We all know how important Annual Town Meeting and Special Town Meeting are — they’re the undeniable superstars of the New England municipal government show. 

They’re also glory hogs. 

What about all the things that happen between meetings? 

 EXIT 89 believes it’s important to keep track of the articles we voted for after Town Meeting too. Our mighty Updates Issue is here to help you do just that. Think of it as “Where are they now?” for Warrant Articles.

What’s going on with the new fire-rescue station? And the new library? Where does our wastewater project stand? When will the Rock Harbor Wharf be finished? What’s the status of the Governor Prence housing project? 

Read on for answers to these questions and more. 

A New Fire-Rescue Station — but where?

Since $4.5 million was approved at last May’s Town Meeting for the design of a new fire-rescue station, a new Orleans Fire-Rescue Building Committee was appointed by the Select Board and charged with providing administrative oversight on all aspects of design and construction. In accordance with state regulations, the first order of business is to hire an Owners Project Manager (OPM) — a firm that represents the Town of Orleans’ interests throughout the design and construction process. The committee interviewed three firms and made its recommendation to Town Manager Kim Newman on September 15. 

Once the OPM is on board, a “Request for Proposals,” or RFP, for an architect/designer will be issued with the goal of selecting one before the end of the year and finalizing a design in time to bring a request for construction funding to Annual Town Meeting in May 2026.

Sound speedy? 

Well, it is… and isn’t. 

The drumbeat for a new station began officially in 2019, when the Annual Town Meeting approved a $100,000 feasibility study for a fire station renovation or replacement. A number of additional studies have been undertaken since. The current station is 10,800 square feet and was built in 1987. A conceptual rendering done by The Galante Architecture Studio as part of the 2040 Campus Feasibility Study calls for a considerably larger station — approximately 41,000 square feet — to meet current and anticipated needs.  

There is broad support for a new station, though its location, design, and cost remain TBD. 

Let’s talk location: Where exactly could — or should — a new, much larger station be built? Town Manager Kim Newman has said on several occasions that the new station will be built on or near its current site, though questions remain around that site’s buildability and accessibility, the cost of connecting to the sewer, the cost of possibly creating a temporary station, and the potential impacts on abutters, including Orleans Elementary School (OES).

In response to Orleans residents’ concerns over the current site, the Town has been in contact with abutters about acquiring nearby land in hopes of resolving some of the site’s challenges. At an August 28 meeting, the Orleans Select Board, Town Manager and Nauset Regional School Committee (NRSC) discussed whether Orleans might be interested in using some of the middle school’s property on Eldredge Park Way. The answer from Orleans seemed to be “yes,” but it was also emphasized that it was likely impossible, given the compressed timeline. 

Orleans has also been talking to other abutters — behind closed doors, due to the sensitive nature of financial negotiations. But it’s sounding promising. Newman told the Select Board this week that Town is in “active real-estate negotiations with parties” and she hopes to be able to share the details of a purchase soon. If all goes well, we will be voting on the acquisition of land and/or easements for the Fire-Rescue Station at Special Town Meeting on Monday, November 17.

Details coming soon. Stay tuned!

Our Housing Report

The 62 brand-new, income-restricted housing units at 19 West Road, or “Phare,” are officially becoming homes. A lottery for those units was held in April; of 616 applications received, 492 were “preliminarily eligible.” As of early September, 25 units were occupied, with more in process. According to Elizabeth Jenkins, Assistant Director of Housing and Community Development, there are 13 single-adult households, three two-adult households, two households with one adult and one child, one household with two adults and one child, and five households with two adults and two children. That’s 33 adults and 14 kids so far. 

The lottery for the 14 units at 107 Main Street developed by Housing Assistance Corporation closed July 31, drawing 411 preliminarily eligible applicants. Those units — 12 for applicants who make up to 80% of Area Mean Income (AMI) and two for those who make up to 30% of AMI — are on track for October completion and move-in.        

The 29-unit “Orleans Plaza” development at the former Underground Mall is also progressing — albeit with some twists and turns. The owner, Maple Hurst Builders, Inc., will now be offering the units in the three new buildings closest to 6A as commercial space, not housing. Eleven “ownership” units (meaning they will be owned by residents) will be built on top of the existing concrete structure around the perimeter, plus one more unit on the ground level. Fifteen rental apartments are planned for a three-story building at the center of the site, and two rental units will be in a separate structure near the Olde Cape Carwash. You can see the current plans here. Maple Hurst’s website says the housing will be “modestly priced workforce housing.” Three of the 29 units will be subsidized for low-income residents, per Orleans' inclusionary zoning bylaw. Want more info? Head over to this recent article in the Provincetown Independent.

