May 22, 2025

8 thoughts on “Citizens Rattle Town Council’s Cage at Townhall

  1. What a story to start the day with!

    It truly makes me wonder if we are all living inside a National Lampoon story here.

    I especially loved that exchange between Hozey and Frank Wendell – some great lines there, alright.

  2. The current explanation of the financial benefits – the ACCURATE rate projection should VAW purchase the plants, and the ACCURATE costs for the Town of Cape Charles to keep the plants for the next 15 years DO NOT YET EXIST. The Town released a teeny-tiny bit of information (https://www.capecharles.org/agendaView.aspx?aid=11976&categoryid=11497) that has no meaningful financial analyses. Instead, the document simply shows a scorecard comparing various attributes for the two options (sell or keep the plants): rates, water quality, impact on annexation agreement…)
    I asked about for the 10-year operating and capital cost projections for the Town keeping the plant – and was told that they don’t have that kind of specific data. Translation: the financial projection for the option to keep the plant is has a very low level of confidence – in other words, the Town is using inaccurate data to make a huge financial, town-quality-of-life, and political decision.

    Adding to the complexity of this decision is the “WIFFIM” factors: too often the communications from the Town sound like advocacy – instead of informing stakeholders; VAW told us all about what they’re doing for their current customers and how wonderful life would be if they were here – instead of understanding the range of features and benefits that really mattered to a small town trying to hang on to the small-town spirit, the employees of the water and wastewater plants who believe that VAW will dramatically increase their pay and benefits, and the elephant in the room: the Town refuses to talk about the estimated revenue that would be received, how they would spend it (how about a “rainy day fund?”) and, most importantly, “WHO WOULD BE MAKING THE DECISION ON HOW TO SPEND THE FUNDS?’ [I’m not a resident of Cape Charles, but it seems to me that the folks serving on town council will have the loudest, and perhaps only voice in how the town spends the funds. Think about who is serving and the next elections…]
    The bottom line: this is not about how much you pay for water – or the qualify of your water – it’s about holding the town council accountable for a defensible financial analysis of the option to sell – and defensible financial analyses of the option to outsource the operation and maintenance and collaborate with HRSD. The Town Council, first and foremost, had a fiduciary responsibility to not just the residents, but to all of the stakeholders here – to insist on rational, defensible decision-making.

    Note: Thanks so much for adding this much needed analysis. We did not have the time or space for this level of important detail.

  3. R.J. Nutter, Esq. (Virginia Beach, Va.) was both counsel to the Town and Brown and Root when the Annexation Petition was submitted and successfully defended the County’s attack on the Town for entering into Agreements with Brown & Root. He is still alive. Bruce Jones, Esq. (retired – but still alive) negotiated the Town & County Settlement Agreements as required by the Special Annexation Court of the Supreme Court of Virginia, was both the County of Northampton’s counsel and the Commonwealth of Virginia’s representative located in Northampton County. Judge Cela Burger (Former Town Manager during the long period of public discourse on the controversy between Foster ( the Bay Creek developer and Declarant to the Property Owners’s Association) is still alive. Former Mayor Edward A. Parry , III, mayor of the Town who negotiated and signed the documents for the Town regarding the negotiations for the Utility issues, is still alive, as is Steve Bennet who was intimately involved. Even Bob Panel, Staff Consultant to the Town of Cape Charles, who was also directly involved during the early to late decade of the 2000 to 2010 is still alive. They all have very precise details on the serious obligations negotiated and resolved regarding the needed (State demanded upgrades to the Town’s utility system) and the anticipated expansion for the Bay Creek development – permitted to build 3,000 housing Units within the total Town’s Ordnance of 1993 – the PUD. I do not believe any of them have lost the ability to speak or be asked to speak on their knowledge of the Annexation Petition, the various documents presented to the Special Annexation Court and to the Circuit Court for the County of Northampton, which should provide adequate insight on the obligations of Preserve Communities to pay for the upgrades and expansions required.

  4. In 2008 Virginia American Water (VAW) was permitted to raise rates by nearly 9% from the State Corporation Commission. In 2010, VAW received approval for an additional 14% hike, which was followed by rate increases of 6% in 2011, 10% in 2015, and 3% in 2018, for a total of more than $16 million in rate increases over a ten-year span. Most recently, in 2021, VAW requested to raise rates another $14 million or roughly 28 percent across their serviced districts. The SCC has yet to issue a final order on the current proposal. But due to recent legislation that allows private water utilities to consolidate rates across serviced municipalities, there is little doubt, that if sold, Cape Charles will feel the increases.

    1. THEY ARE A CORPORATION, are they not?

      They have STOCKHOLDERS, do they not?

      Those STOCKHOLDERS DEMAND ROI, do they not?

      And let us face it, ROI does not come from outer space somewhere.

      It comes from the rate payers.

      So you are nothing more than future cash cows waiting to be milked!

      SUCK IT UP!

      It’s the AMERICAN WAY, don’t you know!

      Find someone weak and powerless and then feed off of them and feed good.

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