Select Board Picks Brick, Clapboard For Fire Station

Select Board · Meeting of August 5, 2026

ORLEANS — The Orleans Select Board voted 4-1 to lock in brick-and-clapboard exterior materials and a metal roof for the town's new fire rescue station. Architect Ted Galante told the board the choice would not raise costs and would give the building a roughly 100-year lifespan versus 20 to 30 years for an all-composite design; the project's own Building Committee had split 5-4 for the same option after public pushback against an earlier red-brick concept. Committee Chair David Little said "four chose option one and five chose option two." Resident Scott Zanke warned the board not to shortchange durability on what he called a "$55 million" project.

Separately, roughly ten residents used public comment to press the board over the Zoning Board of Appeals' July 29 Safe Harbor vote on the Governor Prince affordable-housing project, prompting the board to plan a future joint session with the Affordable Housing Trust rather than act that night. The board also reset Fall Town Meeting to Monday, November 16, and approved shellfish-grant and liquor-license hearings 5-0 and unanimously.

In the full story:

• Public Comment: Governor Prince Affordable Housing Project
• Shellfish Grant Hearing: Gibbons-Reed Expansion
• Liquor and Entertainment Licenses: The Cormorant
• Fire Department Report: Call Volume, Fleet and Staffing
• Emergency Operations Center Presentation
• Committee Appointments: Open Space and Affordable Housing Trust
• Fire Rescue Station: Exterior Materials Decision
• CG36500 Lifeboat Preservation Letter
• Select Board Finance Policies
• Human Services Advisory Committee Charge
• Fall Town Meeting Date
• Consent Agenda and Single-Use Plastics
• Who Was There
• Organizations And Documents Referenced
• The complete report: 3,214 words

Source: the Select Board meeting of August 5, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.

Checked against the record: before publication this article was automatically compared with the meeting transcript.