The January 2014 Wards Corner Civic League meeting will be held on the 27th at 6:45pm at the Fitness and Wellness Center on Newport Ave.
We are expecting a presentation by Circuit Court Clerk George Schaefer.
President Jim English’s message for January 2014 can be viewed in the Newsletter (PDF).
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A 1.6 million infrastructure improvement project is planned for North Shore Road between Restmere Rd and Colony Point Road. New sanitary sewer pipes will be installed and the streets will be full resurfaced.
Work is scheduled to begin in January 2014 and will finish by the end of 2014.
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The December 2013 Wards Corner Civic League meeting will be held on the 16th at 6:45pm at the Fitness and Wellness Center on Newport Ave. We are expecting a presentation by Anna Bowerman, the new branch manager of the under construction TowneBank branch at Wards Corner. Additionally Delegate Lynwood Lewis will be in attendance to talk about his run for State Senate.
President Jim English’s message for December 2013 can be viewed in the Newsletter (PDF).
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The November civic league meeting will be held on the 18th at 6:45pm at the Fitness and Wellness Center.
The Economic Development Director, Steven Anderson, has been invited to give us an update on economic development both city-wide and within Wards Corner.
President Jim English’s message for November 2013 can be viewed in the Newsletter (PDF).
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Dear Neighbors,
It is rare that I openly endorse any candidate for public office. As a fierce independent by nature I will let anyone know what I think (as many of you may know) but I don’t normally commit to endorsing anyone in writing. That changes this year with Jim McDonnell who is running for Norfolk City Treasurer. Recently the Virginian Pilot endorsed Jim McDonnell for Norfolk City Treasurer.
I am doing the same. I have worked side by side with Jim McDonnell for the past several years for the betterment of Wards Corner. I consider him a friend and ally. He is honest, ethical, open minded and hard working. He knows the business and financial world better than most people I know. He is the right choice for Norfolk City Treasurer. He will work hard to bring respect to the office and break down the barrier between the Treasurers office and the Commissioner of the Revenues office. A move that is long overdue. In addition to my endorsement read what the Virginian Pilot and Louis Eisenberg (who I have also worked closely with) have said about Jim McDonnell.
On October 23rd the Virginian Pilot wrote,
In 2010, this page was unable to recommend Anthony Burfoot’s re-election as a city councilman, in part because he was in a position both to collect taxes – as deputy treasurer – and to spend them as a city councilman.
Even though his election would end that conflict, we are left with too many doubts to endorse Burfoot as treasurer.
Instead, we recommend Republican Jim McDonnell, president of the Talbot Park Civic League and a member of the board of the Norfolk Economic Development Authority. McDonnell, a founder of Wards Corner Now, is a financial adviser for Merrill Lynch.
Like Poston, McDonnell has said that rapprochement between the commissioner of revenue and the treasurer is critical to smoothing the city’s financial functions.
“This is a key position in the city – collecting our tax dollars,” McDonnell said. “If you have a problem, that money is gone.”
McDonnell’s criticism of Burfoot centers on the city councilman’s selection by current Treasurer Tom Moss as his successor.
“No. 1, I’m a conservative business guy when it comes to the fiduciary duty of running the office,” McDonnell said. “The second thing is I’m doing this to serve, not to be served.”
McDonnell said he’d work to get senior tax relief completely restored and be more aggressive in collecting delinquent taxes. For his business background, his solid agenda and his lack of conflicts, McDonnell deserves election.
Louis Eisenberg wrote,
On Tuesday, November 5th the voters of the Greater Wards Corner Area will once again have the opportunity to elect “one of our own”. Jim McDonnell, the President of the Talbot Park Civic League, is on the ballot for the office of Norfolk City Treasurer. Jim McDonnell can be proud of his community leadership and involvement which includes:
• Director of the Norfolk Economic Development Authority
• Norfolk Criminal Justice Board Member
• Member of the Mayor’s Wards Corner Task Force
• Founding Member of Wards Corner Now
• Norfolk Community Development Block Grant Commission Board (2011)
• Norfolk Juror Commissioner (2009-2011)
• Vice-Chairman for Blessed Sacrament’s Parish Council (2007 – 2010)
• 11th Grade Confirmation Teacher for Blessed SacramentJim McDonnell has worked tirelessly for the improvement of the Wards Corner Business District. Today, we see the results of his unflinching and persistent efforts. As part of Jim McDonnell’s platform for Norfolk City Treasurer, he has set as one of his top priorities the full restoration of Norfolk’s Senior Tax Relief Program. This is very important to the Greater Wards Corner Area’s large senior population.
