News from VB Council of Civic Organizations

At the December VBCCO meeting, Chris Taylor, City Councilman for District 8 and mayoral candidate, talked about the budget issues that face the city: increased spending for storm water projects, wise spending for festivals (the first SITW got $250,000 from the city while an untested Beach It Festival received $1.5 million resulting in a big loss for the city as it brought in only $350,000). He also talked about right size spending for the new school designs. He urged residents to contact their District Council member with their input on the Festival Task Force and the School Modernization Committee.

Sheriff Rocky Holcomb brought his entire staff (not really) and gave an overview of VBSO programs, facilities and challenges – chief among those is the need for a Virginia Beach firing range. Currently ‘crimefighters’ (Rocky’s term for deputies) must travel to North Carolina to renew firearm qualifications resulting in lost time and increased costs. Sheriff Holcomb mentioned a number of programs to include the year around GED program, a Re-entry Program that this year included a job fair for inmates transitioning to post jail life, a food service and landscape service certification programs as well as increased attention paid to providing needed mental health services.

Meetings are open to the public. The VBCCO seeks to bring together the civic leagues and other civic organizations in the city to educate, inform and empower residents of the City of Virginia Beach through its civic organizations. The Ocean Park Civic League is a member of the VBCCO. All members of the civic league are therefore also members of the VBCCO. If you would like to volunteer for a committee or a board position ( right now the secretary position is open), contact: secretary@vbcco.org. On January 24th, City Manager Patrick Duhaney, Planning Director Kathy Warren and Planning Administrator Kaitlen Alcock will join in for a question answer session. This will be a free but mostly likely a ticketed event. Details to follow at VBCCO.org.