COMMENTARY: Does Bay Creek Control Town Council?

By DEBORAH BENDER

August 13, 2013

Several years ago I had a shop on Mason Avenue called Scarlett’s Closet where I sold women’s clothes. So I know how shoppers think. Let’s say someone wants to buy a linen top: One of the first things she will do is look at the price tag. She will consider buying two if there is a sale that offers a second garment at half price.

A shopper will consider how much money she has in her wallet — or if she gets out her credit card, what that will mean to the family budget.

But our Town Council jumped feet-first into building a new wastewater treatment plant without knowing for sure where the money to pay for it would come from. Now they want us to foot the bills.

In accordance with the 1991 Annexation Agreement, Town Council asked Bay Creek’s developer Dickie Foster to pay its share of the cost of the new state-of-the-art sewage treatment plant. But when he just said “no,” Town Council backed down.

Now, instead of demanding that the developers of Bay Creek pony up the money, Council is expecting the people of Cape Charles to accept two large increases to our water bills. In the last five years the cost of wastewater treatment has gone from $24 a month to $60.85.

Not only that – Council expects people to pay those bills whether their house is occupied or not. They get billed even if the house has the water turned off because the owner can’t afford to pay.

What are they thinking?

When a homeowner gets behind in paying his water bill he is hit with a $30 late fee. I wonder how much late fees Bay Creek has to pay for the $42,000 invoice they received in July 2008? Have they paid anything yet? Do they have any more invoices? [Read more…]

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Shore Found Complicit in Cape Charles Lighthouse Raid

By MARION NAAR
Cape Charles Museum

August 11, 2013

Were Shore people complicit in John Beall’s August 3, 1863, raid on the Cape Charles Lighthouse? Exactly 150 years later to the day, a majority of the more than 120 people attending Kellee Blake’s lecture at the Cape Charles Museum voted “yes.”

Blake, a noted Civil War historian, drawing on primary sources – letters, military documents, and news accounts — provided abundant detail of the highly successful operation, which was commissioned to Beall, then only 28 years old and at his request, by Confederate high command.

The Confederacy desperately needed supplies, and had information that valuable supplies were being stored on Smith Island at the mouth of the Bay where the new (second) lighthouse was under construction.

Beall and a crew of nine men started from Mathews County and on the morning of August 3, paid a surprise visit to lighthouse keeper William W. Stakes. Posing as fishermen, Beall and three men pressed Stakes for a detailed accounting of security, supplies, and citizenry on the island before summoning the remainder of his crew.

The full Beall force secured Stakes and his family, as well as any islanders who happened by, then worked for six hours dismantling the light and gutting the working lighthouse, as well as one under construction. It was well worth the trouble. [Read more…]

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Pickin’ Peaches at Pickett’s Harbor Farms: Get ‘Em Now!

By SARAH GOLIBART
Cape Charles Wave

August 9, 2013

With a large gleaming peach in each hand, Tammie Nottingham stands regally in her orchard on Pickett’s Harbor Farms just south of the Town of Cape Charles. With tears in her eyes but a smile that never seems to leave her face, she admires her peach trees as she tells the girls that pick for her to “sculpt the baskets” and “have fun” in the orchard that she and her husband, W.T., planted 13 years ago.

Tammie began picking peaches when she was 10 years old in South Carolina. From around 1990 until about five years ago, she picked the entire peach orchard at Pickett’s Harbor. By that time the farm’s bounty exceeded even her veteran picking abilities.

“It all happened by word of mouth,” explained Tammie. Her first helper was a local, Christine Tankard, and over the years more have signed on to help harvest. There are 500-600 peach trees in the orchard, with more than 10 varieties that begin ripening in early summer and last until the first week of September.

“Five years ago, we moved from the corner of my porch and my kitchen to the farm shed,” Tammie noted. That’s where they now sell all their locally grown produce including tomatoes, watermelon, blackberries, and cantaloupe, to name a few.

Tammie, however, does not take credit for the farm’s success. “I would like to give the glory to my husband W.T.” she said. “He takes care of everything on this farm.”

