Preparations for the Ocean Park Beach Nourishment Project

From Mary Faust: Many many thanks to all who came out this hot and muggy morning to cleanup PHP our Adopt-A-Spot!! Over 50 Pounds and 5 bags of refuse removed! Andrea Lindeman and husband Tim were first out, catching a glimpse of a black rat snake just as we got started! Donna Shephard and Chris Schneider came out soon after and certainly got their workout in, as did Debi Ratliffe and Carol Maurice!! Luke Woldmoe came, with his adorable little baby strapped to him, bringing a friend!! John and Graham Pharr spent quite a bit of time out there (I have one of his gloves!!) picking up. Something we always encourage is to bring the kids! They usually enjoy the activity. It underscores great values such as civic involvement and respect for nature! Ali Fortier, one of our frequent participants helped out, taking a couple baked treats home!! And Jeff Liddington came out to help and retrieved a big cardboard box from down by the Brock Center, full of plastic trash. Thanks to you all!! See you in the fall!! — with Mark Faust at Pleasure House Natural Area.

We need folks to become members of OPCL if we are to be able to continue to offer our social events and continue the work of the civic league. Join OPCL today-only $20 per household! Inflation is affecting our budget too and we rely on our residents to support the civic league by being members. Social events are much more expensive and we want to continue to offer these fun occasions to the community and continue the work to protect and take care of our neighborhood. If you are new to the Ocean Park neighborhood- welcome! We look forward to getting to know you! Please consider joining OPCL- just $20 for an annual membership! If you have been a member in the past- please renew your membership! A look at recent events shows how important the civic league is for preserving what we love about our community: a-year-in-ocean-park

We have an update from Jim White, Coastal Section Senior Project Manager, about the sand replenishment project for Ocean Park. “Due to the recent set of storms and the upcoming Memorial Day Weekend the Ocean Park sand nourishment project is scheduled to begin after the holiday, approximately May 30th.“ Other than the closed pre-project equipment placement areas, the beach will largely be open for the holiday. Once the project begins, only successive sections of the beach will be closed as they work their way along the shoreline.

Reminder from Mr. White for residents: “We request property owners to please remove property off of the beach before sand placement begins. Property may include (but not be limited to) sand fences, signs, volleyball posts, kayaks, catamarans, etc.” There are a good number of chairs, ropes, boats, ladders which are at the edge of the dunes and are at risk of being buried.

More information:

• Presentation of the Ocean Park Beach Nourishment Project
• More Beach Replenishment Questions Answered
• Ocean Park Beach Nourishment jpa Permit Drawings.pdf

We welcome your comments! Do you find it valuable to be able to listen in on the meeting by Zoom? Please either comment on this page or send your comments to: president@opcl.org. Thursday, May 5th the civic league met for the first time in person since 2020! We also had folks online in Zoom for a tryout Zoom hybrid meeting which had some glitches. The Brock’s offerings for making Zoom happen are rather outdated so we had to cobble together some components. We also had a challenging agenda for the new format with two speakers with presentations. The Brock is hoping to update their equipment to allow for virtual meetings but we learned some good lessons and think we can do better next time.

Captain Wilkerson, 3rd Precinct Commanding Officer discussed crime statistics and answered residents’ questions about our neighborhood. Read about the details: May 5 General Meeting Minutes

Valerie Henchel, Engineer for Traffic Safety for VB and Brian gave a clear picture of the recent Surry Rd traffic study and outlined the steps for traffic mitigation measures. Here is their presentation Traffic Calming Power point Ocean Park May 2022 and you can read more in the Minutes.

We’ve had a lot of help lately!

We delivered our April 2022 Echo Mini Newsletter last week to (we hope) every household in Ocean Park. Thank you to our hardworking helpers: Jill Doczi, editor and delivery champ (did you get your 10 miles in!?), Linda Kester (the rubber band innovator!), Tim and Andrea Lindemann, Debbie Cohen and Tetsuo Ogiwara, Phil Rous, Danny Murphy, Margaret Inge and Janice Cardone for reaching out to all corners of Ocean Park! (If you did not receive a newsletter, let us know so we can find you next time! communication@opcl.org)

Thank you to all the folks who made the Spring Fling happen: our planners- Joanne Lappin Parker, Lynda Martin, Danny Murphy and Andrea Lindemann. More volunteers ensured that everything went smoothly on the day: Blake Norris, treasurer and T-shirt seller! Tech support provided by Brian Snyder! Shane Abell and Barbara McCrudden were busy checking members in for the membership table!

If you would like to help out, go to opcl.org/aboutopcl/ and take a look at the various areas. Send an email to president@opcl.org to let us know you are interested!

At the General Membership meeting Jim White and Dan Adams, project managers for the city, gave confirmed the timeline for the Ocean Park Beach Restoration Project. The dredging activity will begin in April and the sand placement on Ocean Park beach will happen in May-June time frame. You can access the meeting minutes to get all the details about the nuts and bolts of how the Ocean Park project will proceed and an update on the sand stockpile on the Lynnhaven Inlet site (Cape Henry getting some help): February 10 General Meeting Minutes. Here is a video of the presentation at Thursday’s meeting: Ocean Park Beach Nourishment Project Update Feb-10-2022. You can see the project plans: Beach Replenishment Plans.

At the February OPCL meeting, Dan Adams and Jim White gave an update on the upcoming Ocean Park beach restoration project (February General Meeting Minutes. ) Folks had some follow up questions about the project which is still on schedule: “GLD&D (contractor for the project) maintains that they will begin channel dredging operations the first half of April and will begin beach restoration efforts on Ocean Park Beach by mid-May.”

• In answer to concerns about the additional erosion (scarping) since the project design: The contractor will add sand to the dunes that have undergone additional scarping prior to commencement of sand placement activities.The reference point for the new dune line is the line shown as ‘BERM CREST’ on the beach fill plan sheets.  The contractor will place sand from the landward limit of the current beach profile and build the beach out to the BERM CREST limit.“
• Re concerns about the outflow pipe for 3556 Shore Dr. near Lesner Bridge: “Public Works Stormwater Operations (PWSO) has worked out an agreement with the 3556 condo to inspect and clean out the 12” pipe when a service request is received.  PWSO checks the pipe periodically when they check other outfalls within the Ocean Park Beach neighborhood.  The beach restoration within the vicinity of the 12” outfall pipe will be constructed such that the pipe is not obstructed.”
• Regarding the truck haul project to move sand from the Lynnhaven site: “Sand hauls from this site are not new. The city performed annual truck hauls from this site to the Oceanfront for over 20 years prior to the City/USACE Virginia Beach Hurricane Protection Project (VBHPP) beach restoration in 2001.  The primary sand source for the VBHPP is now dredged from Thimble Shoal Channel in the lower Chesapeake Bay. Since 2001, sand truck hauls have been performed as needed to evacuate the site to provide storage capacity and/or to augment sand placement along the Bay Beaches.  As with any project, safety and mitigation of impacts to the community will be addressed in the project plans and specification. The city recently obtained a permit to transfer non beach quality sand from the northern part of the EBLR channel from this site. We plan on using this site for other waterway maintenance activities in the future.”