Hi All: Looking forward to seeing you at our meeting on Monday, Feb. 23rd at the Brock Environmental Center on Pleasure House Point at 3:30. There are generally some parking places near the city pump station just off Chesterfield Ave. If those places are full, you need to park on Marlin Bay Drive and take the path to the center. See you then, Karen
Learn more about Friends of Live Oaks at their website.
Directions & Parking for BEC at CBF.org.
Photo Credit: Tim Solanic
Program/Presentation –
Officer’s Reports Secretary – David Williams ; Treasurer’s Report -Kathy Pawlak ; Vice President – Wally Damon ; President – Todd Solomon
Old Business–
CIP 2.118 – Shore Drive Improvements Ocean Park: Update on efforts to schedule safety improvements earlier than current construction start date of January 2023.
Lesner Bridge Replacement Safety Issues – City/Community walkthrough of issues being scheduled. Turning light at Shore-Vista, Speed bump at same intersection have been identified. Do you have any additional safety concerns?
New Business –
Arrive Alive Awareness Campaign – Recent 3 deaths on Shore Drive appear to be alcohol related. Is a restaurant table top notice campaign a worthwhile effort? A design contest and possible grant funding could be used. Partnership with businesses would be a must. Thoughts and discussion.
Community Concerns – Does your neighborhood/condo have any issues that have come up that need help or may be a warning to others?
View story and more photos at WAVY.com.
Goyet said the fire started on the exterior of the building and neighbors alerted the residents. Crews were able to keep the flames from going inside. Still, two adults and three children were displaced.
Photo Credit: WAVY TV
All City of Virginia Beach offices and facilities will open tomorrow, Wednesday, Feb. 18, at 10 a.m. That includes all parks, recreation centers, libraries and the Virginia Aquarium. City-run historic homes will remain closed Wednesday. There will be no trash or recycle pickups on Wednesday.
The city’s essential operating condition will continue until 10 a.m. Wednesday. At that time, the city will resume normal operating conditions.
Crews from Public Works will continue working to clear streets throughout the night and throughout the day tomorrow.
Due to the anticipated hazardous road and weather conditions, Public Works/Waste Management has CANCELLED trash and recycling collections for Wednesday. Residents are asked to place their trash cans at the curb line and leave them there until they are serviced. Those residents with small amounts of trash, or extra carts, may wish to skip collection this week, and have all materials collected the following week.
Collections will resume as soon as conditions allow, and will operate on a sliding basis. Tuesday collection area will be collected on the first day collections are resumed, and continuing each collection area as needed to complete collections for the week.
Yard debris collection has been suspended for the remainder of the week. Additional requests for bulky item collection will be re-scheduled for next week. The Virginia Beach Landfill and Resource Recovery Center will follow the City of Virginia Beach operating hours.
For updates about collections, call Public Works Waste Management at 385-4650 or visit www.VBgov.com/wastemgt.
View OPVRS location at Google Maps.
You can schedule an appointment at RedCrossBlood.org.
Blood: The most common type of donation, during which approximately a pint of ‘whole blood’ is given. This type of blood donation usually takes about an hour.
Double Red Cells: A Double Red Cell donation collects the red cells but returns most of the plasma and platelets to the donor. These donors must meet specific eligibility requirements and have type A Neg, B Neg, or O blood.
Medical emergency in westbound lanes.
EXPECT DELAYS
There’s also been break ins & attempted break ins in Lynnhaven Colony, Cape Story by The Sea, & Cape Henry Shores in the same time frame.
View video report at WAVY.com.
Lock your vehicles!
Also check out the recent article in the Virginian-Pilot that features Shore Drive resident Joe DiGeronimo. Click here to read the entire article
A New Jersey native and retired businessman, DiGeronimo, 70, became fascinated by the daily parade of vessels – and curious.
“I wanted to know where they were going and what they were doing for the community,” he said. “It’s a beautiful view, but what’s going on? Why are those ships parked out there? Why are they running by with the loads they are?”
Mark your calendars.
Have issues you are concerned with re: Shore Drive community?
Reasons to attend:
Familiar with the 2029 Strategic Plan for Virginia Beach?
View the PDF of the 2029 Strategic Plan at VBGov.com. (51 page PDF)
And for those who do not use Facebook, the COVB Official Facebook page now sports an image of the Brock Environmental Center. View it here while the photo is still there.

For those who’ve been looking to get the law refined and tightened up to eliminate confusion, you’ll have to wait another year apparently.
From Virginia Bicycling Federation Legislative Update:
Betsy Carr (Richmond), Jeion Ward (Newport News) & LeMunyon (Chantilly) voting yea, while Chairman Garrett was joined by Scott Taylor (VA Beach), Terry Austin (Buchanan), & Todd Pillion (Abingdon) in voting to kill it.
View Official documents at LIS Virginia Legislative Information Center:
HB 2159 Pedestrians; crossing highways.
Introduced by: K. Rob Krupicka | all patrons … notes | add to my profilesSUMMARY AS INTRODUCED:
Pedestrians crossing highways. Clarifies the duties of vehicles to stop to allow pedestrians to cross highways at marked crosswalks.
Existing state law that will not change includes:
The drivers of vehicles entering, crossing, or turning at intersections shall change their course, slow down, or stop if necessary to permit pedestrians to cross such intersections safely and expeditiously.
Pedestrians crossing highways at intersections shall at all times have the right-of-way over vehicles making turns into the highways being crossed by the pedestrians.
Emphasis ours.
Note crosswalk signal across Shore Drive. This vehicle has right of way over pedestrian crossing.
View previous posts about tragic deadly crash.
