DATE: Saturday, November 8, 1997            TAG: 9711080355

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: Staff writers Matt Dolan, Eric Feber, Matt Bowers and Mike

        Knepler contributed to this report.

                                            LENGTH:  118 lines

HAMPTON ROADS

VIRGINIA BEACH

Volunteers interested in welfare-to-work

will meet Monday

Want to become a volunteer mentor to help Virginia Beach residents move from welfare to work?

Informational meetings on Virginia Beach's ``Neighbor-to-Neighbor'' mentoring program will be held Monday and on Nov. 18.

Monday's meeting - at 6:30 p.m. - will be a general session with staff from the Virginia Beach Department of Social Services. It will be held in social services offices, 3432 Virginia Beach Blvd. For details, call Ofelia Wattley, 437-3270.

The Nov. 18 meetings - at 10 a.m. and at 7:30 p.m. - will focus on mentoring through religious organizations.

The sessions will be hosted by the Interfaith Advisory Board to the Department of Social Services. They will be held at Wycliffe Presbyterian Church, 1445 Great Neck Road. For details, call Randy Orwig, 427-2861; Denny Long, 474-9212; or Teresa Stanley, 498-3042.

SUFFOLK

Woman in hospital after

heater starts fire in home

A 48-year-old woman was in critical condition Friday night in the Burn Trauma Unit of Sentara Norfolk General Hospital after a space heater malfunctioned and set her apartment ablaze.

A neighbor was treated for smoke inhalation.

Elizabeth Ward of the 300 block of South Main St. suffered second- and third-degree burns over 40 percent of her body, a fire department spokesman said.

The fire, which was reported about 7 p.m., caused an estimated $30,000 in damage to two apartments. It was ignited by a kerosene heater in the downstairs apartment where Ward lives.

Fire officials credited smoke detectors with alerting both residents of the danger, although the woman had to be rescued by a relative and was burned before she could escape.

The neighbor, who lived in the upstairs apartment, was being treated at Louise Obici Memorial Hospital. His name was not released.

NORFOLK

Stanback to be marshal

of NSU homecoming parade

Norfolk State University is celebrating its Homecoming Weekend, which means the annual parade will roll through downtown today.

The parade is scheduled to begin at 9:25 a.m. and follow its traditional route: From the intersection of Corprew and Park avenues near the university, it will move north on Park Avenue, turn left onto Virginia Beach Boulevard, and end at the intersection of Virginia Beach Boulevard and Monticello Avenue.

Willard Stanback, a retired NSU math professor and director of the college's Brambleton Community Outreach Center, is the parade's grand marshal.

The Norfolk State Spartans football team will play the Liberty University Flames of Lynchburg in the homecoming game at 1:30 p.m. in the new Price Stadium.

CHESAPEAKE

City holds groundbreaking

for new courts building

A groundbreaking ceremony for the city's new Circuit and General District Courts building will be held at 4 p.m. Wednesday at 300 Cedar Road.

The new four-story facility, about 172,000 square feet, will cost about $27 million. The present General District and Circuit Court buildings will be razed. The project is expected to take a year or more.

The ceremony will be outdoors or in the Circuit Court in the event of rain.

School Board member will

run for Earley's old seat

Chesapeake School Board member James J. Wheaton will make it official today: He will run as a Democrat to replace Attorney General-elect Mark L. Earley in the state Senate.

Wheaton will make the announcement at the Chesapeake Central Library at noon. His likely opponent, Republican Chesapeake Del. J. Randy Forbes, said he will make an announcement on the race next week.

If Wheaton won the 14th District Senate seat representing Chesapeake and Virginia Beach, the school board would appoint an interim board member who would serve until May, when a special election for Wheaton's seat would be held along with the regular school board elections in which five other seats will be open. The winner of Wheaton's seat in May would fill out only the rest of his term, which ends June 30, 2000.

Political party favorites are not the only people eligible to replace Earley. After the governor issues a writ for a special election, recognized political parties in Chesapeake and Virginia Beach can certify candidates for the race. But any resident of the district who is at least 21 can attempt to get his or her name on the ballot through a petition drive. For more details on how to qualify, call the election board at (804) 786-6551.

WWI memorabilia to be

displayed at Central Library

David C. Riley of Chesapeake, a collector of military memorabilia, has turned a corner of the Chesapeake Central Library into part of a World War I battlefield in France.

As part of its Veterans Day observance, the library at 298 Cedar Road will display equipment used by the doughboys of the American Expeditionary Force during the war.

Riley will be on hand to interpret his collection from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday. The library's World War I exhibit will be on display during normal library hours until Friday.

More information is available by calling the library at 382-6591.

COMING UP. . . TODAY

Portsmouth - The City Council and the School Board will have a joint retreat. Members of the two groups will meet from 8 a.m. until noon in the Portsmouth Partnership Conference Room on the third floor of the Central Fidelity Bank building, 200 High St.

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