LINDEMAN: Like a Good Neighbor, Cape Charles Is There
Fred’s grandfather?
By BRUCE LINDEMAN
Cape Charles Wave
January 30, 2013
By now most of you who have read my past columns know that I tend to write about what I perceive to be what’s good in this town of ours.
2012 was a year of controversy and angst for many, and I simply don’t want us to lose sight of all the good things that happen throughout the course of the year and the people behind those things.
The old “forest for the trees” adage is alive and well here: we have to consider the whole if we’re going to pick the nit.
Case in point:
I have an old truck. It’s not a beauty nor is it anywhere near new. Fred is a 23-year old Ford F-150 pickup.
I’ve owned Fred for seven or eight years now, I suppose. I don’t measure my time with Fred in terms of years or miles, but in the quality it adds to our lives.
Why the name Fred? Before I bought it, I borrowed a friend’s F-150 to help move some furniture. That truck was affectionately named Lamont by my friend. It was the same vintage as Fred.
If you remember the TV show Sanford and Son, you’ll get Lamont and Fred.
My son was maybe four at the time, and I plopped him in the seat next to me figuring he’d get a kick out of riding high in a truck. Little did I know how much so.
Jack rode back and forth with me over the course of two days as we moved loads of furniture to our new house. The evening I brought Lamont back to my friend, we put the kids to bed and I made a final trip back to my friends’ to retrieve my car.
The next morning, Jack looked outside in the driveway and asked, “Where’s Lamont, Daddy?” I told him we had only borrowed it and that it wasn’t ours to keep. His little eyes began to tear up. He clearly didn’t understand. My heart broke for him. So I vowed that I’d find a truck just like Lamont for us to tool around in. [Read more…]
SHORE THING: Gossip Gets a Bad Rap
Ewell’s is no more — long live Vance’s! (Wave photo)
By GEORGE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave
January 28, 2013
It could be argued that Cape Charles doesn’t need a newspaper, because one stroll through town is usually enough to learn about everything that’s going on.
Maybe so, but if you drive instead of walk, or live out of town, you’re going to miss out on some of the news.
And with the weather as it’s been for the last two weeks — first rain, then snow, and for the moment still freezing cold — you don’t see many walkers, and you don’t hear as much news.
So there is some justification for a newspaper, and even for a “gossip column.”
The word “gossip” gets a bad rap. The archaic meaning of a “gossip” was a friend — somebody who knew you well enough to pass on the good stuff — meaning the REAL news.
So, friends, let me tell you about my walk through town the day before it started raining, which was two Mondays ago. If you live in town maybe you already know this, but half our readers are out-of-towners.
My first stop was at Sullivan’s, which of course is the number-one spot where news not only is heard but also made. I asked Mike if he had a scanner power supply I needed. He didn’t, but that brought me into contact with Jay’s barber shop across the hall.
Jay asked me if I had any good news (he meant JUICY news), and I asked him the same thing. If your barber doesn’t know, nobody knows.
I say barber, because I go to get my hair “cut.” Women go to get their hair “done,” but it’s all the same — whoever works on your hair knows the news.
Vance Lewis popped in, and I took the opportunity to chide him for pulling down the Ewell’s Furniture sign, leaving a blank frame. WRONG, Vance said — he had just put up his own sign, which you’ve already seen unless you don’t live here, in which case just look at the photo above.
As everybody knows, Vance’s father Frank, our former mayor (who just celebrated a birthday), has retired and sold Ewell’s Furniture to his son. Frank used to work six days a week at the store, but now that he’s retired he’s cut back to five.
That’s pretty big news for Cape Charles: Ewell’s Furniture, which had that name even before Frank bought it however many decades ago, is now Vance’s Furniture.
But there’s more, courtesy of Watson’s Hardware, which may not make as much news as Sullivan’s but does an even better job of spreading it. [Read more…]
LETTER: Town Courts Should Have Multiple Uses
January 14, 2013
DEAR EDITOR,
QUESTION: How many young people use the tennis courts?
ANSWER: Almost none.
QUESTION: How many young people used the basketball court?
ANSWER: About 15 each day, including Cape Charles Christian School students.
QUESTION: How often are the tennis courts used?
ANSWER: Less than once a week.
QUESTION: How often was the basketball court used?
ANSWER: Every day.
QUESTION: What was the cost of the two lighted tennis courts?
ANSWER: Over $90,000.
QUESTION: What was the cost of the one unlighted basketball court?
ANSWER: Under $5,000.
In many municipalities, recreational facilities are designed for multiple uses to save money. This is done through proper allocation of space and time based on demand and equality.
It is tremendously selfish to think that it is a big burden on one or two tennis players to wait an hours for a court, while 10-15 young people who have no place to play basketball have to wait months for the possibility of a court being built. [Read more…]
LETTER: Convert One Tennis Court to a Basketball Court
Former basketball court sits unused. Town has granted developer Echelon Resources an extension until May 1 to begin work.
January 11, 2013
DEAR EDITOR,
Was it necessary for the town to remove the basketball hoops at this time?
The developer of the old school, Echelon Resources, has requested more time before beginning construction, due to the court hearing in late January.
Couldn’t the town have waited to see the outcome, or at least discussed the matter with residents to come up with an alternative solution?
