Ending several months of slander and backstabbing, Town Council voted to not remove Ed Wells from the Historic District Review Board (HDRB).

Mr. Wells’ annoyed and acerbic reactions to the stupidity that surrounds Historic Cape Charles (oxymoron) led to complaints by citizens. Wells apparently hurt a few feelings while attempting to administer the governmental dumpster fire also known as the Historic District Guidelines.

A member of the HDRB alerted the Mirror about the effort to remove Wells weeks ago, however, most of this business eventually took place behind the closed doors of Executive Session.

For the last several months, backroom efforts have been at play attempting to tarnish and slander one of the Town’s volunteers. This effort paid off as Mr. Wells was brought before the Town Council on Thursday, his termination from the HDRB on the docket.

The recommendation of town staff was, “Move to remove Mr. Edward Wells from the Town of Cape Charles Historic District Review Board, effective immediately”

The folly began as Councilman Andrew Follmer made a motion to terminate. Follmer was immediately confronted by Councilman Paul Grossman and was asked point-blank why he made the motion. Follmer just sat there, staring, but not answering the question. Grossman continued to press, “I need to hear a reason why you made this motion?” Follmer eventually mumbled something about the executive session, but Grossman wasn’t buying it.

Instead, Grossman noted that the town has no guidelines for dealing with this situation, and instead offered a methodology used in the corporate world–that is, address the behavior, offer alternatives, but give the person the opportunity to make changes. Essentially, he pointed out that Wells was not offered due process in regards to his termination. Councilwoman Tammy Holloway eventually agreed with Grossman.

Councilman Andy Buchholz also addressed Follmer. He asked if he ever even bothered to meet with Wells in person before going after him. The answer was no. Buchholz continued that he, on the other hand always made time to meet with people, no matter how busy, and that making time for citizens was a key part of the job.

Follmer apparently had no firsthand evidence but was basing the motion on something he had heard from other citizens. Grossman countered that he actually attended HDRB meetings and had never witnessed what Wells was being accused of. Grossman inferred that he was basing his judgment on fact, not hearsay.

Mayor Dize mentioned that he had been in email contact with Mr. Wells regarding his behavior. The Mirror has requested copies of those emails from the Mayor but has not received anything. For transparency, citizens need to see how the Mayor was dealing with the Wells case.

Curiously, interim Councilwoman Ellen O’Brien initially seconded Follmer’s motion to sack Wells, but then gave a prolonged talk on how the Town needs to support volunteers such as Wells, and not attack them. She noted that the Town, “Needs to be better”.

For Follmer’s part, after being taken to task by the rest of Town Council, he somewhat cravenly voted against his very own motion.

For the time being, Wells is still a member of the board, but questions linger. This treatment of Wells appears to be similar to what happened to former Public Works Administrator Dave Fauber. Fauber’s $4 million dollar suit against the town is still pending.

The vote to not give Wells the sack was unanimous.

A new STAR Transit bus shelter will coming to Cape Charles.  The shelter will be installed on railroad property on the south side of Mason Avenue at the turn to Fig Street, adjacent to Rayfield’s parking lot.  This location will provide ADA accessibility (Americans with Disabilities Act) where individuals with disabilities can sit to help accommodate their needs much better than traditional seating.

The contract is awarded and installation should be completed in about a month.  This is a cooperative project among the three parties, with Star Transit providing the shelter, Canonie Atlantic providing the location and the Town providing installation.

A Maryland father and son duo started a 12-day 200 mile journey down the Chesapeake Bay since July 16. They are offering support for us, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency, to raise awareness about worldwide pandemic hunger and encourage others to do creative things to help others.  Friday, they made 100 miles kayaking down the Chesapeake Bay (half-way there!). It’s also likely that the son (13-years-old) is the youngest to do this feat. They will conclude their kayak adventure next week at Wise Point Boat Launch (Ramp Road), Cape Charles in Virginia on Thursday, July 29 (2:15 pm).