Governor Prence: The demolition work for the Governor Prence Motel site is out to bid. The Town of Orleans signed a “Land Disposition Agreement” — a legal document that details the terms of the sale of public property as well as its future use — with the project’s three developers: Preservation of Affordable Housing (POAH), Housing Assistance Corporation (HAC) and Habitat for Humanity of Cape Cod. The Orleans Affordable Housing Trust has awarded the project $1.5 million. Next comes approval from the Zoning Board of Appeals. The development will consist of 78 units restricted at various income levels, with 61 rental units and 17 home-ownership units. You can view plans for the project here.

Meanwhile, the new “Lease to Locals” program is up and running. Launched jointly by Orleans and Eastham, the program offers property owners of either town up to $15,000 in one-time incentives to convert short-term rentals or vacant units into year-round housing for existing residents and employees of local businesses. Leases must be for 12 months or longer. 

Other housing news: the owners of the Seashore Park Motor Inn on Canal Road, currently used for seasonal workforce housing, are performing extensive upgrades to the building and site and have applied for approval to add an additional building with 34 more units on the property, also to be used for seasonal workforce housing. 

And finally… zoning! Get ready, because it’s a subject you’ll be hearing lots more about as November’s Special Town meeting draws near. For now: Two important zoning articles will likely be on November’s warrant, one designed to improve Orleans’ zoning bylaw, and another that will change some of our downtown zoning regulations. (We’ll sort out both of these for you in EXIT 89’s next Town Meeting Preview.) In the meantime, you can head to the Town website and take a look at the changes proposed in the Downtown Housing Overlay District, see a map of the proposed Housing Overlay District, and watch a presentation the Planning Board made on the changes in August. 

A New Library? Not Yet, Anyway

As reported in EXIT 89’s March 2025 updates issue, the Town’s application for a state construction grant for a new library was rejected. (Orleans was rated too affluent, thus earning too low a score for economic need to qualify.) This has temporarily stalled the momentum built by the Snow Library Trustees, Friends of Snow Library, the Select Board, town staff, and residents that began in spring of 2022 and culminated with the New Library Feasibility Study published in April 2024.  

The study demonstrated that a state-of-the-art library can be constructed on the existing site — increasing usable library program space by 67 percent and increasing parking spots by more than 50 percent, while also better integrating with the Village Green. The estimated cost? Close to $45 million.  

The state construction grant (which we didn’t get) would have covered as much as 20 percent of that cost, but it would have required Orleans to adhere to extensive state library-building regulations — some of which were more suited to our needs than others. Without the grant, Orleans is free to design a new library tailored to its specific needs and circumstances.  

What might this include? Additional meeting rooms? Space for Town staff? Storage for archival documents? An auditorium, a movie theater, or other cultural space?  

Before these questions can be considered, residents will need to determine when — or if — they want to move forward. Library Trustees decided not to ask for design funding at last May’s Town Meeting, realizing they would be competing against two other big-ticket projects — the Orleans Fire-Rescue Station design funding and $40 million for the sewer project.

So. . . when might we see funding for a new library on a warrant?

We don’t know. Library Trustees are closely monitoring progress on the new fire-rescue station to gauge when the Town Hall, the Select Board, and residents might be ready to support the library project. One thing is certain: delays mean budget increases as construction costs continue to rise. Meanwhile, continuing to maintain the aging library building will not be cheap. You can learn more about the need for a new Snow Library here.

Upgrades for Eldredge Park

After years of meetings and concern about deteriorating conditions at Eldredge Park, things are moving along. A design for a major upgrade to the recreation areas of the public park was presented on July 30 to the Select Board and again on Sept 4 to the Community Preservation Committee (CPC) in a concerted effort by the Orleans Department of Recreation, Culture & Community Events and the Orleans Recreation Advisory Committee to see if funding could be found in time to complete the work before the summer of 2027. 

Both the CPC and Select Board have expressed enormous enthusiasm for the Weston & Sampson design — and its two new tennis courts, six new pickleball courts, full basketball court and separate halfcourt, new handball court, new children’s playground with a tricycle track, more parking and accessible walking trails, along with benches, shaded areas, extensive night-lighting, and water-bottle stations. The total cost comes in at around $5.4 million. Some of this has already been approved: $850,000 toward design, engineering, repair, and construction of recreation facilities at Fall Town Meeting 2024 and $100,000 for development of the pickleball courts.

