We collected 25 pounds of trash! Thank you to all who helped and especially to Mary Faust who organizes the effort and bakes the chocolate muffins and cornbread! YUM! Next clean up will be Saturday, April 20 9-12 am.

Thank you to all who paid 2024 dues!!! Join your neighbors! If you are a resident or property owner in Ocean Park please consider supporting the Ocean Park Civic League with your $20 membership or renew your membership for 2024! Join or Renew OPCL today-only $20 per household! We have more than 1300 households in Ocean Park and in 2023 we had 335 paid memberships. Let’s get to 400 in 2024! We will not raise dues but our costs: IT costs and event costs have gone up like everything else. We really need our neighbors to support the civic league. If you can give more than $20- that helps so much!

FAQ’s about Membership:

• When should I pay my dues? According to our bylaws membership dues are for the calendar year and are due in January. Dues must be paid and current to attend members only events like Spring Fling (coming up on Saturday, April 20!).
• I always used to pay my dues in the summer. Have things changed? Many residents pay at events at different times of the year. During Covid when we didn’t have any events, we strongly urged folks to pay electronically and it especially helps if people pay membership dues at the start of the year so we know what funding we will have for events. Bylaws state that dues are for each calendar year and are due in January.

What does your membership pay for? The civic league budget pays for the costs of getting information out – website costs, email blast Mailchimp services, snail mail post office box, IT services. We make contributions to Lynnhaven River Now, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and we give a four year $1000 college scholarship every year. With your membership you will also have free entry for your household to our Fall Fest (October 15th this year!) and Spring Fling– a great opportunity to meet your neighbors! Please help support your neighborhood civic league!! If you are new to the Ocean Park neighborhood- welcome! We look forward to getting to know you!

Residents and Neighbors heard some important and interesting updates at the well attended March 7 OPCL meeting at the Brock Center:

Councilman Joash Schulman announced that the Lynnhaven Boat Ramp would be gated at night as a temporary solution to the “public safety hazard” that has been an ongoing concern. He asked the City Manager to instruct the Parks and Rec Dept to proceed to close the gate at night. He noted that there were logistics that must be worked through including addressing the concerns of the boating community. He said he was happy to talk about any concerns and promised a “robust engagement with stakeholders” adding that “public safety is #1”. He urged people to call him directly with concerns. jschulman@vbgov.com 757-840-1291.

Officer Schonbach, VBPD Public Liaison, also provided some interesting information in his update about the LBR. In response to residents’ complaint that calling about activity at the LBR entailed a long phone interrogation, he said that callers do not need to stay on the phone. Operators are trained to get as much information as possible and will continue to ask questions as long as a caller will answer. He advised callers to say that there is a disturbance involving reckless driving (or whatever) and an officer needs to check it out and then to say “I’m sorry I can’t stay on the phone.”

Officer Schonbach also detailed the drawbacks of the newly installed cameras. Police can’t give a ticket to a car: they must be able to identify the driver. Coming soon is a Realtime Crime Center which could pull up live feed of a camera IF there is a call for service. The police do not have the manpower to monitor all the city cameras 24/7.

Officer Schonbach addressed some misconceptions about which violations are chargeable on the LBR property which is city property that is open to the public. Some violations like running a stop sign can only be charged on a city street. BUT reckless driving is absolutely enforceable.

Derek Dubay presented plans to preserve and restore the historic Ocean Park Baptist Church. His father and he have restored properties in Chic’s Beach (in slide presentation) and have a record of responsibly restoring old buildings. Derek described the Ocean Park church built in 1949 as having details such as 6 over 6 windows and woodwork that make it appealing. He has already talked to many city departments about the project: Planning and Zoning and has had a very positive response from the city. A zoning change to B-2 with conditional use restricted to assembly use is required. In response to questions, Derek gave some further details. The capacity of the church is 125-130. He will work on cross parking permits with Bucketheads. Currently there are 35 parking places and 70 would be required. A shuttle could be run from their offices a short distance away for additional parking. Care would be taken to ensure the live oaks on the property would be preserved.

Derek mentioned that the immediate area of the church is also unusual because it is one of few intersections in the city where all four corners have original buildings standing. He is pursuing inclusion on the local historical register. He described the passion he shares with his father for saving old buildings of which we have few in Virginia Beach in general and not too many in Ocean Park. Comments and questions are welcome! president@opcl.org

Guests enjoyed a wonderful time at the Brock Center on Sunday at the first ever Wine Tasting presented by our neighbor and professional sommelier Tina Morey. Tina showcased natural wines and delighted her audience with her humor and very informative commentary on biodynamic wine, organic wine, orange wine and Pet-nat sparkling wine. Wines from Oregon, the Loire Valley in France, Austria and California made up the program were accompanied by a beautiful charcuterie array to stimulate senses.

