After the resignation of two members of the Historic District Review Board last year, the board was, for a period of time down to just three members. To not be in that situation again, changes to the number of board members from five to seven was proposed. It was also proposed that one member of the town council should also be on the board.

Those changes were rejected this week by the Planning Commission.

Paul Grossman, Town Council’s representative on the Planning Commission noted that he had researched several other localities and found that Town Council members did not sit on any of those boards, and that seemed to be the standard.

During the discussion, there was a consensus that the number should remain at five members, and not seven as was proposed.

The Cape Charles Planning Commission accepted changes to the Historic District Review Board process that essentially gives ownership of the Historic District Guidelines to Town Council.

The process is being changed to a two-phase approach, similar to the Harbor Development Certificate.

The new process will have an initial meeting followed by a Town Council meeting where staff provides a summary report. HDRB would have their second meeting to review any additional information and provide their recommendation to Town Council for a decision at the next Council meeting. Preliminary plans and all specifics could be discussed and any requested information could be provided at the second meetings. Council would then vote to accept the changes or not.

The process flow will be:

1. HDRB recommendations

2. Planning commission review and public meeting and recommendation

3.Town Council review, public meeting and final adoption

4. Written into the ordinance

The Town held the Comprehensive Plan Kick-off Workshop on July 25. 50 people were in attendance at the meeting, including the public, elected and appointed town officials, consultants, supervisors, and facilitators. During this meeting, five questions were asked at five different tables comprised of approximately ten people at each table. The questions asked were as follows:

A. What is the best way to engage Cape Charles citizens and stakeholders (e.g. more workshops, online survey, stakeholder meetings, small group forums, etc.)?

B. Who are the critical players (stakeholders) who need to be engaged in the process?

C. If the Comprehensive Plan process includes a community opinion survey, what topics or questions should be included?

D. List the top three issues you would like to see the Comprehensive Plan address.

E. What major projects should be included in the plan?

A detailed report of the answers to these questions is being prepared and will be distributed to all participants of the Comprehensive Plan Kick-off by using the email address provided on the sign-up sheet during the workshop.

The report will also be posted on the town’s website for those who were unable to attend the workshop.

To stay up-to-date on all things going on with the 2019 Comprehensive Plan Update, and to submit any questions, comments, or concerns regarding the Comprehensive Plan update, refer to the Planning and Zoning Department page of the town’s website.

If you are looking for a sweet, older girl Bev is your pup! We are open for visitors today 10am-3pm.

About Bev
I’m Bev and although I’m an older gal, I’m a sweet girl. Given up to a shelter full of loud dogs is no place for a nice senior girl about 8 years old. I am Chihuahua mix but can barely be called ‘small’ as I weigh a whopping 18.4 lbs! It does not slow me down, trust me…be ready to roll when we go out walking because I usually trot at a good place.

I go outside with another chi gal who is laid back like me, but I probably don’t have the patience for a young or rowdy dog partner. I came here spayed and am getting up to date on vaccines. Good news is that at this time, I tested negative for heartworms.

Shine and Rise is excited to welcome Jahfree Jones and special guest artist Katherine Whalen to the farm.  Come out for an evening of great music under the stars, surrounded by mother nature.  The show is free and open to the public, kid-friendly, and will likely feature farm animals.

Jahfree Jones is a quartet consisting of two guitars, bass, and drums. They play original tunes as well as an eclectic mix of covers ranging from the Kinks and Arcade Fire to Leon Russell and the Talking Heads. After years of live music, folks are raving about their captivating stage presence, musicianship, and punctuality.

Katharine Whalen is a renowned North Carolina singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. A founding member of the Squirrel Nut Zippers, she now works with a multitude of musical projects, including Certain Seas, Swedish Wood Patrol, Snow Day, and Katharine Whalen’s Jazz Squad.

Shine and Rise is always happy to provide space for people to appreciate the outdoors and good music but RSVP’s are appreciated at  https://www.facebook.com/events/3314544121892951/?active_tab=about  or shineandrisecommunity@gmail.com. Anyone with questions can call (757) 971-2600.

