$78,000 Later, Route 13 Sewer Project Put on Hold

By DORIE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave

June 29, 2015

In a stunning defeat to proponents of a sewer pipe from Route 13 to the Cape Charles treatment plant, the Northampton County Board of Supervisors voted June 22 to put Public Service Authority plans on hold. Citing higher priorities, including emergency medical services and the public schools, Supervisor Granville Hogg made the motion, which carried in a 3-1 vote. Supervisor Larry Trala was opposed, noting that the PSA had been working on the project for quite a while.

Supervisor Larry LeMond expressed impatience with the Town of Cape Charles for its failure to reach an agreement with the PSA about the cost of services. He reported that the town wants to condition a sewer deal on whether the county gives the town a say on what kinds of commercial activity would be allowed just outside town limits.

PSA Chairman John Reiter told the Supervisors that engineering studies for the project were 40 percent complete. The PSA has paid almost $78,000 to date, including $8,000 for a study of possible use of the Bayview facility which had been requested by the Supervisors.

Reiter reported that negotiations with the Town of Cape Charles were still in progress, citing differences over how much should be charged per gallon of wastewater and whether there should be a connection fee. Reiter said that an agreement was close on the per-gallon cost. But he complained that the connection fee could cost $750,000, adding considerably to upfront costs. Read more

Body of Teen Swimmer Found Near Town Fishing Pier

CAPE CHARLES WAVE

June 22, 2015

Persons gathered on the Cape Charles boardwalk Sunday night during search and rescue operations for a missing swimmer heard a weeping, distraught man call out “mi hijo” — my son. At that time his son had been missing in the water for some two hours. Police contacted the Coast Guard at about 6:30 p.m. to report the missing boy.

Although search teams continued through the night, the body of 15-year old Alvaro Lopez-Castaneda was not found until Monday afternoon, when it was recovered near the town fishing pier. He had recently finished the ninth grade at Nandua High School in Accomack County.

The tragedy was sadly reminiscent of another Sunday afternoon last August when an 8-year-old drowned off the beach. His body was not recovered until the following Tuesday — also close to the fishing pier.

Following the drowning last August, outspoken residents urged town officials to erect warning signs to swimmers and establish a roped-off area. Some called for town life guards as well. In response, the town announced plans for a designated swimming area, but as of yesterday — the first official day of summer — nothing had been done.

Rescue efforts included use of a Coast Guard 25-foot response boat crew from Station Cape Charles and a Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from Air Station Elizabeth City. Virginia Marine Resources Commission personnel and members of the Cape Charles Fire Department also took part in the search.

Town Hits Mason Avenue Parkers with $$ Fines; Shoppers, Merchants Outraged

By WAYNE CREED
Cape Charles Wave

June 22, 2015

Up until Thursday, June 18, motorists parking front-ways in the new reverse angle parking on Mason Avenue were not breaking the law, because there was no law. Cape Charles Town Council fixed that at their Thursday meeting, voting 4-1 to enact a new ordinance entitled “Parking on Town Streets.” Only Councilman Frank Wendell opposed it. The only question before the vote also came from Wendell, who asked Town Manager Brent Manuel about VDOT’s approval of reverse angle parking, which was done by telephone. Wendell asked for the name of the VDOT official, but Manuel said he did not recall.

Following the meeting, Cape Charles Police immediately began ticketing wrong-way parkers, to the anguish of Mason Avenue merchants and, eventually, Mayor George Proto, who a month earlier sounded concerned when Police Chief Jim Pruitt reported to Town Council that nine parking tickets were written the first week after the new lines were painted on the street. “The town did not do this to make money,” Proto said at the time. This makes the second time Proto is asking the Police Force to stand down on ticketing and to void the tickets they have written.

But some damage has already been done. One story circulating on Mason Avenue is that a man parked front-ways to run into Gull Hummock to buy a case of wine. When he came back to his car he found a ticket, which made him so mad that he carried the wine back into the store, asked for his money back, and promised never to shop again in Cape Charles.

One merchant observed a police car parked in front of the medical center for over an hour with the engine running. Whenever the policeman saw a “wrong-way” parker he would immediately walk over and write a ticket.

Town Manager Manuel also announced that backwards parking would be implemented on Bay Avenue as well beginning this fall.

