EDITORIAL: Laws Meant to Be Broken
HOW THE WAVE SEES IT
November 13, 2012
There are laws meant to be obeyed, and there are laws meant to be broken.
A wise town authority knows when to bear down, and when to look the other way. But a foolish authority ends up looking, well — foolish.
The Cape Charles Wave takes more than simple pleasure in pointing out official foolishness — we see it as our civic duty. Question authority!
So, for example, we pointed out the, yes, stupidity of trying to enforce a ban on political yard signs until just 45 days before a Presidential election. We noted that the U.S. Supreme Court long ago struck down any such ban. And we cheered on our own vice mayor for ignoring the town ban by prominently displaying political advertising in his yard before the permitted date.
Just yesterday we drew attention to more foolishness, as our Town Council members put their heads together this Thursday to discuss enacting rules to constrain behavior at public meetings. Town staff recommends that we, the residents, be prohibited from handing out or receiving flyers within 50 feet of the door of the meeting hall.
What are they afraid of?
There’s also a suggestion to prohibit speakers from personally criticizing elected Town officials or Town staff. To do so would be an “attack” on their person.
Virginia Beach banned “personal attacks” during the public comment of school board meetings, and the courts ruled the ban unconstitutional.
We’re not suggesting that “anything goes.” The presiding town official has the right to require a certain decorum, but a wise official will differentiate between scathing criticism (allowed) and speech that violates the “habits and manners of civility” (not allowed).
And now we’ve learned of even more foolishness by a town staff that seems to have too much time on its hands. As shown above, the Town has issued an official warning to Old School Cape Charles for advertising its Oyster Roast on telephone poles. Each sign is cause for a $100 fine. [Read more…]
LINDEMAN:
Picking up Pecans, Selling Them to Watson’s
By BRUCE LINDEMAN
Cape Charles Wave
November 8, 2012
It was brisk Sunday morning as we walked over to the next block to pick some of the giant pine cones from the ground that fall this time of year. They will be useful for dressing the Christmas table with fresh greens such as magnolia, holly, and such and to give away for others’ holiday decorating.
The bag, now full, was big and clumsy so we left it on the front porch before heading out in search of our prime mission: picking pecans.
If you’re a Cape Charles resident, I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know. However, what’s intriguing is that so many residents don’t seem to care about the pecans — or so it seems from the sheer amount of them we found still on the ground this year.
Cape Charles is known for its beautiful crepe myrtles and, more recently, its abundance of rosemary which seems to grow so well in our rich Eastern Shore soil. I could go on about rosemary, but we’re talking pecans here.
Our first visit to town was at the end of winter, oddly. While most people’s first visit is during summer — a time of blooming perennials, parades, harbor parties, and the like — we came when there were no leaves on the trees, under overcast skies. Yet we still fell in love with the place. And we hadn’t even seen the crepe myrtles in bloom yet!
Like most visitors, one of the places I had to go first was Watson’s Hardware. Ever since we were kids helping my dad restore a 1920s bungalow on the south shore of Long Island, I’ve had this thing for old hardware stores. [Read more…]
LETTER: Appointed School Board NOT Better Than Elected
DEAR EDITOR:
Arguments have been presented as to the reasons why an appointed school board is superior to an elected one. We wish to rebut those arguments and to ask the voters to consider these facts:
Over 250 years ago the king of England and his advisers determined that they could better “vet” and determine which candidates would best govern the colonies in America. That process worked about as well then as the present system works today in Northampton County.
The argument is made that the same politicians who are responsible for the $38 million county debt for new courthouses, offices for the bureaucrats, and everything else as well the closing of our middle school are better able to “vet” and choose the most “qualified” candidates.
To advocate the selection of the school board by five members of our community as opposed to an open election decided by 1,700 voters demonstrates the same arrogance shown by the king of England.
If that logic is applied to the Board of Supervisors, then perhaps the “most qualified candidates” should be vetted by the General Assembly and the Supervisors should also be appointed. [Read more…]
EDITORIAL: Town Staff Should Not Manipulate Elections
HOW THE WAVE SEES IT
November 1, 2012
The flier on the right was produced by Town of Cape Charles staff and distributed through the official Town Gazette.