New Eastern Shore Road Trips, book Arrives in Regional Stores

Writer Jim Duffy of Cambridge, Md. spills more ‘Secrets of the Eastern Shore’ in his second collection of day trips on the Delmarva Peninsula

In a brand-new book of Eastern Shore Road Trips, Cambridge-based author Jim Duffy wanders the towns, backroads, beaches, and waterways of the Delmarva Peninsula in hopes of inspiring readers to get out and follow in his footsteps.

“That’s really my goal here,” says Duffy, whose third book is titled Eastern Shore Road Trips #2: 26 MORE One-Day Adventures on Delmarva. “These books are all about helping locals and tourists alike get in touch with the hidden gems, sweet scenes, and incredible stories that make the Delmarva Peninsula such a national treasure.”

Each chapter in the book is a Delmarva day trip, with destinations stretching from uppermost Delaware and Maryland to lowermost Virginia. The itineraries have Duffy traveling to Chesapeake islands, riding ferries, sailing tall ships, visiting little museums, and strolling parks and beaches. Along the way, he’s always searching out stories and personalities from days gone by that helped shape the destination at hand.

“Everywhere you go on Delmarva, the stories are so much richer and more entertaining than what you usually see on dry historical markers,” Duffy says. “This book gets into some fisticuffs and jailbirds and drunken sailors. It tells inspirational stories, too, about up-from-the-bootstraps entrepreneurs, pioneering women, and preachers who set out to change the world.”

An award-winning magazine writer, Duffy founded the local venture Secrets of the Eastern Shore with his wife, the photographer Jill Jasuta, as a way to celebrate Delmarva in stories, photos, and products. The cover of the new book features a photo by Jasuta of an Eastern Shore workboat on the Choptank River at sunrise.

This is Duffy’s third book under the Secrets imprint—in addition to the first Eastern Shore Road Trips Book, he is the author of Tubman Travels: 32 Underground Railroad Journeys on Delmarva. More than 10,000 copies of those first two books have been sold so far online and in dozens of retail shops and bookstores. Both ranked as online best-sellers among regional travel titles upon their release.

Each excursion in the new Eastern Shore Road Trips book lays out an itinerary and provides readers with insider tips on sights to see and places to go. The trips are divided evenly among the upper, middle, and lower portions of the peninsula. Among the Virginia destinations featured are Onancock, Accomac, Eastville, Savage Neck Dunes, and Tangier Island. Other chapters run through multiple towns, fishing villages, and parks along the bayside and oceanside backroads.

For more information about the new book, including stores where it is available and online purchase options, visit SecretsoftheEasternShore.com or Facebook.com/SecretsoftheEasternShore.

The Drinking Liberally regular August meeting will be on the 14th, at 7:00pm at the Charlotte Hotel, 7 North Street, VA 23417 in beautiful downtown Onancock. We’ll have our usual “Open Mic” at 8:00pm for announcements, discussion, postcard/letter writing, or what-you-will.

If you have any friends you think might be interested in Drinking Liberally, they (or you!) can add their email addresses to the Onancock Chapter roster: Click: here

American Legion Northampton Post 56 is holding a blood drive on August 15th from 2:00 to 6:00.

Zillow and Climate Central released an update of “Ocean at the Door,” a report on sea level rise-related coastal flood risks to U.S. housing.  

Accelerating sea level rise is increasing coastal flood risk. The report defines risk areas as regions that may expect coastal flooding by 2050, a year soon to be in the range of a 30-year mortgage. The data shows new homes (2010 or later) are being built in coastal flood risk areas. In many cases, the rate of building new homes is faster in risk areas than in safer areas.

Examples of key findings:

• Connecticut is developing homes in risk zones more than 3x faster than safer locations
• ​Delaware, Mississippi, New Jersey, Rhode Island are building houses in risk zones more than 2x faster than safer locations
• Maine, New Hampshire, and South Carolina are developing risk zones faster than safer locations
• New Jersey, Florida, and North Carolina have allowed the most homes built in risk zones, more than 9,000 since 2010
• 24 cities including New York, Tampa, Virginia Beach, Charleston, and Galveston have allowed at least 100 homes to be built in risk zones since 2010.

70AD: Culminating their Siege of Jerusalem, the Roman army under the command of Titus (later to be Titus Ceasar) loots, burns, and completely demolishes the Temple that had been the center of Jewish worship for a thousand years. The destruction is mourned annually as the fast of Tisha B’Av. Note: in the name of accuracy, the actual structure that fell this day was the Second Temple (also known as Herod’s Temple), which was a complete on-site rebuilding of 10^th c. BC Solomon’s Temple eighty years prior to the Roman siege. The famous Western Wall which remains today is part of the foundation of Solomon’s Temple.

