LETTER: Take Piece of Eden on the Road!

November 20, 2012

Dear Carolyn Copeland, Paul Kist, Virginia Savage, and Cape Charles Wave

I met each of you at the play, Piece of Eden, Sunday afternoon. My friend and I were thrilled with the performance.

We have become interested in the history of this area that merits more regional and national attention. We are now aware of two plays that are an avenue for sharing this important history.

Piece of Eden remarkably shows our move toward and achievement of independence. It begins with the Eastern Shore’s Native Americans’ amazing culture, spirituality, and peaceful acceptance of the European settlers.

This beginning and subsequent events throughout the play show us the path to development of the values that are basic to our nation’s founding of a democratic and representative form of government.

The play concludes that these values are an ongoing requirement for our present and future, if we are to survive as a democratic nation.

I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to see this remarkable play. It was educational, entertaining, and with the added attraction of original music!

The Play in August is a play about the Bare and the Cubbe, enhancing awareness of the significance of one of the segments in Piece of Eden. [Read more…]

Town Council: Public Comment Is a Privilege, Not a Right

By DORIE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave

November 20, 2012

If the gavel bangs once — watch out.

If the gavel bangs twice, you’re out of there, courtesy of a police escort.

That’s the new suggested protocol for Town of Cape Charles public meetings.

Town Council held a work session November 15 to discuss how to control behavior during public meetings.

Town attorney Michael Sterling drafted three pages of “Guidelines for Citizen Participation.”  Council members Thursday expressed approval for the guidelines, and added a few more themselves, including the gavel rules.

The draft rules will be reviewed in December before coming to a vote in January.

The guidelines are meant to control not only public speakers but also Town Council members — or any members of any other official town board or commission.

Town Council members agreed that speaking at a meeting of a public body is a privilege, not a right, and that Council has the right to restrict that privilege as it sees fit.

Those restrictions could include prohibiting members of Council from participating in public comment time. [Read more…]

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SHORE THING: Tom Savage Was a ‘Come-Here’

By GEORGE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave

November 19, 2012

Yesterday I became a Native of the Eastern Shore. And I feel incredibly good about it.

All my life I’ve been a “come-here,” feeling somewhat less than a full citizen.

That was certainly the case during the 10 years I lived in various foreign countries in the diplomatic service. But it also applied to my seven years’ residence in Charleston, South Carolina, where I learned the ground rule early on: To be fully accepted in Charleston society you have to either be born there, or have lived there for 75 years.

After Charleston, relocating to Cape Charles was deja-vu. It’s where I first heard the term “come-here.” And I realized that, once again, I was an outsider.

After we started the Cape Charles Wave, a prominent denizen whose family goes back over 300 years in these parts suggested to my wife and me that we certainly had some chutzpah to move into town and start up a newspaper.

To which I had two reactions: first – we wouldn’t have done it if someone else had done it first. But nobody had, and the town was in crying need of a news outlet.

And second — we never would have attempted this by ourselves. It was our co-founder’s idea – as a longtime local reporter she saw the need, she chose the Wave name, and she, by the way, is married to a man whose Eastern Shore family also goes back 300 years. [Read more…]

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PHOTO GALLERY: Piece of Eden

Click “Read more” to see more photos of Piece of Eden, playing through Sunday at the Palace Theatre. All photos are by Ted Warner. [Read more…]

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REVIEW
Piece of Eden Reminds That (Almost) All Are Newcomers

By TED WARNER
Cape Charles Wave

November 16, 2012

Piece of Eden is a rare accomplishment. Theater can be entertaining, and it can be an escape. It can challenge us and move us. But rarely are we reminded that theater can be an artistic expression from the imagination of an entire community — or, in our case, an entire peninsula.

Watching Piece of Eden, it feels like the entire Eastern Shore is working out its culture and history and doing it with enthusiasm and integrity. One suspects that few communities could muster such relevant and enjoyable theater.

