SHORE THING: One Lucky Dog
“Lucky” — also affectionately known as “Mayor of Cape Charles.”
By GEORGE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave
March 25, 2013
My wife and I are walkers (and joggers of a sort), and a big attraction of the Historic District is its walkability. So, most mornings for the past couple of years we have been “making our rounds.”
First we head to the beach, then out to the end of the pier, thence up Front Street (Mason Avenue, but I’m trying to sound like a local), left on Peach, then through Central Park, continuing on Monroe past Fig, all the way to Bahama Road (reachable from Monroe by foot but not by car).
From there we cross Lake Foster, approaching the gated community of Jellybean Village. And since what happens from that point possibly involves illegal activity, I’ll just conclude by saying that eventually we wind up back in the Historic District.
That’s a generic description of our “rounds,” which might run in the opposite direction the next day, and which also might entail detours, side paths, and shortcuts.
It’s a good way to meet people – and dogs (and cats).
In the people category, we’ve made a good friend who makes his rounds much more faithfully than we. But unlike us, he never varies his route. Visit the Natural Area Preserve behind the WACO building any morning (and I do mean any morning, rain or shine) and you’ll likely see him coming or going.
In the dog category, we’ve met any number. I consider myself very much a “dog person,” so I feel some jealousy that, invariably, any dog we encounter ignores me in favor of getting attention from my wife. She greets them, compliments them, and rubs them. Of course they like her! [Read more...]
SHORE THING: The Troll Under the Bridge
By GEORGE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave
February 18, 2013
The Bridge-Tunnel Commission’s surprising decision to lower tolls for some commuters just might be like the first bricks chipped away from the Berlin Wall.
By itself it may not be that meaningful, but if it starts a trend, who knows where it might end?
Could the action escalate to the point that we no longer fear the “Troll Toll” under the bridge, lurking to gobble up travelers’ wallets?
I wonder why, after all these years, the Bridge-Tunnel Commission made a concession to Eastern Shore residents?
Is there finally a recognition that the crushing toll is the major reason that Northampton is the poorest county in the state of Virginia?
The $12 Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel (CBBT) toll is the highest in the United States by far.
The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge toll into New York City is $13, but the other direction is free, so the average toll is $6.50. Motorcyclists pay $5.50, or an average of $2.75 both ways.
(And why does our Bridge-Tunnel charge the same rate for a motorcycle as for a 2-axle truck?)
The Overseas Highway to Key West spans 127 miles, with the longest bridge in the chain stretching seven miles. The last toll was collected in 1954. Now it’s free.
FREE!
The CBBT carries like a badge of honor the distinction of being built and maintained totally by tolls.
As if that’s something to be proud of. [Read more...]
SHORE THING: Gossip Gets a Bad Rap
Ewell’s is no more — long live Vance’s! (Wave photo)
By GEORGE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave
January 28, 2013
It could be argued that Cape Charles doesn’t need a newspaper, because one stroll through town is usually enough to learn about everything that’s going on.
Maybe so, but if you drive instead of walk, or live out of town, you’re going to miss out on some of the news.
And with the weather as it’s been for the last two weeks — first rain, then snow, and for the moment still freezing cold — you don’t see many walkers, and you don’t hear as much news.
So there is some justification for a newspaper, and even for a “gossip column.”
The word “gossip” gets a bad rap. The archaic meaning of a “gossip” was a friend — somebody who knew you well enough to pass on the good stuff — meaning the REAL news.
So, friends, let me tell you about my walk through town the day before it started raining, which was two Mondays ago. If you live in town maybe you already know this, but half our readers are out-of-towners.
My first stop was at Sullivan’s, which of course is the number-one spot where news not only is heard but also made. I asked Mike if he had a scanner power supply I needed. He didn’t, but that brought me into contact with Jay’s barber shop across the hall.
Jay asked me if I had any good news (he meant JUICY news), and I asked him the same thing. If your barber doesn’t know, nobody knows.
I say barber, because I go to get my hair “cut.” Women go to get their hair “done,” but it’s all the same — whoever works on your hair knows the news.
