Anonymous letter from local Scribe and Spirit.

I am a local with roots here on our shore as well as a resident in the town of Cape Charles. As of lately, we have seen a lot of developments and a lot of disappointments. Our water although never tasty has never stunk this badly.

I find this unacceptable with the new addition of the water treatment plant.  If it could be tolerated before it certainly cannot be tolerated now.

The dredging of our beaches has expanded our drop off zones and created changes in current. Most locals with children tend to hover at the north end of the beach where the “coves” are located. The children don’t have to go out so far to be in waist-deep water, the sand there is not as extensive as at the southern tip which keeps them further away from the drop off zone.

However this year I have seen numerous tourists fishing there in our coves which deters our children as a fish hook in an eye could lead to serious injury and we have a perfectly good fish pier. The bait does not only lure fish but sharks as well.

Educated people know this. Locals know this as most are watermen.

Aggressive animals are also found on our beaches without regards to the posted laws that state no animal should be on the beach between 9 am and 9 pm. Why doesn’t our local law enforcement monitor our beaches where tons of people gather during the season?

Is the local enforcement for locals or for all?

The greed in the eyes of the town overlooks our safety and comfort. Please uphold the law Cape Charles. Citizens of the town please elect a local,  a from here not a come here.

There can be a good balance between growth and respect, following the law and safety… we must find it. 

After Labor Day, dogs are permitted on the beach during all hours as long as they remain in the owner’s control.

If you have your dog on the beach, or in any public location throughout the Town, please be courteous and pick up the waste. There are a number of doggie waste stations along the boardwalk, in Central Park and around the Town which contains bags for your convenience.

Failure to comply could result in a class 4 misdemeanor charge.

At all times, dogs must remain under the owner’s control and not permitted to run at large.

Northampton’s 1978 high school will be getting some renovations. We just don’t know when, or what will be fixed.

The Board of Supervisors is moving ahead with plans to borrow $25 million to renovate the high school and old middle school.

The school’s both suffer from a series of issues, including cracking walls and leaky ceilings.

A county financial advisor has recommended the Board of Supervisors seek the money through the Virginia Public School Authority.

The loan to make the repairs would increase the county’s overall debt service by a half-million dollars in each of the Fiscal Years 2023 through 2025.

A public hearing will be held on Oct. 8.

The Town currently has vacancies on the Board of Zoning Appeals and the Library Board. If you are a citizen of the Town of Cape Charles and are interested in serving on the Board of Zoning Appeals, Library Board, or any of the Town’s boards, please complete the Application for Boards and Commission and return it to Town Clerk Libby Hume at 2 Plum Street, Cape
Charles, VA 23310 or email it to clerk@capecharles.org.

A number of applications have been received for the Board of Zoning appeals and the Library Board. We are hopeful that interviews will be able to be scheduled in the very near future in order to fill these vacancies. Once a date has been determined, staff will contact the applicants to schedule an interview time.

EXMORE: A “triple play” weekend is coming up in the Exmore Town Park—and it’s all free. The fun and entertainment kick off on Friday evening, September 20, with the Broadwater Academy Chorus, under the direction of Ms. Ally Tarwater, taking the spotlight at 6:30 pm for a free concert that sets the stage for the evening’s main event: a full length professional production of William Shakespeare’s “Measure for Measure” presented in partnership with Boston’s acclaimed Brown Box Theatre Project. 

This classic, politically relevant tragicomedy, under the direction of Kyler Taustin, explores what happens when corruption reaches the highest level of court, and invites the audience to balance the price of principle against vice. “Measure for Measure” begins at 7:30 pm. And is presented outdoors under the stars in the spacious Town Park. 

On Saturday, September 21, the Town Park fills up with more arts and entertainment with the 2^nd Annual Artisans Festival, from 10 am – 3 pm.  Artists and makers of all varieties, from hobbyists to professionals, from across the Eastern Shore, Maryland and Hampton Roads, will be exhibiting and selling their works. Admission is free. 

“The Town of Exmore is proactively focused on bringing quality events and entertainment to our community and making them accessible to everyone; whether residents of the ESVA or visitors,” said Exmore’s Mayor Douglas Greer. “ Our overall goal is to elevate the quality of life and the image of our town, our county and the entire ESVA.”

