The following opinion is written and submitted by G. William Wastewater.
In the picturesque town of Cape Charles, Central Park stands as a beloved green space cherished by locals and visitors alike. However, recent concerns have arisen regarding standing water accumulating in the park, prompting questions about safety, compliance with regulations, and the responsibility of town officials.
The presence of standing water in Central Park raises valid concerns, particularly for the safety of small children and the elderly who frequent the area. Stagnant water can pose various risks, including accidental drowning and the attraction of unwanted wildlife, such as snakes, exacerbating safety concerns.
One must question whether the standing stagnant water violates any of the town’s or state codes concerning safety hazards associated with standing water. The potential for accidents cannot be overlooked, and it’s imperative that regulatory standards are met to ensure the well-being of park visitors.
Moreover, the lack of signage warning citizens and visitors about the potential hazards of standing water is concerning. Additional signage could alert individuals to take extra precautions and mitigate risks associated with accidental drowning and other dangers.
Photos by G. William Wastewater
Responsibility for assessing and addressing the situation falls on the shoulders of town officials. Has there been a recent assessment of the standing water situation in Central Park since it began ponding? The town must take proactive measures to evaluate the drainage issues and implement necessary solutions to safeguard public safety.
Consideration should be given to pumping the water out of the ditches and exploring strategies, such as planting more trees, to help absorb excess water and mitigate flooding concerns. However, potential ecological impacts should also be carefully evaluated in any remediation efforts.
Furthermore, it’s essential to engage stakeholders, including the organization “Friends of Central Park” and the Cape Charles Town Manager, to gather insights and collaborate on addressing the drainage situation effectively.
The issue of standing water in Cape Charles Central Park is just one more issue that highlights the incompetence of the town and its disregard for locals (add running off the residents of Seabreeze, aggressive police posture that keeps locals from coming to town, selling off utility’s and putting residents at financial risk, and more). The standing water issue demands urgent attention and action from town officials. Safety should be prioritized, and measures must be taken to ensure that this cherished community space remains accessible and enjoyable for all. Concerned citizens are encouraged to contact the town offices at 757-331-3259 to voice their questions and concerns, advocating for a swift resolution to this issue.
SNAKES????? Why snakes?
Good statement.
Sign sign everywhere a sign. They don’t mean anything!
Been like this for years. Before it was even Central Park. Planting trees won’t help. They’ve had trees planted there before and they just kinda fell over into the water. It’s about time $#!+ starts rolling back up hill.
I remember addressing this very issue when I moved in. That was 2010. Lol!
THE MALARIA PONDS!!!
We already pay enough in taxes, don’t let the town know we have water front property! But since we can’t park the boat on the street anymore, maybe we could dock it in Lake Cape Charles??
We don’t have the fly problem everyone else in town has—we have to run inside of the house to keep the tree frogs out! The quarter size mosquitos are pretty fun to deal with, too.
It is still shocking to me that even after all of the money spent on park renovations the food court for summer concerts is right in the middle of a public health hazard.
In all seriousness, call the Northampton County Department of Health and report stagnant water (757)-442-6228. It’s a public health and safety concern, and has been for the past 20 years.
The park was “renovated” nearly 20 years ago, yet it still doesn’t drain. The sanitary sewer/ stormwater line that should allow the park to drain is completely clogged with sand. The RAW sewage line on Mason Ave. collapsed a long time ago and the town has known about it for years. The tap water is repulsive, yet we pay a premium for it every month…regardless of consumption. The town applies for road closure permits that directly affect homeowners yet deem it unnecessary to contact, or even acknowledge their existence, before doing so. Don’t you DARE let your grass clippings be found in the roadside gutter!! You’re directly responsible for the towns drainage issues?…Next thing you know, the town opens up a full blown food court right on top of a mosquito hatchery! Come on down to Central Park every Saturday. Free concert!…and your pick of blood born pathogen!
What’s next?!
ASSES & VILLAINS
Smells of raw sewage on Mason and Bay and on Bay at the end of Randolph. Also smells of raw sewage on Pine St in front of former mayor Protos house. Wonder why he never complained. DOES TOWN COUNCIL LIKE THE SMELL OF THEIR OWN ASSES?? I’m thinking maybe the entire town should be condemned. Can we get a Cape Charles shutdown?
