With the holiday season upon us, the Town of Cape Charles is once again ready to send out those joyful, yearly tax bills. Along with this seasonal joy, another humiliating kick in the crotch will be when we receive our utility bills. What used to a be a marginal annoyance has become a real burden on many in our community, especially those on a fixed income. The exorbitant increase we have witnessed over the last few years is the direct result of the failed policy of the Town, of both the legislative and administrative bodies. In this case, the rate hike is to pay debt service on the Town’s misguided sewer plant.
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Archives for November 2015
AD-HOC Emergency Care Committee requests funds for pilot programs
The Northampton AD-HOC Emergency Care Committee is requesting that the county Board of Supervisors submit a planning grant to the Virginia Department of Housing community development or the Rural Development Division of the USDA for the study and development of a telecommunications plan focused on the placement of wireless cell towers and the data services involved with them. The grant is meant to address public safety telecommunications needs for the Sheriff’s office and EMS, fire services and the regional 911 commission to ensure coverage for private carrier needs, including cellular and broadband coverage. If the plan turns out to be regional, the committee also wishes to include Accomac county. The committee also recommends that the county identify federal and state grant sources that could be used to implement the plan.
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Community Based Paramedicine: can it fill the medical gap?
With construction of the new Riverside Shore Memorial Hospital in Onley on schedule to open this time next year, the reality of the hospital moving north to Melfa is starting to sink in. While Northampton Supervisor Granville Hogg and the AD-HOC Emergency Care Committee grapple with how to adjust to this new reality, the use of community based paramedicine has not been discussed as an option for the lower shore.
Community paramedicine (CP) is a new model of community-based health care that leverages paramedics, using them in ways outside their customary emergency response and transport roles. Community paramedicine attempts to posit a model that more efficiently uses emergency care resources while enhancing medical access for typically underserved populations like the lower eastern shore. These programs usually use existing relationships and collaborations between EMS and other health care and social service providers. Where community paramedicine may help our community, is that it may improve access to, as well as the quality of care while also reducing costs.
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Christmas in New York Dec 19th and 20th: dancers working hard
With opening night quickly approaching, actors, dancers, set designers and the directors are beginning feel the pressure, as well getting energized as this winter’s show finally begins to take shape. Christmas in New York promises to be the perfect holiday treat, with numbers that take the audience along from downtown to Central Park, Brooklyn and even Queens and Broadway!
Mysterious Harbor interview committee formed
Fourteen applications for the vacant Harbor Master position have been received so far. The Town has established a so-called ‘Interview Committee’ which will be responsible for the interview and hiring recommendation. However, no one seems to know who is sitting on the committee. The Mirror accosted councilman Frank Wendell on the sidewalk, and he stated that he had no idea there even was a committee until just a few days earlier. Wendell also noted that he did not know who was on the committee, but said he would contact the Mayor to find out. Wendell eventually responded to the Mirror on Saturday the 28th, stating that he contacted the Mayor, and that Proto also had no idea who was on the committee, only that Town Manager Manuel had formed it.
Sources tell that Mirror that they also have no idea who is on the committee, but that Joan Natali is probably on it, since she is on every other committee in Cape Charles. The interview committee did attend a webinar Friday on proper interviewing techniques.
Blithering Idiots: Town puts Dolphin in Trash
Last week, Town staff attended a webinar hosted by Virginia Municipal League (VML) on Transportation and Mobility, as well as a supervisor training webinar hosted by Virginia Municipal League Insurance Program (VMLIP) on termination, furlough, reduction in force (RIF), and layoff practices, and to round off a hectic work week, they participated in a social media webinar.
Note: The Virginia Municipal League Insurance Program is the entity that funded the Town’s hiring of two high priced law firms to fight a citizens group that challenged the selling of the old school to a developer for $10. The VML also holds classes which instruct town’s how to deal (not) with citizen Freedom of Information requests. Anyone who has ever FOIA’d the town to try and pry information out of them realizes that those classes are having a chilling effect on our local democracy.
While Bob Panek’s protégé, Town Manager Brent Manuel was engaging in these frivoulous activities, the Cape Charles dolphin spent the holidays languishing in the town trash pile:
La Mer Design: Here to help tell your story
Our town of Cape Charles is quietly becoming a town of unique shops, but being a fan of design, one of our favorites is La Mer Design, tucked neatly away in a gorgeous space at 215 Mason. With the holiday season in full swing, owners Nicolle Isaacs Smith and Tammye Delk Van Clief took a few moments to talk design and influence with the Cape Charles Mirror.
Mirror: Where did you get the idea to start La Mer?
Nicole: The idea for La Mer came out of two friends that liked spending time together, which was at the first house, which was kind of a design think tank for us. Two best friends wanting to do something together.
Mirror: You have such a great shop, it has its own feel, its own aesthetic. What is the design influence for La Mer?
Nicole: Our design philosophy is really about juxtapositioning, mixing the old with the new, contemporary with a vintage look, with a little of our flair adding to it; We like the mixing of mid-century and traditional. Our main goal is to create something that is authentic and real.
Mirror: As far as clientele, who would you consider to be the main ones, do you do design for people’s homes, or is it more people coming into the shop to pick things out?
Nicole: We do design in people’s houses – we can do it from the ground up, or we can do it right from their homes as it sits. We can design and work with what you have. Our main thing is telling your story, revealing who you are through what you have. It’s not like you have to come in and buy a lot of expensive things, we can work with what you have. Our main goal is revealing the story of the client. The important thing is that you have things that you really love, and they will always go together. It is important that your home, that it tells your story, reveals who you are.
Mirror: What is your goal for the future? Where do you see the company going?
Nicole: For the next season, we would like to have more design that goes beyond the retail. We love the retail part of the business, but one thing we would like to do, as far as telling our story…we sometimes feel that people sometimes think we are expensive, or too expensive, and that really is not the case. I’m very down to earth, and I would love for people to see us in a little bit different way, then just this expensive retail store. We are really here to help you, to help reveal your story, even if you just need some help decorating for an event, or the holidays. We’d like to be seen as more approachable on the design side. On the retail side, we are going to hone in on the vendors that work best for us, as far as what we are trying to do. We’d like to offer very authentic things, that…we really want to be able to help the people of the community. That’s why we started La Mer, that’s what it’s all about.
Riverside hosts Grocery Shopping with Diabetes classes
Festive Friday a Huge Success: Next Event Dec 4th
This Black Friday, the sidewalks were filled with shoppers, and the outside tables of the Cape Charles Coffee house were at capacity. In the evening, music filled the air, and many folks were out enjoying the beautiful night air as shops stayed open to 8:00. The Palace showed the film White Christmas, which was a perfect way to send off our first Festive Friday. This first event was an unqualified success, and there are three more Festive Friday’s on the way. Next Friday, December 4th, Peg Volk’s Corn Funk Review will take the Strawberry Street Stage from 5:00 to 8:00, shops will again be open late, and the film at the Palace will be ‘Elf’.
Upland dredge site filling up fast
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