Reflections on Cape Charles and the Eastern Shore
Do you have talent? Have you ever wanted to share that talent on the Palace Theatre Stage?
If so, now is your chance. GEAR is holding auditions for the February 9th talent show, I played the Palace, this Sunday at 3:00.
Whether you sing, dance, act, read or play, please come and audition. All ages are welcome!
Time: 3:00
Where:Palace Theatre, 305 Mason Ave, Cape Charles, Virginia 23310
Public · Hosted by Historic Palace Theatre Cape Charles and 2 othersInterestedGoingShare
This Thursday, 1/17/19, is Shore Christian Academy’s Winter Open House. It’s never too early to think about the 2019-2020 school year. We have great things to offer ~ affordable tuition, small student/teacher ratio (classrooms), strong curriculum, a dedicated teaching staff, and a loving, safe environment for children PRE K 3 through 8th grade.
Call us today for a visit. Come see us this Thursday in action.
Call 757-442-9791 today for more information or to set up an appointment.
The long wet season from El Nino brought record
The bay’s health fell to a D+ in a biennial report card released Monday — a decline from its previous C- grade.
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation called its assessment “a grim reality” that stresses the importance of stopping the Trump administration from rolling back regulations it says have helped the bay recover in recent years.
The Chesapeake had earned the C- in 2016, in the last edition of the foundation’s bay report card. That was the bay’s best grade ever in an assessment the foundation launched in 1998.
But for 2018, its score declined for the first time in a decade.
As many of us know, during the summer months, trying to get a table can be a long and excruciating process.
To alleviate that, the Shanty is looking to expand. Jon Dempster submitted a proposal to expand on the northwest side by some 800 feet.
The proposed addition will be located directly adjacent to the existing three to four-foot fence adjacent to the existing walkway. Existing mechanical units will be moved to the back (east) side of the addition (away from the existing walkway), providing a visual screen between the walkway and the mechanical units that
There is a gravel driveway where loading and unloading currently take place, which will be partially removed with the proposed addition. The existing transformers are proposed to remain in their current location.
Harbor Development Certificate was approved with the following
conditions:
Staff will present the required informational summary report to
The ANPDC, after acquiring grants to investigate this project, is lobbying both counties to consider building a household hazardous waste collection facility to be located in Painter. The new site would allow citizens to get rid of materials such as old paint and solvents.
At Tuesday’s Regular
Chairman Murray also expressed concern about the costs associated with this project and indicated they have not been fully worked out. The resolution was tabled until legal and financial issues were addressed.
Reverse angle parking has been a thorn in the side of Cape Charles for a few years now, and most of us are still trying to understand what benefits if any it offers. The Town’s party line has been that the intent of reverse angle parking is to provide a safer method of parking by having the parked car pull out instead of back out of the spot. Is that really true?
Jim Pruitt, Police Chief for the Town, has stated that there is no evidence that reverse angle parking has decreased traffic accidents related to parking on Mason Avenue.
As Planner Zach noted in his report to the Planning Commission, the Comprehensive Plan specifically states that reverse angle parking should be used in conjunction with complete street design, “however Mason Avenue is not a complete street design (a bike path is not provided between the parking spots and the driving lane). The reason behind the Town providing reverse angled parking was not a response to safety concerns (relative to the then-existing parallel parking), but a response to the desire for more parking located in the downtown area.
The Committee proposes changing the reverse angle parking where it is currently located to front end parking to increase user-friendliness.
The Parking Ad Hoc Committee, after meeting for several months, has made the following recommendations relative to parking in Cape Charles:
1. Replace reverse angle parking with front end parking where reverse angle parking is currently located, and change the angle from a 60-degree angle to a 45-degree angle
2. Add parallel parking stripes on the north side of Mason Avenue between Fig Street and Peach Street
3. Add parallel parking stripes on the north side of Mason Avenue from Harbor Street to Bay Avenue
4. Install better directional signage for the Strawberry Plaza parking lot
5. Add one handicapped parking space each in the zero block and 100 block of Mason Avenue
After the changes, Pond noted in his report that the Town will lose approximately seven to nine parking spaces by changing to 45-degree, pull-in angled parking where there currently exists 60-degree reverse-angle parking.