ELKRIDGE, MD (July 2021) – On July 16, a father and son sea kayaking team will embark on a self-styled expedition they’ve named the #BAY200CHALLENGE, a 12-day kayaking project that will take them on a 200-mile (320 km) north-to-south traverse of the Chesapeake Bay in the U.S. East Coast, the largest bay in the United States. The challenge will help raise awareness and support for one of the most pressing COVID-19-related issues affecting people today—hunger. 

Maryland resident Hearly Mayr and his 13-year-old son, Andreas Mayr, decided to create the challenge to spend time together outdoors this summer after more than a year of being mostly home due to travel and social distancing restrictions. 

“The last 16 months had their share of ups and downs, but they really helped our family put a lot of things in perspective,” says Hearly Mayr, a father of two boys, Andreas,13, and Carsten, 11. His wife, Andrea, who is a pediatric intensive care nurse and a recent family nurse practitioner graduate bore the biggest share of the burden, he adds, as she spent countless hours assisting critically-ill children, including COVID-19 patients.

“We have so much to be thankful for. We have jobs, healthcare, access to school, a home, food, and so many other things. Sadly, many people here in the U.S. and around the world can’t say the same. As we counted our blessings, we knew that we had to do something to help others. That’s why we decided to use our vacation to get people to pay attention to the fact that while the pandemic is easing in the U.S., people in other countries are still facing very serious COVID-19 related challenges each day, especially hunger.”

The #BAY200CHALLENGE is supporting the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA)’s COVID-19 hunger pandemic response campaign, which is aiming to raise $3 million by July 31. This support will go to help families who have been hit hard by the pandemic by providing access to food and other essentials. Thanks to generous donors and partners, every $1 donated is being matched and will become $3. To learn more or to make a donation today, go to www.ADRA.org/Bay200Challenge/Give. 

COVID-19 severely affected food access for millions of vulnerable families in almost every country in the world with the impact projected to continue well into 2022. Because of pandemic-related disruptions, conflict and climate change, hunger levels in dozens of food-insecure countries are projected to increase to a five-year high, according to the 2021 Global Report on Food Crises. At least 155 million people in 55 countries were already acutely food insecure in 2020 and in need of urgent assistance, and those numbers could continue to climb, disproportionately affecting women and girls and low- and middle-income communities.

“It’s important to help people in need and find creative ways to do so. I’m ready to do my part and use my talents,” says Andreas Mayr, who finished seventh grade in May at Atholton Adventist Academy in Columbia, Maryland. As a bonus, if successful, he could become one of the youngest, if not the youngest person, to paddle the entire Chesapeake Bay. “It’s going to be fun and challenging. I’m excited and can’t wait!”

The #BAY200CHALLENGE will launch from Elk River Park south of Elkton, Maryland, on Friday, July 16. The trip will be divided into 12 stages and will follow the eastern part of the Chesapeake Bay all the way to Smith Island, Virginia, where the bay meets the Atlantic Ocean. The team will be traveling on two Canadian-made Boréal Design sea kayaks—the Epsilon 200 measuring 17 feet (517 cm) in length with a maximum weight capacity of 295 pounds (134 kg) and the Epsilon 100 measuring 16.4 feet (500 cm) with a weight capacity of 240 pounds (109 kg). They plan reach their destination by July 28. 

“This challenge is also an amazing opportunity to experience nature in a different way, to create new memories, and to see what’s physically possible for the both of us,” adds Mayr, who will be turning 50 in January. “Also, you never know what new things you’ll learn from a trip like this, how it will impact your life, or how it can shape the way you see things in the future. It’s an investment worth making.”