In 2024 the Ocean Park Civic League marks the 80 year anniversary since its founding on Nov. 28, 1944. As a part of this celebration, we would like to continue the work of The Ocean Park Story: a soft cover book published in 2015 by a committee headed by Nadine Isaac Hook Costenbader after five years of work piecing together the history of Ocean Park with articles, documents, photographs and oral history from residents and descendants.

There are more pieces of the puzzle out there! We would like to include more stories! The plan is to include new chapters in an addendum to the book and republish an anniversary edition. If you or your family have information, documentation, memories, photographs or are interested in working on the project: please contact communication@opcl.org. We are planning to meet up soon- get on the email list! Talk to your neighbors!

The Louise and George Lyon Memorial Scholarship for high school seniors in Virginia Beach is open for applications until March 31! While special consideration is given to Ocean Park residents, the scholarship is open to any qualified resident of Virginia Beach. The scholarship award is $1000 @year and can be awarded for up to four years to students who remain eligible. The deadline for submission is March 31, 2024. Applications should be mailed to OPCL Scholarship/ PO Box 55385/ Virginia Beach, VA 23471. Here is the link to the application: OPCL.org/scholarships.

Over the past few months, we have been working with members of the Lyon family who expressed interest in starting a second scholarship for graduating high school seniors.  Susan Lyon, George Lyon, Jr., and Ann Lyon Ackiss have provided funding and guidelines for the Lyon Family Scholarship offered for the first time this year. They have asked the OPCL Scholarship Committee to administer the scholarship. While similar in its focus to the original scholarship, there is an added emphasis on community and volunteer activities.   We are grateful to the Lyon family for creating this opportunity and are pleased to partner with them in the review of applications and award of the scholarship this spring.  

The few new Ocean Park sunset design hoodies and crewneck sweatshirts that remain are available at BeachBuilt on Shore Dr. next to Froggies! Stop in to see all their great things and pick up an Ocean Park sunset hoodie ($45) tshirt ($25) or live oak design long sleeve tshirt ($25). (all proceeds go to the civic league). Thank you to Beach Built for generously sharing your space!

Why are Ocean Park residents upset about how the Lynnhaven Boat Ramp is managed? What’s going on?

Problem #1.

Since approximately 2021 car clubs and sport bike groups have congregated in the boat ramp parking lot and used the area to stage racing activities late in the night waking residents in Ocean Park and all along Shore Dr. with disturbance from excessive loud racing engines. In July of 2023 a car drove up and shot into the crowd wounding two. The case remains unsolved. Residents have contacted 3rd Precinct Captain Guevara, Parks and Rec Dept. Director Michael Kirschman and City Councilman Joash Schulman. President Danny Murphy and many residents have contacted and worked with these department heads who have appeared before the civic league. Car Racing Video.

Attempted Solutions: Police have told residents to call the non-emergency number so that incidents can be documented. Over the years, residents have repeatedly made reports and shared pictures and videos of incidents in progress. These meetups often occur late at night, so providing this evidence has required great effort on the part of OP residents. One resident who has spent a lot of time working with the city on this describes how effective this solution has proven: “As far as calling, I’m tired of it.  You sit on hold for so long and then you seriously have 20 or more questions to answer – it takes forever.  All the calls I’ve made, the pictures and videos I’ve taken AND given to the police (with license plates) has done nothing to help.  When I asked the   Captain what they did with the video I provided to them (the one that ruined my evening plans with my grandson and took 3 hours of my time) he didn’t even know what I was talking about – said he’d get back to us, but he didn’t .”

In August temporary cameras were installed and Mr. Kirchman stated: “Police have access to the video”. But more incidents followed in December and January 3. Permanent cameras have now been installed January 2024. How have cameras helped?

How often does this go on? Racing was documented with videos posted on these dates: July 28, Aug 12 2022. In 2023 April 4, April 10, April 11, April 12, June 19, June 20, June 22, Oct. 6, Oct 22, Nov. 11, Dec. In 2024 so far Jan. 3, March 1 and 2. Many posts have been taken down so there were many more incidents.

Problem #2 Ocean Park’s neighborhood was not designed to accommodate traffic overflow from the LBR.

This results in traffic gridlock, blocked driveways, damaged property and unsafe conditions. Due to poor signage and poor direction from P & R employees, those turned away from the LBR must attempt to navigate out of the neighborhood on their own. They frequently attempt to turn around at unsafe intersections including the Tazewell Triangle in an attempt to get in line for the entrance to the LBR. this results in further gridlock, blocked driveways and damage to the Adopt-a-Spot, to which neighbors have donated substantial time and money. The streets around the LBR are not adequate to support this volume of traffic, especially considering the size of many of these vehicles towing boats and trailers. More available parking for boaters at the LBR, better direction for and by Parks and Rec employees and better signage could improve conditions.

The problems at the Lynnhaven Boat Ramp will be on the agenda at the Ocean Park Civic League Meeting on Thursday, March 7 at the Brock Center 7:00 pm. Everyone is welcome. Councilman Joash Schulman will attend.