It advertises last week’s Candidates Forum, sponsored, so it claims, by Arts Enter.
The flier is a falsehood. Arts Enter did not sponsor the forum — town staff, in their official capacity, did.
This should be of deep concern to every resident of Cape Charles, regardless of political viewpoint.
Town staff apparently realized the impropriety of conducting a political event, and so claimed that an independent organization, Arts Enter, was in charge.
But Arts Enter’s sole involvement was to allow the Palace Theatre to be the venue.
If our town staff were federal employees, under the Hatch Act they would be liable for prosecution for engaging in political activities while on duty.
The Hatch Act also extends to municipal employees who have oversight of federal grant funds.
The fact that both candidates participated in the town-sponsored forum does not lessen the seriousness of the impropriety. Town staff had the opportunity to manipulate the event however they felt might benefit their favored candidate.
Town staff required questions from the audience to be in written form, including the name and address of the questioner.
The assistant town manager then “screened the questions for appropriateness.”
This same “screener” displays in his yard a sign for candidate Steve Bennett. It was clear to a number of observers by the way he shuffled through the cards that he was not submitting questions at random.
Town staff determined that Steve Bennett would have the first opening statement and the last closing statement.
This is not the first time that town staff have attempted to manipulate an election. Our town manager and assistant town manager actively schemed to influence the previous Town Council election in May — when Steve Bennett was also a candidate. [Read more…]
SHORE THING: Where’s Cape Charles’ Nude Beach?
Reserved parking sticker on vehicle parked in downtown Cape Charles. (Wave photo)
By GEORGE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave
October 24, 2012
Yesterday was the reason I moved to Cape Charles.
Walking out on the fishing pier, feeling the not-too-hot sun and the not-too-strong breeze on my face, gazing at the beach at low tide, smelling the sea air, hearing the gentle ripples of the waves — it was just perfect.
And almost no one was around. But rather than luxuriate in the solitude, I felt a sudden sadness that more people were not out at the beach to appreciate the perfect day.
Perhaps it was the decades of office confinement tugging at my conscience — I wanted to share the ecstasy of freedom to enjoy nature.
Actually, I was not alone. As I had walked up the boardwalk toward the pier I had noticed a car with Pennsylvania plates slowing down to parallel park.
And as I walked out on the pier I passed two elderly women. The older woman looked vaguely familiar. Perhaps I had met her before. I couldn’t remember. With a sudden pang I realized that very old women often look very much alike.
I leaned over the railing, gazing at the sand flats at low tide. From a distance, walking in the shallows, came two spectacular specimens of youthful beauty.
There I stood, leaning over the railing. I was invisible to the blonde Venuses below me, which I have become used to. Age is often invisible to youth. But I also seemed to be invisible to the old women on the pier, whose conversation was loud enough to overhear but spoken as if I was not there.
Youth and Age — and I stood between the two. The girls approaching me might be nearly 40 years’ my junior, while one of the women on the pier, I soon learned, was nearly 40 years’ my senior. [Read more…]
COMMENTARY: Expert Warns Eastern Shore –
Special Trade Status Slipping Away
Foreign Trade Zone status is crucial to attracting wind energy development. Cape Charles — and the entire Eastern Shore — is in danger of losing FTZ status.
By MICHAEL W. O’BEIRNE
October 23, 2012
Earlier this month I attended the American Wind Energy Association Offshore Windpower conference in Virginia Beach. Coastal Virginia wind-related project sites are in various stages of development. Investors have amassed, and logistics are being refined in hopes that offshore leases will head towards steel in the water.
Yet, as corporate forces are gearing up, the Virginia Port Authority is changing the Eastern Shore’s most vital investment and trade incentive — how they allocate Foreign Trade Zone designations and to whom.
Politics and competing economic interests from Hampton Roads may leave the Eastern Shore high, dry, and out of the game.
A little background: In July 2009 I toured sites along the Delmarva coast in a project development visit for wind energy companies and manufacturers.
