Orleans Select Board votes to pursue override for Council on Aging assistant director position

ORLEANS -- March 4, 2026, Orleans Select Board commits to override for Council on Aging position, advances $59.6 million fire station warrant. The board voted unanimously 5-0 Wednesday to support funding an assistant Council on Aging director at Annual Town Meeting through an operational override ballot question, after Town Manager Kim Tara Maguire said there is no room in the current budget and that the "cleanest path is the override path." The fire rescue station, the centerpiece of the May Annual Town Meeting, now carries an updated estimate of $59.625 million for a planned 37,000-square-foot, two-story building, up from earlier projections; Finance Committee member Ed Burdick warned the project alone would add $3.6 million per year to the town's current $10 million annual debt service. A joint public hearing with the Finance Committee on the FY28-FY32 capital improvement plan revealed a pipeline of nearly $213 million in debt-funded projects against an existing debt balance of roughly $150 million outstanding or approved-but-unissued. The board also voted 5-0 to convert the liquor license of Nauset Gastronomy Inc., doing business as The Rail at 222 Main Street, from annual to seasonal, pending state approval.