A Chocolate Lab was found today (Thurs) at the corner of Shore Drive and Maple St.  Please contact Lee Ann at 481-1959 to claim. 

Starting Monday the city will reduce the speed limit from 45 to 35 mph on Shore Drive between the traffic signals for First Landing State Park and North Great Neck Road.
 
The change comes after increased activism from groups such as the Shore Drive Community Coalition and local civic leagues, as well as July 11’s Share Shore Drive Day awareness bike ride.

To read the entire Beacon article. please click here A slower stretch of Shore Drive on Page TXBE1 of July 30, 2009 issue of Virginian Pilot

Read & comment at Pilotonline.com:

Today’s recommendation ends a long-running dispute over private versus public beach. Since 2001, Virginia Beach officials have been negotiating with bayfront property owners for recreational easements, which allow the public to use the beach for recreational purposes.

From his email, posted with Mr. Wood’s permission:

As most of you know, after a 3 day trial, on Friday the city prevailed in preserving the Cape Henry beaches for public use and for the placement of sand from the Lynnhaven Inlet dredging project.

We do anticipate that people dissatisfied with the ruling will come to the VMRC hearing tomorrow to try to block the project.

If you live in the area and want to preserve the beaches for the public’s use and for the placement of sand from the federal dredge project, please consider attending this meeting and making your voice heard.

VMRC Meeting:  7/28/09, 9:30AM

Virginia Marine Resources Commission
2600 Washington Avenue
Newport News, VA 23607-0756
(757) 247-2200

The Commission Meeting Room is on the 4th Floor

Feel free to forward this to others!

Thanks,

Jim

Jim Wood
Member, Virginia Beach City Council
Lynnhaven District

We sent it Monday July 27th ‘09 11:02am EST.

The 159th Seaport Operations Company is scheduled to depart Fort Story Tuesday for a 12-month deployment.

After their ceremony on Ft Story Tuesday, their buses are heading down Shore Drive around 9pm.

Thanks to Bill DeSteph & Rosemary WIlson, Dave Hansen & Barry Frankenfield, Robert Shanks and I’m sure other city staffers who I didn’t realize came out for Tour de Virginia Beach.
Info at ShareShoreDriveDay.net.

Kayakers of Virgina Beach paddle past the site where a suspected withc was ducked, as well as other places of interest.

To resd the entire Virginia-Pilot article please click on this link Lynnhaven Kayak Tour

THIS WEEK , Virginia Beach will ask a judge to grant permanent public easements across Cape Henry’s beaches so the city can replenish the sand between the Lesner Bridge and First Landing State Park.

Check out the Virginian-Pilot article regarding this issue at Cape Henry Sand Replenishment

From CapeStory.org:

The speed limit between N. Great Neck Rd and First Landing State Park will be lowered from 45 mph to 35 mph starting Monday August 3rd on a trial basis.  Local residents and civic leagues have repeatedly requested the City over the past 5 years to reduce the speed on this stretch of road.  The reduced speed will help improve safety for the 800 residents of Cape Story by the Sea and Cape Henry Shores that cross Shore Drive on foot and by vehicle without the aid of signalized intersections or marked crosswalks.

Click here for the printable version of the agenda shown below: SDCC_Agenda_July_09.pdf

Shore Drive Community Coalition (SDCC) General Meeting Agenda
Monday July 27, 2009

SDCC General Meeting – Monday July 27, 2009 from 7:30pm to 9:00pm
Ocean Park Volunteer Rescue Squad Hall (parking in back, on side streets and across Shore Drive)

Program/Presentation –            STRATEGIC GROWTH AREA?
                  SPECIAL COMMUNITY AREA?

  What’s the difference?
  Do we want to be one?

When the City of Virginia Beach updates the Comprehensive Plan later this year, we don’t want the Bayfront to be left out.  Come hear how the system works, as explained by Comprehensive Planning Coordinator Tom Pauls, of the City’s Planning Department.

The general agenda for the evening will be:
Officer’s Reports – Brief Reports
Secretary – Todd
Treasurer’s Report – Leslie

Old Business
Please visit http://www.sdcc.info for status on issues of interest.  Reports to attendees will be limited to those items which have an update since the previous meeting.  Topics covered may include:

Indigo Dunes Project
Pound Pole Fishing Nets
Beach Replenishment
Bike Path Safety
Shore Drive Safety Initiative 2009
Lesner Bridge Replacement Project

New Business

Next Meeting:  August 31, 2009:  Hurricanes coming!  Will we be ready?

Please check http://www.sdcc.info for details as they become available.

Release Date:  Thursday, July 23, 2009 12:15 p.m.

The Virginia Beach Department of Public Health has lifted a swimming and wading advisory that was issued for the Chesapeake Bay from Starfish Road to Wake Forest Street. Lab results showed bacteria levels in the water meet the State Water Quality Standards.

Signs have been removed that previously alerted the public of the advisory.

Click here to read the City’s news release Swimming Advisory Lifted

Pilotonline.com coverage including map & commenting.
[Added by Tim at 1:38pm]

Release Date:  Wednesday, July 22, 2009 9:15 a.m.

The Virginia Beach Department of Public Health has issued a swimming and wading advisory for the Chesapeake Bay between Starfish Road and Wake Forest Street. Recent testing conducted by the Health Department showed that bacteria levels in the water exceeded the State Water Quality Standards. The advisory does not affect the Virginia Beach oceanfront or resort area.

Cllick here to view the City’s news release Swimming Advisory for Cape Henry Beach

Read & comment on article at WVEC.com:

“It’s just a beautiful thing,” said David Williams.  “I took my wife out to dinner last night because I was so ecstatic.”
And:
But biker Mike Combs doesn’t think the speed limit change will make a difference.
“The problem is, we’ve had a lot of crashes but they weren’t going 45, they were going 80,” said Combs.  “If the speed limit was 35, they’d still be going 80.”

