DATE: Friday, October 24, 1997 TAG: 9710240799 SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL SOURCE: BY LIZ SZABO, STAFF WRITER DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: 60 lines
Strategies unveiled for improving the area and attracting new businesses.
Downtown sidewalks lined with Victorian-style street lights. An empty waterfront building converted into a bustling farmer's market. A community police station open until midnight.
They're all visions for a new South Norfolk.
But some plans, supporters admit, are more realistic than others. The South Norfolk Revitalization Commission Thursday night discussed strategies for improving the community and drawing new businesses into this struggling Chesapeake borough.
The commission voted to ask City Manager John Pazour to purchase Victorian-style street lights - complete with graceful white globes and high-powered bulbs - with the more than $200,000 allocated by City Council for lighting in Chesapeake.
That money won't buy enough old-fashioned lamps to illuminate all of South Norfolk, commission member John Ben Gibson said. But he'd at least like to see the lights along Chesapeake Avenue, Poindexter Street and Liberty Street - the heart of South Norfolk's business district.
Victorian lamp posts would not only cast an elegant, old-fashioned light on South Norfolk, they also would deter crime, Gibson said.
Commission president Anne Tregembo also plans to ask city officials to keep the South Norfolk police station open until midnight. Now, she said, the station closes at 4:30 p.m.
``We all know crime doesn't stop at 4 in the afternoon,''Tregembo said. ``That's when it starts.''
Crime is so bad in the downtown area that some retailers have installed buzzer-controlled locks on their shop doors, opening their doors to customers only upon special request, Tregembo said.
Chesapeake Police Chief Richard Justice has said the department does not have enough officers to keep the station open later, Tregembo said.
It might be easier to change the public telephones from touch tone to rotary dials, another member suggested. Residents have complained that criminals use the touch-tone phone pads to page each other for drug sales.
Converting the J.G. Wilson site on the Elizabeth River into a farmer's market will be an even more daunting task. South Norfolk residents recently prevented developers from building a trash terminal on the site.
The Virginia Agricultural Extension will hold a meeting next month to discuss a Chesapeake farmer's market, Gibson said.
``It's a great location,'' commission secretary Jane McClanahan said of South Norfolk. ``We're centrally located (in Hampton Roads). It would be a regional draw for people in Portsmouth and Norfolk and Chesapeake.''
But Chesapeake officials have balked at buying the J.G. Wilson site before, McClanahan said. Persuading the city to buy the $1.2 million property would be a tough sell, she said.
``Whoever bought it would have to do a lot of work,'' McClanahan said. ``They might have to take down the building.'' ILLUSTRATION: MEETING
The Virginia Agricultural Extension will hold a meeting about
opening a farmer's market at its offices at the Chesapeake municipal
center at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 6. For more information, call 382-6348. KEYWORDS: SOUTH NORFOLK REVITALIZATION
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