Wards Corner Civic League

The October 2010 meeting will be held on the 18th at 6:45pm at the Fitness and Wellness Center.

The Agenda includes a presentation from a representative from Cox Cable about internet safety.

Here is President Jim English’s message for October, 2010:

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

By: Jim English

Dear Neighbors,

Instead of my normal message this month, I am choosing to share the letter that was written by John Knight, the owner of the Book Exchange at Wards Corner. It has appeared in the letters to the editor of the Virginian Pilot and is posted on the Wards Corner Now website as well. Perhaps you have been to his store and if not you should frequent it. Over the past several years that I have written my many messages I have always tried to be upbeat and positive as much as possible about the slow but steady progress that is being made in Wards Corner. John’s letter is just that, and shows how one merchant at Wards Corner believes positive things are starting to happen in this area. I therefore want to share his letter with you.

“Has Wards Corner turned the corner?

By: John Knight

Does Wards Corner feel a little different to you?  It feels that way to me.  When I first shopped at Wards Corner eight years ago, I sensed there was something special about this place.  One year later, I made one of the biggest decisions of my life by opening a business here.  The potential was enormous, in location and demographics.  Wards Corner was the “Times Square of the South”, the busiest intersection in Norfolk, with over 60,000 cars passing through each day.  I saw blacks, whites, Asians, Hispanics and every color of the rainbow walking around here.  The customers ranged from the destitute to the well healed. Multi-BILLION DOLLAR Dollar Tree started right here.  What a golden opportunity!

So, I opened The Book Exchange.  Within a month in my shopping center, Lillian Vernon was gone.  Soon Coffease closed, then Uncle Louie’s, then Foot Locker, then a couple beauty salons, then Steckroth’s, then Simply Fashions.  Then the vandals struck.  Then a lack of building maintenance led to peeling paint and frequent floods from above and below.  Well, the good news was that we had plenty of parking…

Luckily my overhead is low and my faith is strong.  We have always been blessed with good customers and staff.  And lately, it seems that those were the proverbial low points.

Take a look at Wards Corner NOW!  The TIDE of trash has been picked up one piece at a time by people like Laura Thom, who has organized a multitude of cleanups. Now, Wards Corner businesses are expanding, while others are moving in for their shot at the American Dream- mind you, in a time when most shopping centers are suffering the effects of the “Great Recession”.

If you have not been to Wards Corner in the past couple months, come see a few of the changes:  AJ Gators has a beautiful new location in the old Wherehouse Music store, ATC Fitness did an amazing remodel job on the old Lillian Vernon store and opened in record time.  Our landlord sanded and painted our light poles.  As I pulled out of our parking lot today, I noticed a new cell phone store across the street.  What will tomorrow bring?  I’m thinking positively.  So, if you have an idea for a business in one of the few vacant spots that are left in Wards Corner, consider acting NOW!  Try to visual what the founders of Dollar Tree saw here.  I GUARANTEE you, Wards Corner is still a goldmine!!!”

Yes things are starting to move in the redevelopment of Wards Corner. In addition to the above that is mentioned in Johns letter, the Wards Corner Pub is now open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Soon the city will place planters throughout the business district that will be maintained by volunteers from our civic league as well as the businesses in Wards Corner. Perhaps we have finally put a floor under the downward spiral of Wards Corner and the redevelopment of the area has begun. We can only hope that this is true. In the meantime, continue to be active with us and push for more attention by the city and our leaders for the Wards Corner area. Let’s all be positive about the future of Wards Corner!

Thanks for your continued support of our area and hope to see you at the next civic league meeting.

Sincerely,

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The September 2010 meeting will be held on the 20th at 6:45pm at the Fitness and Wellness Center.

The Agenda includes a presentation from a representative from Cox Cable about internet safety. We will also be giving away a door prize – $25 gift certificate to A.J. Gators.

Here is President Jim English’s message for September, 2010:

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

By: Jim English

Dear Neighbors,

Welcome back! The summer of 2010 is now almost over and like you, I believe that it has once again sped by way too fast. I hope your summer was enjoyable and relaxing. I also hope you are now ready to begin the fall activities. Possibly like you I spent the Thursday and Friday before Labor Day nervously watching the TV trying to catch the latest news on the track of Earl. Fortunately we were one again spared the destruction of another hurricane. Let’s hope our luck continues again this year. Nonetheless we should be prepared just in case one does hit us in the future. 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 at 6:45PM on September 20^th to be held at the Norfolk Fitness and Wellness Center. While we have not had a meeting in two months, several of us have been busy working on issues to make our area better.