French drain system tied into an underground cistern could be an option….
It is called The Eastern Shore of Va. Water stands in places.
Wow! Imagine that!
You don’t need flood insurance in Willis Wharf for clam shacks that have been flooding since before flood insurance was required to be purchased. Funny how human beings refuse to adapt themselves to their surroundings, but want their surroundings to adapt to their personal agendas.
Stay Hydrated, Fools…
COMMING TO CC…https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/23/americas/worlds-biggest-snake-amazon-intl-scli-scn/index.html#:~:text=Green%20anacondas%20are%20the%20worl
Standing water? Snakes? Malaria Pond? It looks like the water that Andy Dufresne fell into after he came out of the sewer pipe in the movie The Shawshank Redemption.
Shawshank Redemption Alternate Ending:
Andy Dufresne: Tim Robbins
Red: Morgan Freeman
Cruel Warden Samuel Norton: Stuart Bell
Chip Watson: as himself
Another Scrapple Buffet Production: All rights reserved and not to be used without the express written
consent of SBP Limited.
Scene 1: The Escape
Andy crawled to freedom through 500 yards of foul sh*t smelling scrapple that would put the Perdue processing plant to shame. Andy finally throws himself out of the sewer pipe. 500 yards – the length of 2025 pickle ball courts. Just shy of a half a mile.
He lands in the Cape Charles Central Park “standing water”. He starts to run then stops to rip his rancid shirts off. He raises his arms to the air and looks up to the lightning and torrential rains and screams
“Toto, I do not think we are in the Shawshank Prison anymore!”.
Scene 2: The Bank Scene
The very next morning a man that nobody had laid their eyes on before walked into the PNC Bank with all of the proper ID’s:
* Hunting License
* Fishing License
* Playboy Club Card
* NRA Card
* Trilateral Commission Lifetime Membership Card
His signature was a spitting image of the signature card on file. Andy walked out of PNC Bank and four other banks with a total of $350,000!
Scene 3: Back at the Ranch (Shawshank Prison)
At the morning wake up the prisoners left their cells to be counted.
“Man missing in cell 245” the guard yelled.
“Don’t make me come down there and hump you, I mean thump you” he yelled
Now Warden Stuart Bell, sorry; I meant Warden Samuel Norton gets involved. He berates Red who he describes to be as “thick as thieves” with Andy Dufresne the cruel warden yells.
“Lord, it is a miracle. He up and vanishes like a fart int the wind”
Scene 4: Red in the prison yard.
“I miss my friend”
Scene 5: The Postcard
Red receives a postcard from Cheriton, Va. The post card was blank except fort the place of origin.
Scene 6: The Cigar Box
Red takes an Uber cross country to Eyre Hall. There with his compass he finds the very large wasp nest that Andy directed him to. He looks down into the dirt and finds a cigar box. He looks around to make sure that the coast is clear. He opens the box and finds $1,000 dollars and a note. He reads the note:
I hope this letter finds you and finds you well.
If you run into me I still smell.
That sewer was a bitch.
Do you remember the place?
Red says to himself “Cape Charles”
Final Scene: The Embrace, Chip Watson and Kelly’s Pub
Andy is on the Cape Charles Beach sanding the bottom of an old Deadrise. He turns to the left and and he see’s his friend Red walking down the beach with a battered suitcase. Andy and Red embrace on the beach. Red says’s to Andy “I need to wash out a of the little trail dust. Is there a pub around here?”. Andy replies “Yes Sir, Kelly’s is a stones throw away. Let’s roll”.
Red and Andy walk out into the street and are almost run over by a silver haired man driving an orange car, dressed in orange and laying into the horn. He opens the window and yell’s “Hey you two idiot come here’s, watch out where you are walking, you could have dented my car!”.
Red asks Andy. “Who in the hell was that?”. Andy replies “Oh, that is Chip Watson. He is an as-h-le. But he is our as-h-le. He is ok. He is a very sharp dresser”.
Fade to music…..
The End
Post Note:
“I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really: Get busy living, or get busy dying.”
