Colonial Place/Riverview Civic League
COMMUNITY NEWS
Ice Cream Social at This Month's Meeting
NEXT BOARD MEETING will be Monday, July 21, 2008, at 7:00 pm.
DEADLINE for the September issue is Tuesday, August 19, 2008 (no August issue).
THIS MONTH'S MEETING AGENDA: Ice Cream Social
I am honored to be the new president of the Colonial Place and Riverview Civic League. I believe that this is the best place to live in the city and that we have the most active group of neighbors around! My husband, Ian, and I moved to this neighborhood in 1997. When our little starter house got too small for our growing family, we moved across the street into a bigger house – not venturing far at all because we had everything we wanted and more in this community. We chose the CPRV community because of its eclectic mix of people, historic homes, and beauty. I am enthusiastic about this community and look forward to promoting the mission of the CPRV Civic League.
I want to take a moment to thank Steve Earnhart for his service to our community as President for the past two years. His dedication to our community showed in his outstanding leadership. I also want to thank outgoing Secretary, J.J. Jacobson for her service and outgoing Treasurer, James Gregg for his service to our community. A great group of officers were amassed these past two years and I am honored to have worked with them.
I am very excited to welcome in the new CPRV Vice President, Artemis Stoll, the new CPRV Secretary, Sharon McGlone, and the new CPRV Treasurer, Amy Butala. Since all of the elected officers reside in Colonial Place, and since there was a bit of murmuring about the all woman slate, I am happy to welcome Riverview Representative, Jack Kennedy to the elected officers also. With such a great group as well as an amazing group of committee leaders, we are bound to further the vision of our great communities! Please contact me via e-mail at thejanesfam@yahoo.com or pick up the phone and dial 469-3531. The future looks great in CPRV!
Let's celebrate at the annual CPRV Ice Cream Social. This year's event will be at Knox Presbyterian Church on Colonial Avenue, Monday, July 14th at 7 p.m. We'll be serving up ice cream with the toppings of your choice to help cool you off and make the heat more bearable.
And how about some refreshing lemonade? We'll have that, too! There will also be games and activities to ease your guilt over all that ice cream you'll consume. So, come on out, meet some new neighbors. Catch up with the old ones. This is a family-friendly event, so bring the kids. See everyone on the 14th!
P.S. If anyone wants to help with the ice cream scooping that evening, we could use a few volunteers. It's been too many years since my days working the counter at High's!
June's Civic League Meeting was full of lots of information. If you don't come to the meetings, I can't express to you how much you are missing out on being a part of positive community solutions. In June, Councilwoman Whibley and Councilman Winn were on hand to not only update us on city news, but to hear what concerns and comments we have as Norfolk residents. Per Dr. Whibley's and Mr. Winn's request, I sent a summary to each of them with the concerns and comments that were made. Topics included Dog Park Parking at the boat ramp, Mayflower Road paving, Sewer replacement schedule, easier access to public transportation schedules, a request to list bike trails on the city's webpage as well as to replace the missing Elizabeth River Trail signs, tax relief, affordable housing, energy savings in city government, Good Times Publication coming out too late to sign up for classes, not enough swimming lesson slots at the Norfolk Fitness and Wellness Center, the need for the city to accept chipboard for recycling and offer incentives for businesses to recycle, and updates on the future of a skateboard park. I quickly got a response from Dr. Whibley stating that both she and Mr. Winn are already working on our list of concerns. They are making recommendations to HRT based on concerns over the webpage. We can now utilize the single spaces at the boat ramp for dog park parking. Parks and Recreation is working on streamlining their sign ups for classes and they will list the bike trails that are available in the city. HRT will also list the bike trails on their website. We will get more updates as things get accomplished.
Audrey Webb, CPRV's Beautification Chairperson and Environmental Commissioner for Norfolk, reports that the City of Norfolk's recycling program will now accept chip board. We can now put cereal boxes, pasta boxes, shoe boxes, etc... right into the blue bin! Progress!
Mr. Richard Levin briefly discussed two issues before the league in June also. The first was the historic designation for the Cruser Place apartment house located on East 39th street which the general membership of the CPRV Civic League voted to support.
The second issue Mr. Levin discussed was the Riverview Theater. He is in the planning stages of the rehabilitation of the Riverview Theater. He was not able to show plans for the theater itself, but he did present his plans for the area directly adjacent to the theater. Mr. Levin is owner by contract for the purchase of this land, which runs from Granby Street to Columbus Ave. It is his intention to use the area in the center of the block as a parking lot. The two lots that are on Columbus Avenue will remain residential lots. There is room for two homes on that space. Right now they are green and each lot travels back 100 feet. When you look at the homes on either side of the vacant lots, you can visualize where the lots end. Mr. Levin assured us that we will not see the parking lot from Columbus Avenue. This city block is unique in that there is commercial on one side and residential on three sides and in the center is a huge square of property. It is on that square of property, in the center, where he hopes to put the parking lot. He also stated that it will be landscaped with a buffer and fully fenced in, thus making sure that neither cars nor people would be able to enter the lot from any area except the Granby Street entrance and therefore, would not be able to exit into the neighborhood in any fashion.
He plans for the theater to be an upscale first class facility. It will be seated, which is different than the open dance hall that was in there in its last opening. Concert hall, upscale live performances, family style events, theater groups, and possible movies are potential leasing tenants, he said. He emphasized that this will be a 7 million dollar project and not a dance hall type venue. He likened it to the Bluebird Theater in Denver, so please google that to get an idea of what he has in mind.
