THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 28, 1996 TAG: 9606270182
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 07 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: 73 lines
Photo evokes memories
The picture in the June 9 Beacon of the old 14th Street Town Hall brought back memories, one a story by the late Rowland Dorer, Father of Mosquito Control in Virginia Beach and Mount Trashmore.
He told of attending a council meeting in the late 1930s and hearing an irate citizen demand that the books be purged before the next election as he, the citizen, knew of at least 12 dead people who had voted in the last election.
Council studied the matter briefly and one member settled the question by deciding that it was too late, since election day was only two weeks off whereas one had to be dead for 30 days in Virginia Beach before being ineligible to vote.
When I came to work in the Old Hall in April 1940, there was a 12-by-12-inch timber from floor to ceiling in the downstairs jail to keep the big iron safe upstairs from falling through.
In the corner of the lot there was a round sewage pumping station which had been built by the old Princess Anne Hotel back in the 19th century. It then discharged through a cast iron line down Pacific Avenue to 30th Street, thence cross country to the first marsh on Pinewood Road.
When the town was incorporated in 1906, it took over the station to serve the south end and connected it to a sewer manhole at 16th Street and Arctic Avenue. While adding a new and additional pump, the wood shingled pump house was replaced with a masonry structure which still stands.
The ``New'' Town Hall mentioned in the article was built on Arctic Avenue between 19th and 20th streets and in 1941.
As Town Engineer, I had the task of drawing plans based on specific instructions by Council as to size and use of each room as well as the maximum outer dimensions.
I had one trouble when I put this on paper. The inside was larger than the outside, so I had to trim 6 inches off each room to get the inside within the outside.
That Town Hall was built for $12,000 and the two-story brick jail in the rear for $8,000. ``Cap'n'' John Simmons lived upstairs and served as jailer and in an equally capable manner as shopkeeper, storekeeper and water meter mechanic.
I spent 38 years at Town and City Halls from 14th Street to Arctic Avenue to Princess Anne and have at least one claim to fame. I was the best city manager of all based on what I was paid. Although, I was acting city manager for two years in addition to being public works director, and things went as smoothly as ever, I wasn't paid a dime extra!
It seems that ``Cap'n'' John and I were both bargains.
A. Worth Petty
June 17
Lawmakers age badly
Metabolism makes men's brains shrink faster as they age, researchers contend. Could this conceivably be one of the problems this country is having with our Washington, D.C., lawmakers?
And now Bob Dole is running for president.
Howard A. Miller
June 3
What has taken so long?
In regards to the road construction on Atlantic Avenue near the Cavalier Hotel, one can only wonder as to what would have happened if the same crew had worked on the following:
Appian Way: Caesar would still be stuck in downtown Rome traffic.
Oregon Trail: Nothing in the Northwest except Indians, Russians and Sockeye Salmon.
Burma-Lashio Road: Chiang Kai-Shek would still be waiting on supplies.
New Jersey Turnpike: A quarter mile south of Secaucus.
Virginia Beach Boulevard: It is finished, isn't it?
To paraphrase the late Winston Churchill, ``Never in the course of human events, have so many done so little for so long for so much!''
Tom M. Cauley
May 26 by CNB