Beginning at 10 p.m. Tuesday, September 22 and continuing until midnight, the Town of Cape Charles Utility Department will be conducting a system flush of the water system in all districts of the Town.

You are cautioned not to use water at that time. Sediment could be drawn into the residence water lines. When done, the system should quickly return to normal.

For questions, please call Scottie Neville at (540) 845-9269.

 Improper notice plus arguments against HRSD have been filed int Northampton.  Ken Dufty filed with both Courts, hand-delivered to Northampton Clerk yesterday, and mailed to Accomack Court Thursday

Dufty points out in the filing, that after years of in-depth study, the town of Exmore has concluded that going with HRSD to manage our solid waste could cost ratepayers in the town more than $80/month, plus water and trash.  Those costs could rise 9% each year for the first 4, then 7 for the next for, then 6 per year after that. 

Exmore concluded that HRSD is too expensive and the town would lose control of its waste stream and billing.   

As Northampton County continues to weigh joining the Hampton Roads Sanitation District, Exmore citizen Ken Dufty has also been weighing in on the problems this could bring to the Eastern Shore.

The way the agreement reads, the locality will be charged with building out their sewer system at their own cost (in Exmore’s case, they would have to borrow about $3-4 million), and then after the infrastructure was built (leaving the bill with the residents), it would have to be signed over to HRSD. 

This leaves the question as to how that would work with the lenders….let’s see, they lend you $4 million to replace and expand your sewer pipes, and once it is done, you sign that asset over to a political subdivision that assumes no debt.  Hmmm.   On top of that, a regional sewer of this size and import will most definitely drain our aquifer, encouraging large water users like major hotels, motels, eateries, industries and the like to drive a stake here because there is no environmental restrictions and costs regarding mass drainfields and Rapid Infiltration Basins that are not only costly to build and operate, they require a lot of land that would otherwise not have to be acquired if there was a pipe that would gather all that sewage that would be confined to our local water cycle, pumping it north to the Onancock Creek where it will in large part dewater our aquifer. 

Exmore calculates that if they are forced to join HRSD, the monthly bill will start out at $82/month, going up 9% every year, down to 7% every year after 2025, compounded mind you, down to 6% every year for the rest of the decade.                   

The Courts will be deciding this issue after the public hearing on October 2, 2020, with the morning session in Accomack County District Court and in the afternoon here in Northampton County.  If the courts find that bringing HRSD here does not benefit the SHore, under HRSD’s language, they SHALL (not may) deny the application.   Note here that HRSD’s manager twice in public information sessions said he hopes the courts deny it.

While supplies last, no appointment needed.
 
As part of its commitment to building a healthier community, Riverside Health System will administer free flu shots throughout the regions it serves in Newport News, Hampton, Williamsburg, the Eastern Shore and the Middle Peninsula.  
 
Free drive-thru and walk-up flu shots will be available for ages 14 and over while supplies last at the following locations:
 
Thursday, Sept. 24, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. – Drive-Thru and Outdoor (park and walk-up) Clinic
Riverside Medical Offices
856 J. Clyde Morris Blvd., Suite A, in Newport News
 
Saturday, Oct. 3, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. – Drive-Thru Clinic
Riverside Medical Office Building – Hampton
850 Enterprise Parkway in Hampton
 
Monday, Oct. 5, 1 to 5 p.m. – Drive-Thru Clinic
Riverside Cape Charles Medical Center
216 Mason Ave. in Cape Charles
 
Wednesday, Oct. 7, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. – Outdoor Clinic (park and walk-up)
Riverside Wellness & Fitness Center – Peninsula
12650 Jefferson Ave. in Newport News
 
Thursday, Oct. 8, 1 to 5 p.m. – Drive-Thru Clinic
Eastern Shore Family Medicine
10085 William F. Bernart Circle in Nassawadox
 
Wednesday, Oct. 14, 1 to 5 p.m. – Drive-Thru Clinic
Riverside Shore Medical Center at Metompkin
17385 Lankford Highway in Parksley
 
Saturday, Oct. 17, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. – Drive-Thru Clinic
Newport News Medical Office Building by Riverside Regional Medical Center
500 J. Clyde Morris Blvd. in Newport News
 
Thursday, Oct. 22, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. – Drive-Thru Clinic
Riverside Walter Reed Hospital
7519 Hospital Dr. in Gloucester
 
Wednesday, Oct. 28, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. – Drive-Thru Clinic
Riverside Doctors’ Hospital Williamsburg
1500 Commonwealth Ave. in Williamsburg
 
In light of COVID-19, masking will be required at all times at the clinic.
 
Temperature checks and additional safety screenings will be required prior to any patient receiving a flu shot.
 