Being a trusted financial advisor, Jim McDonnell is the right choice to oversee how Norfolk Citizen’s tax dollars are invested.
Jim McDonnell, “one of our own” has earned our vote for the job as Norfolk’s City Treasurer.
Please Vote Jim McDonnell, Tuesday, November 5th.
Thank you.
James English, President, Wards Corner Civic League.
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“Due to scheduling conflicts the Candidate forum scheduled for our civic league meeting on October 21st will not happen as the candidates are meeting at the Downtown Civic League meeting. They meet at the TowneBank109 ER Main Street 1st Floor conference room at 6PM for those who wish to attend. I am sorry for any disappointment that this may have caused. Nonetheless we will still have our meeting tomorrow night. Jim English. President”
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The October 2013 civic league meeting will be held on the 21st at 6:45pm at the Fitness and Wellness Center.
We will be having a Candidate Forum. The following have been invited:
Treasurer: Jim McDonnell and Anthony Burfoot
Commissioner of the Revenue: Evans Poston and Sherry Battle-Edmonds
Sheriff: Robert McCabe, Sean Jones and Neil Bradley
Commonwealth Attorney: Greg Underwood
President Jim English’s message for October 2013 can be viewed in the Newsletter.
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Another sewer project is planned for North Shore Road. The Sanitary Sewer lines will be installed under North Shore Road beginning at Restmere and ending at Colony Point Road.
Construction is expected to begin this winter and will be completed in the Fall of 2014.
The flyer (PDF) can be viewed here.
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The September 2013 civic league meeting will be held on the 16th at 6:45pm at the Fitness and Wellness Center.
We will have a presentation by Karen Rudd of the Norfolk Public Arts Commission on planned public art in Wards Corner. We also will have an update on the pump station and sewer repairs.
Here is President Jim English’s message for September 2013:
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Dear Neighbors,
It is hard to believe that the summer of 2013 is rapidly coming to a close. I hope your summer was great and you are now ready to begin the fall activities. With fall fast approaching, school is in session and the Wards Corner Civic League will begin holding its regular meetings again beginning with our meeting on September 16th to be held at the new Norfolk Fitness and Wellness Center beginning at 645PM. While we have not had a meeting in two months the board members and members of our civic league have been busy working on issues to make our area better.
Improvements to the Business District continue and the Harris Teeter grocery store as well as the connected out parcels are now well out of the ground. Although in its infancy, I am impressed with the appearance of the Harris Teeter. Soon the construction of the bank on that property will begin. All of this is a very positive sign for the Wards Corner area.
Over the summer we continued to see several major projects keep moving along. Soon these will be finished and add more positive visibility to the revitalization of Wards Corner that impacts all of us. These projects include but are not necessarily limited to:
We will be discussing these projects as well as others over the course of the next several months. We will also have informative speakers on timely city topics for you to hear. Therefore, I want to welcome you back to another year of good productive civic league meetings. If you regularly attend our meetings please bring a neighbor. If you have never been to a meeting or you are new to the area please join us. A strong active civic league like ours gives us good and continued political clout, which we have built with our council representatives to this area. The Wards Corner Civic League is recognized as one of the strongest civic leagues in Norfolk.
Please enjoy this newsletter. Please join your civic league. Thank you and I look forward to seeing you on the 16th of September at the Norfolk Fitness and Wellness Center. This month we will be presenting a bylaws change to add two new members to our executive committee. We will present it this at this meeting and vote on it in October.
Sincerely,
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The June 2013 civic league meeting will be held on the 17th at 6:45pm at the Fitness and Wellness Center.
