Four Months Without a Hoop

By GEORGE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave

April 30, 2013

Four months have passed since December 26, 2012, when Town maintenance workers returning to work after the Christmas holidays removed the backboards and hoops from what had been Cape Charles’ only basketball court.

One week earlier, on December 19, Mayor Dora Sullivan had signed over the deed conveying to a developer the basketball court, playground parking lot, and Old School at Central Park.

The backboards and hoops were not excluded from the sale, and so belonged to the developer, but the Town was allowed to have them in exchange for removing them. They have been in storage ever since.

Developer J. David McCormack, formerly operating as Echelon Resources but now doing business as Charon Ventures, struck a deal with the Town to convert the Old School into an apartment building and the basketball court into a private parking lot.

The property was valued on the Town tax rolls at $921,000, but Town Council agreed to pay Echelon Resources $41,000 to take the property. No bids were requested, and offers from the community group Old School Cape Charles were rejected without a vote.

The children’s playground parking lot was also conveyed, and will become private parking for tenants at the 17-unit apartment complex.

The Old School and parkland had been zoned Open Space until the Town rezoned it R-1 Residential.

Although apartment buildings are not permitted in R-1 Residential, the Town Planning Commission voted last August 23 to recommend an exception. A condition to that exception was that the basketball court be relocated.

Eight months later, relocating the basketball court has yet to appear on Town Council’s agenda.

Town Council has, however, extended until August 23 the deadline for developer McCormack to begin construction, which means the former basketball court could sit unused another four months. [Read more…]

12 Comments

COMMENTARY: Cut Taxes to Reflect Lower Property Values

By TIMOTHY J. KRAWCZEL

April 29, 2013

Ronald Reagan famously said, “Government is not the solution, government is the problem.”

A Cape Charles town employee told me last summer, “We don’t need anything except money.”

The thinking seemed to be: Money is supreme, run government like a business, we know more about it than you, don’t argue with us, we’re technocrats.

A few weeks ago, my wife and I bought a new fax/printer. It cost $125 and is better than the one we paid $400 for four years ago. Why? Because when there is competition, prices go down and quality goes up. That is the free market.

If the cost of a product is too high or the quality is too low, a consumer is free to buy somewhere else. Business responds by cutting costs and improving quality.

Not so with our Town government. It has a monopoly on service, and the Town Council year after year has allowed monopoly power on setting prices, i.e. tax revenues.

The taxpayer has no choice — pay the tax or face a penalty and a property lien.

This year the money numbers are indisputable. Real estate assessed values are down 20-38 percent, depending on the source of the estimate. Undeniably, the sale value of real estate in Cape Charles has declined from the last assessment five years earlier.

In real terms, many taxpayers have seen the market value of their investments evaporate, and some have lost their life savings.

But what is happening with the cost of local government? Has the Town reduced the burden of taxes in response to lower property values? No. All the Town taxpayers have gotten is a flaccid discussion of whether taxes will go up or stay the same. There has been no discussion of actually cutting tax rates, — of making choices that every homeowner and investor has to make, namely, how to do more with less. [Read more…]

5 Comments

Town Council Splits on Tax Increase

By DORIE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave

April 26, 2013

With one week left to agree on how much to increase Cape Charles property taxes, Town Council members are split over what to do.

Last year’s rate was 18 cents per hundred dollars of value, but the Town would have to slash its budget to maintain that rate.

That’s because Northampton County has reassessed all properties for the first time in five years, and values in Cape Charles dropped an average of 35 percent.

According to Town Manager Heather Arcos, the new “equalization” tax rate would be 27 cents per hundred dollars. That means that on average, with a rate of 27 cents, Town property owners would pay the same amount of tax as last year.

At last night’s special meeting of Town Council, Mayor Dora Sullivan said Council needs to make whatever budget cuts are necessary to keep from exceeding the equalized rate of 27 cents. But she acknowledged that this would not be easy.

“I don’t think it has ever been this difficult to arrive at a budget before,” Mayor Sullivan said, speaking as one who has served more than a decade on Council.

Her husband, Councilman Mike Sullivan, agreed that the Town needs to draw the line at 27 cents.

Councilman Frank Wendell added his voice, bringing the number of supporters of a no-growth budget to three.

On the other side was Vice Mayor Chris Bannon, who thought a tax increase to maintain Town services might be necessary.

Councilman Steve Bennett sided with Bannon.

Councilman Tom Godwin was on the fence. He would prefer equal budget cuts for all Town departments in order to hold the line, but if that were not possible he would vote for a tax increase.

The tie-breaker would have been Councilwoman Joan Natali, but she was out of town.

Natali and Bannon usually vote the same way. [Read more…]

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THURSDAY 4/25: Town Council Meeting to Extend Date for Start of Construction at Old School

Cape Charles Town Council will hold a special meeting 6 p.m. Thursday, April 25, at Town Hall to approve a second delay to the start of construction to convert the Old School at Central Park into an apartment building. [Read more…]

MONDAY 4/22: Wetlands Board Hears Bay Creek Request for Riprap for Golf Course

Cape Charles Wetlands and Dune Board will hold a public hearing 3 p.m. Monday, April 22, for consideration of a request by Bay Creek South to install 600 feet of stone riprap along the Bay adjacent to Holes 4 and 5 of the Nicklaus golf course. [Read more…]

End of the Line for Straight Line Automotive

By GEORGE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave

April 19, 2013

There was absolutely no warning — and as recently as Monday it was business as usual at Cape Charles’ only gas station and full-time auto repair shop.

