Community Resource Officer Steven Toth: (757) 651-4577 Police or Fire Emergency: 911 Police Non-Emergency: (757) 823-4433 Red Sector Lieutenant: (757) 823-4450 Norfolk Cares Call Center: (757) 664-6510
Call for the following City Services -- Code Enforcement Sewer Backup Waste Management Animal Control/Protection Public Utilities Public Works Environmental Health
... and when you don't know who to call!!!
The City’s recycling contractor, TFC Recycling, is experiencing a driver shortage, the cause of ongoing collection delays. TFC Recycling is implementing aggressive driver recruitment and training programs to attract and maintain a fleet of drivers, including significant wage increases. Drivers are currently working longer hours and weekends to keep up with collection schedules.
If your recycling is not collected on your normal day, please leave the can at the curb. TFC Recycling will ensure that it is collected.
Greetings fellow Norfolk natives and others. In the most iconic years of the 1980’s music scene, I was working at the premiere Tidewater Record Store – Tracks at Wards Corner right where the parking lot is for Harris Teeter. Hired the same month MTV was launched, it was a pivotal time for music…and art, as music and art (video) mixed like never before.
Some 40 years later, I have created an “1980’s Art Exhibit” featuring those years at my Art’s Up Gallery @ Pembroke Mall. I think it would be a treat to the Wards Corner populace to visit the free exhibit. A special treat is a photo I took of Tracks in 1984, arguably the most vivid year of the ‘80’s music scene (Madonna, Prince, Springsteen, etc) from a rooftop at the corner of where K & K Square is now.
100% proceeds from a number of these prints that are signed and numbered (limited edition of 1984) will help support the Norfolk TCC music department, whose band “Blue Moon Jazz Ensemble” performed at the most recent art opening. This promotion is local, charitable, and put on by me – a Norfolk son, grandson of Norfolk’s original tough copper, and son of Army parents.
In April 2021, the Urban League of Hampton Roads launched a Financial Literacy Program, opening three Urban League Financial Centers.
On Tuesday July 27, 2021 meet the Financial Coaches serving the community helping people in need of improving their finances. They are hosting a free online Financial Wellness event from 6 pm to 7 pm. To register, please click on the link:
The Urban League invites you and your network/clients to join us for this brief overview of the Urban League’s Financial Centers and the free coaching services they will be providing for each client. They will follow up with each organization to discuss any level of interest in the program and look forward to partnering with you.
Norfolk Festevents and the City of Norfolk are excited to announce a full weekend of Fourth of July waterfront celebrations for Independence Day, including fireworks shows at both Town Point Park and Ocean View Beach Park!
The Fourth of July Great American Picnic and Fireworks at Town Point Park is scheduled for Sunday, July 4, from 5pm to 11pm along the Downtown Norfolk Waterfront with the one of the largest fireworks shows in the region beginning at 9:30pm over the Elizabeth River.
The celebration will also feature a full afternoon of patriotic musical performances. Festival guests can enjoy all-American food favorites, including hot dogs, hamburgers, barbecue, seafood and more. Guests are allowed to bring their own lawn chair or blanket to enjoy the show.
The Shore Thing Concert & Independence Day Celebration at Ocean View Beach Park is scheduled for Friday, July 2, from 6pm to 10pm with fireworks starting at 9:30pm above the Chesapeake Bay. The OV celebration will also feature live music from local dance-pop party band Wonderland, as well as food trucks, children’s activities and more.
Both events are free and open the public. Go to Festevents.org for details.Masks are not required. Please be mindful and respectful of the health and safety of others.
Do you walk, drive, or bike along Granby Street between Willow Wood Drive and Admiral Taussig Boulevard (just south of the I-564 overpass)? If so, we need to hear from you and your neighbors – again!
The Department of Transit is hosting a second Granby Street Bike Lane virtual workshop on June 29, 6:00 – 7:30 p.m., to get your input as we work to develop a potential project that would repurpose one vehicle lane in each direction into bike lanes along this portion of Granby Street.
During the workshop, learn about the traffic study results and provide your comments on potential design concepts in small group break-out sessions with the project team.
RSVP to save your seat and receive a link to the virtual workshop: https://bit.ly/3wWiJAr.