The basketball court was the center of physical activity for children and young men and women of all colors, and it was the only exercise facility available to students at Cape Charles Christian School.
One basketball court was enough to entertain and provide exercise for 10 or more youths at the same time.
No one complained about the rusted hoops, broken chains, uneven court, or lack of safety measures to protect the children from running to the middle of the Madison Street to retrieve the basketball.
The basketball court was the ONLY place where children and young people got away from TV, cell phones, text messaging, and computer games.
It was a place where young people could learn to work in a group and cooperate with each other.
There is a solution to our loss of a basketball court: Convert the two tennis courts to one tennis court and one basketball court. [Read more…]
SHORE THING: Town Tries New Angle in Park Toilet Appeal
Tops of wooden stakes indicate bathroom floor level required to avoid flooding. (Wave photo)
By GEORGE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave
January 10, 2013
Act 3 of the little morality play taking place in the historic district will be performed this evening (Thursday) during the Town Council meeting.
The scene for Act 1 was the Hotel Cape Charles, where the Historic District Review Board correctly noticed that the hotel renovations don’t look like the plans the Board had approved.
Owner David Gammino ‘fessed up that after submitting the original plans he got a new, better idea, which would look so much finer than much of the surrounding architecture on Mason Avenue that he didn’t ever imagine anyone would complain.
But as regular readers of the Wave know, Hotel Cape Charles was denied a permanent occupancy certificate, and remains in limbo.
But wait: didn’t anyone read the fine print? That would be Section 8.31 of the Town’s zoning ordinance:
Inspection by Administrator After Approval: When a Certificate of Appropriateness has been issued, the Administrator or Town Building Official shall from time to time inspect the alteration or construction approved by such certificate and shall give prompt notice to the applicant of any work not in accordance with such certificate or violating any ordinance of the Town. The Administrator or Town Building Official may revoke the certificate or the building permit if violations are not corrected by the applicant in a timely manner.
The “certificate of appropriateness” is what the Historic District Review Board issued based on the original drawings for the hotel.
According to the zoning ordinance, it is the responsibility of the Administrator to inspect construction “from time to time” and to give “prompt notice” of work not in accordance with the certificate of appropriateness.
And so the curtain fell on Act 1.
In Act 2 (a humorous diversion) the scene shifted to Central Park. [Read more…]
LINDEMAN: Give Leaders Credit for Getting Involved
By BRUCE LINDEMAN
Cape Charles Wave
January 7, 2013
Be the change you want to see in the world.
We’ve all heard it. Sounds cliché-ish, but there is no truer a sentiment in this day and time.
In 1910, Theodore Roosevelt spoke about “the man in the arena”:
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
That speech is of a past time yet also of this time.
We residents of Cape Charles continually face an uphill battle trying to preserve, yet grow. We want to sustain our rural Shore lifestyle, but in a progressive way that is sensitive not only to our amazing historical architecture, but to our family and independent, hard-working values that we so cherish on the Shore.
We welcome new home ownership and tourism, but we do so carefully and by casting a cautious eye. We’ll gladly welcome a new mom-and-pop business, but shun the big-box guys that rely on scale to eek out their profits.
It is a constant struggle.
When Bay Creek came to town, that struggle came to the forefront. Cape Charles saw the opportunity but also recognized that the impending change had to be planned and monitored closely lest we became another Nags Head or Hilton Head. [Read more…]
LETTER: Who Stole My Nuts? Help Crack the Case
Photo re-enactment of crime scene
January 5, 2013
DEAR EDITOR:
Who stole my nuts?
There were two new blue 5-gallon buckets full of pecans in our carport.
This dastardly deed occurred sometime during the holidays. My wife and I had spent hours over the past few months gathering all those nuts to make holiday gifts of pecan pies for friends and neighbors.
Who or what would be so evil to abscond with my nuts?
Could it be we were visited by giant squirrels who could carry away buckets full of nuts? Not likely. I have yet to see any “super squirrels” in my neighborhood, or even in the town of Cape Charles.
Could it have been one of the errant deer sighted occasionally wandering in town? I don’t think they would know how to pick up two buckets with their antlers, so scratch the deer.
My next thought of a culprit was jolly old St. Nick, since he was in the neighborhood, but everybody knows Santa only eats cookies and milk on his night of travels.
Do reindeer eat pecans (in the shell)? Not that I know of. [Read more…]
LETTER: Why Was Gazette Mum about Closing the Basketball Court?
January 2, 2013
DEAR EDITOR:
The Gazette is the official Town newsletter. My question is, who is responsible for the Gazette, and who approves it?
Last Friday after discovering from local kids that our basketball backboards had been removed, I went to Mayor Dora Sullivan to report this. Her response was: “We don’t own them anymore.”
My reaction was — what? Why would the Town remove the backboards during the Christmas-New Year’s break?
She had no answer.
I asked the mayor if the closing of the basketball court had been posted on the Town website and Gazette. She said no, but that the Cape Charles Wave interviewed [Assistant Town Manager] Bob Panek about the backboards’ removal.
I am frustrated by the lack of knowledge available on the day-to-day business of Cape Charles. The Town felt it was important to post changes to the garbage pickup holiday schedule, but said nothing about removing the basketball goals.
What’s next? Pay raises for a job well done on giving away the school, basketball court, and playground parking lot for $10? [Read more…]