Vance Lewis popped in, and I took the opportunity to chide him for pulling down the Ewell’s Furniture sign, leaving a blank frame. WRONG, Vance said — he had just put up his own sign, which you’ve already seen unless you don’t live here, in which case just look at the photo above.
As everybody knows, Vance’s father Frank, our former mayor (who just celebrated a birthday), has retired and sold Ewell’s Furniture to his son. Frank used to work six days a week at the store, but now that he’s retired he’s cut back to five.
That’s pretty big news for Cape Charles: Ewell’s Furniture, which had that name even before Frank bought it however many decades ago, is now Vance’s Furniture.
But there’s more, courtesy of Watson’s Hardware, which may not make as much news as Sullivan’s but does an even better job of spreading it. [Read more...]
SHORE THING: Town Tries New Angle in Park Toilet Appeal
Tops of wooden stakes indicate bathroom floor level required to avoid flooding. (Wave photo)
By GEORGE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave
January 10, 2013
Act 3 of the little morality play taking place in the historic district will be performed this evening (Thursday) during the Town Council meeting.
The scene for Act 1 was the Hotel Cape Charles, where the Historic District Review Board correctly noticed that the hotel renovations don’t look like the plans the Board had approved.
Owner David Gammino ‘fessed up that after submitting the original plans he got a new, better idea, which would look so much finer than much of the surrounding architecture on Mason Avenue that he didn’t ever imagine anyone would complain.
But as regular readers of the Wave know, Hotel Cape Charles was denied a permanent occupancy certificate, and remains in limbo.
But wait: didn’t anyone read the fine print? That would be Section 8.31 of the Town’s zoning ordinance:
Inspection by Administrator After Approval: When a Certificate of Appropriateness has been issued, the Administrator or Town Building Official shall from time to time inspect the alteration or construction approved by such certificate and shall give prompt notice to the applicant of any work not in accordance with such certificate or violating any ordinance of the Town. The Administrator or Town Building Official may revoke the certificate or the building permit if violations are not corrected by the applicant in a timely manner.
The “certificate of appropriateness” is what the Historic District Review Board issued based on the original drawings for the hotel.
According to the zoning ordinance, it is the responsibility of the Administrator to inspect construction “from time to time” and to give “prompt notice” of work not in accordance with the certificate of appropriateness.
And so the curtain fell on Act 1.
In Act 2 (a humorous diversion) the scene shifted to Central Park. [Read more...]
SHORE THING: On AQUA, and Business in Cape Charles
By GEORGE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave
December 19, 2012
According to the Bay Creek website, AQUA Restaurant will close Friday night, December 21, (moved up a day from the original announcement).
According to the Trustees’ Sale notice, the following property will be offered at public auction at 11:30 a.m. Friday, December 28, at the County Courthouse: the restaurant building, the Marina Shops building, the Pierhouse building, the marina boat slips, all Villa condominiums, and various common areas and parking lots. (For the complete list, click here.)
According to the notice, the properties will all be sold together, with the exception of two residential lots. So if you want the restaurant, you have to buy the marina and the shops too.
According to County records, Bay Creek obtained a bank line of credit in July 2004 on the above properties in the amount of $11.5 million.
According to Bay Creek developer Dickie Foster, as quoted in the Eastern Shore News, “There are going to be a lot of bidders.”
Which begs the question: spun-off from their developer, are the restaurant, marina, and shops sustainable? Can they earn enough to cover operating expenses, including mortgage, taxes, and principal payments?
That’s a tough go for most businesses, and it’s especially tricky on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, where the tourism season is short and tourist numbers are relatively small.
As the town’s newest business, the Wave attended last month’s annual meeting of the Cape Charles Business Association. The good news: merchant after merchant reported last summer as the best in memory. Cape Charles is in renaissance, and tourists increasingly are discovering it. [Read more...]
SHORE THING:
An Open Letter from George to Mike about AQUA
By GEORGE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave
December 7, 2012
Dear Mike Killebrew,
This morning soon after awaking I checked the latest comments in the Cape Charles Wave. Amid the usual sniping was the eloquent comment you submitted shortly after midnight –- a paean of praise to a magnificent restaurant and to the wonderful people who work there.
