This Week: Regular Meeting and Adopt-A-Road

Please join us for our regular monthly meeting is this Thursday, November 8th at 7 PM in the John Teter Room at the Oaklette United Methodist Church, 520 Oaklette Drive, Chesapeake, VA.   Rogard Ross will make a Photo Presentation about the wildlife along the shores, parks, and back yards of Indian River.   Light refreshments will be served afterwards.  Also consider bringing a donation of non-perishable food items for the Oaklette United Methodist Church food pantry.

On Saturday, November 10, we'll be cleaning up 1 mile of Indian River Road from the city limits at Wingfield Avenue all the way to MacDonald Road as part of the Adopt-A-Road program. This will help to spruce up the area, collect trash that will otherwise get washed into the river and impact wildlife, and give us the opportunity to interact with residents and businesses along Indian River Road.   We'll meet at the side parking lot of Indian River Post Office, 3810 Indian River Road, Chesapeake at 9 AM.  The city will provide garbage bags and orange safety vests. We'll have water and a few snacks available. Please wear closed-toe shoes, a hat and bring work gloves and other items that may be useful. Participants under 18 years of age must have adult supervision.

And Remember to Vote on Election Day, Tuesday, November 6.   Polls are open from 6 AM to 7 PM.  

More Beautification around Indian River Bridge

We did it again.

Six volunteers joined us today for our second Adopt-A-Spot beautification event at the Indian River Bridge, this time tackling the southeast corner.   Repeating the design we installed a few weeks ago on the opposite end of the bridge, our team planted beauty berry, verbana, muhly grass, and mums.   We also planted encore azaleas in the planters at both ends of the bridge; they are still small but they'll grow.

Over the winter, we'll be doing more planning with the city to extend and expand our beautification activities along Indian River Road.   A big thank you to our volunteers who put in 23 hours today digging, pruning, planting and watering - working to make our community more attractive.

Council Member Debbie Ritter attends monthly meeting

We had a very engaging discussion with Council Member Debbie Ritter at our meeting yesterday.   The conversation ranged from how the city government is organized (the Council sets policy and the City Manager and Departments execute day to day operations), to the Council's oversight responsibility, to how the state legislature must pass enabling laws for local government to take action because of the 'Dillon Rule'.

Closer to home, we discussed how the Indian River neighborhoods, being a mature community, often feels forgotten by the city when it focuses on new high growth areas.   We have areas - particularly around the old Indian River Shopping Center - that need revitalization, but the city generally is not focused on incentives for retail business.   But we need attention and we need a plan.   Volunteer efforts for block by block beautification are useful, but a more concerted effort with the city is desired.   We left the meeting with the intent to keep the conversation going with City Council members, the Norfolk Highlands Civic League, and the property owner, and other interested parties.

Thank you to Sandy for bringing brownies and Sharon for bringing Banana Bread.

We still welcome more volunteers for our beautification and planting work at the Bridge tomorrow, Saturday, October 13, starting at 9 am.   If you are going to the Indian River High School Fall Craft Show on October 20, we'll have an information display at booth 76; stop by and say hi.  Our next regular meeting will be Thursday, November 8 and will include a slide show about local wildlife; we'll also collect non-perishable food for the Oaklette United Methodist Church food pantry at that meeting.