CURRENT EVENTS

We meet once a quarter (November, February, May, and August) at Carrow Baptist Church on the first Tuesday of the month, 7PM.

20080327

CRIME STATISTICS Feb. 1st - Feb. 28th

Zone 422
BURGLARY / ROBBERY =9
5800 Blk Pontiac Rd
5600 Blk Princess Anne Rd (R)
5200 Blk Princess Anne Rd (R)
5300 Blk Sherluck Rd
100m Blk Ballard Ct (Rx2)
5300 Blk Commons Ct
200 Blk Palmyra Dr N
5500 Blk Parliament Dr
DRUG/NARC.VIOLATIONS= 8
100 Blk Chickasaw Rd E
300 Blk Gainsborough Rd
5200 Blk Princess Anne Rd
100 Blk Ballard Ct
200 Blk Newtown Rd
500 Blk Kempsville Rd (2)
5800 Blk Avalon Woods Dr
LARCENY FROM MOTORVEH.= 5
LARCENY ALL OTHERS =6
MOTOR VEHICLE THEFT =1
DESTRUCTION PROPERTY 6
Total calls for service 79

20080325

VB Health Survey-Assistance Request

The Virginia Beach Department of Public Health wants to know your opinions about community health issues in Virginia Beach. Your answers will help the City identify the most significant issues and develop strategies to address them.

Please take a few moments to fill out the survey using the link below:

www.vbhealth2008.com

20080317

The TIDE launches 24-hour telephone hotline

On Monday, March 10, 2008, Hampton Roads Transit launched a 24-hour telephone hotline, 1-877-456-TIDE (8433) for The Tide light rail project.

Because we know how important it is for you to have readily available and accessible information, we established the hotline to keep impacted members of the community informed during the construction phase of The Tide light rail system. Other sources of information currently available to the general public and businesses include Public Outreach Coordinators, informational meetings, ridethetide.com, e-newsletters, major traffic alerts, and the Tide on Granby outreach office.

A primary goal of The Tide public outreach program is to provide access to light rail information, particularly to those directly impacted by construction, and to raise awareness of light rail operations, safety, and its benefits – the 24-hour hotline will help accomplish this effort. Here’s how it works. Call the toll-free number any time of day to be connected to a live operator. The hotline operator will record your question, comment or concern and immediately send an email directly to the designated project staff 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

During regular business hours, 9 AM to 5 PM, we encourage you to continue to contact your Public Outreach Coordinators through the HRT Customer Service number: 757-222-6000. If a question or situation arises after hours, please call The Tide information hotline at 1-877-456-TIDE (8433). As always, in the case of an emergency, dial 911.

PARK STEERING COMMITTEE

To all members and residents that wish to be part of the CAFNP Steering Committee, please contact the league no later than 5PM, March 21st. The committee shall schedule a meeting soon after and start conversations with the City to investigate the possibilities.

20080313

CAF Neighborhood Park Survey Results March 7th, 2008

90% of the residents that live within our neighborhoods who didn’t frequent or know about the park said they would visit it if there were some improvements.

In order to reach a decision whether to develop the park to make it more family friendly, the CAFCL Board and park committee went to great lengths to insure all voices would be heard. We handed out questionnaires to residents at meetings and in person, mailed them with the newsletter to every home, posted online polls for a number of months, sent questionnaires through Arrowhead Elementary School, and even handed out questionnaires to neighbors during the Primary Election at the Arrowhead Polling Station.

Our community’s responses to the survey have made it clear: a significant majority support development of the park and continuing efforts to keep a balance between preserving the CAFNP’s treasured natural beauty and making it a place where visitors could stay for a longer period of time. As we’ve learned over the years, especially with gangs moving into our city, those immediately around the park can not protect the park by themselves. We believe, once we reach the goal of having our neighbors “take ownership of the park” with increased use of the expanded amenities, we will see a decrease in the unwanted activities we have seen in the past: drug trafficking, drug use, arson, and general vandalism. Prosecution of violators will continue during and after hours with the continued police presence.