1305: Scottish patriot and nationalist William Wallace is captured near Glasgow and hauled off to London, where he is accused, tried, convicted and executed for treason against Edward I. As he faced his accusers, Wallace declared: “I could not be a traitor to Edward, for I was never his subject.”

1576: The cornerstone is laid for an observatory designed by the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, whose careful and accurate observations of the motions of the heavenly bodies- comets and planets in particular- laid the foundation for the explosion of astronomical theory and science for the next three hundred years. His assistant, the Johannes Kepler, carried on his work after his death in 1601.

1607: First performance of William Shakespeare’s  Macbeth.

1620: The chartered merchant ship Mayflower, in company with the Speedwell, departs Southampton, England on its first attempt to reach North America with its Puritan passengers, who plan on colonizing “North Virginia” near the mouth of the Hudson River. After a very short day at sea, Speedwell develops severe leaks and the two ships return to port for repairs.

1704: As part of the War of Spanish Succession, the Spanish peninsula of Gibraltar is captured by an Anglo-Dutch fleet commanded by Sir George Rooke. Eventually annexed into the British Empire, it remains a thorn in the side of Anglo-Spanish relations to this day, and I bet it will remain that way tomorrow as well, just a hunch.

1742: Birth of Nathaneal Greene who rose from Private of the Rhode Island militia to Major General of the Continental Army and became one of George Washington’s most trusted advisors and effective subordinate commanders.

1768: Completion of the first ascent of Mont Blanc, the tallest mountain in Europe, by Frenchmen Jacques Balmat and Michel-Gabriel Paccard. Mont Blanc is 15,781 feet above sea level; the 11^th highest peak in the world.

1782: General George Washington orders the creation of the Badge of Military Merit to honor wounded soldiers who “has given of his blood in defense of his homeland…” The idea of the award was revived in 1927 and formally re-established as the Purple Heart in 1931 by Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur.

1789: As their reform movement continues to gather momentum, the French National Assembly takes an oath to “end feudalism” and “abandon [their own] privileges”.

1792: Birth of Percy Bysshe Shelley (d.1822), the English poet widely regarded as the greatest lyricist in English history. His most famous poem, Ozymandias, posits the inevitable decline of even the most powerful institutions of men. Shelley lived an “unconventional life” with and around fellow Romanticists Byron and Keates. His uncompromising idealism helped fuel the intellectual “-ism” movements of the mid-19^th century, including Thoreau’s Transcendentalism and Marx’s Communism, among others. He drowned under mysterious circumstances while sailing his schooner between Leghorn (Livorno) and Lerici in northern Italy. His second wife, Mary Shelley (1797-1851) was a noted author in her own right, best remembered for her Gothic novel, Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus. 

1794: President George Washington invokes the Militia Act of 1792 to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion, an increasingly violent anti-tax revolt that centered in western Pennsylvania. Washington raised a federal militia (via a draft, because there weren’t enough volunteers) of 12,500 men under the command Virginia governor Henry “Lighthorse Harry” Lee. After a Presidential pass-in-review in Cumberland, Maryland, the army marched westward to regain control of the situation. As news of the army’s movement spread, the revolt collapsed before it could turn into an organized armed resistance. Washington’s actions during this affair are credited with confirming the federal government’s authority and willingness to exercise itself as a national government.

1864: Rear Admiral David Farragut leads a US Navy flotilla into the fortified confines of Mobile Bay, with the mission of permanently closing the port to further trade and blockade running. During the previous year, while Farragut’s attentions were earlier turned to returning the Mississippi River to Union control, the Confederates fortified Mobile with three forts ashore and a minefield guarding the main channel into the bay. Farragut’s flotilla entered the bay at dawn, guns blazing, and overwhelmed the shoreward defenses. When one of his captains slowed his ship due to the threat of the mines (“torpedoes”), Farragut responded with “Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!” Of note from the Confederate perspective was the single-handed fight of the ironclad ram CSS Tennessee against the entire Union fleet, which took three hours to finally force its surrender.

