WEEKEND 8/9-11: Chesapeake Bay Buy Boats at Harbor
Come on out and watch these beauties cruise into Cape Charles Town Harbor between 2 and 3 p.m. Friday, August 9. [Read more…]
REPORT: Why Water Bills Just Went Up Again
Letter from Town Manager to Bay Creek set a June 30, 2008, deadline to make a substantial financial contribution toward the Town’s proposed new sewer plant. Bay Creek refused to pay, but the Town built the plant anyway.
By DORIE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave
August 8, 2013
Yesterday Cape Charles residents received their first water bill with the huge new sewer increase – formerly $35.45, now $60.85. The rate hike is to pay debt service on the Town’s new sewer plant.
This is not the first double-digit rate increase caused by the new plant: In March 2009 Town Council hiked the $25 minimum sewer charge to $34.
The minimum sewer charge might not be the highest in the state, but other high-rate localities are “more affluent than Cape Charles,” according to USDA Rural Development official Kent Ware. The Town’s new $108 minimum monthly combined water bill is a burden on low-income and fixed-income residents, and appears likely to continue to drive them out of town.
How did the Town come to charge such a high rate? The answer is that plans for a new sewer plant were based on the assumption that the developers of Bay Creek would contribute significantly to the cost. When that didn’t happen, the Town went ahead and built the plant anyway, leaving ratepayers to shoulder the cost.
Town Council also raised, but then lowered, water and sewer connection fees for new service that are intended to pay capital costs of new water and sewer infrastructure.
How did it all happen? The Wave has unearthed some pieces of the puzzle. It begins 25 years ago with the mega-construction company Brown & Root, who decided to develop a large tract of land to be called Accawmacke Plantation and incorporate it into the Town of Cape Charles. [Read more…]
Michael Lucier, 68, ‘Lived the Dream’
August 8, 2013
Cape Charles resident Michael F. Lucier, 68, died July 30 at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC. He passed away peacefully, surrounded by his family after courageously fighting a short, aggressive battle with cancer.
A Celebration of Life service will be held 11 a.m. Saturday, August 17, at St. Charles Catholic Church. A reception will follow.
Mr. Lucier was born in Milford, MA, the son of the late Edward J. and Helen G. (Kerns) Lucier. He attended the former St. Mary’s Grammar School and graduated from the former St. Mary’s High School in 1962. He received a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering from Virginia Tech in 1966 and was a resident of Virginia for the past 45 years. [Read more…]
SHER: Art Through the Eyes of Those Who Love It
Marty Burgess gears up for Sunday’s Cape Charles Quick Draw. (Photos by Sher Horosko)
By SHER HOROSKO
Cape Charles Wave
August 7, 2013
I came up in a world where everyone wanted to be like everyone else, which is to say, just the same.
It was a universe of perfect patterns: Carnation Instant Breakfast (always chocolate) for breakfast, Raymond and Glen throwing apples at me on my way home from school, a potato, some meat, and a vegetable at 5 p.m., a father who ate too fast and a mother who told him so every night without exception, religious school on Saturdays, church on Sundays, and best of all, hot rye bread from the Jewish bakery I devoured in the back seat of our white Galaxy.
It was an excruciatingly bland world for a little firecracker girl. I suffered it daily, and vowed to never acquiesce. For those who may be interested as to whether I succeeded at whistling my own sweet song: I did. And yes, I paid for it.
When I was growing up, art was something you hung from a six-penny nail tapped into a long tan wall. Art was a wall covering, really, that acted pretty much the same as a windbreaker on a Kansas prairie. It broke the wind and it broke the tan. It filled an empty space on a tan runway that stretched farther than my little eyes could see. That was art.
Last Saturday night I went to the IVir Danza performance at the Palace Theatre. There may have been 40 or 50 of us in that impossibly intimate jewel on Mason Avenue. Four men and four women from Italy danced on a stage in your yard. They moved like cougars and gazelles; their muscles pulsated with the blood thirst of the Kalahari. They went quiet, and turned into each other, like coils of smoke or butterflies finding each other through scent alone.