Following a public hearing at Town Hall last night, October 2nd, the CPC voted 7-1 to authorize a $3 million bond for the Eldredge Park renovation, an unprecedented show of funding support that will need approval at Fall Town Meeting. EXIT 89 will offer more details in our preview of the meeting, but next steps for the park upgrades will likely include another vote at May Town Meeting before work would begin in early Fall 2026, when the Firebirds' season ends.

Threat, Hazard + Vulnerability Analysis

The Massachusetts Civil Defense Act requires every city and town in the Commonwealth to establish a local emergency plan and appoint an official or “Emergency Management Director” (EMD) to oversee it. 

Our plan is 93 pages long — a page-turner if you’re a fan of disaster movies and thrillers. You’ll find it by digging into the Select Board Packet for August 6, 2025, the date of the meeting Fire Chief Geof Deering — our EMD — presented the plan. Its purpose should be obvious: to anticipate potential problems and plan the best possible response and recovery.

The scary stuff begins on page 22, where you’ll find a “Threat, Hazard, and Vulnerability Analysis Summary” for the Town of Orleans that includes risk rankings for natural hazards that have “the potential to harm people, property, or the environment” — hurricanes, tornadoes, nor’easters and other severe storms, along with flooding, pandemics, and wildland fires.

Our highest assessed risk? 

Hurricanes, tropical storms, and coastal flooding from tidal surges. A list of most vulnerable locations is also on page 22 of the report (or see the bottom of the chart shown above). 

The technological hazards — exposure to hazardous fumes and materials including petroleum, natural gas, and other toxic chemicals — each share the same risk ranking, lower than storms and flooding. “Manmade hazards” refer to calamities caused by humans, either accidentally or intentionally: cyber threats, terrorism, biological and nuclear attacks, explosives and radiation. “Cyber threats” include “computer viruses, data breaches, and Denial of Service (DoS) attacks,” to name a few.

The plans for preparedness and response are extensive and detailed, and aim to “minimize”  injury, loss of life and property damage, as well as adverse environmental and economic impacts. Providing “timely and accurate information to the public,” meeting the needs of disaster survivors, and restoring essential utilities and town functions are also priorities.

Residents will want to know about centralized locations where critical supplies — food with a stable shelf life, bottled water, ice, tarps and/or blankets — will be distributed following a disaster.

The Points of Distribution (PODs) for the Town of Orleans are:
● Department of Public Works: 40 Giddiah Hill Road
● Nauset Middle School: 70 Route 28
● Council on Aging: 150 Rock Harbor Road

Also important: 
●  The EMD has the authority to declare a local emergency, issue evacuation orders, or give residents “shelter-in-place” orders. 
●  Shelter facilities managed by the Barnstable County Regional Emergency Planning Committee (BCREPC) will provide services to evacuees and displaced people at Nauset Regional High School and other Cape high schools, including Cape Cod Tech. 
●  For local residents, Orleans Town Hall is the designated go-to place for personal care – heating, cooling and internet access. 

Residential Tax Exemption?

A citizen petition to “Fund the Budget to Enable a Residential (Tax) Exemption” (RTE) for Orleans was approved by a 153-88 vote at last May’s Annual Town Meeting, despite a lack of support from the Select Board and Finance Committee. (Scroll to the end of EXIT 89’s Town Meeting Postmortem to read more about this vote.) 

Supporters see an RTE as a way to reduce the tax burden on year-round residents, many of whom struggle to afford to live in Orleans. RTE’s are gaining popularity — Provincetown, Truro, Wellfleet, Barnstable, Falmouth have had them in place for a while, and Chatham and Eastham have recently adopted them. 

After May’s Annual Town Meeting, Town Manager Kim Newman formed an RTE Working Group, and member Brad Hinote, Orleans Town Assessor, made extremely informative presentations to the Select Board on August 20th and September 24th. At the September meeting, plenty of public comments for and against an RTE were heard, followed by a lengthy discussion by the Select Board, which decided to revisit the topic in November. An RTE is revenue-neutral to a town. Implementing one is a complicated and lengthy process, partly due to rules related to properties held in trust and rental properties — of which there are many in Orleans. The slide deck from the presentation can be found here. Want to learn more? Check out this week's Cape Cod Chronicle coverage. Got thoughts? You can share them with the RTE Working Group at rte@town.orleans.ma.us.  