PUBLIC COMMENT

Members of Cape Charles Business Association turned out in force for the June 18 Council meeting, but none of them spoke against the town’s new parking policy. Instead, the focus was on the loss of the contract by one of their own for the tourist website “Cape Charles by the Bay.” Town Manager Manuel awarded the website contract June 2 to Cape Charles Wave LLC, which also publishes the Wave newspaper. The tourism website is currently managed by Donna and Greg Kohler, who were instrumental in its founding two years ago. The website began with grant funding but now operates at town taxpayers’ expense. The Kohlers submitted a bid of $9,790 for another year, while Cape Charles Wave LLC’s bid was $5,300. Read more

PSA Briefing: Still No Agreement with Cape Charles

By DORIE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave

June 22, 2015

When the county’s Public Service Authority meets in a joint work session with Northampton Board of Supervisors today, the story will be the same as the past two years: still no agreement with the Town of Cape Charles on rates and fees for sewer service in the vicinity of the Cape Charles traffic light.

The joint meeting starts at 5 p.m. (June 22), followed by a regular meeting of the PSA. The public may attend but not speak at the joint work session, but public statements will be allowed at the regular PSA meeting.

The PSA will report to the Board of Supervisors on the status of the engineering tasks and will provide an estimated cost for the project and a construction timeline. The PSA will also provide an overview of the negotiations with Cape Charles about wastewater treatments costs and hookup fees. No agreement has been reached, with a major sticking point being the hookup fee. The PSA doesn’t want to charge county customers a hookup fee, while the town argues that since new town customers have to pay the fee, so should county customers.

Discussion will also include a special tax district and whether service will be mandatory for customers in that district. Back in 2012 the county allocated 25 percent of estimated construction costs from the general budget. But would-be commercial customers balked at having to shoulder 75 percent of constructions costs, and the PSA has been urging the county to assume a larger share of costs. A bond issue would be backed by the county.

One of the drivers of the whole commercial sewer plan is the hope that Harmony Investments will build a hotel on property it owns on Route 13 in front of Kings Creek Landing. According to County Administrator and PSA Executive Director Katie Nunez, Harmony Investments already has a special use permit for a mass drain field there, so the hotel could be built with or without a sewer pipe to Cape Charles. Nunez told the Wave she is not aware of plans to move forward with building a hotel at this time. Harmony Investments also owns the Sunset Beach Inn and Grille near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. Read more

LETTER: Don’t Turn County into a Dumpsite

June 22, 2015

(EDITOR’S NOTE: The letter below was sent June 18 to the Northampton County Board of Supervisors from Karen Davis, President of United Poultry Concerns, who has requested it be published in the Wave.) 

TO NORTHAMPTON COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS

As a resident of Northampton County since 1998, I respectfully join those who object to a rezoning ordinance that would allow commercial chicken facilities into the county. I understand Tyson and Perdue have proposed building 50 chicken houses in Northampton County as soon as possible. I urge you to reject their proposals. The chicken industry is a major source of environmental degradation on the Eastern Shore. Drive through Accomack County and you can smell the oppressive odor of the chicken industry. Drive through Accomack County and you see the sick and suffering chickens going up and down Route 13 and on the back roads. Is that what we want in Northampton County? I stand with those who say No.

Twenty years ago the Washington Post reported that the Delmarva Peninsula produced a million tons of chicken manure a year, enough to fill a football stadium. Now it is even worse. Do we want to turn Northampton County into a dumpsite for manure piles, rodents, flies, air pollution, and other unwholesome consequences for county residents to cope with? If we care about the people who live here, and the land we occupy, the answer is No.

Regarding the manure storage facilities and poultry litter incinerators, a report by Food & Water Watch, Poultry Litter Incineration: An Unsustainable Solution, says the incinerators produce toxic air emissions and will likely be subsidized by taxpayers. Toxic air emissions cited in the report include carbon monoxide, CO2, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid, volatile organic compounds, dioxin, particulate matter and the arsenic compound nitarsone. Do we want all this fecal pollution and pharmaceutical residue in a county whose residents, including children, already suffer from high levels of chronic respiratory infection? Read more

Supervisors Hear Continuing Opposition on Rezoning

(EDITOR’S NOTE: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that County Supervisors have postponed any action on rezoning until January 2016. But as pointed out in a comment by Ken Dufty (see below), the Supervisors merely extended the window by six months because it otherwise would have expired.)

By WAYNE CREED
Cape Charles Wave

June 15, 2015

Despite continuing outspoken opposition to rezoning proposals, the Northampton County Board of Supervisors appears set to enact the sweeping measure in advance of November elections — perhaps as early as June 29.

Elections this November will ensure at least one new Supervisor on the Board, because Larry Trala is not running for re-election. And if Spencer Murray succeeds in unseating Board Chairman Rick Hubbard there will be two new Supervisors. Murray is strongly opposed to the rezoning proposals as presently constituted.