We will have our CAFNPs steering committee work with Parks and Rec to bring this vision to life. Ideas shared to date include:
  1. The installation of three non-obtrusive, eco-friendly picnic tables.
  2. A small playground with vandal-deterring equipment (an open design, with no areas to hind in, and made of fire-resistant materials).
  3. A parking lot with only a few spaces to limit the number of visitors and to keep traffic to a minimum.
  4. A fenced dog park, possibly at the left rear area behind the hill, to include benches and sanitary stations. (Pet owners would be required to scoop and remove waste products left by their pets.)

The plan could be accomplished in a two-phase approach; the first phase being the installation of the picnic tables and playground, and the second phase to include the parking lot and Dog Park.

During tonight's meeting, all in attendance were invited to be part of a steering committee to work with Parks and Recs to bring the unified vision to fruition. We did have one person come forward and offer to join the steering committee, along with the others on the Park Committee to work towards a solution in preventing crime in our park.

The solution we've heard from experts is to bring in our entire community together to protect it. This can only be done through having our citizens "take ownership" of it. "If you own it, you'll take care of it" is the general consensus. I'm glad there are so many citizens in our area willing to do just that.

If you would like to be a part of the Parks Steering Committee, please fill out the volunteer form below and our Parks Committee chairperson will be in touch with you. Choose SAFETY AND SECURITY and in the notes section, write in Parks Steering Committee. (Thanks for volunteering).

Thank you all for voicing your opinions; either for or against. It is only through open communication are we able to really know what the general consensus is regarding the CAFNP and what vision our community has for the park.

Join us March 13 for our CL general meeting

Agenda
  • Announcement of Carolanne Farm Neighborhood Park poll results
  • Virginia Beach Parks and Recs to hear plan for CAFNP - offer brief timeline
  • Volunteers wanted for the CAFNP Steering Committee
  • Butterfly Society Rep., Ruth Burch to present on native plants and butterfly gardening
  • YARD OF THE MONTH
  • Seed sharing initiative

20080309

DREDGING of Lynnhaven River (western branch)

February 28, 2008

Subject: Public Information Workshop for Western Branch Lynnhaven RiverMaintenance Dredging (CIP 8-005)

A public information workshop has been scheduled to discuss proposed maintenance dredging for the Western Branch Lynnhaven River. The workshop is scheduled for Wednesday March 19, 2008 at the Bayside Middle School auditorium located at 965 Newtown Road from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 pm. Representatives from the City of Virginia Beach and our design engineers will be available to provide information and receive comments on the project. All interested citizens are invited to attend.

The proposed project includes mechanical dredging of the main channel of the Western Branch Lynnhaven River. Material would be barged to a transfer station near the Lynnhaven Boat Ramp Facility and then trucked to the Whitehurst Disposal Pit located off of Oceana Boulevard. The project is expected to begin construction in late 2008 and last for at least six months. If you have any questions regarding the proposed dredging or if you are unable to attend the meeting and would like to discuss the project, please contact me at 385-8005 or dadams@vbgov.com.

Sincerely,
Daniel F. Adams, P.E.Project Manager

20080304

AARP Kemapville Chapter 4212

AARP Chapter 4212 meets the second Wednesday of each month at the Kempsville Recreation Center in room 117 at 10:00 A.M.

We would like to invite all those in the area (55& over) to visit us at your leisure.

We have a short business meeting, followed by refreshments and then an informative program, usually featuring a speaker with information or ideas which are of interest to the senior community.

So, if you are free on the second Wednesday mornings, come out and visit with us. If you like whom you meet and what you hear , we would love to have you among our members.

For further information you may call Sonya Lowry at 497-1138.

Sincerely,
Sonya Lowry, Sec. AARP Kempsville Chapter 4212

Project Lifesaver wants your vote

PROJECT LIFESAVER® INTERNATIONAL CHIEF
NOMINATED FOR AMERICA’S MOST WANTED ALL STAR RECOGNITION
March 4, 2008

Gene Saunders, founder and CEO for Project Lifesaver International and Chief for the Virginia 43rd Search and Rescue, has been nominated for the America’s Most Wanted All Star Recognition for his contributions to the community and nation.