“Both W.T.’s and my family are generational here on the Shore,” Tammie continued. “We’ve been here since people first came here.” She went on to relate that both her and W.T.’s families can be traced back to Martha Custis Washington. She and W.T. are the fifth generation of Nottinghams to work the farm, with their son Josh Nottingham being the sixth and granddaughter Carlee Parker the seventh. [Read more…]

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REPORT: Why Water Bills Just Went Up Again

By DORIE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave

August 8, 2013

Yesterday Cape Charles residents received their first water bill with the huge new sewer increase – formerly $35.45, now $60.85. The rate hike is to pay debt service on the Town’s new sewer plant.

This is not the first double-digit rate increase caused by the new plant: In March 2009 Town Council hiked the $25 minimum sewer charge to $34.

The minimum sewer charge might not be the highest in the state, but other high-rate localities are “more affluent than Cape Charles,” according to USDA Rural Development official Kent Ware. The Town’s new $108 minimum monthly combined water bill is a burden on low-income and fixed-income residents, and appears likely to continue to drive them out of town.

How did the Town come to charge such a high rate? The answer is that plans for a new sewer plant were based on the assumption that the developers of Bay Creek would contribute significantly to the cost. When that didn’t happen, the Town went ahead and built the plant anyway, leaving ratepayers to shoulder the cost.

Town Council also raised, but then lowered, water and sewer connection fees for new service that are intended to pay capital costs of new water and sewer infrastructure.

How did it all happen? The Wave has unearthed some pieces of the puzzle. It begins 25 years ago with the mega-construction company Brown & Root, who decided to develop a large tract of land to be called Accawmacke Plantation and incorporate it into the Town of Cape Charles. [Read more…]

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SHER: Art Through the Eyes of Those Who Love It

By SHER HOROSKO
Cape Charles Wave

August 7, 2013

I came up in a world where everyone wanted to be like everyone else, which is to say, just the same.

It was a universe of perfect patterns: Carnation Instant Breakfast (always chocolate) for breakfast, Raymond and Glen throwing apples at me on my way home from school, a potato, some meat, and a vegetable at 5 p.m., a father who ate too fast and a mother who told him so every night without exception, religious school on Saturdays, church on Sundays, and best of all, hot rye bread from the Jewish bakery I devoured in the back seat of our white Galaxy.

It was an excruciatingly bland world for a little firecracker girl. I suffered it daily, and vowed to never acquiesce. For those who may be interested as to whether I succeeded at whistling my own sweet song: I did. And yes, I paid for it.

When I was growing up, art was something you hung from a six-penny nail tapped into a long tan wall. Art was a wall covering, really, that acted pretty much the same as a windbreaker on a Kansas prairie. It broke the wind and it broke the tan. It filled an empty space on a tan runway that stretched farther than my little eyes could see. That was art.

Last Saturday night I went to the IVir Danza performance at the Palace Theatre. There may have been 40 or 50 of us in that impossibly intimate jewel on Mason Avenue. Four men and four women from Italy danced on a stage in your yard. They moved like cougars and gazelles; their muscles pulsated with the blood thirst of the Kalahari. They went quiet, and turned into each other, like coils of smoke or butterflies finding each other through scent alone.

It is not often I wish I were young enough to start on a new course. I felt that on Saturday. And you will feel it too if you catch their last dance on August 16 at the Palace. [Read more…]

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SHORT REVIEW: Why Dance Matters

CAPE CHARLES WAVE

August 5, 2013

Dance transcends language barriers. Last Saturday, eight Italian dancers from the IVIR Danza company kicked off the Harbor for the Arts 2013 in a sparsely attended world class performance at the Palace Theatre in Cape Charles.

The superb piece “Today is Already Tomorrow” was choreographed by Irma Cardano, accompanied by a mixture of classical, techno, and popular music. The elegant, energetic and lyrical movements by the young dancers managed to convey their interpretations of that existential question “What is the meaning of life?”.

Kudos to Clelia Sheppard for spearheading the Harbor for the Arts. In Europe, these types of summer art festivals are very popular and underwritten by both the government and commercial sponsors. Attending the Arts festival in Avignon, France, or Impulstanz in Vienna, Austria, are worthwhile endeavors, but let us not forget we can also enjoy the arts in our own backyard. [Read more…]

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Veterans from Two Eras Find Brotherhood in Shared Service

By JOE VACCARO
American Legion Post 56

August 5, 2013

As the years pass, memories fade for most people — and for some who have served their nation during wartime it’s considered a blessing. One of the misnomers of armed conflict is that the people serving in the military welcome the fight and glory. But the fact is that the men and women serving in the military simply view it as a duty or obligation. They don’t place themselves in harm’s way for money or glory, but for each other.

