Sunset Photo Is LOVE at First Sight!

October 24, 2013

The Virginia Tourism Corporation’s LOVE sign arrived in Cape Charles for the Town’s October festivals, but the weather cast a pale — day after day after day. The exhibit was due to be removed last week, but somehow it remained — waiting, perhaps, for the sun? Finally, the gorgeous sunsets have returned, and local resident Irene Munz, who has photographed over a thousand sunsets from this same vantage point, last night caught the sun right in the clasp of the “V.” Thank you to whoever procrastinated in removing the LOVE sign — now we have what we wanted!

2 Comments

Town Council Overrides Planning Commission (By FAR)

By DORIE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave

October 23, 2013

Two years’ work by the Cape Charles Planning Commission fell victim to an email from an absentee councilman at last Thursday’s Town Council meeting.

The Planning Commission, composed of seven volunteers, had been studying floor area ratios for the Town’s Harbor District.  The higher the floor area ratio (or FAR), the denser the development allowed by right.

The Planning Commission worked “about two years” on a FAR recommendation to Council, according to Joan Natali, who sits on both Town Council and the Planning Commission.

The Planning Commission recommendation was presented to Council at its September meeting, where Town Planner Rob Testerman explained that a FAR requirement would “prevent any hugely dense, out-of-character development” in the Harbor District. The recommendation was tabled for further thought when two councilmen disagreed: Frank Wendell argued that the FAR should be lower (less density), while Steve Bennett believed it should be higher. [Read more…]

Cape Charles Rotary Club Cleans Up

CAPE CHARLES WAVE

October 20, 2013

Last Sunday’s threatening weather couldn’t dampen Cape Charles Rotary Club’s first cleanup of their adopted highway, Stone Road coming into town.

Rotary President Paul Strong reports that 12 volunteers – some members and their children, and some friends, donned florescent vests and proceeded to pick up enough trash off the side of the road to fill a pickup truck.

Strong said that prior to the cleanup he had no idea the group would find as much trash as they did. In addition to ordinary litter, they picked up a Cadillac hubcap and an old tire. [Read more…]

Coast Guard Station Cape Charles Aids in Perilous Rescue

Helicopter rescue video has no sound, but can induce motion sickness! (Click bottom right for full-screen)


October 19, 2013

EDITOR’S NOTE: Here in Cape Charles we are most likely to see resident Coast Guard personnel playing soccer in Central Park or jogging along town streets. The Wave is reprinting the following Coast Guard rescue report as a reminder that our neighbors’ “day job” can be a perilous one. On Thursday, October 10, in 40-knot winds, 12-foot seas, and inky darkness, the Coast Guard rescued two people from a disabled vessel by lowering a rescue swimmer from a helicopter who rigged a tow line to a Coast Guard vessel. Coast Guard Station Cape Charles participated in the mission.

U.S. COAST GUARD PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Fast-moving storms blew through parts of the Eastern Seaboard last week, whipping maritime communities with heavy rain and high winds. True to form for Coast Guard men and women, the foul weather was no match for the perseverance of Coast Guard crews.

The Coast Guard responded to a sailboat sinking near the mouth of the Great Wicomico River and another sailboat northeast of Cape Charles that was also sinking.

Crew members aboard the 34-foot sailboat Basta contacted Coast Guard Sector Hampton Roads’ command center reporting the boat was experiencing engine trouble, and they were unable to raise their sails or lower an anchor.

Hampton Roads watchstanders issued an urgent marine information broadcast and dispatched a rescue crew from Coast Guard Station Cape Charles and an aircrew aboard an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C.

After being underway for approximately an hour, the boat crew was directed to return to base due to the high seas. The helicopter crew met a similar fate as they arrived on scene. [Read more…]

2 Comments

State Supreme Court Hears Old School Arguments

By DORIE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave

October 17, 2013

A three-judge panel at the Virginia Supreme Court in Richmond heard arguments October 15 by the civic group Old School Cape Charles. The group’s attorney, Kevin Martingayle, told the court that the Town of Cape Charles failed to follow its own code by letting the school in Central Park fall into disrepair. Citizens should have standing to raise concerns about the sale of a public building and parkland, he argued.

“The Town manufactured its own crisis and then used it as an excuse to sell the property,” Martingayle said. He termed it “remarkable” that the Town used its own failures to enforce its code as the excuse for disposing of historic property. Martingayle told the court that he could find no precedent in law for the Town’s actions.

The Old School group is contesting the Town’s “gifting” to a developer of park property valued on the tax rolls at $900,000. Northampton Circuit Court Judge Revell Lewis ruled last February that Town citizens had “no standing” to question the divestment of Town property.

The Supreme Court now must decide whether the case has sufficient import to merit an appeal. The court considers if errors were made in a ruling, and also whether an an area of law is unsettled and in need of clarification. “Many aspects of Old School’s cases have no legal precedent, which makes them more appealing to the judges,” Martingayle told the Wave. [Read more…]

2 Comments

Official Wrangling Over Old School Continues (in Fine Print)

By GEORGE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave

October 16, 2013

When Cape Charles Town Council meets Thursday (October 17), the Old School in Central Park will be on the agenda yet again – more than two years after Town Council began secret negotiations with a developer to give away the property.

This time, Council will consider whether to override a decision by the Town Manager not to allow an appeal by the civic group Old School Cape Charles regarding issuance of a Certificate of Appropriateness to the school developer.