Mayr is no stranger to personal adventures and travel. He biked more than 850 miles (1,350 kms) across Alaska from the Pacific Ocean to the Arctic Ocean, hiked the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia on the Appalachian Trail, drove from Chile’s northern Atacama Desert to the southern tip of Tierra del Fuego, retraced the Alaskan wilderness travels of Chris McCandless as told in the book Into the Wild, crossed Russia in winter on the Trans-Siberian railroad from Vladivostok to Moscow, and undertook other exciting adventures. He grew up in Chile, France, Madagascar, and Kenya and has traveled throughout North America, Central America, the Caribbean, South America, Europe, Australia, Africa, and Asia. He has also been to all 50 U.S. states. Both he and Andreas are avid kayakers, mountain bikers, and hikers. 

Get updates by following the hashtag #BAY200CHALLENGE or follow @hearlymayr on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/hearlymayr. and Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/hearlymayr/. 

At the ESCC College Advisory Board meeting on Tuesday, July 13, Vice President for Academic, Student & Workforce Education Dr. Patrick Tompkins announced that Your Eastern Shore Community College has become fully reaccredited.

“It’s been a difficult journey for everyone, these last couple of years,” said ESCC President Dr. James Shaeffer. “In the midst of undergoing an extremely rigorous reaccreditation process, the College was also subjected to a state-mandated Refresh, accompanied by a large side order of remote instruction and services during a pandemic.”

All post-secondary institutions in the United States must be accredited by an independent body in order for students to be eligible for federal financial aid. Additionally, most other colleges and many employers do not recognize certificates and degrees from institutions that are not accredited.

ESCC’s accrediting agency is the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges

(SACSCOC), often regarded as one of the toughest accreditors. “It’s a big deal,” said Judith Grier, Coordinator of Research, Planning, and Assessment and the college’s liaison with SACSCOC. “The process takes years to prepare for and complete and involves everyone at the college, including students.”

In June of 2019, the college was reaccredited but was required to submit a Monitoring Report in 2020 to further demonstrate compliance with the accrediting standard related to student support services. However, in July of 2019 the college significantly reorganized its operations and personnel in response to a Virginia Community College System mandate to “refresh” the college to ensure its continued relevancy to the Shore community. Areas of particular need were to rein in costs and revitalize academic and workforce education programs.

64AD: The Great Fire of Rome; beginning in the residential area near the Circus Maximus, the fire becomes a firestorm that burns for five days before coming under control, then reignites and burns for four more days. 2/3 of the city is consumed by the flames. Emperor Nero, away at a summer palace when the fire starts, is widely blamed for either setting it or ignoring it.

1099: Having subdued all lingering resistance and now controlling Jerusalem, the knights of the First Crusade elect Godfrey de Bouillon as the first Defender of the Holy Sepulchre, creating the first Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem. Godfrey could not bring himself to take the title of “King” in the Holy City- hence the awkward title- but he acted the part, forcing Acre and a dozen other cities to pay tribute to this nascent kingdom. 

1545: Following their inconclusive battle with the British fleet in the Solent, the French invasion fleet lands a small army on the Isle of Wight. The soldiers make a desultory attempt to conquer the island, but after looting and burning a few towns, they are repulsed by local militia. It remains the last direct French assault on the British Isles.

1792: American naval hero Captain John Paul Jones dies in Paris (b.1747). After his exploits in the American Revolution he served briefly in Saint Petersburg as Catherine the Great’s naval advisor. His Russian tour complete, Jones was back in Paris awaiting his appointment letter as United States Consul to Algiers when he died. His mortal remains today rest in a crypt beneath the US Naval Academy chapel.

1812: An Anglo-Portuguese army under the command of Arthur Wellesley * (later the Duke of Wellington) defeats a French army in the Battle of Salamanca. The battle cemented Wellesley’s reputation for tactical genius, as he kept his own dispositions hidden from the French while remaining alert and disciplined to watch and wait for opportunities to exploit fleeting French tactical weaknesses. The British Peninsular Campaign remained a constant drain on French resources during Napoleon’s reign. Although neither side won a decisive strategic victory, the constant coalition pressure on the Iberian Peninsula eased French pressure against other coalition allies in the French eastern European campaigns, most notably the French drive deep into Russia.