The bonds of having served in battle or in a battle zone surpass any human emotion that can be explained in a few paragraphs. It becomes a brotherhood of emotion that at times surpasses the emotions for one’s own family. It’s that unexplainable sense of camaraderie that one feels in the presence of another who experienced the exhilaration of life and the horrors of death.

Although World War II ended some 68 years ago and Viet Nam ended 38 years ago, those 30 years of difference brought together two very different men and resulted in a lifetime friendship. Jack Woolley met Bill Burton 15 years ago, and the common denominator that brought them together was a woodcarving show at the Cape Charles Fire House. But what made them brothers were their war experiences. [Read more…]

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Watching the Shriners Parade, Watching the Watchers

CAPE CHARLES WAVE

August 4, 2013

Photographer Sher Horosko can’t resist a parade — especially one with Shriners and fire engines. “I was where I shouldn’t have been — in the street — and was nearly run over. Great shot though –eye to eye with a Shriner!” Here are Sher’s shots of yesterday’s Clam Slam parade in Cape Charles, featuring the Shriners. (And CLICK HERE for the short video “Boys Will Be Boys.”)

[Read more…]

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Harbor for the Arts Festival Goes All Out August 3-18

CAPE CHARLES WAVE

August 1, 2013

Arts Enter Cape Charles is spearheading an ambitious two-week festival in August, the likes of which has never before been attempted in this little town. Dance, music, art, and theatre will be presented at the Harbor, the Park, Strawberry Street, and Mason Avenue.

The arts festival is set to kick off simultaneously with the Town’s August 3-4 Clam Slam (see related story). Some 34 staged events are scheduled — outdoors, indoors, free, and for admission.

Saturday night (August 3), Mark Jensen, Tony Sacco & Friends perform 6-8 p.m. on Mason Avenue in front of The Stage Door Gallery (Free).

That’s the warm-up for the IVIR Dance Company’s 8 p.m. performance at the Palace Theatre ($12 adults/$5 students). IVIR Dance, based in Italy, “pursues its own language and gestures inspired by the philosophy of contemporary dance but processed through new and avant-garde linguistic elements.” (If that doesn’t get the idea across, the above photo should.)

REVIEWERS WANTED: The Wave is looking for volunteer reviewers to document this unprecedented two-week Harbor for the Arts Festival. You need not be a professional (after all, many of the productions are by amateurs) — just a lover of the arts. Reviews should be submitted as quickly as possible following a performance (ideally within 24 hours). Email [email protected] to coordinate.

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Sunday, August 4, at 6:30 p.m., the U.S. Air Force Jazz Band performs in Central Park (Free). “Rhythm in Blue” is a 13-piece ensemble which performs the American musical art forms of jazz, blues and funk. The band features repertoire from the great jazz masters and pays tribute to the Big Band leaders of the swing era. Bring a beach chair and a picnic. Wine and Margaritas will be sold. [Read more…]

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THURSDAY 8/1: Town Council Special Meeting to Review Utility Fees for Vacant Houses

Cape Charles Town Council will hold a Special Meeting 6 p.m. Thursday, August 1, at Town Hall. [Read more…]

SHER: On the Shore Eight Weeks

By SHER HOROSKO
Cape Charles Wave

July 31, 2013

The road to Custis Tomb is lined with snowflakes perched on arching green stems. I capture the beauty-burst and the swaying flowers filled with winged ones I cannot name.

Then comes the inevitable fading. Crocheted saucers fold into urns. Their time here is nearly done.

I have been on the Shore eight weeks. 
It is my spirit to watch closely, to be curious and to mark the comings and goings of life:

—the wheat fields trimmed and seeded with soybeans, tinkered with to withstand this concoction or that;

—the winged and petaled ones birthing and blooming and moving on or folding back into the sandy earth;

—how guts are transformed from expansive ripples of water where all may pass to bright white stakes marking territories like fences in the land-bound world.

I notice these things. They are subtle. The disappearance of what one loves happens slowly.

We get used to Beauty, fading, much like the lines streaking across our cheeks. Only when we see a photograph of what we looked like ten years ago, or even five, do we realize what is becoming of us: our bodies, our skin, our hair whiter and whiter. [Read more…]

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