Short Takes: 

Depot Square is the town-owned property along the Cape Cod Rail Trail between the Rock Harbor Grill and Main Street where the Cape Cod Central Railroad stopped from 1865 to 1959, when the train service was discontinued. In May 2024, Town Meeting voted to approve $70,000 for a redesign, and on September 15, landscape architect Robert White of engineering firm GPI presented three conceptual options to residents. Interested in learning more? Last week’s Cape Cod Chronicle offered a great overview. You can watch the entire video of the redesign presentation at Town Hall.

Fertilizer and Pesticide Reduction — Across Cape Cod, nearly 6 million pounds of fertilizer and 1.3 million pounds of pesticides are applied annually. The runoff is a significant factor in the declining water quality of many Cape Cod water bodies, including the Pleasant Bay watershed. Improvement of water quality resulting from the Town's extensive wastewater project may take a decade or more. Reducing the use of fertilizer and pesticides would have immediate positive impact. To that end, in 2022 and 2023, Orleans voters passed two Home Rule Petitions asking the Massachusetts legislature to authorize the Town of Orleans to adopt new bylaws that would reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides within our town limits. Introduced at the statehouse by State Senator Julian Cyr and State Representative Hadley Luddy, the petitions are now with the State Legislature (and easily trackable as Bill H 994 and Bill H 995.) According to Select Board member Michael Herman, who has championed these two initiatives, both bills have an uncertain journey ahead. First, they must be passed by the Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, and then by both the Massachusetts House and Senate, and signed by  Governor Maura Healey. If this doesn’t happen before the conclusion of the legislative session ending in 2026, the bills must be reintroduced by Cyr and Luddy. Nantucket and several Cape towns have passed similar initiatives via home-rule petitions that are awaiting passage in the Massachusetts Legislature. For a link to an Orleans pesticide petition with 4,440 signatures of support, click here.  

Kent’s Point – A proposed change to the Conservation Commission’s management plan for Kent’s Point that would require visitors to have a valid Town of Orleans “parking permit” (aka beach sticker) has stirred up strong feelings. The proposed change is in response to complaints from residents who feel Kent’s Point, including roads and properties nearby, is suffering from overuse. Opponents of the change call it elitist, exclusionary, and potentially bad for Orleans businesses. Proponents say it will help keep the area environmentally sound and safer for visitors and neighbors. Want to know more? You can read the Cape Cod Chronicle’s coverage and watch the video of the August 27th meeting.

Rock Harbor Wharf  – Approved at Town Meeting in May 2024, the $9 million rehabilitation of our commercial wharf has been underway since last fall. Originally slated to be done by April 2025, the massive project has met repeated delays — from complications with drilling and the need for additional steel pile-supports to challenging weather and coordination with utility companies. Construction on the pier was paused over the summer (in part due to summer traffic considerations) and will resume after Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples’ Day, according to Nate Sears, Natural Resources Manager and Harbormaster. The project is expected to continue all winter and into the spring, and be completed by May 2026. 

Solar Projects: Orleans received one response to an RFP for three town-owned solar arrays. A “placeholder” value of $5 million was approved for the project at Town Meeting last May. A recommendation to the Town Manager will be coming soon for developing the solar projects at the Wastewater Treatment Facility on Overland Way, the Water Treatment Facility off Route 28, and the DPW Facility on Giddiah Hill Road.

72 Tonset Road — Parking spaces and racks for kayaks, canoes and standup paddleboards were added to the 2.2-acre waterfront property on Town Cove that was purchased by the Town last year for $2.5 million. A formal survey and site plan were commissioned by the Town and the property’s potential future uses are still being explored, according Mike Solitro, Special Projects Coordinator. What kind of future uses? Improvements to public access, shoreline access, and conservation are a priority, as well as integration with the abutting Town-owned parcel, Sea Call Farm, and could include seasonal/workforce-housing depending on site feasibility. A formal procurement for design and engineering services — a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) — is forthcoming to help with that.

Town Cove Bulkhead – At last May’s Town Meeting, residents voted overwhelmingly in support of funding a new easterly bulkhead at the Goose Hummock Town Landing, which receives heavy commercial and recreational use from April to December every year. After construction bid documents were prepared for release this summer, the Robert B. Our Company of Harwich was chosen for the work, expected to take place this winter. 