Patients must confirm they have none of the following symptoms: fever, cough, sore throat, chills, muscle pain, loss of taste or smell, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, fatigue, headache, congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting, or diarrhea.
 
Patients who are sick or show any of the symptoms noted above should contact their physician before getting the flu vaccination.
 
In addition, patients who are under evaluation for COVID-19, waiting on viral test result, diagnosed with COVID-19 and not yet cleared to discontinue isolation, or have had prolonged contact with anyone with confirmed COVID-19 should also contact their physician before getting the flu vaccination.
 
The flu, short for influenza, is a contagious respiratory illness caused by a virus. It can cause mild to severe illness. Serious outcomes of flu infection can result in hospitalization or death. Some people, such as older adults, young children, and people with certain health conditions, are at high risk for serious flu complications.
 
While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that the flu season is unpredictable and constantly changing, with the severity and length of each season changing from year to year, flu season in the U.S. generally runs through the fall and winter.
 
The unknowns of the season underscore the importance to get vaccinated, the CDC reports, and take every day preventative measures to prevent spreading the virus, including staying away from sick people, washing hands frequently and staying home from work and school when sick to prevent exposing others.
 
Getting vaccinated before flu activity begins helps provide protection once flu season starts. It takes roughly two weeks following the vaccination for the body’s immune system to respond to provide the protection.
 
For more information about Riverside Health System and the 2020 flu shot clinic series, visit www.riversideonline.com/flu.

1254: Birth of Venetian explorer Marco Polo (d.1324).

1715: Death of French Benedictine monk Dom Pierre Perignon (b.1638), widely credited with inventing the process of producing sparkling wines in the Champagne province of France.

1741: German-born English composer George Frederic Handel completes his magnificent oratorio Messiah, after a mere 24 days of composition. 

1776: Guarding the northernmost portions of Alta California, Spain establishes the Presidio of San Francisco on the tip of land that borders the entrance to San Francisco Bay. It remained in Army hands until the BRAC rolled through. The facility was turned over to the National Parks Service in 1994 as mixed use historic, recreational, and commercial sector of the City. One if Presidio’s distinguishing features was its lack of a perimeter fence.

1789: Representatives from the Several States, in congress, after over two years of intense discussion and negotiation, sign The Constitution of the United States in Philadelphia, and send the document to the States themselves for ratification.

1793: George Washington lays the first cornerstone for the capitol building in the District of Columbia.

1812: A week after his victory over the Russian army at Borodino, Napoleon Bonaparte and his Grande Armee enter Moscow and take possession of the Kremlin.

1812: A day after Napoleon’s entry into Moscow, a series of fires begin just after midnight, spreading and building into a three day firestorm that consumes nearly ¾ of the mostly wooden city. The French evacuate until the fire is contained, but remain in occupation of the Russian capital.

1814: Georgetown lawyer and amateur poet Francis Scott Key, held overnight as a prisoner aboard HMS Tonnant in Baltimore Harbor, observes with trepidation the all-night British bombardment of Fort McHenry. Not knowing the outcome of the American defense from the British assault, he waits on deck, and as the dawn breaks, the 15-star flag of the United States remains aloft over the fort. He scratches down a few notes, and after returning home, completes a four-stanza poem called The Defense of Fort McHenry, set to the tune of a popular English drinking song. We know it, of course, as the Star Spangled Banner

1835: HMS Beagle arrives in the Galapagos Islands with naturalist Charles Darwin aboard. 

1850: As part of the Compromise of 1850 (DLH 1/29) Congress passes the Fugitive Slave Act, which holds that authorities in non-slave states are obligated to arrest runaways and return them to their owners. The act had the not unexpected effect of further hardening the sectional lines in a nation already bitterly divided over the morality of Southern slavery, and it set up free blacks in the Northern states for kidnapping and sale to Southern slave markets. Note: I recently finished the 1853 documentary book “12 Years a Slave,” by the New York born freeman Solomon Northup of Saratoga Springs. If I had any lingering doubts about the pernicious effects of chattel slavery, this book knocked them out of me. Hard. As soon as you start reading it, you’ll not only recognize the lugubrious 19^th Century prose that makes it a kind of time capsule, you’ll also recognize the hard truths of the story as the narrative unfolds.

1862: As part of the plan exposed by Robert E. Lee’s “lost dispatch”, a Confederate detachment under Stonewall Jackson captures the town of Harper’s Ferry, Virginia, snagging with it a huge number of U.S. forces (12,419 Federals), the largest ever capture of American soldiers until the Japanese overwhelmed Bataan in 1942.

1862: The Union Army of the Potomac halts Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s first foray into the northern states a the Battle of Antietam (Sharpsburg), the single bloodiest day of combat in American history, with 23,000 casualties (10,000 Union, 13,000 Confederate).