But when owner Mark Richardson put out the CLOSED sign by the gas pumps that evening, he called it quits. After several years operating as Straight Line Automotive, the business is closed for good.

Cape Charles regulars were stunned, since from all appearances the business was doing well. There was always activity in the repair bays, and gas sales were steady.

The business had the distinction of being one of the few gas stations south of New Jersey to provide friendly pump attendants at no extra charge. And even with the full service, Straight Line gasoline usually was priced a couple of cents below stations on the highway.

Straight Line also sold hard-to-obtain ethanol-free gasoline, preferred for outboard motors and small engines.

It was apparent to any regular customer that Richardson sweated the details, and his closing was no exception. Call the station number (757-331-1303) and you’ll hear a detailed message of concern from Mark for his customers.

“I’m afraid we’re ceasing operations,” he begins, and then provides names and phone numbers for a tire shop and other auto repair shops.

Richardson told the Wave that he wanted folks to know that nobody had forced him to close. “I was not actually shut down,” he emphasized. “I’m just not a business person — it was nobody else’s fault.” [Read more…]

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THURSDAY 4/18: Regular Monthly Town Council Meeting

The regular monthly meeting of Cape Charles Town Council is 6 p.m. Thursday, April 18, at St. Charles Parrish Hall. There is also a meeting at 5 p.m. of the Citizens Needs Advisory Committee at Town Hall. Both meetings are open to the public. [Read more…]

LETTER: Park Restroom Needs Better Design and Location

April 15, 2013

DEAR EDITOR,

I am writing to express concern regarding a proposed public restroom for Cape Charles Central Park from a risk management perspective, a functional perspective, and an aesthetic perspective.

While I do not disagree that public restroom facilities would be an enhancement to Central Park, I hope that decision-makers will select a more appropriate site and more architecturally appealing style for the project.

Aspects of concern include the following associated risks and functional challenges:

1. Flooding of facility:  A number of areas within Central Park and the surrounding streets are flood-prone due to lack of drainage. The proposed location is adjacent to one of the areas most prone to large pools of standing water, and the foundation trenches already dug are largely filled with standing water and a substantial, virtually constant, area of standing water threatens encroachment into the footprint.

Dangers associated include:

— Public health risk from unclean facilities contaminated with bacteria-laden, stagnant water;

— Public health risk arising from proximity to a breeding ground for mosquitoes;

— Danger of slips, trips, and falls from known hazards, i.e. moisture on walking surfaces and higher potential of algal growth on walking surfaces constantly exposed to standing water as well as slips on icy patches in cold weather.

2. Potential for assaults and other illegal transactions in an unattended facility;

3. Public nuisance and public health risk if facilities are not maintained on a daily basis and locked overnight. The question of adequate funding to support cleaning, maintenance, and supplies should be addressed before the construction is approved.

4. Location relative to need: As a neighbor to Central Park, I have had the opportunity to observe traffic in and around the park. It appears that the area in most need of restroom facilities on a year-round basis is the children’s play area near the old Cape Charles school building. Parents and children are frequent visitors to this area. Tennis courts are also located in this area, although tennis court usage seems much lower than the former basketball courts. As proposed, the restroom facilities would be quite a distance removed from the area of need. [Read more…]

3 Comments

Town Property Values Drop 35% — Tax Rates Will Increase

By DORIE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave

April 11, 2013

It was a long time coming, but properties in Cape Charles and Northampton County have finally been reassessed to reflect current values.

Northampton County, which handles assessments for the Town of Cape Charles, had not done a reassessment for five years — before the real estate bubble burst.

According to Town Manager Heather Arcos, the reassessed values in the Town of Cape Charles are 35 percent lower than last year.

For Northampton County overall, values dropped 20 percent, according to County Administrator Katie Nunez.

During the real estate bubble, values swelled more in Cape Charles than elsewhere in the County, and now those Town values have dropped the most.

Rising property values tempt governing bodies to increase their budgets for “free” – that is, without increasing the general tax rate.

But when property values fall, counties and towns are faced with the necessity of increasing the tax rate just to obtain the same amount of money as before.

Northampton County Board of Supervisors would have to increase property taxes from 54 cents to 70 cents per hundred dollars of property value just to maintain the same income as last year.

But since budgets include cost of living increases and other inflationary items, the tax rate could be even higher. [Read more…]

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Blessing of the Fleet: Cape Charles Is Proud of Its Watermen

April 10, 2013

Last Saturday a rainy, wet

morning turned into a beautiful

late afternoon — perfect for the

6th Annual Cape Charles

Blessing of the Fleet.

There was a great turnout

for a very nice ceremony,

demonstrating that Cape Charles

is proud of its watermen.

Photos by Ron Wrucke

 

1 Comment

COMMENTARY:
Why I Went to Court over the Park Bathrooms

By DONALD RILEY

April 10, 2013

Do the people of Cape Charles want a bathroom in the park that mirrors a 1980s sewer pump station?

Do we want a bathroom that is closed in the winter? Does no one live in Cape Charles in the winter?

Do we want bathrooms with two stalls on each side? Are there safety concerns about that?

Those are some questions Citizens for Central Park might have considered when they decided to construct a bathroom in Central Park. They might have polled the residents of Cape Charles to learn their thoughts.

The location also could have been the subject of community input. Do we want the bathroom at the east end of the park, far from the children’s playground in what becomes a lake when it rains? The floor of the bathroom house will be three feet above the ground in order to avoid flooding. Do we want that kind of towering bathroom? [Read more…]

7 Comments