Andy Dufresne
Post Note 2:
Please look out for the next Scrapple Buffet Production: Eastville Jail Breakout featuring a rogues gallery of stars!
FANTASTIC!
Scrapple, dude, let me say that with your masterful and very artful blending of drama, suspense and yes, poignancy here, coupled with your skilled use of chiaroscuro in the scenes inside the sewer, before the emergence, taken as an apotheosis or sort of rebirth, into the standing water of the famous snake-infested Cape Charles Malaria Pond that you have truly surpassed the efforts of all the so-called cinematographers who have preceded you, and here we are talking a DeMille, or a Polanski or a DeNiro, who are rank amateurs or tyros in comparison, and I so look forward to your next Scrapple Buffet Production of “Eastville Jail Breakout” featuring a rogues gallery of stars!
Sire,
I appreciate your kind words. Your mind set regarding a re-birth are spot on. It was a cleansing that Andy Dufresne was in need of after spending so many years in prison.
I will be finishing up work on “Eastville Jail Breakout” shortly. It will be like a screenplay, treatise and Mad Magazine rolled up into one piece. The writing will be a blend of Ian Fleming, Franz Kafka, Earnest Hemingway and Gary Trudeau.
The plot is about a local policeman that was incarcerated for physical abuse, over using his tazer and just being a naughty boy.
The local police force band together en masse to free their soiled brethren from the bondage that due process had placed on his physical being as well as his soul.
Standby ………Same Scrapple – Time, Same Scrapple-Channel
Scrapple dude, my focus group up here thinks you, as a sub-plot to add to the suspense and drama inherent in what has become known as the “disgorging” scene where the sewer literally spouts out Andy Dufresne into the Cape Charles Malaria Pond, that you should have the Cape Charles Malaria Pond infested with some alligators brought in by the Cape Charles City Council as a tourist gimmick to catch the suckers from up north who drive all the way to South Carolina to see alligators come to Cape Charles instead, so that when the disgorging of Andy Dufresne happens, and the alligators hear the splash, instead of waiting for some little foo-foo dog to come along off the leash, they en masse slide into the waters of the pond and race towards Andy Dufresne, intent of making him their next meal, which scene will have the audience at the edge of their seats, biting their nails, women crying, perhaps, waiting to see Andy Dufresne get eaten after his torturous travels through the sewer, only to get saved in the end, (enter IRONY), by the stink on him from the sewer which drives away the alligators at the last moment, which conveys the spiritual message of miracles can come in the strangest of ways from the strangest of places, thus putting the proper moral overtones for the critics who judge these things in place.
And Scrapple, not to tell you your business when it comes to some real, honest-to-gosh, down-to-earth, down-home, real-deal, old-style GONZO script-writing here, which genre you indeed are the master of, bar none, but my people are seeing the subplot of the alligators the Cape Charles City Council brought in as a tourist gimmick to catch the suckers from up north who drive all the way to South Carolina to see alligators to have them come to Cape Charles instead to goose the Cape Charles economy, with Eastville sharing in the profits as the pilgrims who come from the north to the site of the Dufresne miracle where Andy Dufresne almost got eaten after his torturous travels through the sewer, only to get saved in the end, (enter IRONY), by the stink on him from the sewer which drives away the alligators at the last moment, which conveys to the Defresne Pilgrims who flock to the site to see the alligators who almost ate Andy Defresne, but didn’t, the spiritual message that miracles can come in the strangest of ways from the strangest of places, speed down from the north through Eastville, which is swarming with police cars pulling tourists over right and left for speeding as ideal segue here to your MAGNUM OPUS BLOCKIBUSTER “Eastville Jail Breakout” where the masterful and suspenseful yet poignant plot is about a local policeman that was incarcerated for physical abuse of a Defresne Pilgrim, while over using his tazer and just being a naughty boy, which in turn has the local police force band together en masse to free their soiled brethren from the bondage that due process had placed on his physical being as well as his soul.
Scrapple Buffet,
I like your style!
You must be one of Corn-Pop’s kids….
It’s a Wetland Mitigation Bank. Now the town can get a developer buy credits from the WMB so they can destroy natural wetlands. Just like Bay Creek / Preserve plans to do with the “Back Nine” that they took from their members! Will those members ever be credited for their loss?