1875: Birth of James C. Penny (d.1971), who opened his first dry-goods store in Kemmerer, Wyoming, in 1902. In 1940, visiting one of his stores in Iowa, he trained a young employee named Sam Walton how to tie a package with a minimal amount of ribbon. 

1891: Birth of Karl Donitz (d.1980), German submariner and intellect behind the highly effective “Wolfpack” strategy in World War II. Donitz had the dubious distinction of being named in Hitler’s will as his successor as head of the Third Reich; as such, he issued the surrender order to the German armed forces after a week in office, carefully working the timing of the event so that the bulk of the German armed forces would fall under the control of the Western Allies instead of the Soviet Union.

1901: Death of President William McKinley (b.1843), felled by an assassin’s bullet .

1905: Birth of Swedish screen goddess Greta Garbo (d.1990). Even as the most famous face in the movies, she was remarkably reticent about the demands of off-screen publicity. You may remember that she was famous (or infamous) for a line in the movie Grand Hotel about what it was she really wanted in life. The answer (with a husky Swedish accent) that entered the popular mind was “I vaunt to be alone.” After making her last movie in 1941, she remarked, “I never said ‘I want to be alone,’ I only said, ‘I want to be let alone.’ There is all the difference.” Although she was never a recluse, she lived a very private life from her Central Park suite until her death at age 84.

1916: After two and a half months of unrelenting combat in the Battle of the Somme (DLH 7/1 and Addendum), British forces introduce the “tank” to the battlefield. The machine is impervious to barbed wire and rifle & machine gun fire, but is very slow moving (3 mph) and notoriously unreliable. 

1917: The Russian parliament officially declares itself a republic. 

1919: Congress officially authorizes U.S. veterans of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), fresh from their victorious return from the Great War, to incorporate The American Legion as a veterans support group under Title 36 U.S.C.

1929: Birth of Sir Stirling Moss (d.2020), often referred to as the “greatest driver never to win the World Driving Championship.” 

1908: On an Army demonstration flight at Fort Meyer, Virginia, the Wright Brothers’ first commercial aircraft Model A, piloted by Orville Wright, crashes when one of the propellers breaks, slicing a guy wire and severing the rear control surfaces of the machine. Wright is severely injured by the plunge into the ground, and his passenger, Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge dies, becoming the world’s first aviation fatality. 

1939: First broadcast by Nazi propagandist Lord Haw Haw, who railed against British combat and diplomatic activities across the European continent.

1940: The most active day of the Battle of Britain– the first day of Germany’s final “decisive” air assault on England.

1945: Opening assault in the brutal Battle of Pelileu in the South Pacific. 

1948: The North American Aviation F-86 Sabrejet sets a world speed record of 671 mph. The design, particularly the swept-back wings, was derived from captured German aerodynamic research dating from 1940.

1950: After nearly four months of catastrophic defeats and retreats at the hands of communist North Korea’s juggernaut, and with the entirety of his active forces engaged holding onto the Pusan perimeter by their fingernails, General of the Army Douglas MacArthur orders up his final reserves (1^st Marine Division and Army 7^th Infantry Division) to make an amphibious landing at Inchon, Korea, the west coast port city just a few miles from the conquered capital city of Seoul, and hundreds of miles behind the North Korean front to the south. The invasion, timed to arrive between thirty foot (true) tide cycles and covering three separated landing areas, caught the NORKS completely unawares and overwhelmed by the naval and military power suddenly thrust into the strategic heart of the peninsula. The attack broke the back of North Korean logistics support to their overstretched and exhausted forces battling at Pusan, and within weeks the UN forces began rounding up over 135,000 NORK prisoners, followed by dramatically launchng into a counter-attack that pushed the communist armies all the way back the border with China on the Yalu river. MacArthur’s strategic sense and gambler’s timing overcame strong opposition from USN and Army leadership and gave the UN (make no mistake, it was overwhelmingly a US battle) forces a military and moral victory at the point when it appeared all was lost. 

1970: Death of guitarist Jimmie Hendrix (b.1942).

1970: Jordan’s King Hussein declares martial law in response to an attempted fedeyeen coup against his Hashemite throne. The conspirators, organized around Yassir Arafat’s Fatah movement, vow revenge over their failure and form a new militant group known as Black September Organization in memory of this day. Two years later, the Black September kidnapped and assassinated eleven members of the Israeli Olympic team in Munich, ensuring that the terms “Palestinian” and “terrorist” would be forever linked. You might consider it ironic in the extreme that the group’s first attacks were against the internationally recognized Palestinian state of Jordan, but that would mean that you would be using logic to evaluate the situation.

1975: Kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst is arrested a year after her inclusion on the FBI’s Most Wanted list.

1977: Death of the great bel canto soprano, Maria Callas (b.1923).