New Town Website Looks Great but Erases History

Official Town of Cape Charles website got a makeover for 2014, which included deletion of some important Town documents as well as some “dirty laundry.”

By GEORGE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave

January 6, 2014

(EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was updated at 12:15 p.m. today to reflect that the Comprehensive Plan and one of the six Annexation Agreement documents may be found on the new Town website.)

The Town of Cape Charles has ushered in the new year with an impressive-looking new face to the Town’s website (capecharles.org). At first glance, the new design looks a lot like the Cape Charles by the Bay tourism website, which launched last year. Both websites feature alternating scenic photos on the home page.

On the Town website, five drop-down tabs across the top of the page display links to information such as tax rates, a list of Town departments, and forms — for example, to apply for permission to hold a yard sale.

One tangible improvement over the old website is a staff directory of every Town employee, shown by department. (Although one longtime member of the waterworks staff is missing — an apparent oversight.)

But while the website includes a lot of information previously not posted, it also leaves out some crucial information and documents that previously were available.  Previously the Town website posted the 1991 Annexation Agreements between the County, the Town, Bayshore Concrete, and most importantly, Brown & Root, initiator of the development that later became Bay Creek. These documents form the basis for the legal argument that the Bay Creek South developer, Baymark, is responsible for sharing the cost of the expanded Town sewer system. As the Wave has documented, the Town demanded payment by Baymark several times, but ceased its demands around the time that then-Baymark official Steve Bennett was elected to Town Council. [Read more…]

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