ANALYSIS: Town Borrowing Twice, Spending Once

By DORIE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave

December 16, 2013

Cape Charles Town Council has voted to borrow $1 million for “new” projects including sewer repairs, freshwater wells, and a multi-use trail. But a Wave analysis reveals that the Town had already obtained money for these same projects, either from borrowing or from budgeting with tax money.

At a December 3 work session, Town Council reviewed “Capital Projects Priorities” (click to read) for spending $1.1 million. The priorities are:

FIRST PRIORITY: Repair 100 manholes to reduce rainwater inflow and infiltration: $100,000

An August 14, 2008, staff memo by Bob Panek (click to read) states: “The Town is correcting many problems associated with fresh water inflow and infiltration (I&I) into the wastewater system . . . So far, we have . . . fixed broken cleanout caps and installed nylon manhole inserts. Additionally, a contract has been awarded for raising the manhole covers.”

SECOND PRIORITY: Install a comminutor (grinder) for rags and other sewer debris: $50,000

THIRD PRIORITY: Upgrade sewer pump stations at Plum and Pine streets: $350,000

The 2008 Panek memo states: “Repairs and upgrades to the Mason Avenue, Pine Street, Plum Street, and Washington Avenue pump stations:” $550,000.

Town Council approved a resolution the same day authorizing (then) Assistant Town Manager Heather Arcos to sign documents for an EPA grant for “55% of project costs.” According to the resolution (click to read), “the Town has budgeted for the required 45% match.” A Project Narrative dated August 2008 states: “The proposed project will complete our efforts to eliminate the potential for wastewater overflows.”

The total projected cost of the projects was $1.2 million, with 55% funded by the EPA grant. In 2010 the Town borrowed the remaining $540,000 as part of a $2.6 million Recovery Zone Economic Development Bond. The bond application (click to read) states the following Town projects to be financed by the Town: [Read more…]

1 Comment

LLOYD KELLAM PT 4:
Hambone, ‘Jersey,’ Casinos, Rationing, School Fights,
and What Made Cape Charles Different

(EDITOR’S NOTE: The Cape Charles Historical Society has for more than a decade been recording oral histories of the area’s earlier days. In 2002, as one in a series of lectures sponsored by the Cape Charles Library entitled “The Way We Were,” Cape Charles native Lloyd Kellam shared the following account. In 2012, funded by a grant by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, the recording, along with 14 others, was transcribed. The Historical Society has now made it available for readers of the Wave. All the transcriptions are also available for reading at the Museum.

This is Part 4 of Mr. Kellam’s reminiscences. Click for Part 1, click for Part 2, click for Part 3.)

There’s so many things. I can remember one time they had a little Austin automobile and a bunch of high school boys picked it up and put it in the bank window. Do you remember that? You go by sometime and look at those windows on the bank. And it was not on the side street, it was on the front. Right up next to Daddy’s store. They packed that thing in there and there was about an inch on each side.

But we had some characters in town and these are characters! One of my favorite characters was a guy named Pat Richardson. Pat hung around a lot. One of the reasons he was such a character was he was supposed to have, and I think it’s true, he was supposed to have been wealthy at one time or had a lot of land, left home and sold it. But he was a real true sport in his day in that, this money burnt a hole in his pocket, he rented two train cars and took his friends to Philadelphia, put them up in hotels and carried them out to ball games and wined and dined them and brought them back home. That was the way he went through his money until it was gone. And I remember Daddy giving him coffee often. Cape Charles has had some characters.

[Audience member mentions learning the hambone.]

Yeah, a black man named Slim. Does everybody know what the hambone is? I was a schoolboy and I would hambone on everything. Slim used to charge us 25 cents to show us how to do it. Amos could hambone.

[Audience laughs at the sound of hands slapping knees and chest.]

I taught my boy how to hambone. There’s one more boy in here who can hambone. The Cape Charles boys could do it, but they couldn’t do it quite as good as Amos and Lloyd. In fact, at the high school annual, in my senior year, you know how you pass on something to somebody else, it said, “I passed on to Amos my ability to hambone in order to fascinate girls from other schools.” It did work! [Read more…]

1 Comment

WEEKEND: Go Fish

fish920

GO FISH — John Miller, Victor Abrahamian, and David Price try their luck on a flooded Monroe Avenue. (Published December 14-15, 2013)

WEDNESDAY 12/18: Wetlands Board Public Hearing on Marina Village Breakwater

The Cape Charles Wetlands Board will hold a public hearing 4 p.m. Wednesday, December 18, in the Town Hall to receive comment on Joint Permit Application #13-1723 for the installation of a back bay breakwater and beach nourishment directly behind 157 Sunset Blvd. (Bay Creek Marina Village). [Read more…]

THURSDAY 12/19: Public Hearing on Easement for Watermen’s Memorial

Cape Charles Town Council will hold a public hearing 6 p.m. Thursday, December 19, at St. Charles Parish Hall, 550 Tazewell Avenue, to hear public comments on a proposed ordinance granting an easement on a portion of tax parcel 83A3-10 as described below in connection with the erection of a Virginia Watermen’s Memorial. [Read more…]

FRIDAY 12/20: Seminar on ‘The War, the Shore, and Christmas 1863′

Science and Philosophy Seminar of the Eastern Shore of Virginia will hold a seminar entitled “Unlikely Gifts: The War, the Shore, and Christmas 1863” 12:30 p.m. Friday, December 20, in the Lecture Hall of Eastern Shore Community College, 29300 Lankford Hwy, Melfa. [Read more…]

Buy Raffle Tickets for Blue Heron Sculpture at Stage Door Gallery

Last chance to purchase raffle tickets for the beautiful Blue Heron Turner Sculpture valued at over $7,000. The bronze sculpture may be viewed at Stage Door Gallery on Mason Avenue. [Read more…]

1 Comment