1876: Birth of Margaretha Geertruide Zelle MacLeod (d.1917), better known as Mata Hari, the sultry Dutch “courtesan” of multiple dozens of military and civilian leaders on both sides of the trenches during the Great War. In March of 1905 she opened her act as an exotic dancer on stage in Paris, becoming an overnight sensation, and was almost immediately taken in by a millionaire industrialist. Often imitated, never duplicated, her sensual exploits kept her in the public limelight for a decade. With the Netherlands remaining neutral during the conflict, Mata Hari exploited her Dutch nationality to travel freely between Germany and France via Britain and Spain during the course of the war. At one point during an interview with British intelligence, she alluded to working for French intelligence, a relationship the French would neither confirm nor deny. After an intercepted German cable from Spain appeared to implicate her, Mata Hari was arrested by the French in February, 1917, charged and convicted of espionage, and executed by firing squad in October. She steadfastly denied the charge of being a double agent.

1889: At Auburn Prison in New York, the first execution by electrocution is conducted on convicted murderer William Kemmler. It took two jolts to do the job; the first 17 seconds of 770 volts blew a fuse before killing him. On the second attempt 1,030 volts were applied for two minutes. Power was shut off when smoke started emanating from his head. Dr. Albert Southwick, a dentist who was a strong advocate of electrocution as a more humane death declared, “We live in a higher civilization from this day on.” George Westinghouse, who actually put electrical power to practical application elsewhere, stated, “They would have done better with an axe.”

1892: The parents of Lizzie Borden are found murdered in their Fall River, Massachusetts home. Lizzie is acquitted of the murders in the sensational trial that follows, but her notoriety remains to this day in the words of the famous jump-rope song: “Lizzie Borden took an axe…”

1908: After four and a half years of patent applications and many more months of practice and refinement in the use of their flying machine on the Huffman Prairie outside their Dayton hometown, Wilbur Wright opens a European flying tour on the race course at Le Mans, France. The formerly skeptical French press is suddenly agog with the skill and ease with which Wright pilots his aero-plane, and the man and his machine become the toast of the Continent. The European tour continues through the late Spring of 1909, concurrent with Orville’s series of stateside test flights for the US Army. 

1914: After receiving a negative Belgian response to their request to cross their territory to attack France, the Imperial German army crosses the border anyway, meeting stiff resistance from the Belgian army. With their guarantee of Belgian neutrality at stake, not to mention their alliance with France in the Entente Cordiale, Great Britain declares war on Germany. The Wilson administration in United States declares an official policy of neutrality. 

1914: The Great War- Serbia declares war on Germany. Austria declares war on Russia. Germany sorties 10 Unterseeboten from their base in Helgoland on their first wartime patrols against the Royal Navy.

1926: Harry Houdini performs his most difficult escape, spending 91 minutes in a sealed tank before emerging unscathed.

1928: Birth of 1960’s pop artist Andy Warhol.

1930: Birth of Neil Armstrong, X-15 pilot; Gemini-8 Commander; Apollo-11 Commander.

1940: Nazi Germany annexes the French-German-French-German provinces of Alsace-Lorraine into the greater German Reich.

1945: A single American B-29 bomber, nicknamed Enola Gay, drops the world’s first operational atomic bomb over the Japanese industrial center of Hiroshima. The 1200 foot above-ground-level burst flattens all but the most robust masonry buildings and the thermal pulse ignites and burns to ash the 90 percent of the city that is built of wood. 70,000 Japanese are killed immediately, with tens of thousands later dying of the direct effects of radiation and burns.

1962: Birth of right-handed pitcher Roger “Rocket” Clemens, winner of seven Cy Young awards and one of only four pitchers to achieve more than 4,000 strikeouts in their careers.

1962: Death of Marilyn Monroe.

1964: In the first response to the now-notorious Gulf of Tonkin Incident, aircraft from the carriers USS Ticonderoga (CVA-14) and USS Constellation (CVA-64) launch 60 sorties against the  North Vietnamese patrol boat base and oil storage facility, destroying 25 boats and eliminating their entire stock of fuel.  

1988: For the first time in its history, lights are turned on for a night game at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

1990: Four days after Iraq invades and occupies Kuwait, the United Nations Security Council orders a global trade embargo against Iraq.