There are ways to create additional parking spaces. From the staff report:
There are many existing curb cuts between Peach Street and Fig Street that are not currently in use. Staff contacted the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), and VDOT suggested the parking striping plan submitted to them should show the existing curb cuts and, if parking is shown blocking the curb cuts, the plan should show how access to the adjacent private properties will be maintained. Based off of this information from VDOT, it seems the Town may be able to provide parallel parking that blocks the curb cuts that are not currently in use. However, Google Map imagery shows the parallel parking that existed in 2014 did not block the curb cuts.
VDOT may have changed their policy since then, or perhaps an effort to show where access would be to adjacent private properties was not provided with the application, but since they had to work around the curb cuts in 2014, which is the most recent parallel parking in the subject area, is worth noting. If the Town provides parallel parking spots that do not cover the curb cuts between Peach Street and Fig Street, the Town would add approximately 38 spaces.
If the Town does cover the curb cuts, the Town would add approximately eight additional parking spaces, which would total 46 parallel parking spaces between Peach Street and Fig Street. The number of parallel parking spaces from Harbor Street to Bay Avenue on the north side would add approximately 18 spaces.
In an effort to wipe some of the egg off its face after the
At Tuesday’s meeting, Susan McGhee addressed the Board on the Planning Commission’s request that the former proposed zoning amendment definition of a watch-house be stricken.
Supervisor Duer noted that under state code unless a structure has running and hot water and heat, as well as sewer, it should not be permitted.
It was the consensus of the Board that the current watch-house language in the code could create a loophole, allowing it to be used for other uses such as vacation and event rentals.
John Bullard plays five-string banjo, which you might expect from a southerner. But there’s a gothic twist: he plays classical music. If you think about it, it’s actually the perfect southern art—a gentleman playing classical music on a banjo. One minute he’s bush-hogging a field on his John Deere tractor, the next he’s on his porch playing a Bach partita. John Bullard has gained international attention for his work in developing and transcribing classical repertoire. His recordings have been featured in several feature films. John is joined by Markus Compton on piano. They will perform Robert Schumann’s Three Romances (O. 94) and other works from John’s latest CD recording.
John Bullard, accompanied by Markus Compton on piano will be at the Historic Palace Theatre on
You’ve never heard banjo played quite like this before. Don’t miss out on John Bullard and his 5 string banjo classical twist;
The Historic Palace Theatre * 305 Mason Ave. Cape Charles, VA 23310 * 757-331-4327
The old general store in Craddockville has been a meeting place for Eastern Shore of Virginia residents for more than a century, but we all now know it as The Chair Place, an open jam session every Thursday night from 8 till 10:30.
If you have trouble
Special Opinion, sent in anonymously by A Friend.
From Aristotle’s Politics, (translated from the Greek by Spencer Klavan, (JUNE 22, 2018). https://pjmedia.com/andrewklavan/aristotle-build-the-wall/
“[A] peculiarly relevant passage about whether a city-state should build a “beautiful” wall to keep out invaders.”
“Some people say city-states that are trying for virtue shouldn’t have walls, but those people’s beliefs are out-of-date — they can see proof of that for themselves by looking at what happens to other city-states that put on that kind of display. True enough: when your enemies are evenly matched and similar in number, it’s not the best thing to rely on the strength of your walls for safety. But sometimes there are just too many attackers for human beings to fight back with virtue alone. And so if we want to be safe from disaster and embarrassment, we have to make up our minds that the best thing for war is to have the strongest, most secure walls — especially with all the new discoveries in weapons and technology that make siege warfare so much more accurate. Asking city-states not to put up walls is like trying to make your territory an easy target by flattening all its hilly terrain, or like not even putting up walls around private citizens’ houses because you think the people who live there will become cowards. And we shouldn’t forget: city-states that put up walls can use them in two ways — they can act as if they had walls, and as if they didn’t. City-states without walls can’t do that. So in fact people shouldn’t just put up walls around their city states: they should also work hard to make sure that those walls are as beautiful as the city-state deserves, and that they meet every military need — the old ones and the latest ones. Attackers work hard to find out how they can gain the upper hand, and defenders should work just has hard at defense — they should use state-of-the-art inventions; and they should study and try to invent new technology of their own. After all, people don’t even try to attack opponents who are well prepared to begin with.”