We will have a update from Chris Perry on the Harris Teeter anchored shopping center that he is constructing as well as an update from Councilman Andy Protogyrou
Here is President Jim English’s message for June 2013:
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Dear Neighbors,
I am writing this message to you on Sunday morning June 1st. A Police Officer Sergeant friend of mine has just stopped by my house to advise me that a robbery had just taken place in the area of Restmere and W. Little Creek Road. If you saw about eight police units and an equal number of officers in that area at that time, they were looking for the suspect. Hopefully that individual will be apprehended soon. This is a reminder that we should be ever vigilant to what is going on around us and to keep all of our doors locked at all times. If you don’t have one, consider getting a home security system. It’s worth it. Another neighborhood alert option that we are publishing and encouraging all of you to sign up for is an email listserv. This notification system will allow you to send a message to all of those members on the listserv if you have an alert that you wish to put out to everyone. You can sign up for it by going to http://www.wardscorner.com and clicking on the WCCL Listserv link on the right hand column of the webpage. From there, simply follow the directions to sign up. The more folks we have on the listserv, the more we can get a message out to all in a timely manner. This system was encouraged by our Police Officers.
As summer is just around the corner and schools will be out, hopefully we will all enjoy some vacation time. We also hope that this summer’s weather will be great and we will once again be spared any major hurricanes as like last year. However, make sure you are prepared just in case. Over the summer, please continue to enjoy the Norfolk Fitness and Wellness Center. There are over 7000 members now. If you are not a member, please consider joining and taking advantage of this great facility in our back yard. As I drive through Wards Corner every day, I am excited to see that the building is coming out of the ground on the Suburban Park Shopping Center. By September it should be completely up and we will have a good idea what the property will look like. To date the following have signed leases for that property:
• Harris Teeter
• Towne Bank
• Sleepy’s Mattress
• Albano Cleaners
• Subway
• Starbucks
• MOE’s Southwest Grill
In addition, you probably noticed that the parking lot has been resurfaced at the Midtown Shopping Center property, giving it a fresh look. We also know that a Dollar General is moving into where the #1 Chinese Buffet was in the Wards Corner Shopping Center. Also the new sewer pump station should be finished and operational this summer. Our efforts are really starting to pay off in the Business District. But let’s not forget that continued focus and efforts are needed in the
Denby Park area which still needs much attention and funding to uplift that neighborhood.
Since our June meeting is the last meeting until September, it also means that this is the last newsletter until then as well. We will not have a meeting in July and August unless it is warranted. I wish to once again thank Barbara Ross for her dedicated service as our newsletter editor. She has done an excellent job of preparing the newsletter each month. This takes a significant amount of time to complete and Barbara’s newsletters are informative and always on time. Barbara, we thank you for your service and look forward to your newsletters again in the fall. Enjoy your two months of newsletter free time. Speaking of keeping us informed, a hearty thanks goes to Martin Thomas Jr. for keeping our website http://www.wardscorner.com as well as http://www.wardscornernow.com up to date and informative.
We also thank Martin for the good work he is doing on the Planning Commission for our area and the city. Also a special thanks to Joan Griffey and Ray Duron for keeping the records of our meetings and ensuring that our finances are in order. Joan, also thank you for your continued efforts as Chair of the Beautification Committee with the Greater Wards Corner Task Force. Joan is now also the Secretary of the Norfolk Federation of Civic Leagues. A thank you also goes to our 2nd VP Sue Classick for her tireless efforts in organizing the delivery of our newsletters each month with our many
newsletter carriers. Thanks also to our many newsletter carriers for their time in delivering our newsletters to you. This also is no small task. It is yet another valuable service that we are providing to all of the residents of the Wards Corner Civic League area residents. It is also the envy of many of the civic leagues in the Greater Wards Corner area as well as citywide. Thanks also to Betty and Ray Duron for organizing and conducting our adopt-a-spot cleanups over the last several years. Thanks also to the members of our civic league who help in each of these cleanups. Thank you all for your service.
Finally, I extend a very grateful thanks to all of our paid members for your continuing support and attendance at our monthly meetings. Your presence and input at our meetings is much appreciated. Please tell your neighbors to join us in attendance and membership as more numbers mean a bigger voice at city hall. One thing is for sure. The dedication and
commitment of the membership of the Greater Wards Task Force and area Civic Leagues (including and especially ours) will continue the push with our city elected officials and senior city management staff to help us correct and develop the area and rid it of the dysfunctional and criminal element that resides here. We will not be taking the summer off but will continue our fight. Please join us in that fight as numbers speak to elected officials.
Please have a safe, relaxing and enjoyable summer. We hope to see you again in June and then in the fall at our September meeting.
Thanks,
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