Since then, several domestic and foreign interests have proposed, built, and still have site agreements for future wind developments — both onshore and offshore on the Eastern Shore and in the Atlantic Ocean.
But much more work needs to be done.
My business centers on U.S. incentives to attract foreign investment. That’s why I came to Northampton and Accomack counties — to see U.S. Foreign Trade Zone sites firsthand at Wallops Island, Accomack Airport Industrial Park, and the Cape Charles Sustainable Technologies Industrial Park (part of the Southport development).
There is also a tiny sliver of land in Cape Charles used to dump dredged materials designated as a Foreign Trade Zone.
Cape Charles Mayor Dora Sullivan raised FTZs in a 2011 letter to Governor McDonnell urging focus upon her town in the offshore wind energy game. [Read more…]
LETTER: Let Voters Choose Northampton School Board
October 18, 2012
DEAR EDITOR,
Many years ago our founding fathers were faced with the choice of acceding to the demands of those persons who insisted that they knew better who should govern them and therefore be appointed to positions of power as opposed to making those decisions themselves through elections.
I’m certain they were somewhat fearful themselves of their decision to make a revolution against those powers and create the first nation on Earth in which the people would be given the opportunity to choose for themselves their representatives.
This year the people of Northampton County will be faced with a similar decision as to whether we will have some control of those persons who will represent us, the citizens, as well as our children on the Northampton County School Board.
Will we leave the appointment of those persons to our Board of Supervisors or will we decide for ourselves through elections, who will represent us?
People have asked why this change should be made, which is indeed a legitimate question. For a myriad of reasons I believe this change will create a better situation for our county, but two in particular stand out.
First — although mistakes by voters can indeed elect someone to the school board who simply should not be entrusted to this important position, there is a remedy: Four years later, that person can be defeated in the next election.
In other words, unlike the present situation, a bad choice can be removed through the election of a better candidate.
In today’s world, members of the school board have little reason or inclination to maintain a close connection to the people, as they simply are not our representatives, but rather the representatives of those people who appointed them.
Second — people who are appointed in today’s world may or may not have an agenda in which the children are their primary concern and focus as opposed to the desires of those to whom they owe the debt of their appointment.
Does anyone truly believe that today’s members will push a policy which is better for our children and community but is not in line with the desires of the members of the Board of Supervisors? [Read more…]
LINDEMAN
Building Community One Conversation at a Time
“We’ve got to get back to the garden.”
By BRUCE LINDEMAN
October 5, 2012
I often wonder why I like to dig in the dirt. Most of my friends my age don’t enjoy gardening, or at least don’t want to admit it.
It’s not like I even consider myself a “gardener.” I couldn’t tell you the names of many of the plants in our garden, which my wife and I recently inherited with the purchase of our Tazewell Avenue home.
What I do know is that I enjoy it.
For some, however, gardening is a solitary affair: a chance to be alone with one’s thoughts. To escape the other, more mundane chores that await them back inside, to even get a little bit of exercise or to feel the warmth of the sun against their face. The reasons why people garden are about as varied as the shells you might find walking the shoreline of Smith Island.
For me, working in the yard has always been a chance to do all of the above – and to be social. Gardening is not usually a social activity, such as playing golf, or attending a dinner party. It’s usually different with me.
At some point during my yard work, a conversation with someone typically ensues. Oftentimes, a neighbor strolling down the street might toss out a “lookin’ good!” or even a “love what you’ve done with the place” and keep walking. Sometimes, such comments lead to a return of “thanks” and other times, it begins a 20-minute conversation about any variety of topics.
Often, I simply need a break from the work and find an unsuspecting neighbor to walk over to and chat. Such was the case last weekend.
My wife and I live in a wonderfully friendly block of Tazewell and striking up a conversation is never a challenge. But I realized this weekend when our conversation with our neighbors had ended and we went back to working in our respective yards, that there is such a more visceral need for such conversations than we might realize. As much as we may like gardening and the results it yields, we also like to commune. Commune, of course, is the root of the word, community. [Read more…]
