Wards Corner Civic League

The January 2012 civic league meeting will be held on the 23rd at 6:45pm at the Fitness and Wellness Center.
The Agenda includes: possibly the City Manager.

Here is President Jim English’s message for January 2012:

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

Dear Neighbors,

What will the New Year bring to Wards Corner and the city of Norfolk? As we begin a New Year will we look forward to increasing progress in the redevelop-ment of Wards Corner? As you read my wish list for Christmas and for the New Year, I wonder if any of these will indeed come true in 2012. Remember they were:

• The city of Norfolk to continue to purchase blighted property in Denby Park.
• The city of Norfolk to continue to make Wards Corner a higher priority.
• The redevelopment of the Perry Property
• The redevelopment of the Dalis Property
• The redevelopment of the Farm Fresh Property
• The redevelopment of the Kroger shopping center.
• A permanent Police Chief
• A new Superintendent of Norfolk Public Schools
• A permanent Development Director
• A permanent Human Services Director
• No robberies and larcenies in our neighborhood.
• No transvestites and prostitutes walking the streets in our area selling themselves.
• A new sewer pump station and sewer lines.
• A beautiful revitalized Wards Corner Business District that blends with our neighborhood.

I and many others have been at this task for the revitalization of Wards Corner for some 12+ years now and have seen improvements, although it has been very slow in coming. I am going to keep track of my wish list to see how many of these are addressed by years end.

During 2011, we had an interesting and productive civic league year. Below are highlights from last year’s meetings:

January 2011: Voted against FORKIDS coming to the business district. I then presented highlights of the 2010 year.

February 2011: Recognized 3 Granby Elementary Students for their Science Award achievements in the State Science Fair. Heard a presentation from Norfolk Police Officers McKenzie and Davis on their policing activities in Wards Corner.

March 2011: Our guest speakers were Senator Ralph Northam and Delegates Kenny Alexander and Paula Miller who discussed the highlights of the 2011 Virginia General Assembly Session.

April 2011: Councilman Andy Protoyrou was our guest and he discussed with us the redistricting plan for the cities Electoral Wards. Despite the changes, Andy will still represent our area. Members of the Department of Utilities also made a presentation regarding the proposed new sewer pump station to be located on or near the Wellness Center

May 2011: Our guest speaker was David Setchel, Administrator with Bon Secours DePaul Medical Center who briefed us on the plans for the new Medical Center Complex. We also had an update from the Utilities department on the proposed pump station.

June 2011: Our guest speaker was Stanley Stein, Deputy City Manager who spoke about the Neighbors Building Neighborhoods program. We also had updates about theproposed sewer pump station and the Food Bank’s Emergency Food Assistance Program.

We do not hold our meeting during the months of July and August.

September 2011: We again heard updates on the sewer pump station and the land acquisition of property in the Denby Park neighborhood. We have finally agreed on the design and location of the sewer pump station as of this past summer.

October 2011: We held a candidate forum for those candidates running for the Virginia General Assembly this year with elections in November. Meeting with us and discussing their platform were incumbent Delegates Kenny Alexander and Linwood Lewis who were running unopposed. Running for the Senate were incumbent Ralph Northam and challenger Ben Loyola.

November 2011: Our speakers were Councilman Andy Protogyrou and Brad Robinson who spoke about the resignation of the Norfolk Superintendent of Schools. Councilman Protogyrou also spoke about other issues pertinent to Wards Corner.

December 2011: Our guest speaker was Chuck Rigney, Interim Director of Development who spoke about the operations of the Planning Department. We also held our elections and all of the incumbents were again elected for another one year term.

As the New Year begins we will once again pro-vide you with speakers on timely and relevant issues at our civic league meetings. We also want you to attend and bring your issues and concerns to us so that we may help address and/or rectify those issues and pro-blems. You may keep track of the civic league hap-penings in this monthly newsletter but your presence at the meetings is greatly appreciated. Please consider attending. Please also visit us at www.wardscorner.com.

Finally, please note that our meeting dates for January and February have changed due to holidays on our regular meeting days. The January meeting will be on January 23^rd at 645PM and the February meeting will be the 27^th at 645PM. Both meetings will be at the Wellness Center.

            Thanks for allowing us to continue to serve you as officers of the Wards Corner Civic League

Happy New Year to all and wishes for a prosperous and healthy year.

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