One of the highlights of our summers past has been the presentation of flags on the 4^th of July throughout our neighborhood and the city. Unfortunately due to State budget cuts, Senator Northam and Delegate Miller were unable to provide the flags this year.  While we considered funding the flags from our Treasury, the cost was to high for us to move forward with that idea. We are sorry, as were Delegate Miller and Senator Northam, that we could not continue the tradition this year. It is always so impressive to see all of the flags lining the streets of our neighborhood and city, although I did see many flags left over from last year out on the Fourth. It is a suitable reminder of who we are as Americans, what we represent and the sacrifices made by so many Americans over history to allow us to enjoy our liberty as a free country. Perhaps we will be able to continue this tradition next year.

The most important issue facing our civic league area right now that has developed over the summer is the planned redirection that the Collins Condominium project on Newport Ave. has taken. Mr. Collins has changed his plans from middle to high-income condominiums to a dense apartment complex. The “massing” of apartments in this area is totally unacceptable and we are opposed to it. We simply do not need any more apartment units in our area. We are inundated with them now, and it represents more non-home ownership to the city and us. This is NOT the way to redevelop an area. Over the summer, members of the Wards Corner Task Force and Wards Corner Now met and discussed this change in plans. At a Wards Corner Now meeting, the group voted against his planned apartment complex.  A proposal from Collins Enterprises to develop the 189-unit Landmark at Talbot Park complex near Wards Corner faces an uncertain future. Collins received approval in 2008 to build condominiums on the property, but has now proposed building apartments instead. His rational is hard economic times. We believe we should not have to bear the brunt of his change to our neighborhood because of decisions he made in planning the development of the property. He originally planned condomimiums and we are holding him to that plan. So far we have been able to hold off his revised plan from coming before the Planning Commission for reapproval. The Planning Commission is requiring that he meet with the area civic league representatives and seek their ideas on how they would like him to redirect his project. He has indicated  that he will meet with us soon.

Despite the community’s complete opposition to the development of an apartment complex and “massing” them along Newport Ave, Collins is continuing his quest, and he will be seeking approval from the Planning Commission to build an apartment complex anyway. Please call or write a letter to the Norfolk City Planning Commission stating your opposition to this plan. Simply stated, Wards Corner has too many apartment units now and that is especially true for our civic league area. Thanks to the efforts of Sherry Romulus and a few of her friends, signs are now available for you to use to communicate that this new proposal for an apartment complex is unacceptable. To get your own sign, please e-mail Wards Corner Now – wardscornernow@wardscornernow.com  – and include your address. Below is what the sign looks like. Perhaps you have seen them around the neighborhood.

Some good news! Nutty Buddy’s is closed and the new AJ Gators opened over the Labor Day weekend. These are positive moves for us. Also, a new councilman now represents our area as Andy Protogyrou was sworn in on July 1^st. He has hit the ground running and is working hard for us. Several of us have met with him a few times over the summer on a multitude of issues. He is listening to us and will act on our behalf.

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. We have a great fall program lined up and we hope to see you at the meetings.

Please enjoy this newsletter. Please join your civic league. Thank you, and I look forward to seeing you at our  September meeting.

Sincerely,

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Jim English, president of the Wards Corner Civic League, would like you to know that Wards Corner NOW met on July 17, 2010.  The minutes from that meeting can be found here.

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The June 2010 meeting will be held on the 21st at 6:45pm at the Fitness and Wellness Center.

The Agenda includes a presentation from a representative from the City if Norfolk Schools. We will also be giving away a door prize – $25 gift certificate to the Pancake House.

Here is President Jim English’s message for June, 2010:

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
By Jim English

Dear Neighbors,

The June meeting will mark the last meeting of the first half of the civic league year until we resume our schedule again in September. Summer is just around the corner and schools will be out and hopefully we will all enjoy some vacation time. Over the summer, please continue to enjoy the Norfolk Fitness and Wellness Center. There are over 7000 members now and if you are not a member, please consider joining. We are fortunate to have the opportunity to take advantage of this facility in our own back yard. Also, we hope to be distributing Flags on the Fourth- thanks to the efforts of our Treasurer Ray Duron. The flags come to us courtesy of Senator Ralph Northam and Delegate Paula Miller. We need your help on this endeavor as well, so please contact Ray if you would like to help distribute flags on the 4th. Ray, thanks for coordinating this effort. I know you will once again do an outstanding job for this patriotic event, as we will see all of our streets impressively lined with American flags.

I wish to thank Barbara Ross for her continued dedicated service as our newsletter editor. She continues to do an excellent job preparing the newsletter each month. She has done this for us for the past six years. 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. 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 great efforts as Chair of the Beautification Committee. Joan is now also the Secretary of the Norfolk Federation of Civic Leagues. Your tenacity does pay off and we will soon be seeing the flower planters on the streets in the business district. Also, many thanks are in order to Sue Classick, our Vice President who is in charge of organizing the delivery of our newsletters each month with our many newsletter carriers. Thanks also to these dedicated carriers for their time in delivering our newsletters to you. This also is no small task. Finally a special thanks to Martin Thomas Jr. for his service as Vice President, providing us needed guidance at our Executive Committee meetings and for keeping our website up to date. Martin is also the Webmaster for WardsCornerNow and an active participant in the leadership of that newly formed group. Thanks also to you, our members, for your continued support by attending our meetings each month and working to improve our neighborhood. Thank you all!

