February Newsletter and Events

• Upcoming Events
• 2/11 - Saturday - Adopt-A-Road Cleanup along Indian River Road
• 2/18 - Saturday - Great Backyard Bird Count Hike @ Lake by Indian River Civic Campus
• Other News
• Annual Meeting Recap
• 2023 Calendar
• Volunteer Needs

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Upcoming Events

Adopt-A-Road Cleanup along Indian River Road

Date: Saturday, February 11, 9 am

Location: Meet at Lilac Avenue and Indian River Road. Park along Lilac Avenue by the Norfolk Highlands Primary School

We need your help for our quarterly cleanup.   Join us for a few hours to clean up the mile of Indian River Road from the city limits at Wingfield Avenue all the way to MacDonald Road. We are also asking all business owners along Indian River Road - and everywhere really - to make sure they sweep up in front of their storefronts as part of the effort.   And if you can't make it out for our organized cleanup please take 15 minutes and cleanup the street and ditches in front of your home; pass the word to your neighbors!

For our main cleanup on Indian River Road, the city will provide garbage bags and orange safety vests.  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.

To save time and allow for better social distancing, please pre-register at https://forms.gle/GjBDAVuBdUJzecKs9

Great Backyard Bird Count Hike @ Lake by Indian River Civic Campus

Date: Saturday, February 18, 8:30 am to 10:30 am

Location: Meet at the Indian River Community Center, 2250 Old Greenbrier Rd.

It's the weekend of the Great Backyard Bird Count, a worldwide effort to identify the distribution of birds; as part of this we'll be leading a guided bird walk around the lake between the Indian River Community/Rec Center and the High School.

When scouting the site, a variety of birds were spotted including Cormorants, Mallards, Pied-Bill Grebe, Bluebirds, - Yellow-Rumped Warblers, Woodpeckers, and more.

We'll have some binoculars and a spotting scope, but do bring your own if you have some!

Please pre-register at https://forms.gle/8nLaBXvwvV7PpTyk7

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Other News

Annual Meeting Recap

Our Annual Meeting was a chance to get together with our members and discuss plans for the coming year and hold election for our officers and board members.   We had strong engagement from the attendees and had a great conversation.  

Two main goals were highlighted for 2023

• Build Volunteer Base and Membership to meet existing commitments and build our advocacy power,
• Engage with partners in the implementation of the Indian River Planning Area Study 

Regarding the Planning Area Study, we're expecting the City to kick off a Steering Committee in the coming month; this has been long delayed due to staffing shortages.  The City now has a Request for Bids out to get Commercial Design Guidelines drafted. One priority we want is establishing an Overlay District for the area to strengthen planning and zoning guidelines for the community.    

We also talked about progress, or lack of progress, in areas such as redesigning Indian River Road, improving connectivity within our neighborhoods with paths and greenways, improved signage, and other goals identified in the plan.  As part of the Great Bridge Village Plan, the City set aside funding to provide facade improvement grants in that part of the City; that's something that needs to be looked at for Indian River.   

Around parks, the City has a revised Request for Bids out for the new Blue Heron Landing Park on the Indian River.  And at Indian River Park, they are continuing improvements; new trail signage is a next step at the park.   Another area where there has been no action so far is in talking with Chesapeake Public School about ideas to create a "civic campus" around the lake by the Indian River Community Center/Middle School/High School/Library.  

One key goal will be to improve our outreach to engage more and new members and volunteers.  This will help us complete our many volunteer efforts and bring more people to the table to push forward improvements in the quality of life for all the residents of the Indian River neighborhoods.

2023 Calendar

Here is a first look at the Friends of Indian River planned calendar of events for 2023.   Dates are subject to change, so please visit http://www.friendsofindianriver.org/p/calendar.html for details on upcoming events.

Volunteers Needs

Thank you to the volunteers who came out in January to help manage English Ivy at Indian River Park.  This is an on-going effort.

We need volunteers to help with removing invasive plants at the Park. We also need volunteers to help with weeding at the new landscaping at the Oaklette Indian River Bridge and at the native plant garden at Indian River Park. There are also other volunteer opportunities listed on our website at http://www.friendsofindianriver.org/p/volunteer.html.  If you can help out on any of these, please contact us at info@friendsofindianriver.org