Two candidates have filed for Trala’s seat: Robert Grayson Duer and Gwen Cummings-Thompson, both of Exmore. The latter’s position on rezoning has not been revealed, but Duer is known to be opposed.

The only sitting Supervisor opposed to the rezoning is Granville Hogg, but if two like-minded candidates join him on the Board in January, they will have a majority, and the Board could be expected to march in a new direction.

The possibility of a dramatically different Board come January might well have influenced the decision by Economic Development Director Charles McSwain, who is believed to be resigning next month. McSwain has taken the most heat from rezoning opponents, followed by County Administrator Katie Nunez.

The flier above is representative of the efforts by rezoning opponents, led by Ken Dufty and supported by a host of well-known residents including Citizens for a Better Eastern Shore (CBES), Virginia Eastern Shorekeeper, a prominent Realtor, a marine biologist, and a former Planning Commissioner, all of whom spoke at the June 9 Board meeting.

At that meeting, Supervisors once again encountered the full force of opposition to the proposed zoning changes that many feel could destroy the rural nature of the county. The core issues remain protection of the environment, as well as the overall rural character of Northampton — that is, just what will happen if setback changes, PUD (Planned Unit Development) and altered rules for impervious surfaces are put in place. What will happen if large-scale CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations) and waste incinerators, mainly poultry operations, set up shop on the lower end of the shore? Read more

WAYNE CREED: How to Bring Avian Flu to Northampton

By WAYNE CREED
Cape Charles Wave Columnist

June 15, 2015

As Northampton County continues to grapple with the ramifications of the proposed zoning changes, still lurking in the shadows is the subtle opening of the door for the poultry industry, including CAFOs (Confined Animal Feeding Operations), as well as chicken litter waste incinerators. Having less available expansion options left on the northern Delmarva, the industry finally hopes to gain a foothold in Northampton County.

While the special, and even conflicted, interests continued to gather in the back rooms of Northampton to plot their next moves in efforts to make the county “more profitable” through proposed zoning changes, it was reported in the New York Times by Stephanie Strom that the deadly avian flu had struck some of the largest egg operations in the Midwest where millions of chickens will have to be euthanized.

The Center Fresh Group, a top U.S. egg producer must kill (using carbon dioxide or foam) and dispose of about 5.5 million laying hens housed in 26 metal barns on their property. For the last month, the daily ritual of the Agriculture Department has become to report how many more hens must be destroyed. On extreme days, the number can be several million. In Iowa, where a good bit of all eggs originate (including liquid egg products), nearly 40% of the egg laying hens have been affected by the flu.

This is creating a monstrous disposal problem, as carcasses have filled barns; poultry farmers have been pleading for state and federal assistance to deal the disposal effort, as “workers in masks and hazmat gear attempt to clear the barns.” Part of the issue is the way the battery hens are crammed in, with the battery cages stacked on top of each other, usually filling almost every square inch, top to bottom, of the barns. Read more

REVIEW: Cape Charles in the Good Old Days

By GEORGE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave

June 8, 2015

Roberta Romeo hears a lot of idle chatter among her customers at the Cape Charles Coffee House, but thanks to a chance comment last year, the town has a new, entertaining, reminiscence of the good old days — specifically, the decades just before Cape Charles entered a long downward spiral.

Portrait of a Town: Cape Charles, 1940-1960 is the title of a book by Patricia Joyce Parsons recalling the years she lived here. And while she rightly gets the credit for writing the book, Roberta Romeo gets the credit for encouraging her to do it.

As the Wave reported last September, during breakfast one morning at the Coffee House, Parsons mentioned to Romeo that she was writing vignettes of growing up in Cape Charles in order to share her memories with her grandchildren. At Romeo’s urging, Parsons read one of her stories to her. Recognizing a talented writer, Romeo immediately urged her to publish a book, and promised to sell the book at the Coffee House.

Now the book has been published, and appropriately enough, Parsons will launch it at the Coffee House 5 p.m. Friday, June 12. It’s a chance to meet the author and get an autographed first edition. And there will surely be further printings, as the book promises to be a staple in gift shops on the Shore for years to come.

That’s because Parsons is no public relations hack — she portrays the town for what it was, warts and all. And that makes her book interesting, even fascinating, for those with a love for the Eastern Shore.

Anyone who grew up reading Laura Ingall Wilder’s Little House on the Prairie series will especially enjoy Parsons’ book, because while the locale is far removed from the prairie, the fresh, honest, easy-reading evokes Wilder’s style. Parsons tells it as she remembers it, and she has a gift for honing in on the interesting and skipping the mundane. Read more

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