DATE: Tuesday, June 24, 1997                TAG: 9706240323

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: Staff writers Jon Glass, Matt Bowers and Ida Kay Jordan

        contributed to this report.

                                            LENGTH:  132 lines

HAMPTON ROADS

Public hearing today

will address plans

for Huntersville area

Plans to expand the city's revitalization efforts in the Huntersville community along Church Street will be aired at a public hearing tonight.

The expansion, which encompasses property along the east side of Church Street from Johnson Avenue to C Avenue, will serve three purposes: provide off-street parking for Church Street businesses; eliminate several blighted buildings; and create space for new single-family homes.

The hearing is being held jointly by the City Council and the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority, which is overseeing the redevelopment project.

The hearing is at 7:30 p.m. in the City Council's meeting chambers on the 11th floor in City Hall on Union Street.

Several residents who live in apartment buildings in the expansion area would be relocated, said Pat Gomez of the housing and redevelopment authority. There are eight residential buildings, but not all of them are occupied, Gomez said. One vacant commercial building would be destroyed. VIRGINIA BEACH

Town meeting to address

out-of-wedlock births

The Virginia Beach Departments of Social Services and Public Health will hold a town meeting from 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday at Princess Anne High School to discuss ways to reduce the number of out-of-wedlock births.

Almost 23 percent of all live births in 1995 in Virginia Beach were out of wedlock. Of those, 30 percent were to mothers ages 10 to 19.

The purpose of the meeting is to educate citizens about the problem and enlist their help in developing a community action plan. It's also part of ``Partners in Prevention,'' a state program addressing the problem, which has negative consequences for mother and child and is linked to numerous costly social problems.

Call 437-3200 for details. PORTSMOUTH

Neighbors will gather

in shooting's aftermath

A community meeting tonight to discuss last week's shooting on a Simonsdale basketball court has been moved to a church to accommodate a larger crowd.

The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at Simonsdale Presbyterian Church, 5016 Vick St.

Karen Jordan, president of the Simonsdale Civic Club, said ribbons will be handed out to residents to wear in memory of Michael L. Hedge, the 19-year-old who was killed in the shooting June 15.

The ribbons are orange, the color of basketballs and symbolic of the game Hedge loved.

Jordan said civic club members have distributed about 500 fliers in the Simonsdale area. The meeting is also open to residents of Park Manor and other nearby neighborhoods.

Interim Police Chief John Tucker and Deputy City Manager C.W. ``Luke'' McCoy will attend.

The community will hold a memorial service Sunday for Hedge and other murder victims killed in Portsmouth this year, Jordan said. Families of those 12 homicide victims are asked to attend.

The service will be held at 2 p.m. at Simonsdale Presbyterian Church. The Rev. W.P. ``Matt'' Matthews, pastor at Simonsdale Presbyterian, will speak.

The service will be followed by a candlelight walk from the church to the basketball court.

``We're calling it `A Day of Healing,' '' Jordan said.

Benefit golf tournament

attracts more than 200

More than 200 golfers have signed up to play in the sixth annual Scott Morris Memorial Golf Tournament to benefit the Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters.

The tournament is scheduled for Friday at Sleepy Hole Golf Course in Suffolk.

The tournament has been sponsored for two years by the Elizabeth River Circle of The King's Daughters. The event was started in 1992 by friends of Morris, who died at age 24 from acute cardiac arrest, and the proceeds went to the Ronald McDonald House.

Last year the Elizabeth River Circle took over the tournament and raised $13,000 for Children's Hospital. Morris' mother, Martha McLean, and Sue H. Butler are tournament co-chairwomen this year.

ALSO . . .

Suffolk - The police chief and city representatives will

attend a meeting of the College Square Condominium Association at 7 p.m. in the Riverfront Conference Room of Tidewater Community College, 7000 College Drive.

Present will be City Council member Marian ``Bea'' Rogers, Police Chief Jimmy Wilson and Clarissa McAdoo, executive director of the Suffolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority, and representatives from Community Policing, Parks and Recreation, and Public Works.

Residents of surrounding communities are invited. For information, call Marcia Morris, 925-2380.

COMING UP

TODAY

Suffolk - ``Partners in Prevention,'' a state-sponsored initiative to prevent out-of-wedlock births, will be discussed at a town meeting at 6:30 p.m. at Suffolk Tabernacle United Church of Christ, 1401 E. Washington St. The goal is to develop awareness and strategies.

Speakers will be Dr. Sujata C. Buck, health director, Western Tidewater Health District; Leonard R. Horton, assistant director, Department of Social Services; the Rev. Michael D. Halley of Suffolk Christian Church; and the Rev. Carlton R. Upton Sr. of Tabernacle Christian United Church of Christ.

Norfolk - A meeting on how businesses, religious organizations and community groups can help welfare recipients leave public assistance and get jobs will be held at 7 p.m. today in Temple Baptist Church, 3300 Tidewater Drive.

The discussion is being sponsored by the ``Gold Sector'' of Norfolk's Police Assisted Community Enforcement, or PACE, program. The ``Gold Sector'' covers neighborhoods in the center of Norfolk.

For information, call the Rev. Mark Pullen, 622-2876.

WEDNESDAY

Norfolk - The monthly meeting of a regional welfare-reform coordinating group will be 8 a.m. Wednesday in Tidewater Regional Transit offices, 1500 Monticello Ave. Topics will be transportation issues and child-care cooperatives.

The coordinating group is trying to prepare the region for welfare reform, which goes into effect here on Oct. 1. The group includes representatives of social services departments from throughout South Hampton Roads.

For information, call Suzanne Puryear, 664-6100; Daniel Stone, 437-3201; state Del. Thelma S. Drake, 583-1000; or state Del. Robert F. McDonnell, 671-8484.

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