Town Manager Heather Arcos and Town Planner Rob Testerman write that they “will reject the appeal unless otherwise directed by Council.” They present several reasons why, perhaps the most controversial being that “An appeal must be filed with the Zoning Administrator, but OSCC filed the appeal to the Town Clerk.”

The appeal, filed by OSCC President Wayne Creed, quoted Town Zoning Ordinance Section 8.15: “the decisions of the Historic District Review Board may be appealed to the Town Council.”

But Arcos and Testerman contend that Section 8.34 of the Zoning Ordinance “further explains the steps to give notice of an appeal. An appeal must be filed with the Zoning Administrator, but OSCC filed the appeal to the Town Clerk. The appeal is addressed to the Town Council,” they write. Their memo does not mention whether they obtained advice from the Town’s attorney on the issue. [Read more…]

2 Comments

TOWN COUNCIL: Extra-Cost Recycling Not Recommended

CAPE CHARLES WAVE

October 16, 2013

Cape Charles Town Council meets 6 p.m. Thursday, October 17, at St. Charles Parish Hall.

On the agenda is a vote on a garbage collection contract with Davis Disposal, the sole bidder. Cape Charles currently has no provision for curbside recycling pickup. In its bid, Davis Disposal offered optional recycling pickup every other week at a cost of $5 per household per month. However, the recycling would include only paper products and #1 and #2 plastics (no glass).

Davis did not offer any rate reduction for garbage pickup even though with recycling the amount of regular refuse collected would necessarily be less. Town staff has recommended that Council accept the Davis bid on garbage collection but not exercise the curbside recycling option.

Other items on Thursday’s agenda include updates on repairs to the fishing pier, new Washington Avenue sidewalks, Harbor density zoning, and the Old School in Central Park (read separate story here).

The Town information packet may be read by clicking here.

TUESDAY 10/15: Historic Review Board to Hear Requests

The Cape Charles Historic District Review Board will meet 6 p.m. Tuesday, October 15, at Town Hall to consider requests to add a dormer to the rear of the house at 219 Jefferson Avenue and to construct an addition to the rear of the building at 309 Mason Avenue. [Read more…]

COMMENTARY: Old School Gets Its Day in Supreme Court

By DEBORAH BENDER

October 14, 2013

Tomorrow the Old School Cape Charles civic group will get a second chance at justice. On Tuesday, October 15, the Virginia Supreme Court will hear an appeal of a lower court decision allowing the historic school in Central Park to be given to a developer.

Those who have been reading the Wave know the sad story of the Town’s secret negotiations and purported “sale” of the school for $10. One can barely buy lunch for $10, but our Town Council sold valuable town property –including the Town’s only two basketball courts — for that “price.”

But it gets worse: Not only did they sell the school for $10, they then gave the developer $41,000 in insurance money for earthquake damage not noticed until three months after the fact.

The Town bumbled about for several months trying to issue a legally acceptable rezoning and conditional use permit, which they were never quite able to do.

The Town signed a contract and enacted an ordinance to sell the school to Echelon Resources. But when Mayor Sullivan signed over the deed, it was to Charon Ventures — an entity that was never mentioned in the contract or the Town ordinance.

Town residents who value public property and care about the local children thought better of the school than to give it away. They formed a group and named it Old School Cape Charles. Old School set to work alerting townspeople through signs, leaflets, and petitions. In reaction, Town Planning Commissioners have spent months working on the Town’s sign ordinance to ban protest signs. [Read more…]

1 Comment

LETTER: Thanks to Town Staff for a Job Well Done

October 11, 2013

DEAR EDITOR,

As the 2013 Mid-Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin Unusual Mortality Event (UME) Investigation continues, close to 700 strandings have been collected so far. The tentative cause of the UME is being attributed to cetacean morbillivirus, based upon preliminary diagnostic testing and discussion with disease experts. Of 93 dolphins tested to date, 84 were confirmed positive or suspect positive for morbillivirus.

These studies involve several NOAA laboratories and science centers, stranding network members, non-profit research organizations, and academic partners, yet it is important to note that the important data needed would not have been collected without local boots-on-the-ground members of coastal communities like ours. Here is the rest of the story:

We are lucky enough to have a Town Manager and Public Works staff that has been very effective in the handling of dolphin strandings here in Cape Charles. There have been several strandings in and around our harbor, with two dolphins actually landing on our beaches. In both cases, Town Manager Heather Arcos instructed Pete Leontieff of our public works staff to secure the dolphins as best as possible (there’s no handout or standard operating procedure for this) and then contact the Virginia Aquarium. After the technicians were able to conduct the testing and gather the data, Pete and his crew disposed of the dolphins according the specifications supplied by the Aquarium staff. [Read more…]

1 Comment

WHO WE ARE: Combat Veteran Not Jaded By War

By JOE VACCARO
American Legion Post 56

October 9, 2013

During this Year of the Veteran at the American Legion Post 56, we’re reminded that the persons we call friends and the organizations we belong to are usually a good indicator of who we are or what we aspire to be.

Some people might call these relationships character building. Character building usually begins at home and becomes a finely honed skill in places like church, school and military service. General Dwight D. Eisenhower once stated that character was “everything in leadership” but real character was basically “integrity”.

Throughout the years, military service has become a gristmill for “character building” where men and women are placed in difficult to almost impossible circumstances yet triumph over their circumstances.

The concepts of character and integrity are interwoven throughout a service member’s career whether they serve three years or 33 years. The idea of sacrificing one’s personal needs for the greater good for all isn’t a new concept. If you don’t believe that, ask former combat veteran and American Legion Post 56 member Chad Isabelle. [Read more…]

4 Comments