Like many others during his career in law enforcement, he faced finding, coordinating, or in some cases discovering the whereabouts of missing persons who were identified to have a wandering condition. Realizing that searches didn’t always end with a positive outcome, he set out to find a means that would not only help to locate the missing faster, but a method that would help to save taxpayers money too.

In 1999, he founded the program known nationally as Project Lifesaver International to help locate citizens identified to have conditions such as Alzheimer’s, Autism and other conditions that could lead them to wander away from the safety of their own home.

People who are enrolled in the Project Lifesaver Program wear a personalized wristband that emits a tracking signal. When caregivers notify the local Project Lifesaver agency that the person is missing, a search and rescue team responds to the wanderer’s area and starts searching with a mobile locater tracking system.

Project Lifesaver is a non-profit (501 (c) (3) organization that assist public safety agencies and other organizations in starting the program, providing training, equipment and grant opportunities, Funding is a result of private and corporate donations and grants. Most important is that all of the funds go back into the program to improve equipment, training and services.

Today his vision has spread nationwide to over 653 public safety agencies in 42 states and into Canada. Thanks to this vision and determination, there are thousands of clients on the program. To date, Project Lifesaver has had 1,659 national searches with a 100% recovery rate and no fatalities. The average find time of a client on this program is less than thirty-minutes.

This program is not only a lifesaver, it gives piece of mind to families facing the challenges of protecting their loved ones who cannot or may no longer have the capability to do so themselves.

Before Project Lifesaver, searches across the country were averaging 9 hours and costing taxpayers approximately $1,500 per hour. Many searches actually took days, with hundreds of responders, resulting in much higher costs and many with tragic endings. One search in Chesapeake in 1979 cost the city $342,000 and was unsuccessful. The basic cost to start this program in an agency is less than $8,000, finding someone alive is priceless.

He is a retiree of the Chesapeake Police Department (Police Captain) where he received numerous awards and recognition for his outstanding work and remains the Chief of the Virginia 43rd Search and Rescue that is a part of the Chesapeake Sheriff’s Office.

Please visit www.amw.com and go to the All Star icon on the left where you may cast your vote for the hero of your choice. Or put in the name Gene Saunders; if you wish to recognize his dedication for a lifetime of helping others.

20080302

THERE IS HELP FOR THOSE IN NEED

In Need Of Home Repairs?

The City of Virginia Beach Department of Housing and Neighborhood Preservation offers assistance to income qualified owner-occupants with repairs to their home. Funds are available to residents of Virginia Beach whose household’s total gross annual income does not exceed eighty percent (80%) of the area median income, adjusted for family size, as established by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
Funds are provided in the form of a no-interest deferred loan, to be secured by a Deed of Trust for the cost of the repairs. No payments are made as long as the property remains owner-occupied by the applicant, and no interest is accumulating because no interest is being charged. Funds get paid back to the City of Virginia Beach at the time of the owner(s) death, or upon the owner(s) vacating, selling or transferring the deeded property (property must remain the primary residence of the applicants).
Eligible repairs include the correction of all code violations, energy improvements (i.e. new roof, windows & doors, and heating and cooling system), vinyl siding, and if there is a disabled person in the household, handicapped accessible improvements.
For more information about this home repair program, please call the Department of Housing and Neighborhood Preservation at 385-5750.

Helping Hands

Helping Hands is a program sponsored by Virginia Beach Clean Community Commission that provides one time assistance to residents who are elderly or disabled and of modest financial means. The project is soliciting nominations for consideration for this summer's session. Projects are completed by volunteers and use donated materials to clean up exteriors of properties. The projects are also an excellent opportunity for civic leagues to participate in an event to help a neighbor. For more information or to obtain a nomination form, check out the web site at www.vbgov.com/vbclean or by calling 385.4104.

VOLUNTEER TODAY

Carolanne Farm Civic League Volunteer Form