1849: Birth of American poet Emma Lazarus (d.1887), author of the poem inscribed at the base of the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor; your huddled masses yearning to breathe free; the wretched refuse of your teeming soil; bring these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me; I lift my lamp beside the Golden Door.”

1861: First Battle of Bull Run (First Manassas)- After a two day march from Washington and a short bivouac at Centerville in the sultry July heat, the Union Army of Northeastern Virginia under Brigadier Irvin McDowell attacks the Confederate Army of the Potomac (correct army names, on both accounts) of General Joe Johnson at a stone bridge over Bull Run Creek near Manassas, Virginia. The fight brought to prominence Confederate Colonel Thomas Jackson, whose regiment came up from reserve to halt a Union advance against General Bee. When things were looking particularly bad, Bee turned to Jackson and exclaimed, “The Enemy are driving us!” Jackson turned to him and responded: “Then we shall give them the bayonet.” Suitably impressed with his taciturn subordinate, Bee then turned to his wavering men: “There stands Jackson like a stone wall…rally behind the Virginians!” As the battle ebbs and flows around the Warrenton Turnpike it becomes increasingly clear to both sides that the nascent war will not be the simple game that so many voluptuaries expected. The mindset was so pervasive (“On to Richmond!”) that the upper crust of Washington society this morning drove hundreds of carriages to the high ground near the expected battlefield to watch the Bluecoats whip the Rebs while they enjoyed a picnic lunch. When the Union army began its otherwise orderly withdrawal from their defeat, the picnickers panicked and turned the escape route into a rout. The high casualty count sobered both sides into realizing this would be a long and hard-fought campaign. Union casualties: 2,896- 460 killed/1100 wounded/1300 missing; Confederate casualties: 1,982- 387 killed/1500 wounded. 

1863: The army’s first all-black military regiment, the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry makes its combat debut, in a valiant but ultimately unsuccessful attack on Fort Wagner near Charleston, SC. Their leader, Colonel Robert Shaw, was killed in the attack and buried by the Confederate victors in a mass grave with his fallen men. The grave site no longer exists, washed into the eternal sea by years of Atlantic storms.

1870: The First Vatican Council issues the Bull of papal infallibility. Papal infallibility is a dogma of the Roman Catholic Church which states that, in virtue of the promise of Jesus to Peter, the pope when appealing to his highest authority is preserved from the possibility of error on doctrine “initially given to the apostolic Church and handed down in Scripture and tradition”.- wikipedia.

1923: Death of Jose Doroteo Arango Arambula (b.1878), the Mexican warlord more commonly known as Pancho Villa.

1925: Seven months after his release from Landsberg Prison, Adolf Hitler publishes his magnum opus: Mien Kampf. 

1933: Fifty thousand cheering people greet aviation pioneer Wiley Post as he arrives at Floyd Bennett Field in New York City at the completion of his second flight around the world. The distinction here is that he did the feat solo, using a self-developed autopilot and compass instead of a navigator as on his earlier flight. He went on to further acclaim as he investigated the problems of high altitude flight, inventing several varieties of pressure suits to compensate for the physiological dangers of low pressures, low temperatures and low oxygen. His Lockheed Vega aircraft “Winnie Mae” is on display at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum Dulles annex.

1936: The Spanish Civil War begins. Two years after a wrenching election that installed its second left wing socialist-Marxist government since 1931, Spain awakens to a widespread army revolt instigated from the Canary Islands by General Francisco Franco. Government forces (the Republicans) quickly respond, but the army (the Nationalists) possess nearly overwhelming force against the chaotic efforts of the leftist ideologues running the government. Both sides consolidate their hold on territory by executing thousands; the vicious guerrilla war lasts through March 1939, leaving an estimated one million dead in its wake. Franco remained Caudillo (lit: guardian; actually: dictator) of Spain until his death in 1975, after which the Bourbon monarchy was restored. Both the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany used Spain as a live-fire testing ground for new military concepts (i.e. Blitzkrieg combined arms raids) and political instigation.

