CAPE CHARLES, Va. — Several thousand dollars have been spent to improve Central Park in Cape Charles, specifically a drainage swale near the park's Peach St. entrance.
The money was raised by the organization Citizens for Central Park which is spearheading the work at the park.
The drainage swale is one of multiple drainage swales in the park that will be turned into something like this, and the park itself is also a project to ultimately help improve the Chesapeake Bay.
“It’s the source of income and life for so many people, including beachgoers, including fishermen, including whoever pulls anything out of the bay," said Citizens for Central Park Board Member Mark Usry.
The importance of the Chesapeake Bay is hard to understate. That makes the importance of the work being done at Central Park also hard to understate.
“I’m very interested in the general impacts of climate change," said Citizens for Central Park Board Chairman Hank Mayer.
He said the organization has been working on the park for years.
“We started by planting trees that will start absorbing some of the water, and then this year what we’ve done is the first of what will, hopefully, be three (drainage swales)," Mayer explained. "One here, one over there, and one in the other corner where we’re putting in shrubbery and other plants and grasses and so on."
Positively Hampton Roads
Day tripping to Virginia's Eastern Shore, destination: Cape Charles
Being involved in the work gives him a sense of pride.
“The small towns and the coastal areas and so on, there’s a lot of flooding pulling a lot of nutrients into the bay," Mayer said. "There’s a lot of dead zones (because of algae), so very interested in what we can do as a town to make that better."
“It’s very exciting," Usry said about the work.
He said having plants absorb standing water allows them to convert chemicals in the water.
“It’s pulling phosphorous and nitrogen out of the water that runs into the park from people putting fertilizer down and doing whatever they do," said Usry. "These plants love it, so they’ll eat it and they will turn that into oxygen and that protects the bay."
It’s a microcosm, you might say, of the park itself.
“We have built the park with sensitivity to coastal resiliency," said Cape Charles Capital Projects Manager Bob Banek.
The work at the park is based on a lot of community feedback and is part of a strategic plan adopted by the town council.
He said the work seems to be well-received.
“We’ve had great response for the planning of Central Park. Over 130 trees were donated by citizens," Banek noted.
“It’s the little things that we do, the individual things we do that, added together, make a difference," Usry said.
While there is a plan for future improvement projects at the park, currently there is no timeline for when all of that work will be done.
