THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 7, 1995 TAG: 9507040105
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines
Chatterbox is a not-quite-newsy look behind the scenes from City Hall to City Park.
BANNERS FLY - The banners attached to lantern poles in the Downtown High Street median, designed with Portsmouth in large type and pots of flowers, are pictured in the new catalog distributed by Kalamazoo Banner Works. The Michigan company used a picture of High Street to illustrate the products offered by the company.
Portsmouth's banners were designed by Lauren Gehman, the city's horticulturist.
BUTTONS AND T-SHIRTS - Citizen groups are becoming very aggressive about projects they want accomplished in the city.
A green and yellow two-inch button urges, ``Save Hoffler Creek Wildlife.'' It was prepared and paid for by residents of the River Shore Road area who would like to head off development of land around a former state borrow pit off Twin Pines Road.
Meanwhile, a white T-shirt printed with black, once again calls attention to the proposed Scotts Creek dredging and development.
``We're up a Creek,'' the shirt reads and then in bold type, ``Scott Creek, that is.''
It was designed and ordered by Martin Smith-Rodden, a West Park View resident, but it also lists adjacent neighborhoods, Park View and Shea Terrace.
DON'T ASK - ``Just do it,'' Police Chief Dennis Mook is advising people in his department.
Mook distributed a card recently outlining the following criteria for employee action: Is it ethical? Is it legal? Is it within policy? Is it good for the community? Is it good for the department? Is it something you can be proud of? Is it something you can take responsibility for?
If the answer to all these questions is yes, the chief told police department employees, don't bother to ask permission.
MINGLER - Ralph W. Cowan, the Portsmouth native known for his portraits of the rich and famous - and sometimes notorious - made his annual pilgrimage to the Kentucky Derby.
He delivered five portraits to former Kentucky Gov. John Y. Brown and his wife, Phyllis George. Brown was the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken among other fast-food chains.
Next on Cowan's easel is entertainer Kenny Rogers.
In the crowd when Cowan's photo was snapped at the Derby were Tonya Walker of ``One Life to Live;'' President Bill Clinton's stepfather Dick Kelly, and Kato Kaelin, whose notoriety rests on his friendship with O.J. Simpson and his appearance at the court trial.
TURN ABOUT - Mike Williams, a photographer retired from The Virginian-Pilot and Ledger-Star, has taken many a picture of big fish with the people who caught them.
Little did he expect to find himself as the cover photo of the most recent issue of Sport Fishing Report, published in Nags Head.
The picture was snapped late last year when Williams pulled a prize-sized speckled trout from the Atlantic Ocean north of the Nags Head Fishing Pier.
The fish weighed 5 pounds, 11 ounces.
The color photograph is the only record Williams has of his record catch and many people have asked what he did with the fish.
``I ate that sucker,'' Williams admitted.
FULL CIRCLE - A large mirror, one of an identical pair that hung a century ago in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Ambrose Parker at the corner of Court Street and London Boulevard, has been returned to Olde Towne as a gift to the Portsmouth Museums.
The Parker family and the mirrors remained in the Court Street house until 1920, when one of the Parkers' sons, H.A.V. Parker, moved to Park View to a new home - the home that later became a residence for Portsmouth General Nursing School students.
A decade or so later, H.A.V.'s son, Joseph II, took one of the mirrors to his new home in West Park View. Recently it was given to the museums by his daughter, Mary Parker Vaughan.
Joseph Parker II worked as Portsmouth City Sergeant in the 1846 Courthouse, where the mirror now rests on the marble plinth fabricated for its base when it was moved to Park View.
WELCOME ABOARD - Former City Manager Wayne Orton got a laid-back welcome by the boat crowd down at Tidewater Yacht on Friday, the final day of his employment with the city.
Orton, seldom seen on weekdays over the past decade without a shirt and tie, even a coat, was decked out in a knit shirt and deck shoes. His hosts were boaters, who like Orton have boats docked at the downtown marina. They bought him lunch at Amory's Wharf.
It's a way of saying ``welcome to the gang,'' Planning Commission chairman Jimmy Spruill said. Spruill spends a lot of time on his boat and Orton says he intends to do the same - at least for the time being. by CNB