1936: The Montreux Convention is signed in Switzerland, allowing Turkey to fortify the Bosporus and Dardanelles. The treaty also stipulates free passage of all ships in peacetime.

1944: General Hideiki Tojo resigns as Prime Minister of Japan. 

1944: German Chancellor Adolf Hitler survives an assassination attempt led by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg.

1946: Jewish terrorists of the Irgun movement, including future Prime Minister Manachem Begin, bomb the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, headquarters of the civil and military administration of British Palestine.

1949: The United States Senate ratifies the North Atlantic Treaty, creating for the first time an entangling alliance warned about by President Washington.

1954: As the Battle of Dien Bien Phu continued to play out, the Geneva Conference on Indochina agrees to divide Vietnam into a northern zone governed by the Vietminh party of Ho Chi Minh, and a southern zone governed by the State of Vietnam, a nominal republic. The conference was attended by the USSR, United States, France, the UK and the Peoples Republic of China, none of whom were happy with the decision, especially since the going in position for all parties was a unified state. You will note that actual Vietnamese representation was not part of the decision matrix.

1961: Astronaut Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom makes the United States’ second flight into space aboard the Liberty Bell 7. His 15 minute sub-orbital flight reaches an apogee of 118 miles and lands 300 miles downrange from Cape Canaveral. After touchdown, the prototype explosive hatch on the capsule fires, opening the cockpit to seawater which nearly drowns Grissom. The recovery helicopter cannot keep the capsule from sinking and cuts it free as its wheels touch the water, after which they pluck the foundering astronaut* out of the water, his space suit filled with multiple gallons of the Atlantic. Grissom went on to be the first American to fly twice into space (Gemini 3, with John Young), and was commander of the first Apollo mission, in which he and fellow astronauts Ed White and Roger Chaffee died in a fire on the launch pad in January, 1967.

1976: Atlanta Braves slugger Hank Aaron smacks his 755^th and final home run. 

1982: The Pittsburgh Pirates’ first baseman & left fielder Willie Stargell nails his final home run, number 475, ranking 30th on the all-time list, tied with Stan Musial and right behind Lou Gherig’s 493.

1997: After a completing her first extensive rebuilding since the 1930s, USS Constitution sails from Marblehead Harbor under her own power for the first time in 116 years. 

2003: United States troops of the 101^st Airborne Division, making a coordinated attack on a protected Iraqi compound, kill Uday and Qusay Hussein.

ONANCOCK, Virginia – After six years at the helm of Riverside’s services on the Eastern Shore, John Peterman, President of Riverside Shore Memorial Hospital (RSMH), has been promoted to the position of Chief Operations Officer at Riverside Regional Medical Center in Newport News, Virginia.  His new position will take him full time to Newport News.

“I joined a great team when I came to the Shore full time six years ago.  The Board, medical staff, management team and team members were singly focused on bringing the best possible care to their Shore friends and neighbors,” said Peterman.  “We had a complex project ahead of us in moving to our new Onancock campus, and our superb team brought it off without a hitch.  I am eager to bring all that the Shore team has taught me to my work at Riverside Regional Medical Center.”

In addition to the successful move to the Onancock campus, other successes include patient satisfaction scores that are currently above the 80th percentile and a more stable financial position over the last few years.

Shore native Nicolás Chuquín will assume the role of President at Riverside Shore Memorial Hospital on July 26.

Chuquín has been with Riverside since 2014, most recently as Associate Vice President.  In that role he oversaw Riverside Medical Group including day-to-day operations and provider recruitment.  He also was pivotal in the organization’s pandemic strategy focusing on safety for patients and team members, and spearheads Riverside’s continuing vaccination efforts on the Shore.  Before joining Riverside, Chuquin’s health care experience included a management position with Eastern Shore Rural Health System.

“I’ve worked closely with John for many years and look forward to continuing the great work he started,” said Chuquín.  “Riverside’s mission is to care for others as we would care for those we love, and there’s no better place to do that than my hometown, and no better team with which to do it.”