#5 Story
Sad Story for Cape Charles Storybook Cottage

CAPE CHARLES WAVE

June 1, 2015

Storybook cottages became popular in the 1920s and were meant to evoke a “Hansel and Gretel” image — a gingerbread house good enough to eat. But the example on Stone Road has become a horror story, with passing years recording theft and deterioration. The former gas station has been for sale for years, but the owner reportedly has an exaggerated idea of the property’s worth. Last year someone stole the copper roof elements, and now the copper window is gone. The orange plastic screen and plywood door add little.

Gertraud Fendler created the idealized top image in 2008, available at Ellen Moore Gallery. The Wave’s bottom image is also available by special request (but not at the Gallery). Read more

#6 Story
Survey Finds Bridge-Tunnel Toll Highest in Nation

By GEORGE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave

March 3, 2014

“With tolls on the Golden Gate Bridge headed for as much as $8 by 2017, there’s plenty of grumbling and griping,” reports the San Francisco Chronicle in a survey of the cost of crossing each of the nation’s 150 toll bridges. The Chronicle found the cheapest toll to be $1 to cross to Avery Island, Louisiana (home of Tabasco Sauce). The most expensive toll was – you guessed it – the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel. Read more

#10 Story

GOODBYE WAVE, WAVE GOODBYE

CAPE CHARLES WAVE

June 29, 2015

In last Monday’s edition (which broke all readership records – over 7,000 page views in one day) the Wave had the sad task of leading the page with news of another drowning off Cape Charles Beach – a tragic death that competent town leadership could have avoided.

Anyone could have seen that drowning coming, and of course many did. The former “safe” beach has become a death trap now that newly pumped spoil has brought the beach close to the once-distant Cherrystone channel and its sudden drop-off and swift tidal currents.

Three months ago the Wave drew attention to the town’s failure to acknowledge the dangerous beach when we wrote: “A ‘special edition’ of the Cape Charles Gazette purports to tell everything you ever wanted to know about the harbor dredging/beach improvement. We learn what color the sand will turn, and whether it’s safe to walk on the beach. What isn’t mentioned is whether it’s safe to go in the water — specifically, are there dangerous drop-offs now that the beach extends so close to the channel? The town isn’t telling. (April 1, 2015)”

That same Gazette mentions that the town annually budgets $20,000 for beach sand replacement, but with the free spoil, that cost will now be saved. Yet last Saturday’s Eastern Shore News quotes town officials as saying that hiring lifeguards would be too expensive and too complicated. Read more

#13 Story
Reverse Angle Parking Off to Shaky Start

CAPE CHARLES WAVE

May 18, 2015

According to the diagram above, Cape Charles’s new “reverse angle parking” on Mason Avenue is supposed to be a three-step process: Signal, Stop, Reverse. But the white Audi station wagon above didn’t get that memo, and made a wide turn to pull in front-ways.

The bicycle with trailer next to the Audi did a better job, smartly facing outward. But since when are bicycles allowed to occupy a full parking space? Since reverse-angle parking came to town, apparently.

Next to the bike we see a golf cart, also properly positioned — although it looks to be crowding the white line. Golf carts rarely travel in reverse, so the driver probably lacked experience. Read more

#17 Story
Old School Developer Gets Another Lucky Break

By GEORGE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave

December 15, 2014

J. David McCormack of Petersburg, who is converting the old Cape Charles High School in Central Park into a 17-unit apartment building, has enjoyed one lucky break after another over the past four years.  Most recently, he saved as much as $200,000 in repairs to a crumbling back wall.

It was that same wall that town officials claimed made the old school impossibly expensive to repair for use as a community center. When Northampton County offered to chip in, then-Mayor Dora Sullivan turned the County Board of Supervisors down flat.

“The cost to provide a historic restoration is prohibitive at $2-4 million,” she wrote to then-Supervisor Willie Randall, noting that “one exterior wall collapsed as a result of the earthquake last year and the estimate to repair that wall alone was approximately $200,000.”

The actual estimate was $228,000 and came from FEMA, who was willing to pay to repair the earthquake damage so long as the town retained ownership of the building. FEMA refused, however, to compensate the town unless the money was used to repair the wall.