It is not often I wish I were young enough to start on a new course. I felt that on Saturday. And you will feel it too if you catch their last dance on August 16 at the Palace. [Read more…]
Wednesday Graveside Service for ‘Lyn’ Drummond, 40
August 5, 2013
Lynwood (Lyn) LeCato Drummond, III, 40, husband of Sarah E. Drummond, passed away Monday, August 5, at his residence in Cape Charles.
A graveside service will be 2 p.m. Wednesday, August 7, at Cape Charles Cemetery with Mr. Barry Downing officiating.
A native of Cheriton, Mr. Drummond was the son of the late Lynwood L. Drummond, Jr., and the late Katie Parks Drummond. He was self-employed as a house painter and tattoo artist and was baptized at Cheriton Baptist Church.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by a daughter, Kailynn Elizabeth Drummond of Cape Charles; two sisters, Vicki Wise and her husband, Pat, of Eastville, Bonnie Lynn Marshall and her husband, Raymond, of Cheriton; two brothers-in-law, Dan Brown and his wife, Lauren, Garry Brown; one sister-in-law, Laurie Klingel and her husband, Jeff; one uncle, George Drummond and his companion, Betty Badger, of Machipongo; mother-in-law and father-in-law, Betty and Garry Brown of Eastville; nieces and nephews, Courtney Wise, Sam Marshall, Zach Marshall, Barbara Marshall, Bonnie Marshall, Jason Marshall, Forrest Marshall, Alex Brown, Molly Brown, Katie Brown, Halsey Klingel, and great-niece, Madison Wagner. [Read more…]
SHORT REVIEW: Why Dance Matters
IVIR Dance Company brought Spoleto-like performance to Cape Charles August 3.
CAPE CHARLES WAVE
August 5, 2013
Dance transcends language barriers. Last Saturday, eight Italian dancers from the IVIR Danza company kicked off the Harbor for the Arts 2013 in a sparsely attended world class performance at the Palace Theatre in Cape Charles.
The superb piece “Today is Already Tomorrow” was choreographed by Irma Cardano, accompanied by a mixture of classical, techno, and popular music. The elegant, energetic and lyrical movements by the young dancers managed to convey their interpretations of that existential question “What is the meaning of life?”.
Kudos to Clelia Sheppard for spearheading the Harbor for the Arts. In Europe, these types of summer art festivals are very popular and underwritten by both the government and commercial sponsors. Attending the Arts festival in Avignon, France, or Impulstanz in Vienna, Austria, are worthwhile endeavors, but let us not forget we can also enjoy the arts in our own backyard. [Read more…]
MONDAY 8/5: Harbor for the Arts Festival Continues with ‘I Played the Palace’
Monday, August 5, at 8 p.m.: “I Played the Palace” in the Historic Palace Theatre (Free). Cash bar and hot paninis. A non-competitive evening where the diverse talents of Eastern Shore neighbors will be highlighted. Thespians, comedians, musicians, dancers are invited to register — call 757-331-2787.
Veterans from Two Eras Find Brotherhood in Shared Service
Veterans Bill Burton and Jack Woolley at the July 4th parade in Cape Charles.
By JOE VACCARO
American Legion Post 56
August 5, 2013
As the years pass, memories fade for most people — and for some who have served their nation during wartime it’s considered a blessing. One of the misnomers of armed conflict is that the people serving in the military welcome the fight and glory. But the fact is that the men and women serving in the military simply view it as a duty or obligation. They don’t place themselves in harm’s way for money or glory, but for each other.
The bonds of having served in battle or in a battle zone surpass any human emotion that can be explained in a few paragraphs. It becomes a brotherhood of emotion that at times surpasses the emotions for one’s own family. It’s that unexplainable sense of camaraderie that one feels in the presence of another who experienced the exhilaration of life and the horrors of death.
Although World War II ended some 68 years ago and Viet Nam ended 38 years ago, those 30 years of difference brought together two very different men and resulted in a lifetime friendship. Jack Woolley met Bill Burton 15 years ago, and the common denominator that brought them together was a woodcarving show at the Cape Charles Fire House. But what made them brothers were their war experiences. [Read more…]
