Read the entire article and comments at the Pilotonline.com:
Council members, without committing to the city’s share of the funding, expressed support for the plan and to continuing the revival of the city’s largest waterway, on the mend after decades of pollution, over development and other abuses.
Excerpt from one comment:
Perhaps the restoration of Pleasure House Point is a part of this plan and all can be combined. Hopefully the citizens will be able to see this plan on the City’s website.
Read and comment at Pilotonline.com:
As part of the deal, the city agreed to several conditions to mitigate those concerns, including promises to cease operations during student dismissal and to restrict dump trucks from crossing in front of the school.
Tom Fraim email excerpt – “Final comments from the public will be set for noon on December 6th and we will incorporate constructive comments for the real FINAL REPORT TO COUNCIL at 5:00PM on December 8th in the City Manager’s conference room. I expect the meeting to take less than 10 minutes. We will not take additional public comment and with the exception of approving the minutes of the last meeting, we will not have an agenda. The approved Report to Council on the Neighborhood Dredging SSD Program will be posted on the City Website on December 9th while it is being properly constructed with maps, engineering reports, cover sheet, index, binding … etc.
As you will read in the report, we interpret the instructions from Council to direct us to find additional site options that would have less impact on the neighborhoods and does not give us the option of eliminating sites selected prior to their approval of the program. We cannot eliminate Maple Street from future consideration, but we are asking Council to do exactly that … “
Read the draft final report here 11_28_DRAFT_FINAL
Items in the report that may be of particular intrest:
All residents in the Bayfront area are encouraged to comment on this report. Please send all comments to the following email addresses:
Tom Fraim, B&WAC Chairman – tfraim@masacorp.com
Jim Spore, City Manager – CMOffice@vbgov.com
City Council – ctycncl@vbgov.com
David Williams, Shore Drive Community Coalition President – David@sdcc.info
From an email:
A Citizen Information Meeting for CIP 2-117, Shore Drive Phase III will be held on Wednesday, November 30, 2011, at John B. Dey Elementary School from 5:00 pm until 7:00 pm. The school is located at 1900 North Great Neck Road in Virginia Beach, VA, 23454. This meeting will be an open forum; no formal presentation will be given.
Shore Drive Phase III begins at Vista Circle, near the eastern end of the Lesner Bridge, and extends eastward through the Great Neck Road intersection and terminates at Croix Drive. In general, this project will improve vehicular and pedestrian traffic flow and safety in the roadway and intersections; improve storm drainage; include a multi-use trail and on-street bike lanes; and enhance the corridor with aesthetic elements such as landscaping and lighting.
Feel free to forward to anyone who has been left off of the invite list, and please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.
Thanks!
Toni Alger, P.E.
Senior Project Manager
City of Virginia Beach – Public Works Engineering
2405 Courthouse Drive, 3rd Floor
Virginia Beach, VA 23456-9031
Office: 757-385-8746
TAlger@vbgov.com
Also posted in our Calendar.
Call me naive maybe, but I was taught in public school and spent my college and military years believing in our Democracy. Even after egregious and impeachable acts of Richard Nixon, LCol Oliver North, and J. Edgar Hoover, and unnamed others who have hacked into our rights, our freedoms have prevailed somewhat intact.
The politicians of that “ill-clique” up in Washington seemed removed from who we are and how we live our daily lives in a city like Virginia Beach.
I am reminded that all politics are local. The violations of our trust and confidence do not always occur just from Washington. Some of our citizens have experienced a trampling of their rights from our city staff and city appointed “Advisory” committees. Any violations of our Constitutional rights should be directly challenged and corrected.
Should citizens be prevented from speaking at scheduled open forums or from asking the city questions concerning the safety of public projects that involve our neighborhoods? Should the city’s Public Works Department be the safety monitor and enforcer for those projects? Should a neighborhood’s rights be mauled to enable a “good ol’gal” private business expansion? Should a neighborhood be pulped from dump truck traffic just to support one private party who would commercially benefit? Mr. Fraim has so stated. Ask Thomas Fraim, Chairman of the Beaches and Waterways Advisory Committee about open and transparent city staff meetings or free and open public committee meetings.