You, sir, are both a gentleman and a scholar. Now let me tell you some more about yourself:
In the spring of 2010, when my wife and I first came to Cape Charles, our new neighbors (destined to become our dearest friends) invited us to AQUA Restaurant. Two and a half years later I clearly remember what I ate and who served it.
I ordered the delicious fried flounder, and you, of course, served it.
After years of living inside the Washington Beltway, I had a lot to learn. On the Eastern Shore, dining out does not mean dealing with faceless employees one never sees again. Not here –- the shopkeepers, waiters, town municipal workers, and on and on might be my neighbors, or my acquaintances, or even my friends. Rarely do they remain strangers.
My neighbor is a Realtor, and so I learned that your profession is also real estate. Waiting tables at AQUA is a sideline. But I also quickly realized that while it may be a sideline, you are doing it because you love it. That is evident in the comment you wrote, and it’s also evident to any of your customers. Our meals at AQUA have always been enhanced when you have been our server.
Was it fate that when my wife and I last visited AQUA on November 27, you were our server? At the time, nobody knew what lay ahead, and we enjoyed a wonderful evening.
That was, sadly, our last supper at AQUA. Although the restaurant will not close until December 22, we would not dare show our faces there now. It has been made clear by some staff members that my reporting was resented. The harshest criticism from an AQUA employee came in a private message on our Facebook page: “You are a mean, disgusting soul that should not be part of the town.” [Read more...]
SHORE THING: Bay Creek Can Blame Cape Charles
122 Creekside Lane in Bay Creek’s Plantation Pointe. Was $1,495,000, reduced to $995,000.
By GEORGE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave
November 26, 2012
Bay Creek once saved the Town of Cape Charles from financial ruin.
Now the reinvigorated Town of Cape Charles is sucking the lifeblood out of Bay Creek.
Is this town big enough for both of us (“both” being the Historic District, and Bay Creek)?
A little background: Twenty years ago, when the Town of Cape Charles was infamous for its crack houses, and the only growth industry was Section 8 subsidized housing, a savior appeared on the horizon – Brown & Root, Inc.
Circa 1974, Brown & Root had purchased 980 acres known as Hollywood Farm — where racehorses once were trained — for use as a fabrication plant for offshore oil platforms.
But then the 1973 oil embargo was supplanted by an oil glut, and nothing ever happened at Hollywood Farm.
Fast-forward 20 years to 1993: By then, Brown & Root had given up any thought of industrial use for Hollywood Farm. Instead, the property would become a planned unit development known as Accawmacke Plantation.
Well-heeled residents of Accawmacke Plantation would demand two services that Northampton County could not provide: water/sewer and a local police force.
But the struggling Town of Cape Charles could provide those services – if Accawmacke Plantation were incorporated into the Town.
Northampton County was loathe to lose control of the property to Cape Charles, and fought the annexation in the courts. But Brown & Root supplied the Town’s legal counsel, and the County never had a chance. [Read more...]
SHORE THING: Tom Savage Was a ‘Come-Here’
Somewhere on the Eastern Shore. (Wave photo)
By GEORGE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave
November 19, 2012
Yesterday I became a Native of the Eastern Shore. And I feel incredibly good about it.
All my life I’ve been a “come-here,” feeling somewhat less than a full citizen.
That was certainly the case during the 10 years I lived in various foreign countries in the diplomatic service. But it also applied to my seven years’ residence in Charleston, South Carolina, where I learned the ground rule early on: To be fully accepted in Charleston society you have to either be born there, or have lived there for 75 years.
After Charleston, relocating to Cape Charles was deja-vu. It’s where I first heard the term “come-here.” And I realized that, once again, I was an outsider.
After we started the Cape Charles Wave, a prominent denizen whose family goes back over 300 years in these parts suggested to my wife and me that we certainly had some chutzpah to move into town and start up a newspaper.
To which I had two reactions: first – we wouldn’t have done it if someone else had done it first. But nobody had, and the town was in crying need of a news outlet.
And second — we never would have attempted this by ourselves. It was our co-founder’s idea – as a longtime local reporter she saw the need, she chose the Wave name, and she, by the way, is married to a man whose Eastern Shore family also goes back 300 years. [Read more...]
