THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 7, 1996 TAG: 9604050188
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
Around Town is a not-quite-newsy look behind the scenes from City Hall to City Park.
NOT FUNNY - Swimming Point residents were shocked to see a ``For Sale'' sign on a Washington Street home acquired not too long ago by Thomas Branton Jr.
Folks in that close-knit neighborhood began calling the Brantons, who didn't know what was going on.
Pranksters, it seems, had moved the sign from another area to the Branton lawn.
- Ida Kay Jordan
BIG GAME - Bill Andrews, brother of the late V.C. Andrews, whose books he continues to publish, has become a big-game hunter.
A native of Portsmouth, Andrews now lives in Jackson Hole, Wyo., where his home is decorated with trophies of a three-week African hunt. He hunted the Northwestern Transvaal, where he shot several impala, a kudu and a zebra. Then his group traveled across the country to Cape Buffalo, where Andrews picked up the nickname ``Buffalo Bill'' and a buffalo trophy.
- Ida Kay Jordan
REASON TO BE - They found a common link when they tried to save Cradock High School a few years back, but today the South Fairview Heights Area Civic League is struggling to survive. The league is supposed to represent the neighborhoods of South Fairview Heights, Fairview Heights, West Cradock, Highland Park and Loxley Place, but only 10 residents of South Fairview Heights attended last month's meeting.
And there are still plenty of reasons to exist, according to acting president Ernestine Derleth.
``Our area needs to be working together to protect our interests in the security of our property, safety of our children, tax dollar return and services provided by our city,'' she said in a recent letter.
The civic league meets the fourth Monday of each month at 7 p.m. at Fairview Heights Baptist Church, 4704 Deep Creek Blvd. For information, call 487-3182.
- Rebecca A. Myers
SKI CHAMP - Former Portsmouth Police Chief Leslie Martinez - who now lives in Albuquerque, N.M. - walked away with several medals from the North American Police Ski Championship at Breckenridge, Colo., recently. About 500 cops competed on the ski slopes, Martinez says.
- Ida Kay Jordan
JUST A THOUGHT - One-time Portsmouth Planning Director Brewer Moore, recently named to the Craney Island Commission by City Council, recalled at his first meeting a time 40 years ago when he worked for the Passaic Valley Planning Association, which served the communities around New Jersey's Meadowlands.
At that time, he remembers looking out over a vast sea of marshlands to the New York City skyline. Today the Meadowlands are being used for a variety of commercial, industrial and recreational purposes, including the home of the New York Giants football team.
Craney Island, a four-square-mile area that has been used for half a century to receive materials dredged from Hampton Roads, will be available some day for new uses.
- Ida Kay Jordan by CNB