This Veteran’s Day, consider all those who have fought for our freedoms and our very Constitution. Consider this, if Hitler’s Third Reich had defeated us in WWII, or if Stalin’s communists had won the Cold War, would our rights and our freedoms continue today? So, why should we accept any trampling on our rights, back door politics, special deals, lack of transparency, and egregious acts from some city staff members?
Will the Mayor and City Council arrive at an honorable course of action that recognizes the mounting and significant citizen opposition to the Neighborhood Dredge (Spoils) Program? Will city staff acknowledge the numerous serious flaws and lack of sufficient studies that exist in the Neighborhood Dredge (Spoils) Program? We citizens will watch closely while some in City Council deliberate their fate and our given rights.
Welcome to ePRO (electronic Police Reports Online), an interactive web application that allows public access to reported crime, traffic accident reports, and active warrants.
From an email:
We have received a number of calls about this evening’s public meeting and the guidelines for those who wish to speak.
1) Anyone wishing to speak must sign up before the meeting starts
2) Each speaker will be limited to 3 minutes.
3) If a group is in attendance and has chosen someone to speak for them, that speaker will be allowed up to 10 minutes to speak on behalf of the group.
4) Any questions to the commission from the public can be submitted in advance on cards that will be provided at the meeting. Those who wish to submit a question can get a card from Rebecca Lear and submit the card to the moderator.
5) Because the commission wants to hear from as many speakers as possible, speaking time will be only for direct comments. Any questions will be addressed through the cards that are submitted to the moderator.
6) Public comments will be taken (from those who sign up) until 9:00 when the meeting will adjourn.
The Commission will answer questions and take comments on the four following topics only:
· The feasibility of alternative dredging methods, such as hydraulic rather than mechanical dredging;
· The potential for beneficial re-use of spoils;
· An analysis of the impact on affected communities (both those receiving dredging and those in the vicinity of the existing and proposed transfer stations) with a focus on identifying sites that are sufficient to support the needs of the project but have the least potential for adverse impact for the community; and
· A proposed framework with parameters for operation of the spoils sites, including potential use of the site by the public for dredging by entities or individuals other than the City.
If you wish to sign up in advance to speak, you may contact Rebecca Lear at 385-1948, or e-mail her at: rlear@vbgov.com
The meeting will be held 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm at Great Neck Recreation Center, 2521 Shorehaven Drive.
Thank you.
Drew Lankford
Media and Communications
Department of Public Works
City of Virginia Beach
dlankfor@vbgov.com
(O) 757.385.8062
(C) 757.409.4353
Note: Received this email at 1129a Oct 13 2011.
Letter to the Editor about proposed Maple Street Dredge Spoils area at Pilotonline.com:
Re ‘Beach plans appeal over dredge site,’ Hampton Roads, Oct. 5: It is beyond my comprehension that the city of Virginia Beach, through its city attorney, would contemplate appealing to the Virginia Beach Circuit Court to reverse the Board of Zoning Appeals’ determination that the Maple Street site on Long Creek cannot be used for a public purpose. I was stunned to read of the appeal, especially since the public purpose intended is for the construction of a permanent, industrial dredged spoils transfer operation in the heart of a residentially zoned neighborhood.
It is our Democratic process that permits us to freely petition our elected governmental representatives to address an issue that could potentially damage our property and take away from its value. It is our Constitution and our First Amendment rights that allow us the free exercise to peaceably assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Should our own Virginia Beach City government be included in this right to “petition the Government”? I proclaim most strongly “yes” and have, as have so many others, put it all on the line to support and defend our Constitutional Rights.
Should a city appointed board tasked with making recommendations to resolve significant issues accept statements from the city’s staff, but not permit assembled citizens the right to state their position or to redress staff statements? Should derogatory statements that “there is much misinformation out there” be accepted without challenge from the board when the assembled are not permitted to speak to address the sources of that information?
To many citizens, these issues may be of small importance or no consequence, but I think it is vitally important. If we do not hold our local government accountable to us, we perch ourselves on the point of becoming irrelevant as free people with the power to elect. We merely become payer of taxes, not the proponent of our Rights. The rights exercised by City government are as important to us as the headwaters of a river. We must all be engaged and involved. It is our elected government whether it be city, state or Federal. We deserve what we get.
#WeLoveShoreDrive 