The play is a history of the Eastern Shore, beginning moments before the arrival of Europeans and ending at the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Jean Collins, the play’s author, avoids revisionism (the Native Americans are neither noble savages nor savages). Likewise, neither does the play depict the Europeans as greedy, genocidal conquerors, as was fashionable until recently. It is a balanced history. [Read more…]

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Inside Business Report Focuses on Bayshore Concrete

EDITOR’S NOTE: From time to time, newspapers and magazines record their impressions of our fair village.

The reports invariably are of interest to local residents, even if they already know everything they read.  

Last May, the Hampton Roads business journal Inside Business sent reporter Bill Cresenzo and photographer Harry Gerwien across the Bay to take a measure of Cape Charles. They took a look, and saw Bayshore Concrete Products. Inside Business has graciously permitted the Wave to reprint the entire interesting story below.

CAPE CHARLES HAS A WAY OF STAYING ALIVE

By BILL CRESENZO
Inside Business
May 11, 2012

Dora Sullivan and Charles Brown are sitting in chairs on the sidewalk in the heart of Cape Charles on a recent sunny spring day.

The strip of commercial space that lines the town’s main street is quaint and historic, with a hardware store, a pub, a boutique hotel that just reopened and a couple of souvenir shops.

All are within walking distance of Cape Charles Beach, a well-kept stretch of sand that features a fishing pier that extends into the Chesapeake Bay — no fishing license required, compliments of the town.

Sullivan and Brown are quick to say hello to a couple of passers-by and introduce themselves.

Sullivan informs them that she is originally from Egypt.

Fifteen years ago, she and her husband, Michael, happened by the small town at the southern end of the Eastern Shore, while living in Virginia Beach. They decided they just had to live in Cape Charles.

Now “I’m the mayor,” Sullivan said.

She waved her hand at Brown.

“And this is our police chief.”

Across the harbor in view of where Sullivan and Brown sit is Bayshore Concrete Products with its cranes, its 86 rocky acres and concrete segments pointing to the sky, waiting to be shipped up the East Coast.

It’s a scene that one wouldn’t necessarily call pretty.

But in the eyes of Sullivan and Brown, who worked at Bayshore Concrete before becoming police chief, and of the residents of Cape Charles who depend on the company to keep the town’s economy alive, Bayshore Concrete — one of Northampton County’s largest employers — is a classic case of beauty being in the eye of the beholder.

“It is a most beautiful thing to look at,” Sullivan said, “because it creates jobs.” [Read more…]

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LETTER
Like Early Settlers, School Supporters Are ‘Moved to Protest’

November 14, 2012

DEAR EDITOR:

Tomorrow, Piece of Eden opens at the Palace Theatre. We have a rich, talented cast, Clelia Shepherd’s direction has been first rate, and the musical score will be performed wonderfully by William Neil.

This show is also a wonderful way to learn about the history of the Eastern Shore, and the early settlers who made this land between the Atlantic Ocean and Chesapeake Bay their home.

The play is written by Cape Charles’ own Jean Collins, and it highlights just how the Eastern Shore changed the world, from having the earliest court records, staging the first play in the new world (Ye Bear and Ye Cub), being the first settlers to challenge corrupt practices of government, to being the first county to declare an act of British Parliament, the Stamp Act, unconstitutional.

Jean Collins had a unique perspective on the entire history of the Eastern Shore, yet she also still has ties to us today.

In 1921, the students of Cape Charles, especially the basketball team, petitioned the Town to build a gymnasium. At that time, the team had nowhere to play.

That call went unanswered for almost 35 years, until the principal at the time, Jean Collins (the only female principle of the school)  finally stepped up and secured funding to convert the auditorium into a “gymtorium” (because it was still used as an auditorium as well).

It seems fitting that some of Jean Collins’ former students are now part of and are working with Old School Cape Charles to keep the school and the gymtorium public, and part of the Town. [Read more…]

EDITORIAL: Laws Meant to Be Broken

HOW THE WAVE SEES IT

November 13, 2012

There are laws meant to be obeyed, and there are laws meant to be broken.

A wise town authority knows when to bear down, and when to look the other way. But a foolish authority ends up looking, well — foolish.

The Cape Charles Wave takes more than simple pleasure in pointing out official foolishness — we see it as our civic duty. Question authority!

