- National Night Out , Tuesday, August 6
- Rokeby Garden Club, Monday, August 19
- Construction starts at Fieldstone Condos
- Fall Calendar
- Other News - Adopt-A-Road Cleanup and Clean the Bay Day results
National Night OutDate: Tuesday, August 6, 6 pm to 8 pm
Location:Indian River Baptist Church, 1600 Laurel Ave
The Norfolk Highlands Civic League and Indian River Baptist Church will be hosting their second annual National Night Out. Circumstance permitting, there should be a Fire Truck from Station 3 and the Chesapeake Police K-9 unit. There will be a Bounce House for the kids and information tables from the Civic League, Friends of Indian River, the Chesapeake Medical Reserve Corp, and others. Refreshments available include Hot Dogs, Snow Cones, and Popcorn. This should be a great family event. Bring the kids. Meet your neighbors.
Date: Monday August 19th, 1 pm to 2 pm
Location: Rokeby Center, 1709 Rokeby Avenue
Who: Residents “55 and better”
A new gardening club is starting up at the Rokeby Center for area residents "55 and better". The purpose of the club is to bring plant lovers and gardeners together to learn about indoor and outdoor plants, plant care, and indoor and outdoor gardening techniques. There will be a short discussion about a different topic every month by garden experts. The first meeting on August 19 will include
- an overview of the plants in the Rokeby outdoor herb garden and the outdoor shade garden.
- discussion of future plans such as a future winter vegetable garden
- schedule of future monthly topics
- 🍨 samples of herbal ice cream will be served for refreshment
- door prizes will be given away at every meeting.
Construction starts at Fieldstone Condos adjacent to Indian River Park. Starting on July 19, the developer cleared the trees from the land next to Indian River Park for the construction of the Fieldstone Condo development.While the area cleared is and has always been private property, we're still extremely sad to see the loss of these 17 acres of woods. While the new development of 182 townhomes will plant the required number of trees toward restoring a 20% tree canopy inside the development, that will never replace this lost forest.Since then we've had a couple of meetings with Chesapeake Parks, Recreation & Tourism to discuss mitigation steps. The Parks Department has started the process to put new bridges across the creek flowing out of the affected property in order to re-establish the park outer loop trail which was disrupted by the construction. We hope to see those bridges built in the coming month. We also discussed longer range plans which we will report on as they solidify.
We are still waiting for the final disposition of the water and sewer lines associated with this development. As mentioned last month, water and sewer pipelines will be run across the park to connect the condo development to the utilities lines on Paramont Avenue. The initial plan was to run them on the north side of the existing Dominion Power lines, cutting down another 20,000 to 32,000 sq. ft of forest. We've been fighting this and, as of this writing, Dominion Power is doing an engineering study on whether the pipelines can be run within the existing power line easement. Results of study are due soon. If the city and developer can use use the existing easement, at least we'll save these trees in the park.
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| Location of Fieldstone Condo development. Indian River Park is the forested area running from the upper left to the lower right of the aerial image |
We've got an exciting calendar starting in September with the International Coastal Cleanup which will include our 2nd annual Bring Your Own Boat canoe/kayak cleanup along the Indian River. Upcoming guest speakers include the McCurdys from the Butterfly Society in September and Dana Lusher will bring owls to our October meeting.
Saturday, Sept 14 – International Coastal Cleanup
River Cleanup by Canoe/Kayak (“BYOBoat”)
9 AM to Noon – contact info@friendsofindianriver.org for more info
Rain Date: Saturday September 28, 9 AM to Noon
Thursday, Sept 19 – Monthly Meeting – Karen and Steve McCurdy, Butterfly Society, presenting “Hooked on Butterflies and Moths”.
7 pm at Oaklette United Methodist Church, 520 Oaklette Dr.
Thursday, Oct 17 – Monthly Meeting – Dana Lusher of Nature's Nanny Wildlife Rehabilitation will present "Living Harmoniously with Owls" (visit with live owls)
7 pm at Oaklette United Methodist Church, 520 Oaklette Dr.
Saturday, Oct 19 – Adopt-A-Park at Indian River Park Trailhead
9:00 am to Noon at Indian River Park, 2001 Rokeby Avenue
Oct TBD – Member Field Trip to Cherrystone Aqua Farms, Cape Charles
Date and details to be announced
Saturday, Nov 2 – Nature Hike at Indian River Park
8:30 am to 10:30 am at Indian River Park, 2001 Rokeby Avenue
Thursday, Nov 21 – Monthly Meeting – Guest City Council Member TBA
7 pm at Oaklette United Methodist Church, 520 Oaklette Dr.
Saturday, Nov 23 – Adopt-A-Road Cleanup along Indian River Road
9:00 am to Noon – starting location TBA
Tuesday, Dec 3 - City of Chesapeake Town Meeting
7:00 pm at Indian River High School, 1969 Braves Trail
Saturday, Dec 14 – Adopt-A-Park Work Day @ Indian River Park
9:00 am to Noon at Indian River Park, 2001 Rokeby Avenue
Thursday, Dec 19 - Holiday Party and Silent Auction
7 pm at Oaklette United Methodist Church, 520 Oaklette Dr.
Wednesday, Jan 1 - First Day Hike @ Indian River Park
1 pm to 3 pm at Indian River Park, 2001 Rokeby Avenue
Thursday, January 16 – Annual Meeting
7 pm at Oaklette United Methodist Church, 520 Oaklette Dr.
And we have to send some love to Papa John's Pizza on Indian River Road. They saw us working hard at our cleanup and to say thank you, they treated our volunteers to free fresh pizza after we were done. If was very much appreciated - and tasty!
Clean the Bay Day: The weather was less ideal for Clean the Bay Day on June 1st. Nonetheless, we had about 20 volunteers brave the rain to come to our cleanup around the lake at the Indian River School Complex. Our start was delayed about 30 minutes as we waited for the rain to abate. We also took a moment to remember those lost the Virginia Beach shooting the prior day. But everyone was also motivated to get out there and make a positive impact. Overall we removed about 550 lbs of trash including a terrible quantity of plastic bottles. And by the end of the morning, the sun came out and we were treated to a fishing demonstration from the osprey nesting above the ballfields. We extend a huge thank you to everyone who came out to help.Now is a great time to become a member or renew your membership, or just make a donation online at http://www.friendsofindianriver.org/p/membership.html
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