Coverage at WAVY.com including video:
Eastbound Shore Drive is closed from 83rd Street to First Landing State Park while police investigate the accident. It is unknown at this time how long the road will be closed.
View LIVE VIDEO at 13 News Now.
Shore Drive was closed at the First Landing State Park gate to 83rd Street, to include the Fort Story mid-gate, until 6:45 a.m. The westbound lane was opened at that point, but eastbound remained closed.
About Jeremiah Denton at Wikipedia:
Denton is best known from this period of his life for the 1966 televised press conference in which he was forced to participate as an American POW by his North Vietnamese captors. He used the opportunity to communicate successfully and to confirm for the first time to the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence and Americans that American POWs were being tortured in North Vietnam. He repeatedly blinked his eyes in Morse code during the interview, spelling out the word, “T-O-R-T-U-R-E”.
Related #LESNERBRIDGE renaming posts at SDCC.info:
From COVB Public Works Press Release:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MEDIA CONTACT:
January 19, 2015 Drew Lankford, (757) 385-8062
(757) 409-4353
dlankfor@vbgov.comTemporary Daytime Lane Reductions on Lesner Bridge on Tuesday
Virginia Beach Public Works has announced that there will be single lane closures on Lesner Bridge tomorrow morning, Tuesday, January 20, 2015, between the hours of 9 a.m. and 3p.m.
The lane closures will be on both eastbound and westbound Shore Drive between Vista Circle and East Stratford Street.
Crews will be restoring the faded temporary pavement markings in these areas.
For additional information, contact Chris Wojtowicz at cwojtowi@vbgov.com, or (757) 385-4131.
Screen shot of bridge construction cam at 7am this morning.
On Dec. 10, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Region 3 office sent a letter to Virginia Beach Mayor William D. Sessoms, Jr., confirming that Virginia Beach was in compliance with the flood insurance program. In addition, the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) confirms that Virginia Beach is in compliance with all requirements of the program, and will not be suspended.
January 15 2014 Update:
Friends:
As we bask in the cold, damp, drizzly, foggy, chilly, London-type weather, while watching moss grow everywhere, we have been receiving some inquiries about some pavement problems that need to be addressed on the Lesner Bridge project.
Below is the latest information from Chris Wojtowicz, our project manager. Please give this a look when you have the time, and feel free to let Chris or me know if you have any questions or need more information.
As a reminder, we are regularly updating information on our WEB page at: http://www.vbgov.com/government/departments/public-works/roadways/Pages/lesner-bridge-7-14.aspx .
You can also follow us on Twitter at: @lesnerbridge.
If you know of someone who would like to be added to our update list, please have them get in touch with me at this e-mail address and I will be glad to add them.
Please feel free to pass this along to others. Thanks again for all of your patience throughout this project.
Thanks for all your questions and comments – and patience. Enjoy your weekend, and please stay warm and be safe.
Drew Lankford
Media and Communications
Department of Public Works
City of Virginia Beach
dlankfor@vbgov.com
(O) 757.385.8062
(C) 757.409.4353To All:
This Lesner Bridge project update is to bring you all up to speed on the status of addressing several pavement issues on Shore Drive within the bridge project limits. We have been receiving a number of phone calls, texts, and emails regarding the faded temporary pavement markings on westbound Shore Drive just past the Page Avenue intersection, as well as the bump on eastbound Shore Drive at the Vista Circle intersection.
1) The “Bump”: A request for estimate and schedule has been submitted to a paving contractor. This estimate is due to the City no later than tomorrow, 1/16/2015. The estimate is based on the milling of the asphalt that is causing this bump in the eastbound outside lane for Shore Drive at the Vista Circle intersection and then replacing this asphalt with up to 2” of surface asphalt to match the elevation of the existing concrete pavement and eliminate the elevation difference that is causing the bump.
2) Faded Pavement Markings: We are very aware of the faded pavement markings along Shore Drive, both eastbound and westbound, and between East Stratford Street and Vista Circle/Page Avenue. We have attempted three times to replace these markings, but due to the wet weather and cold temperatures we have had to delay this maintenance work. Once we get a day where the pavement temperature is 50°F and rising, as well as dry, we will replace these painted temporary markings with a more durable thermoplastic marking. We will also place raised reflective pavement makers to help delineate the travel and turn lanes during wet weather and nighttime driving.
Once we have a definite schedule for this work, we will send out a news release announcing the date and times for the lane closures required to perform this work.
We appreciate your patience on these issues as we navigate through this period of cold and wet – typical coastal VIRGINIA – weather.
Thanks Again,
-Chris
Christopher J. Wojtowicz, P.E.
Project Manager
City of Virginia Beach
Department of Public Works
Municipal Center-Bldg 2
2405 Court House Drive
Virginia Beach, VA 23456-9031
Phone: (757) 385-5785
Fax: (757) 385-5668
email: cwojtowi@vbgov.com
View article at Pilotonline.com:
Voting will be open through the end of February.
The Bayfront Advisory Commission, which advises the City Council on issues pertaining to the Shore Drive and Chesapeake Bay-area communities, is expecting some unique input.
Click to visit website to submit your response.
About Vice Mayor Jones about VBGov.com who has represented Baylake Pines, Chesapeake Beach & Ocean Park neighborhoods for years.
He serves as the City Council liaison to several organizations, including the Water Task Force Committee, the Bayfront Advisory Commission, the Oceana Land Use Conformity Committee, the Pembroke Strategic Growth Area Policy Committee and the Town Center Committee.
About the Bayfront Advisory Committee at VBGOv.com:
The purpose of the Bayfront Advisory Committee (BAC) shall be to serve in an advisory capacity to City Council with respect to development and improvement to the Bayfront area.
#WeLoveShoreDrive 