder of Cape Cod's first skateboard park, which is still located at...