The FEMA report also contained the question, “Was this site previously damaged?” The answer given was “No.” But the damage had been documented years earlier in the 2006 Shriver Holland report: “The exterior wall along the west side of the east wing has pulled away from the floor framing. . . . Geotechnical investigation should be provided to determine cause of wall movement. Wall may need to be re-anchored and additional foundation support provided,” the report stated. Read more

#18 Story
EXTRA: Town Paying Dickie Foster’s Real Estate Tax

CAPE CHARLES WAVE

March 20, 2014

Lease documents supplied to the Wave show that since 2010 the Town of Cape Charles has paid all real estate taxes for seven commercial lots on Randolph Avenue owned by Bay Creek developer Richard “Dickie” Foster.

The annual Northampton County tax bill is $2,355 and the annual Cape Charles tax bill is $935, for a total of $3,290 paid by the town each year.

Under the lease agreement, the town also bears all expense for landscaping, cutting the grass, and “otherwise maintaining the property.”

The lease was signed in June 2010 by Foster and Town Manager Heather Arcos. By June of this year the town will have saved Foster over $13,000 in taxes and at least $17,000 lawn care, for a total of over $30,000. Read more

#19 Story
Aqua Restaurant Announces Reopening by Easter

CAPE CHARLES WAVE

January 12, 2013

The new owner of Bay Creek Marina Village, including Aqua Restaurant, the marina, and accompanying shops and villas, plans to reopen the restaurant in time for Easter weekend.

Bob Occhifinto, a New Jersey entrepreneur who bought the properties at a December 28 foreclosure auction at the County Courthouse, hinted in a press release that his new venture will cooperate closely with the original Bay Creek developer.

“We are excited to become a part of the Bay Creek family, and honored to have the opportunity to build on Dick Foster’s commitment to excellence and his vision for a first-class destination marina resort,” Occhifinto said.

Foster, the developer of Bay Creek properties, continues to hold a 25 percent share of Bay Creek South, the golf course side of the development.

Occhifinto’s company is named Peacock Holdings VA, LLC, presumably because prior to buying the Marina Village properties, he bought and renovated the Peacock Motel in Capeville.

Renovations at Aqua are scheduled to be complete by late March, with a grand reopening of the restaurant and catering operations by Easter weekend.

Occhifinto’s staff includes a number of former Bay Creek employees along with a mix of new names. Read more

#20 Story
EXTRA! Town Council to Sell Inner Harbor for $10

CAPE CHARLES WAVE

April 1, 2014

Cape Charles Town Council has tentatively agreed in closed session to accept an unsolicited confidential proposal to buy the inner portion of the Town Harbor for $10. The original offer was $1, but was raised ten-fold as a demonstration of goodwill by the buyer. “Even though we don’t receive a whole lot of money up front, we can expect to benefit in the future from property taxes, water bills, and increased tourism,” explained one Council member who supports the deal.

The purchaser is J. David Schmick, originally from St. Petersburg, Russia, owner of Sketch-Along Resourcing LLC. Schmick, an international entrepreneur, promises that Sketch-Along’s investments in Cape Charles will invigorate the entire Eastern Shore, beginning with the Shanty, which will become a floating restaurant after the style of those in Hong Kong.

Drawing a sketch on a Shanty napkin, Schmick outlined his plan to relocate the Shanty onto a floating dock in mid-harbor. There will be a harbor taxi service to ferry customers, and Cape Charles Water Sports would be a logical supplier of the service, he said. There is also the opportunity for tourists to rent a jet ski to get to the Shanty, eat, and then zoom over to the public beach.

According to an official, the town’s newly increased transient occupancy tax will also be levied on customers of the harbor taxi. “What could be more transient than that,” reasoned the official.

However, at least one close observer is worried that Schmick’s development plans could destroy the small-town charm of Cape Charles. For example, it is already rumored that Schmick will take control of the Shanty and rebrand it as a McCormick & Schmick’s seafood restaurant. Schmick is not known to be associated with the famous restaurant chain, but admits to an affinity for the company that shares his unusual last name.

Entrepreneur Schmick was able to convince Town Council to essentially give him the Inner Harbor to fulfill his vision for a water theme park replacing the current boat slips. Schmick claims to have financing already in place to build a Disney-style “Slip ‘n’ Slide” along with paddle boats, a competition jet ski race course, and an “Ol’ Tyme Ferry Boat” modeled after a Mississippi riverboat casino. (The ferry boat casino would come in Phase 2, with a yet-to-be-determined start date, operated by a separate firm doing business as Charade Adventures LLC.) Read more

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