In the above letter, Mr. Lewis wrote: “When your corporate town residents include a Fortune 500 company (Bayshore Concrete is owned by Skanska) . . . you provide them with modern, efficient water resources.” But in fact Bayshore Skanska does not hook up to Cape Charles “water resources” — either water or sewer. They never have and never will. So if you are searching for exaggeration and untruths, how could you possibly miss that?

And this: “If it was such a priority, the lifeguards, signs, and safety measures would have been in place — it’s that simple. At the end of the day, the things we all deem important are accomplished.” A young child has drowned on our beach, so what exactly are the priorities we deem important? The priorities we all deem important are studying urban chickens and new signs warning people to keep golf carts off the grass. Not a peep about protecting children at the beach.

I understand that people such as the above commenters want to just brush this under the rug and pretend it never happened. But I’ve been raging against this kind of machine for too long to stop now. I’ve barely gotten my stride on the illegal, fraudulent Old School sale, and I’m just getting warmed up on this one.

(Wayne Creed was a candidate for mayor of Cape Charles in 2010. –EDITOR)

The drowning of little Ace has really driven the ball over the fence. This is NOT the first drowning at the Cape Charles beach and it won’t be the last if things don’t CHANGE.

Mayor Proto needs to quit worrying about dogs on the beach and start worrying about DROWNINGS.

I was taking a truck load of beans to Associated Farms in Melfa waiting for the light to change at Airport Road and Route 13 when a semi headed south on 13 was attempting a right turn and needed more room than the intersection affords. I saw a car passing on his right run into the trailer as he made the turn. I drew a sketch of how to make the turn safer and took it to the resident engineer. VDOT may have already had my plan on the drawing board, but at any rate there is now a much safer lane for right turns. I also saw cars skidding through the stop sign at Airport Road across Savageville Road which is pretty heavily traveled, going through the ditch and onto a farm field. There was at least one crash of two vehicles. I recomended a sign saying “Stop Ahead,” which was done, and I believe it is now much safer.

For many years I heated with wood and felled trees and you need to be aware of the danger. Some branches are the size of a tree and there’s always a chance one will be rotten and fall. We had a beautiful large maple by our house and what a delight to sit under it on a hot summer day but sadly it had to be removed. If it would have fallen it would have taken out the house. You also need to be aware of lightning and avoid trees.

Some things you can avoid — others just happen.

Mr. Lewis seems fond of Cape Charles history, yet he erroneously mentions that beach safety should have been discussed long ago. Well, it has been (many times, by many people). The last time a child died at Cape Charles beach, news teams from across the bay set up on Bay Avenue to cover the event for the entire Delmarva. Although it took some time after that, when Joe Vaccaro and Heather Arcos were a team at 2 Plum Street, they recognized the need and responsibility, and did indeed implement a beach safety plan. The Town purchased expensive ATVs so that the police could patrol the beach, and we had some teenagers that were employed to walk the waterfront. However, this only lasted for one summer, and tourists and visitors have been left to their own devices ever since. The abandonment of Mr. Vaccaro’s beach safety program (which had lots of potential), again speaks to and highlights the choices and priorities the Town has held over the last few years.

Yet, it doesn’t appear anything has changed. It has been months since that boy drowned, and still the Town has done nothing to address it. You would think that they would have begun that very day to make sure that no other child will die out there. Instead, last week, the Town Council and Planning Commission met and went well into the evening working on the Town’s chicken coop ordinance. Yes, chicken coops. The Town Planner has spent hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars scouring the United States, researching the urban chicken movement, and how it may be implemented in Cape Charles. I don’t mean to sound mocking or unpleasant, but maybe next, he could take 10 minutes and drive down to Kiptopeke beach, and review how they have put safety measures in place to protect their visitors from drowning.

Yes, Cape Charles has a big beach, and it might take a team, and some work to warn folks to beware of the channel, but it might, as Martha Stewart, says, be a good thing. If priorities are in order, it would seem we could use monies from Tall Ships and the Clam Slam towards maintaining a seasonal, highly trained beach safety staff. This also seems like it would be one of the most fruitful and enjoyable things the Town could possibly do.

If I sound angry, that’s because I am. How can you look at the picture of that boy and not feel so? Here’s a simple question: had that family gone to Kiptopeke instead of Cape Charles that day, would that boy still be alive?

Change.