Transfer Station Food Composting — Did you know that one-third of our Town's solid waste is food scraps? To address this expense and reduce our overall contribution to landfills, food-waste composting has been launched at the Orleans Transfer Station, starting with two bins provided by Black Earth, a sustainable food scrap collection and composting operation founded in Gloucester, Massachusetts, that will take our compost off-site and repurpose it into usable soil. What’s allowed — and what’s not? Curious early-adopters are invited to stop by the new composting units at the Transfer Station, next to the main trash chute, and read the temporary signs. Or check out the announcement on the Town website. In a nutshell: Food scraps — with very few exceptions — are allowed in the bins, but no liquids or non-compostable stuff which could mess up the ability of the entire bin to be composted. According to Calvin Sutton, Deputy Director of DPW, as soon as the service becomes popular, more bins will be added. For an informative read on long-awaited food-waste composting on the Outer Cape, here’s a Provincetown Independent article from 2021. 

Wastewater Phase 2 — Construction for the Meetinghouse Pond Area is nearing completion. Pump-station work behind Town Hall and road restoration will continue into November and December 2025, with Phase 2 finishing on schedule. Silencers installed to mitigate noise from the treatment facility seem to work well. (Neighbors have stopped complaining.) For a heads-up on construction areas, take a look here. For a recently updated FAQ on the sewering process for property owners, look here. For help with getting your property connected, contact John Nelson, the Water/Sewer Program Coordinator, at 508-240-3700, ext. 2319, or jnelson@town.orleans.ma.us. 

Wastewater Phase 3 — The next installment of our wastewater journey, the Lakes and Ponds Area, is a crucial phase that will help protect the quality of groundwater running to nearby ponds and to Pleasant Bay, the largest estuary on Cape Cod. Here's a map from the Town website showing the area that will be connected to the treatment facility and an excellent slide presentation about Phase 3. Residents approved the $40.5 million funding in May 2025. The design is almost finished; competitive bids will come in Spring 2026. Construction is expected to begin in Fall 2026 and be completed in 2028.

Why is the Orleans wastewater project is so important? Take a look at EXIT 89’s special issue, Water, Water, Everywhere. And get your hands on a copy of Orleans Pond Coalition’s superbly packaged and updated Blue Pages, a comprehensive guide to understanding our local waters. You'll find stacks of them at Town Hall, Snow Library, Orleans Whole Food Store, Savvy on Main, and the offices of Orleans Conservation Trust. You're encouraged to pick up multiple copies to share with friends, family, neighbors, and renters. For a head start, right now, there's a digital version.

Hungry for More? 

Remember the days when Orleans Town Hall was an information desert?

No longer!

Some ways to stay in the loop:

●  Subscribe to the Town Talk monthly newsletter, written by Orleans Public Information Officer Amanda Converse.
●  Sign up to receive email notifications from whichever departments and committees and interest you. 
●  Bookmark Special Projects Coordinator Mike Solitro’s Excel spreadsheet, aka The Article Tracker, where you will find every Select Board special project undertaken and Warrant article passed since Spring Town Meeting 2023 — along with dates, descriptions, costs, progress made, and which department of town government has oversight.
●  Check out Orleans: Behind the Scenes, the Town Hall podcast produced by Media Program Coordinator Mia Baumgarten and Mike Solitro. 
●  Keep up with Town Manager Kim Newman’s monthly reports. 

About EXIT 89

EXIT 89 is an independent publication. Our mission is to help Orleans voters make sense of town issues by providing a clear and impartial overview of the latest developments. We want to help fill the information gap, reduce the "mystery" of Town Meeting, and promote vibrant civic engagement.

Our hyperlocal digest is researched and written by journalists Martha Sherrill and Emily Miller. Elaine Baird and Lynn Bruneau are the founding advisors. We are all residents of Orleans. Editing, infographics and tech support are provided by Kazmira Nedeau of Sea Howl Bookshop. Additional research and writing for this issue was provided by Orleans resident Steve Gass. Thanks, Steve!

Our digest is 100 percent free — and we aim to keep it that way. But your donations keep us going. You can donate securely online by clicking here. Or you can send a check to "EXIT 89" and save us a processing fee. Our address is:  EXIT 89, P.O. Box 1145, Orleans, MA 02653. 

As always, we’d love to hear from you. Please share questions, comments, and ideas for future issues at hello@exit89.org. If you are new to EXIT 89, please take a moment to sign up for a free subscription. And if you’ve been here a while and enjoy it, please forward to a friend.

As always, thank you for your support!