Mayor Greer adds that the benefits of arts are concrete. Both in terms of strengthening the social fabric of communities and in adding to the economic vitality of the region. “As we build our event calendar larger each year and continue bringing the classics to life with productions such as Free Shakespeare in the Park, we are hoping to establish Exmore as a cultural and entertainment anchor for the Eastern Shore of Virginia.”

The Exmore Town Park is located at 3339 Main Street, within minutes of Exmore’s downtown, and three national hotel chains. For more information, email visitexmore@exmore.org or check the Town of Exmore’s Facebook Page, http://tinyurl.com/y8g6lkuq.

This letter was submitted by Ken Dufty, questioning a secret stakeholder meeting that took place.

I. BACKGROUND 

As you know, on the evening of Monday, September 9, 2019, public meetings were held in all five (5) voting districts in Northampton County to kick off what was billed as a very open, inclusive, and all-encompassing process to update our 2009 Comprehensive Plan. The meetings were facilitated by principals from the Berkely Group, a consulting firm that was hired with taxpayer’s resources to help ensure that the update captured the goals, visions, and aspirations of the majority of Northampton County residents, businesses and investors. 

Those who participated in the District 4 meeting which I attended at the Northampton High School in Eastville were assured by the Berkely facilitator that the update process would include open focus groups, surveys, workshops and public hearings, dispelling any fears that the current attempt to update our 10 year-old Comprehensive Plan would exclude anyone and would be a much more open process than the 2016-17 attempt. If you recall, that process literally barred citizens from being appointed to a hand-picked “stakeholder group”, but were subsequently given permission to merely observe the deliberations by this “closed” and indeed “select few”, but were prevented from participating in the discussions. 

We left the District 4 meeting feeling very relieved that the Berkely associate, when questioned, said the process was not meant to “rewrite” the 2009 Comprehensive Plan, but is designed to merely “update” the 2009 Plan to reflect current demographics and trends with full, unrestricted, and welcoming involvement by all Northampton County residents. Page 1 of 4 

II. DISCOVERY THAT A CLOSED STAKEHOLDER MEETING WAS HELD THE VERY NEXT MORNING WITH NO SOLICITATION OR PUBLIC NOTICE TO THOSE WHO MIGHT WANT TO PARTICIPATE. 

Prior to the start of the public meeting at the Northampton High School, this writer was approached by a former member of the Northampton County Planning Commission who simply asked me if I was invited to the “focus group” that was going to be held “tomorrow”, meaning Tuesday, September 10, 2019. I answered in the negative, not really understanding what she was asking me. 

I really gave it no more thought until another encounter on the afternoon of Tuesday, September 10, 2019 when I ran into the director of a local and very involved environmental group based in Northampton County at the Shore Stop in Nassawadox. This person asked me how I liked the District 4 meeting and then informed me that the meeting she attended that morning had the largest attendance of all the meetings, with attendees numbering over 40 people. But it still did not register with me what she was saying as I had assumed I missed something, and I guessed that she had attended a “focus group” as was referred to the previous night, and I just figured I had missed a notice of that meeting, and felt rather bad that I had been so negligent and not responsive to that notice and failed to notify our 1200+ members of our extended email list of that focus meeting. 

And the next “shoe to drop” came this morning at about 10 am when I received a phone call from another former Northampton County Planning Commissioner who attended the District 5 Comprehensive Plan meeting at the Exmore Town Hall. This well-respected former county official asked me if I attended the “stakeholder” meeting that was convened on the morning of Tuesday, September 10, 2019. He told me that an attendee of that District 5 community meeting questioned County Administrator Charles Kolakowski about the unadvertised meeting that was scheduled for the next morning, and asked who was appointed to this private, closed stakeholder meeting. I was informed by the caller that County Administrator Kolakowski allegedly answered that members had not yet been appointed, reportedfly prompting great skepticism on the part of several members in light of the fact that the “stakeholder” meeting was scheduled to convene about 12 hours after the county-wide district gatherings. 

III.COMPLAINT As you know, the process to rewrite both our 2009 Zoning Ordinance from 2012- 2015 and our Comp Plan from 2016-2018 was one of the most contentious and controversial times that this county has faced for many decades. Two of the most pressing arguments against the disastrous proposed zoning ordinances which would have left this county reeling from poultry infiltration, polluting industry, gutting of affordable housing, large scale development of our pristine waterfronts, 

and unilateral changes mirroring a Virginia Beach or Ocean City model of development were: 1) Failure to fully involve the citizenry in the shaping of this ordinance and deference given to a small handful of developers and real estate magnates over the majority of residents; and 2) the failure of the proposed 2014 zoning ordinance to be consistent with our 2009 Comprehensive Plan, a consistency required by Virginia Law and affirmed numerous times by Virginia’s Supreme Court. 

