State Approves $6 Million Harbor Access Road
Harbor access road will link Stone Road with Old Cape Charles Road. Click on map to view larger image.
By DORIE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave
June 25, 2013
It’s official – VDOT will construct a $6 million harbor access road connecting Stone Road (SR 184) and Old Cape Charles Road (SR 642).
The 1.7-mile connector will intersect Stone Road near the Blue Heron Realty billboard just outside Town limits and run to the entrance to Bayshore Concrete Products.
Cape Charles Town Manager Heather Arcos announced the approval at the June 20 Town Council meeting.
The road is not expected to be complete until 2022 – nine years from now.
Engineering studies are ongoing, and no announcement has been made about possible traffic lights and turning lanes.
The harbor access road will align with Old Cape Charles Road just east of the entrance to Bay Creek golf resort.
Instead of an intersection, Old Cape Charles Road will be closed off at that point. Traffic heading west on Old Cape Charles Road will be routed to a T-intersection with the new road.
Continuing west past the entrance to Bay Creek, the new road will overlap Old Cape Charles Road until the point where Old Cape Charles Road makes a 90-degree right turn toward the Hump.
The access road will then continue straight all the way to the entrance to Bayshore Concrete Products. [Read more…]
Camryn Reese Coffin Loved the Eastern Shore
June 25, 2013
Following a courageous battle with cancer, Camryn Reese Coffin, born June 14, 2005, passed Saturday, June 22, surrounded by family and friends at her home in Virginia Beach.
A visitation will be held 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 28, at Doughty Funeral Home in Exmore.
The funeral will be 11 a.m. Saturday, June 29, at Francis Asbury Church, 1871 North Great Neck Road, Virginia Beach. A viewing will be held at the church one hour prior to the service.
Interment will follow at 2:30 p.m. at Cape Charles Cemetery.
Reese enjoyed family camping trips on the Eastern Shore, boating, fishing, and many fun days at the beach, playing soccer and attending school. [Read more…]
Historic Review Board Postpones Decision on Old School
Developer J. David McCormack plans a 17-unit apartment building for the Old School at Central Park. (Wave photo)
By DORIE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave
June 24, 2013
Petersburg developer J. David McCormack came to town last Tuesday with hopes of receiving approval by the Historic District Review Board of his plans to convert the Old School at Central Park into an apartment complex.
But after two and a half hours of questioning, the Board told McCormack they needed more information and tabled his request until August.
Newly appointed town planner Rob Testerman had advised the Board to consider only exterior features of the building. “The interior modifications are not in the purview of the Cape Charles Historic District Review Board,” Testerman wrote in a memo to the Board.
But newly appointed Board Chairman David Gay said he got a different impression after talking to Julie Langan of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources in Richmond. Gay said that according to Langan, while features that can be seen from the outside should be the focus of the Board, the whole building and its site are considered in the Secretary of the Interior’s Guidelines.
“When you take a public building of this magnitude, the Historic District Review Board has a role in considering all the aspects of the building,” Gay stressed. [Read more…]
Register for ESO Arts Camp by June 30
ESO Arts Center’s Summer Arts Camp for children ages 4-11 runs July 15-26, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The deadline for enrollment is June 30 and spaces are limited. [Read more…]
FOOD: Eastville Inn Rises Again
By SARAH GOLIBART
Cape Charles Wave
June 22, 2013
As an Eastville native, I have seen the Eastville Inn change hands several times. And long-time Eastville resident Ralph Dodd says he’s seen the Inn run by “six or more” people during the time he’s been around. Different tastes and visions have passed through the Eastville Inn as quickly as flipping through the pages of a book.
And now the Eastville Inn has another new owner: Brent Schmidt, who until recently was owner-chef of Brent’s Fine Foods in downtown Hampton.
Schmidt is returning the Eastville Inn’s menu to offer upscale dining, after the last proprietor’s unsuccessful attempt to attract a larger clientele with diner-style food.
Ralph Dodd, whose real estate office is a short walk from the Eastville Inn, pronounces the food at the reopened restaurant as “very good.”
“It looks sharp inside,” Dodd adds.
Dodd sees the inn as a valuable asset to the Town of Eastville, especially considering its historical background. The Inn dates to 1724.
Despite some changes over the years, the building still holds its antique charm and has attracted both locals and passersby with its promise of a great bite to eat. [Read more…]
COMMENTARY: Field of Dreams, Hoops, and Hopes
By WAYNE CREED
June 21, 2013
I spend most of my days driving across the Bay, going to work in Norfolk. Once back on the Shore, in Cape Charles, I tend to do what I really do best: nothing. Sometimes, once I park the car on Friday evening, I don’t get back into it until the next Monday morning.
It sounds boring, but there are many things that fill those empty moments. One of them is taking my beloved Labrador Retriever, Chloe, on walks through the old baseball field, to the fire road that winds through the woods back there. Full of scents and action, on a good day she might even jump a rabbit or a deer.
One Saturday in May I took her back to her haunt, and was surprised to find that the old ball field had been tilled, in preparation for planting summer cotton.
Chloe was unperturbed, nose to the ground like a good gun dog. I, on the other hand, was affected by the turned-up field. Looking past the tilled ground, to the old dugouts, a feeling of emptiness and loss began to spread over me.
Back from the walk, I sat on my porch, watching my son Joey and his friends, Max and Finn, playing baseball in the grassy knoll in front of my house on Monroe Street.
It was becoming overcast, and the slow feeling of dread began to mount. I remembered how, before the high cotton was planted, we used to have the Cape Charles Little League and a ball field, but the Town got rid of it.
We had soccer goals: now gone.
Then the basketball court, part of the old Cape Charles High School: gone.
When I heard the pop of the strike as it hit Max’s catcher mitt, I was jarred again. Why had the majority of people in this town been deaf to the plight of the kids of Cape Charles, and taken sides against them in favor of out-of-town developers? [Read more…]
SATURDAY 6/22: Rain Barrel Workshop at New Roots
Another opportunity to make a rain barrel is coming Saturday, June 22, at the New Roots Youth Garden from 9 to 12. [Read more…]
THURSDAY: Budget Public Hearing; Town Council Meets
Cape Charles Town Council will hold a Public Hearing on the proposed Town budget 6 p.m. Thursday, June 20, at St. Charles Parish Hall. Members of the public may speak for up to three minutes, or send a statement to be read by the clerk at the meeting.
Statements may be emailed to the Town Clerk at [email protected].
Budget details are contained in an earlier Wave story here.
The budget includes a plan to raise sewer rates by 72 percent. A Wave analysis of Town sewer rates may be read here.
The regular monthly Town Council meeting will follow the Public Hearing. The full Town information packet may be read here (part 1) and here (part 2).
