Orleans Select Board Opens FY27 Budget Talks with Police and Fire Review

ORLEANS — January 28, 2026 — Orleans Select Board opens FY27 budget season with police and fire department reviews. At a January 28 workshop, Police Chief Scott McDonald and Fire Chief Jeff Deering presented their departmental budgets to the board, chaired by Kevin Galligan, with Finance Committee members also in attendance. The town's state cherry sheet revenues are projected to increase by $35,819 over the prior year, and free cash assumptions stand at $5,194,979 against a total capital spending target of $3,615,700. The single largest new fire department cost is a jump in regional dispatch fees to the Barnstable County Sheriff's Office Communications Center, which serves 13 Cape Cod communities and confirmed a FY27 cost of $91,526 — an increase from the current year but well below an initial projection that suggested a near-doubling. A $231,000 federal grant secured by Deputy Fire Chief Gula will fund paramedic training for four of six enrolled firefighters. Select Board member Michael Herman pressed Deering on fire overtime, which has climbed over five years despite eight new positions, noting "I would hope in next year it's going to be decreasing." McDonald flagged two cryptocurrency ATM machines in Orleans — at a Speedway in South Orleans and a Cumberland Farms — as the source of resident losses he described as reaching "thousands if not over a hundred thousand dollars."