So, for example, we pointed out the, yes, stupidity of trying to enforce a ban on political yard signs until just 45 days before a Presidential election. We noted that the U.S. Supreme Court long ago struck down any such ban. And we cheered on our own vice mayor for ignoring the town ban by prominently displaying political advertising in his yard before the permitted date.

Just yesterday we drew attention to more foolishness, as our Town Council members put their heads together this Thursday to discuss enacting rules to constrain behavior at public meetings. Town staff recommends that we, the residents, be prohibited from handing out or receiving flyers within 50 feet of the door of the meeting hall.

What are they afraid of?

There’s also a suggestion to prohibit speakers from personally criticizing elected Town officials or Town staff. To do so would be an “attack” on their person.

Virginia Beach banned “personal attacks” during the public comment of school board meetings, and the courts ruled the ban unconstitutional.

We’re not suggesting that “anything goes.” The presiding town official has the right to require a certain decorum, but a wise official will differentiate between scathing criticism (allowed) and speech that violates the “habits and manners of civility” (not allowed).

And now we’ve learned of even more foolishness by a town staff that seems to have too much time on its hands. As shown above, the Town has issued an official warning to Old School Cape Charles for advertising its Oyster Roast on telephone poles. Each sign is cause for a $100 fine. [Read more…]

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Town Council Worried about Public Speakers at Meetings

By GEORGE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave

November 12, 2012

The natives are restless, and Cape Charles Town Council is working on doing something about it.

The Council is holding a work session at 6 p.m. Thursday, November 15, to review “citizen participation guidelines” at public meetings.

The work session is open to the public but not to public comment.

As recently as last spring, Council’s biggest worry about public participation was that there was none.

At the March 2012 Council meeting, Vice Mayor Chris Bannon remarked that up until then, almost nobody had attended meetings other than Council and staff.

That was before word got out that Council planned to sell the old school and accompanying property in Central Park to a developer for $10. Town Council meetings have not been the same since.

The most contentious meeting was August 23, when Mayor Dora Sullivan directed police to eject four residents from the room.

Two persons were removed while speaking at the podium, and the other two were taken out for holding up signs. [Read more…]

TOWN COUNCIL
Fireworks, Old School, Hurricane Damage and More

By DORIE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave

November 9, 2012

Cape Charles Town Council had fireworks on the agenda last night, but there were some unscheduled fireworks as well.

For next year’s July 4 fireworks, Code Official Jeb Brady requested two bids, but only one firm was interested — Bay Fireworks from Farmingdale, NY, who put on the show last year. This year’s price is $16,500 — a 10 percent increase over last year’s $15,000.

Prior to last year the Cape Charles Volunteer Fire Company shot off the fireworks, but a recent State law requires a “certified pyro technician.”

Council approved the $16,500 cost, drawing on $10,000 from the Town budget, $5,000 from the Harbor budget, and appealing to the Cape Charles Business Association and Northampton County to make up the rest.

More fireworks were provided by former councilman Bruce Evans, who used public comment time to scold councilman Frank Wendell “for not going along with the rest of Town Council and asking too many questions.” Addressing Wendell, he said,  “You must support issues whether you want to or not.” When Wendell demurred, Evans told him, “Shut-up.”

Mayor Dora Sullivan told Wendell, “I have to take it. You have to take it.”

In earlier public comments,  Deborah Bender warmed up the meeting by chastising Town Council for ignoring residents’ efforts to save the town’s old school and park property from a developer. Bender is the spokesperson for Old School Cape Charles, which advocates using the school for a  community center. [Read more…]

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Planning Commission Sets Public Hearing for Yacht Center

By DORIE SOUTHERN
Cape Charles Wave

November 8, 2012

Cape Charles Planning Commission on November 6 reviewed a conditional use permit application from South Port Investors.

South Port is moving forward with its proposed $5 million Cape Charles Yacht Center at the town harbor, and hopes to have the project underway by spring.

Preliminary work has begun at the site of the former wastewater treatment plant, now leased by the Town to South Port.

Phase one of the project is to install a travel lift for boats up to 75 tons. South Port seeks permission to perform marine engine repairs and to construct a 6-foot-high black chain link fence around the property. [Read more…]