For those of you attending our last civic league meeting where City Manager Regina Williams spoke to us, I want you to think about what you heard in her very informative session about the budget and budget process. Were you happy and satisfied with her words to us about the city’s efforts to improve Wards Corner? If you were, so be it. If you were not and did not like what you heard or thought it was a repeat of what has been said time and time again, please let our new Councilman know that you are not satisfied with the attention being given to Wards Corner. I was especially happy to see our newly elected Ward One Councilman Andy Protogyrou in attendance to hear what Ms. Williams said. I was also happy to see newly elected Councilman Tommie Smigiel in attendance. They both were introduced and had the opportunity to say a few words. I know that Andy Protogyrou is already hard at work for us on improving Wards Corner. He and Tommy Smigiel will be sworn in on July 1st as our new councilmen. We wish them the best as they begin their work for us. Remember, the power is in the group and only with all of us speaking out and demanding improvements for our area will that action happen. I know I will continue pushing for improvements for Wards Corner, but we need to do this together. I know we will see some improvement in the area over the summer. A. J. Gators is expected to open sometime in late summer. That hopefully will be the beginning of many new improvements in the business district.

Your job over the summer is to think about what improvements you would like to see in our individual and collective neighborhoods. Please let any member of the Executive Committee know what these improvements should be. Do you want improved lighting at the Northshore playground? Do you want more enforcement of cars parking on lawns? Do you see areas of city infrastructure (streets, curbs and gutters, etc.) in our neighborhood that need addressing? Is crime a problem that needs to be addressed more aggressively? Think about what improvements you would really like to see in the entire Wards Corner area. When we meet in September, we will hopefully have a list of these needs that we can share with you. Over the summer, rest assured that the dedication and commitment of the membership of Wards Corner Now, the Task Force, Business Association and area Civic Leagues (including and especially ours) will continue the push with our city elected officials and senior city management staff to move ahead for making the Wards Corner area great once again. We will not be taking the summer off, but will continue our important work.

Finally, please have a safe, relaxing and enjoyable summer. We hope to see you again in the fall at our September meeting.

Sincerely,

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The May 2010 meeting will be held on the 17th at 6:45pm at the Fitness and Wellness Center.

The Agenda includes a presentation and Q&A with the City Manager, Regina Williams. She is expected to address budget issues. We also have invited newly elected Councilman, Andy Protogyrou. We will be giving away a door prize – $25 gift certificate to the Pancake House.

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The April 2010 meeting will be held on the 19th at 6:45pm at the Fitness and Wellness Center.

The Agenda includes a candidates forum.  Candidates for City Council in Ward 1 will be invited.  Please come prepared to hear from, and interact with, Chuck Brewer, Andy Protogyrou, Barbara Saunders, and Paul Trice.

The tentative Agenda for May includes a representative from the City Managers office to talk about the budget.  June’s meeting will most likely include a representative from the school board.

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The March 2010 meeting will be held on the 15th at 6:45pm at the Fitness and Wellness Center.

The Agenda includes a Virginia General Assembly update from Delegates Paula Miller and Ken Alexander and Senator Ralph Northam.

The Agenda for April includes a candidates forum. Candidates for Mayor and for Ward 1 on city council will be invited.

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The February 2010 meeting will be held on the 22nd at 6:45pm at the Fitness and Wellness Center.

The Agenda includes a forum with Mayor Fraim.  He will join us and give us updates on several issues facing Norfolk. He has been asked him to tell us what the city has planned for Wards Corner in the future. He will respond to our questions as well. This is a great opportunity to hear him speak and have him answer your questions and concerns.

Tentatively, the Agenda for March will include an invitation to Senator Northam, Delegate Miller and Delegate Alexander.

The Agenda for April includes a candidates forum.  Candidates for Mayor and for Ward 1 on city council will be invited.

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The Department of Utilities is planning to begin a sewer repair project in the Newport Avenue and North Shore Road intersection, beginning Tuesday, February 9th. During this repair the intersection will be closed to traffic. Detour signs will be posted to guide motorists around the construction area.

The attached bulletin includes additional project details and contact information for the project manager and construction inspector. These bulletins are being distributed this afternoon to residents in the immediate area.

Newport Avenue Closure (PDF)

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The January 2010 meeting will be held on the 25th at 6:45pm at the Fitness and Wellness Center.

The Agenda includes an update on construction at Norfolk Collegiate, a presentation and Q & A on the Proposed AJ Gator Relocation, and Highlights and Successes of our Civic League in 2009.

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