November Newsletter and Events

• Upcoming Events
• Thursday, Nov 21, 2024: Monthly Meeting - Guest Speaker Virginia State House Delegate Bonita Anthony 
• Saturday, Nov 23, 2024: Adopt-A-Road Cleanup along Indian River Road 
• News
• Local Election Results
• Blue Heron Landing Grand Opening
• Indian River Design Guidelines
• October Recap

Upcoming Events

Thursday, Nov 21, 2024: Monthly Meeting - Guest Speake Delegate Bonita Anthony 

• 
  7 pm to 8:30 pm
• Location: Oaklette United Methodist Church, 520 Oaklette Drive
• Our guest speaker will be Virginia State House Delegate Bonita Anthony. We'll have a chance to learn about the upcoming General Assembly meeting in Richmond and issues that affect our community.  
• All are welcome.  We'll also have the latest community news and updates!  There will be light refreshments after the meeting.  

Saturday, Nov 23, 2024: Adopt-A-Road Cleanup along Indian River Road 

• 
  From 9 AM to 11:30 am  
• Meet at Lilac Avenue and Indian River Road Park along Lilac Avenue by the Norfolk Highlands Primary School.
• We need your help with 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 and at Blue Heron Landing Park. 
• 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.
• Please pre-register at https://forms.gle/cVryTjexKN6noRsu8 (suggested but not required)

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News

Local Election Results

Congratulations to the winners of the City Council and School Board Elections:

    Mayor Rick W. West

    City Council Member S.Z. "Debbie" Ritter

    City Council Member-elect Les Smith, Jr.

    City Council Member-elect Patricia Y. "Pat" King

    School Board Member Angie B. Swygert

    School Board Member Norman G. Pool

    School Board Member-elect Malia L. Huddle

    School Board Member-elect Elijah Colon

We look forward to continuing to work with our City Council to  improve the quality of life for all the residents of the Indian River neighborhoods of Chesapeake!

Blue Heron Landing Park Grand Opening

On Wednesday, Oct 23, Chesapeake Parks, Recreation and Tourism help the Grand Opening event for Blue Heron Landing Park.  Along with Mayor West and members of the City Council, the Friends of Indian River participated in the unveiling and ribbon-cutting ceremonies.  The new park features a broad boardwalk, a floating kayak launch, and a restored living shoreline complete with oyster castles to form a new oyster reef, marsh areas, and what will grow into a new upland forested area.  The site has always been a popular fishing spot and in the two weeks since the opening, the new park is resuming its role as such.  

The park site is relatively small, only 0.5 acres, and when the designs were drawn up it was clear that the park could never support a large parking area, not without sacrificing all the natural aspects that make it a living, natural space.  So, it was designed to be primarily a walk-in park with limited parking spaces.  Concurrent with the design of the park were plans to re-design Indian River Road to make it safer, the City Council approved funds in 2022 but implementation is still pending.  The Oaklette Bridge Rehabilitation work that started in September certainly complicates the situation in the near term. We continue to push the City to implement safety improvements on Indian River Road, including reducing speeding and installing a safe crosswalk to enable people to cross the road to reach the park.

Indian River Design Guidelines

The same evening as the park Grand Opening, the Planning Department hosted an Open House to share the latest for the Indian River Design Guidelines.  The Design Guidelines "focus on the creation of a vision and unique sense of place for the development or redevelopment of the three key commercial corridors of Indian River Road, Providence Road, and the eastern portion of Military Highway. " We expect to see an updated draft document released in the coming weeks.  Learn more at https://www.cityofchesapeake.net/3217/Indian-River-Design-Guidelines

October Recap

Earlier in the month, we held an Adopt-A-Park event at Indian River Park to help put our native plant garden to bed for the winter, weeding and mulching the garden. A big thank you to the 11 volunteers who came out to help.  We also had a great chance to interact with a lot of park visitors!    

On the Saturday after the park opening, we partnered with Chesapeake Parks, Recreation and Tourism to do a History Walk.  Started at Norfolk Highlands Primary School, we went over to the new Blue Heron Landing Park on the Indian River, then over to the Oaklette Historic District including the Colonna's Boathouse. We had a great turnout with over 30 attendees who learned a ton about the history of the area from the original native Chesapian people to European settlement to the turn of the 20th century suburbanization to today. 

We also got reports of dolphins visiting the river!  Thank you Lynn!

Have an idea for an article for our newsletter?  Send your submission, max 250 words, to us at info@friendsofindianriver.org along with a photo and we'll consider it for our next edition.