The vacant lot across the street does have room for 44 spaces, but in the future when the theater is a bustling focal point for the Riverview Business District, it might be nice to have little shops or a sidewalk cafe with parking in the back, and not tied down to being parking for the theater. This is a reason for not using the lot across the street.
To our Riverview residents, it will mean converting what is now green space behind several of their homes to a parking lot. This will require a zoning change from residential to commercial. Residents who are directly affected by the proposed zoning change are concerned that this may have a negative impact on their property. Lighting, fencing, traffic, the loss of the greenery, what the theater will be used for, and how all this will change their quality of life, are issues that came up in the discussion.
We all want to see the Riverview Theater open and be a vibrant, positive part of the community. How best to handle the parking issue is going to be an important key to this happening. Mr. Levin came to the league to feel out the neighborhood's concerns for this project and there was a lively discussion. I appreciate Mr. Levin giving our neighborhoods the first heads up about his plans.
Make sure to come out to civic league meetings so that you can get the full scoop and be a part of the discussion.
Please make a note our new monthly street sweeping schedule is:
Colonial Place: 2nd Tuesday and Wednesday of the month
Riverview: 3rd Wednesday of the month
Be a part of "National Night Out" August 2 through August 10. Help bring awareness to crime prevention. Get to know ALL of your neighbors by taking it to the streets. We want people to know who belongs in their neighborhood and who doesn't. We would like to encourage all the block captains and any volunteers to help organize a block party for your street. This will be a great way to socialize with old friends and meet new ones. Please contact Kristie Sheldon-Davis (703) 304-9428 or madisonave1@hotmail.com for details.
The Norfolk Police Department is pleased to announce the creation of a wanted person's website. The link below will direct you to the site. The site is updated daily and can be accessed from any web enabled computer within or outside the City's domain. VCIN enabled computers cannot access this site. Please share with those who are not on email and persons you have contact with. The website informs concern citizens on how to report if someone is wanted and who to notify.
http://www.norfolk.gov/police/wanted_person.asp
It looks like it's going to be a hot summer, and seniors are particularly vulnerable to heat related illness. Seven people in Virginia died (two in Hampton Roads) in the heat wave that struck northeastern US in early June. Maybe some folks on your mailing list are seniors, or know of some elderly residents who need help?
Residents older than 60 who meet the income requirement can apply for free fans from Senior Services of Southeastern Virginia. Call (757) 461-9481.
Residents of Colonial Place and Riverview are urged to contact the city when they become of aware of properties being offered for rent within our neighborhood. Call Rusty Masten at 664-6527 (City of Norfolk) and request an Occupancy Permit Inspection for the vacant or soon-to-be-vacated rental property.
Adopt-A-Spot/Adopt-A-Street
To reduce litter and enhance the appearance of our community you may want to give some thought to adoption! If requested, the City will post a sign to show name of group, etc. responsible for that particular area. A spot includes parks, vacant lots, large median strips, wetlands and waterways. With children's groups, they are encouraged to either adopt a spot or a street, but the street needs to be in an area with a 35mph or under speed limit. If you have any questions please call me 623-1197.
Recycle Yogurt Containers & Drink Pouches
Green Alternatives, 1905 Colonial Avenue has launched a new recycling program for empty yogurt containers and drink pouches. An eco-friendly company called TerraCycle will pay roughly 2 to 5 cents per item collected. All money earned will be donated to the Five Points Community Market in Norfolk. The yogurt cups will be reused as planting pots. The drink pouches will be converted into unique fashion bags, tote bags and pencil cases. Please be sure all containers are clean, lidless and have a wide mouth. Additionally, SPSA now accepts chipboard, that is cereal boxes, shoe boxes, etc. So please include those items in your recycling collection.
Textile Recycling
Items not fit for donation can be given a new life. In the U.S. over 7% of trash in our landfills is comprised of textiles. The City of Norfolk now offers residents the opportunity to reduce that amount, allowing collected materials to be recycled, different than donating usable clothing to thrift stores.
Old textiles (clothing, shoes and other fabrics) that are no longer usable can be dropped in special containers, located at 300 17th Street at Armistead and on Security Lane behind the Norfolk Vocational & Technical School off N. Military Highway, and open 24/7. The materials are then resold or recycled into new textiles and shipped to overseas markets.
As many of you might have noticed, there is a new hose & reel at the dog park. This is to water any suffering plants & trees in the park, so sometimes you will see it running slowly at the base of a tree. We usually water for an hour, so if you see this, please refrain from moving the hose. We will be back. We will try to leave a note on the hose reel as to the time we start the water running. We will try to do this in the morning so as to allow for water for the dogs later in the day. We are still needing plastic newspapaper bags to use for doggy refuse. They can be delivered to 4213 Gosnold Ave. There is a bin for them on the porch. To everyone who now drops off bags, a hearty THANK YOU! I also have received word from the Riverview Coffee Parlor on Granby that anyone who stops in & agrees to take the Parlor's empty newspaper bags over to the dog park will receive a free coffee. Thanks Alice McCoy!
And last, but not least: We received word from Council members Barclay Winn & Theresa Whibley that overflow dog park parking is now available in the new Haven Creek boat ramp parking lot. All they ask is that we not abuse this privilege.
The Colonial Place/Riverview Civic League
P.O. Box 6130
Norfolk, VA 23508
WEB PAGE: www.cprv.org
Community News Editor: Stephanie Hale, email: cprvnews@gmail.com
Community News Distribution: Buddy Petzinger, Phone 622-0233 and Mary Hormell, Phone 627-2392
Advertising: Stephanie Hale, email: cprvnews@gmail.com
Please deliver typewritten newsletter items to:
Stephanie Hale
e-mail: cprvnews@gmail.com