Read entire article at WAVY.com:

The city’s traffic engineer Robert Gey explained, “If you’re on a bike and cars are doing 30 miles an hour versus 45 or 50, you’re going to feel a difference. Or if you’re a pedestrian and cars are coming at you at 35 miles an hour versus 45 or 50 [miles an hour], you’re going to feel a lot more comfortable in that environment.”

Grace,
You may announce.  Press release went out a little while ago (attached).  Message boards have been emplaced and will be turned on tomorrow morning announcing a 3 August reduction in the speed limit.  Staff will collect data thru Labor Day and draft a report and recommendations.  Both the Vice Mayor and Councilman Wood have been advised. Hope it works. Regards, Dave

Dave Hansen
Deputy City Manager
City of Virginia Beach
757-385-4242
[Sorry about the glitch earlier. Posted from an iPod Touch.]

Read & comment at article at Pilotonline.com.

Ladies and gentlemen, your experience with the following is requested.

As many of you know Lake Christine lies along the northern boundary between the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Camp Pendleton and Croatan.  Recently both Camp Pendleton and Croatan Officials have noted the presence of an invasive aquatic tropical weed – Alligator Weed, Alternanthera philxeroides.  This mat forming weed crowds out native aquatic vegetation, retards water flow, lowers dissolved oxygen and increases sedimentation—none of which is good.  We understand that other Virginia Beach neighborhoods have Alligator Weed experience.  If true, please share your A. Weed experience with us by e-mailing me at kejo425@aol.com 

Thanks Ken Jobe CCL President, VBCCO Past President

For more information and pictures of Alligator Weed check out these links:
Alligator Weed Information
Background and Possible Erradication Treatments

SDCC General Meeting

July 27, 2009

STRATEGIC GROWTH AREA?  SPECIALCOMMUNITY AREA?
What’s the difference? Do we want to be one?

Come hear Tom Pauls, City of VB Comprehensive Planning Coordinator, discuss the options for Shore Drive.

Click here for the flyer SDCC_July_Flier.pdf

By David Williams, Cape Henry Shores Civic Association

Project Officer for SDSI ‘09

Monday, July 14 marked a subtle but what I think a significant date in the Virginia Beach civic calendar as 15 members of the Shore Drive Safety Initiative 2009 (SDSI’09) held their second meeting in two weeks to further develop a Plan of Action (POA) for their efforts to improve the safety along Shore Drive.  I say this day is historic in that there was a subtle but perceptible shift in the atmosphere from the previous meeting on 6 July where two groups met, but both were not quite sure of the other group’s motives. After more than three decades, much and varied efforts have been put into improving the safety along Shore Drive, but with limited success. Now, actual progress was being made at identifying and correcting our neighborhood’s dangerous areas.

While some groups see Shore Drive as a gateway to the oceanfront, other groups see this four lane road and highway as a keeper of the residential neighborhood’s image. Some residents want faster commutes, while other residents want to be able to walk across Shore Drive without significantly endangering self, family and tethered canine.  As a resident here, I feel that we should not be overly endangered while doing normal outdoor activities, such as walking the family to the beach.  Change is difficult to achieve or accept depending on your perspective, but most agree, safety improvements are particularly needed along this section of Shore Drive.

Monday’s meeting brought representatives from the City and the combined interested citizen groups (Cape Henry Shores, Cape Story By the Sea, Shore Drive Community Coalition, Tidewater Bicycle Association, and Bayfront Advisory Committee together again to consider safety improvements.  The Director of Public Works, Mr. Jason Cosby and Mr. Mike Shahsiah , Senior Traffic Engineer discussed possible solutions that could be implemented quickly and possible solutions that would take more study, time and funding approval.  But, the key point made here by Mr. Shahsiah, was that safety improvements were doable. After listening to the residents along Shore Drive and understanding our concerns, at least now the city was responding with the prospects of “doable”, and not with the flat rejections as previous requests had met.  We still do not have our speed limit reduction to 35 MPH from N. Great Neck Road to the entrance at First Landing State Park, but I think both the city and the residents have shared a better understanding of both the residents’ safety concerns and the city’s ability to implement those safety improvements.

This safety effort started with some local residents, gained area support and traveled up through the offices of Vice Mayor Jones, Councilman Wood, and Councilman DeSteph who have collectively brought it into the light of city government and into the view of Mayor Sessoms.  It is just such a great feeling to know that local government still works and responds with some efforts and some organization.  We, the people, will get there safely.

From Cape Story neighborhood watch:

Tonight [7.13.09] in-between rain showers I was out on Beech st. with my 4 yr. old son enjoying him running, splashing, bike riding, etc… in the big puddles the 20 min. or so that they were around when a jeep approached at with gaining speed.  I live a couple of houses past the bike path if your coming off of shore drive.  The vehicle was a white jeep, relatively new, with a virginia lic. # XSH-2745 (maybe 4527) and the driver was a young adult male to an older teen.  The driver was gaining speed and that about half way between shore and the bike path, I began walking out in the street waving my hand up and down at him yelling “slow down!” as the spray from puddles flew over his car.  He flew through the bike path intersection and I think for a sec. or two he thought about maybe trying to spray me as he went past.  I was not going to move from the street and he quickly slowed down and passed me without looking at me, I continued to yell “slow down!” to him.  After passing me, he picked up speed again and sped off to the end of the street.  My son was off to the side in a driveway and out of the way.  I did not have my “slow, children playing” sign out but I do not think it would have been much of a deterent either.

Innocent fun could have turned into a tragic accident quickly and unneccessary.

I hope someone knows this individual and will pass on to them that this type of behavior will not be tolerated.