The city is currently not planning to open any outdoor pools this summer, including the outdoor pool at the Norfolk Fitness & Wellness Center located in Wards Corner. The city manager has stated that there is a lifeguard shortage and there will not be sufficient staffing to open outdoor pools. Indoor pools and beaches are set to remain open and staffed by city lifeguards.
Are you 16 or older and looking for summer or part-time employment? Consider applying for a lifeguard position with the City of Norfolk. The city is looking for lifeguards for Norfolk beaches and indoor pools. Interviews are held weekly.
NORFOLK, VA – The HRBT Expansion Project reached another milestone as Mary, the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM), achieved completion of the Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) Friday, May 21. The project’s design-build contractor, Hampton Roads Connector Partners (HRCP), hired Herrenknecht to manufacture the TBM in Germany. The FAT was the final stage of the manufacturing process, which allows for a comprehensive review and testing of the TBM’s capabilities at the manufacturer’s site prior to delivery and commissioning.
The FAT was conducted in order to demonstrate that all systems function as designed and to address any adjustments needed while the machine is still at the factory before the TBM is shipped to its final destination at HRBT. The FAT is a rigorous process that took place over several weeks as engineers from HRCP, examined and tested every component of Mary.
“Completing the Factory Acceptance Test means that Mary the TBM is one step closer to starting excavation on VDOT’s first ever bored tunnels. The new twin tunnels are the centerpiece of the HRBT Expansion Project,” said James Utterback, Project Director for the HRBT Expansion Project.
With the FAT completed, HRCP has verified hundreds of hydraulic, electrical, mechanical, and safety features of the TBM, which is 430-feet long and 46-feet in diameter. Mary will now be disassembled for shipment to the South Island of the HRBT. She is expected to arrive later this fall. After re-assembly and final testing, Mary will begin boring in mid-2022.
“The successful completion of the Factory Acceptance Test marks an important milestone in the design-build phase of the HRBT Expansion Project and we are very proud of the work accomplished by Herrenknecht and the HRCP JV Team to get us to this point. Preparations are now underway on the South Island to receive Mary the TBM later this year and we look forward to putting her to work in mid-2022 as she begins boring the first of two new tunnels connecting the South Island and the North Island of the HRBT,” said Juan Miguel Perez, Project Executive for HRCP.
The TBM cutter head paint design is a creative representation of the Hampton Roads flag and the Hampton Roads Transportation Accountability Commission (HRTAC) logo. The blue represents the maritime aspects of the region, while the green signifies the land-based agriculture and industry. There are 14 stars on the front of the TBM, representing each of the HRTAC member cities and counties.“The HRBT project shows how VDOT and HRTAC work together to achieve a greater vision for Hampton Roads. The TBM cutter head paint design reflects the unprecedented regional cooperation that made funding possible for the HRBT Expansion Project through HRTAC,” said Kevin Page, Executive Director of HRTAC.
Mary was selected as the winning name for the TBM in February 2021 when St. Gregory the Great Catholic School was announced as the winning contest entry in honor of Mary Winston Jackson. Known for being the first African American female engineer at NASA and a native of Hampton, Virginia, the TBM proudly bears her name.
The HRBT Expansion Project will widen I-64 from near Settlers Landing Road in Hampton to the I-564 Interchange in Norfolk. The project includes the addition of twin two-lane bored tunnels, new marine trestle bridges, and bridge and roadway widening along 10 miles of I-64. For more information, visit the project website at hrbtexpansion.org.
ABOVE: HRBT Expansion Project – “Mary” The TBM, Drone Flyover Video
Let’s defeat Summer Slump together with Norfolk Public Library. Join our Summer Reading Program for reading fun! Your readers will have the opportunity to earn cool badges and prizes by logging their reading minutes from June 26, 2021 – August 7, 2021. This year, our theme is “Tails and Tales”.
Logging minutes has been made simple with the help of Beanstack. For desktop access, visit https://norfolk.beanstack.org/reader365. For mobile devices, visit your device’s app store to download the free Beanstack app. Once downloaded, search for “Norfolk Public Library (VA)” to access the site and register.
Please share the attached flier with your parents and students. We appreciate all you do in helping us create a City of Readers.