When we learned that the county was again going to embark on an effort to update or rewrite our Comprehensive Plan, many of those who are active in protecting this county that we know and love feared that it would once again be an attempt to bow to the will and desires of the private interests who appear to be more focused on profiting from their unilateral development plans for this unique county rather than for the greater public good and protection of our natural resources and fragile, unique eco-system. 

Therefore, during and immediately after the September 9, 2019 public information sessions held throughout the county, many of us were incredibly relieved that the secrecy, the scheming, and apparent hidden agendas that were the hallmark and drivers of past and recent attempts to change our Comprehensive Plan and zoning were behind us. 

It is apparent that we may have been wrong, and this is not only incredibly unfortunate, but even more disconcerting when considering that not only were we apparently duped by this “watch the shiny nickel” attempt to obfuscate, but we paid for this alleged deception with our tax dollars. Note here that I do not place blame on the Berkely Group, as they obviously are professional and true to their mission to fully involve the pubic, in my opinion, 

III.RELIEF REQUESTED 

As you know and as outlined to the Circuit Court in my December 28, 2015 suit against Northampton County requesting relief and an injunction against the 2015 Zoning Ordinance that was passed by the lame-duck Northampton County Board of Supervisors on December 8, 2015, a petitioner must exhaust all administrative remedies before making a more formal complaint to an arbitor. 

In that spirit, I am making the following requests which are minimally designed to restore confidence in this Comprehensive Plan update process, a necessary ingredient to ensuring that a final draft of an updated plan is indeed the work- product of a fully engaged and considered constituency in a process that was all inclusive and inviting to all citizens who want to participate in the shaping of their own future, as opposed to having that future decided by a hand-picked few. 

A. IMMEDIATELY DISBAND THE STAKEHOLDER GROUP AND REFORM IT IN A MANNER THAT IS OPEN, INVITING AND INCLUSIVE OF ALL CITIZENS WHO WOULD LIKE TO SERVE, OR IN THE ALTERNATIVE, SOLICIT PARTICIPATION FROM CITIZENS WHO WERE TOTALLY UNAWARE THAT THE STAKEHOLDER GROUP WAS FORMED AND MEETING WITHOUT DUE PUBLIC NOTICE. 

B. IDENTIFY THE MEMBERS OF THE STAKEHOLDER GROUP AND ALSO REVEAL HOW THESE MEMBERS WERE PICKED, BY WHOM AND WHAT WAS THE CRITERIA FOR APPOINTING THEM 

C. REAFFIRM TO THE CITIZENS OF NORTHAMPTON COUNTY 

THAT THIS VERY EXPENSIVE PROCESS TO REWRITE AND OR UPDATE OUR 2009 COMPREHENSIVE PLAN WILL BE, FROM THIS POINT ON, OPEN TO ALL RESIDENTS WHO WANT TO DONATE THEIR TIME TO SERVE ON STAKEHOLDER GROUPS OR OTHER SUCH OFFICIAL ADVISORY BODIES IN THIS MATTER. 

D. REQUEST AND OBTAIN AN APOLOGY FROM COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR CHARLES KOLAKOWSKI, WHO, UPON INFORMATION, REPORT, AND BELIEF MAY NOT HAVE BEENB TRUTHFUL WHEN ASKED AT THE DISTRICT 5 STAKEHOLDER MEETING WHO WAS HAND PICKED TO SERVE ON THIS “STAKEHOLDER GROUP” AND INVITED TO PARTICIPATE DURING THE SEPTEMBER 10, 2019 MEETING. 

IV.Conclusion 

It is nearly surreal to this writer, and I am sure others, to learn that less than 12 hours after publicly-adverstised meetings that were billed as the start of a full and open process to reshape this county’s future, a private and unadvertised meeting of a hand-picked and select “stakeholders” group was convened in direct contravention of the promises and assurances that there would be no such shenanigans which were the hallmark of the last attempt. 

This writer trusts that we can reset the community breaker, if you will, and move forward together in an open, honest, and bright process to ensure that the final plan for Northampton County’s future is one that is the product of all of our citizens, and embraced by your entire constituencies. 

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