Inside Business Report Focuses on Bayshore Concrete
Cape Charles Police Chief Charles “Sambo” Brown
Mayor Sullivan (photos by Harry Gerwien, Inside Business)
EDITOR’S NOTE: From time to time, newspapers and magazines record their impressions of our fair village.
The reports invariably are of interest to local residents, even if they already know everything they read.
Last May, the Hampton Roads business journal Inside Business sent reporter Bill Cresenzo and photographer Harry Gerwien across the Bay to take a measure of Cape Charles. They took a look, and saw Bayshore Concrete Products. Inside Business has graciously permitted the Wave to reprint the entire interesting story below.
CAPE CHARLES HAS A WAY OF STAYING ALIVE
By BILL CRESENZO
Inside Business
May 11, 2012
Dora Sullivan and Charles Brown are sitting in chairs on the sidewalk in the heart of Cape Charles on a recent sunny spring day.
The strip of commercial space that lines the town’s main street is quaint and historic, with a hardware store, a pub, a boutique hotel that just reopened and a couple of souvenir shops.
All are within walking distance of Cape Charles Beach, a well-kept stretch of sand that features a fishing pier that extends into the Chesapeake Bay — no fishing license required, compliments of the town.
Sullivan and Brown are quick to say hello to a couple of passers-by and introduce themselves.
Sullivan informs them that she is originally from Egypt.
Fifteen years ago, she and her husband, Michael, happened by the small town at the southern end of the Eastern Shore, while living in Virginia Beach. They decided they just had to live in Cape Charles.
Now “I’m the mayor,” Sullivan said.
She waved her hand at Brown.
“And this is our police chief.”
Across the harbor in view of where Sullivan and Brown sit is Bayshore Concrete Products with its cranes, its 86 rocky acres and concrete segments pointing to the sky, waiting to be shipped up the East Coast.
It’s a scene that one wouldn’t necessarily call pretty.
But in the eyes of Sullivan and Brown, who worked at Bayshore Concrete before becoming police chief, and of the residents of Cape Charles who depend on the company to keep the town’s economy alive, Bayshore Concrete — one of Northampton County’s largest employers — is a classic case of beauty being in the eye of the beholder.
“It is a most beautiful thing to look at,” Sullivan said, “because it creates jobs.” [Read more…]
Ira Garland Merritt, 62, Cape Charles Native
Ira Garland Merritt, Jr., 62, husband of Elaine Doris Merritt and a resident of Eastville, passed away Tuesday, November 13, at his residence.
A celebration of life service will be held at a later date.
Memorial contributions may be made to American Legion Post #56, P.O. Box 357, Cheriton, VA 23316.
He is survived by three children, Demetrious Ann Bruno of Accomac, Ira G. Merritt III of Eastville, Shavon Alexis Wilson and her husband, Andrew, of Greensboro, NC; two sisters, Sarita Thurman of Exmore and Cindy Melson of Accomac; one brother, Louis Midget of Nebraska; and one nephew, William Thomas Merritt, Jr., of Eastville. He was predeceased by a brother, William Thomas Merritt. [Read more…]
LETTER
Like Early Settlers, School Supporters Are ‘Moved to Protest’
CLICK TO ENLARGE — Reprinted by permission from the November 5, 2012, official Cape Charles Gazette
November 14, 2012
DEAR EDITOR:
Tomorrow, Piece of Eden opens at the Palace Theatre. We have a rich, talented cast, Clelia Shepherd’s direction has been first rate, and the musical score will be performed wonderfully by William Neil.
This show is also a wonderful way to learn about the history of the Eastern Shore, and the early settlers who made this land between the Atlantic Ocean and Chesapeake Bay their home.
The play is written by Cape Charles’ own Jean Collins, and it highlights just how the Eastern Shore changed the world, from having the earliest court records, staging the first play in the new world (Ye Bear and Ye Cub), being the first settlers to challenge corrupt practices of government, to being the first county to declare an act of British Parliament, the Stamp Act, unconstitutional.
Jean Collins had a unique perspective on the entire history of the Eastern Shore, yet she also still has ties to us today.
In 1921, the students of Cape Charles, especially the basketball team, petitioned the Town to build a gymnasium. At that time, the team had nowhere to play.
That call went unanswered for almost 35 years, until the principal at the time, Jean Collins (the only female principle of the school) finally stepped up and secured funding to convert the auditorium into a “gymtorium” (because it was still used as an auditorium as well).
It seems fitting that some of Jean Collins’ former students are now part of and are working with Old School Cape Charles to keep the school and the gymtorium public, and part of the Town. [Read more…]
