ORLEANS – Sewer rate projections were presented to the select board last week, but members questioned how those numbers will hold up once the town's new treatment plant and wastewater collection system is up and running. The 1,105 anticipated sewer users downtown are expected to begin tying into the system in September when the new plant on Overland Way goes online. Tom Daley, the town's public works director,...

ORLEANS — Patrick Clark's career as an educator started at Nauset Regional High School. Now almost 28 years later, he's been tapped as its next principal. School officials in Nauset didn't have to look far in selecting Clark, who was hired as an assistant principal at the high school in August. He will take the reins as principal effective July 1, the district announced in a press release last week. Clark w...

ORLEANS – An override request is heading to this spring's town election to offset the town's higher-than-anticipated contribution to the Nauset Regional School District budget for the coming fiscal year. Orleans has 27 additional students attending Nauset schools for the coming 2022-2023 school year. As a result, the town's share of the regional school budget is $627,032, or 2.3 percent, higher than what the t...

ORLEANS – A request for funding to restore the Orleans Community Center on Main Street will not go before town meeting voters this spring as hoped. But advocates behind the project aren't about to throw in the towel on plans for the historic building. "We are committed to making this happen," Alan McClennen, who chairs the town's community center renovation task force, told the select board March 16. McClen...

ORLEANS - School officials in Nauset didn't have to look far to find their next high school principal. Patrick Clark, hired as an assistant principal at Nauset Regional High School in August, will take the reins as principal effective July 1, the district announced in a press release. Clark will assume principal duties from Chris Ellsasser, who informed the Nauset Regional School Committee in December of hi...

ORLEANS – As the town's first fire station, there's no arguing the historic value of the Main Street Community Center. But the community preservation committee wasn't sold on the need to spend $2 million to restore the aging building. The committee voted 5-4 March 10 against endorsing the use of Community Preservation Act funds to make improvements to and bring up to code the building at 44 Main St., which dat...

ORLEANS – Parking restrictions and fees could be in the cards for additional town landings, but not in time for the coming summer season. Select board members on March 9 said they didn't see a wide enough window to expand the restrictions and implement fees in time for this spring's annual town meeting, the warrant for which closes April 6. Restrictions were put in place last year at Cove Road Landing, Wild...

ORLEANS – Can equity in sewer betterments be achieved for users downtown and in the area of Meetinghouse Pond? If the select board's public hearing on the matter March 9 is any indication, it doesn't seem likely. "I think what we can take away from all of this is there is no fair and equitable way to assess a betterment in this town," Finance Director Cathy Doane told the board at the conclusion of the two-hou...

ORLEANS — The news from Cedar Pond isn’t all bad. “There have been some improvements since various management plans have gone into place,” marine and fresh water quality committee chair Judy Scanlon told members March 7. “The public needs to hear some of the positive developments.” They’ll have an opportunity to do that at the committee’s next meeting, on March 28, when the recent adaptive management monito...

ORLEANS — The town’s comprehensive wastewater management plan has an adaptive management component that accounts for changes in technology and other factors that may arise during the decades it will take to clean local waters. It appears that adaptive management can apply to financing the effort as well. A lot has changed in the wastewater financing world since 2011, when the town’s wastewater plan was approve...

ORLEANS — The Nauset Regional School Committee says it’s done what it could to hold down projected costs for the budget that begins July 1, but recognizes that some sharp increases are beyond its control. Members are ready to make their case and take questions at tonight’s (March 10) public hearing at 6 p.m. before voting on the budget. The operating budget for the regional high school is proposed to go up ...

ORLEANS — Modern management theory warns against “siloing” of an organization’s work, a situation in which one group labors away without meaningful interaction with others that may be working on the same issues. Yet, in the agricultural sense, silos can be active places where materials – or shall we say ideas – can ferment and transform. This week, we visited three “silos” in Orleans where residents, officials an...

Paul Lucas aka Capt Eelgrass with a skiff full of squid and more, early 1980s.  PHOTO COURTESY OF RELLEN MUNSON

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