Scholarship Chair, Betty Dierstein announced the winners!

“LYON FAMILY SCHOLARSHIP (privately funded by the Lyon Family)

We are pleased to announce the recipient of the Lyon Family Scholarship for the 2025-26 school year is Maggie Tu.  Maggie is graduating from the International Baccalaureate Academy at Princess Anne High School with a GPA of 4.63 and will be attending Brown University in the fall.  The Lyon Family Scholarship has a particular emphasis on volunteering. Maggie volunteered for over 700 hours at various organizations including Eastern Virginia Medical School, Virginia Department of Health Youth Advisory Council, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Nursing Home, Tidewater Chines School, and as a private tutor in advanced math subjects.  Maggi aspires to be a doctor and has shadowed a nurse practitioner, a physician’s assistant and a cancer researcher at EVMS.

LOUISE AND GEORGE LYON MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP (Ocean Park Civic League legacy scholarship)

We are pleased to announce the recipient of the Louise and George Lyon Memorial Scholarship is Betty Anne (Annie) Stephenson.  Annie is graduating from Cox High School with a 4.09 GPA and will be attending James Madison University in the fall.   She is currently in her second year of the dental assisting program at the Virginia Beach Technical and Career Education Center. She has also been working at a dental office for over a year and assists chair side. Annie plans to attend dental school after completing her B.S. in Biology at JMU. Her volunteer activities were varied and included work with Operation Smile and with Beach Buddies, where students are paired with a special needs student to spend time with and assist with their activities.

A big thank you to Blair Valdivieso and Natalie McIntyre for their time and insights in making these selections.  Applications average 8-10 pages in length and include any number of deserving students.  I appreciate the time spent reading, evaluating, and discussing each applicant’s application.”

Also a huge thank you to chair Betty Dierstein for her work coordinating the scholarship information decimation with the COVB Public Schools and committee work!

At the May 8th meeting, we had updates from the City of Virginia Beach about the Phase III Shore Drive Project which is beginning now. This project covers the area on the east side of the Lesner Bridge to First Landing. ( The Ocean Park west side of the bridge is Phase IV of the Shore Dr. project).

In addition our guests William Purcell, P.E., Project Manager and Jason Wilson, P.E., Project Manager Supervisor, Transportation presented detailed information on the upcoming sidewalk project for Ocean Park .

President Danny Murphy clarified some ongoing and future projects being undertaken by the McLeskey company and other updates. The winners of the 2025 Scholarships were announced by Better Dierstein, Scholarship Committee Chair.

Some reminders about “golf carts” in our community. Although some communities in the area are designated golf cart communities, Ocean Park is not a designated or approved golf cart community. Because of this, to drive lawfully on the streets of Ocean Park vehicles must be street-legal electric vehicles as defined by state and city law. This means they must have all the vehicular requirements, be titled, registered with low-speed license plates from DMV and covered by minimum insurance requirements. They may only be operated by drivers with a valid license or learner’s permit and the driver must follow all the same rules of the road as a normal vehicle. (Virginia Beach Codes of Ordinance: Sec. 7: 65-68 ).

No motorized vehicles are allowed to drive on the beach except by specific written permission of the City Manager. A handicap placard from a car is NOT transferrable to allow driving on the beach. Virginia Beach Codes of Ordinance: Sec. 6-12.

The weather cooperated! Thank you to our wonderful volunteers who made the event a success and neighbors for joining in! Thank you to Taste for great food! Thank you to Johnny Smallwood for great music!

Recently some trees by the Lynnhaven Boat Ramp were cut down. OPCL President Danny Murphy asked the city for details.

Mike Parkman, Parks and Rec Supervisor for Park Events Programs and Special Use replied: “Those trees were initially damaged by vandalism. Someone cut into each of the two trees about 80% of the diameter. One of the two trees was purchased several years ago through our tree buddy program in memorial of a WWII veteran. Our Parks and Recreation tree crew came in and took them down afterward because they were now a safety issue. They are scheduled to be replaced soon, but I do not have a schedule for that.” 

• Public Works CIP Spreadsheet Monthly Update (changes are in red see below)
• Shore Drive Pedestrian Improvements to begin construction in fall.
• Continuing to offer comments and input on Draft Comprehensive Plan .
• Comments and questions can be sent to the COVB Planning Department: compplan@vbgov.com

Sign up for BAC Updates in the Bayliner Newsletter!

The 3rd Annual OPCL Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday was a great success! Thank you to the Easter Bunny for stopping by! Huge thank you to the volunteers who helped organize and make it work! Thank you to all our wonderful neighbors for coming out on a beautiful morning!

The Comp Plan guides development and investment across the city, and all Capital Improvements Program (CIP) projects and new land development projects are evaluated for consistency with the Comp Plan. Virginia Code requires all localities to prepare a formal document outlining planning policies designed to guide and manage future physical growth. The COVB is updating its Comprehensive Plan and the process has included public meetings and public input. The plan does not have the force of Zoning Code but an update of the Zoning Ordinance will be undertaken after the adoption of the updated Comprehensive Plan.

Draft 2040 Comprehensive Plan

We heard updates on upcoming events and meetings. 3rd Precinct Captain James Gordon, Parks and Rec Department Director Kirschman, and Community Liaison Officer Schonbach attended to answer questions about the problems at the Lynnhaven Boat Ramp: disturbance of the peace by car clubs and ongoing traffic/ safety problems with boat trailers.

Since the Lynnhaven Boat Ramp incident with large speeding car rally and very large crowd of spectators on Sunday, March 30 VBPD has been working to investigate and capture information on who was there that night and investigate further. They have been reviewing all of the video evidence to identify as many people as possible and are following up on any leads in order to charge individuals if they can prove illegal activity. The investigation continues.

VBPD Actions Moving forward:

• Instituted extra patrol checks in the area, Hotspot checks have increased.
• Officers are encouraged (especially after hours officers)to sit at the boat ramp when doing things like paperwork.
• Special ops and traffic safety has a special patrol that they host at midnight. The patrol musters around 930, and sporadically, will muster in the boat ramp parking lot. If you see them, you are welcome to come out and join, share concerns.
• Citations could include reckless driving, endangerment, destruction of property
• Car clubs are a national trend unfortunately. VBPD is aware of it and monitoring social media for the coordinated efforts of the club.

Parks and Rec Department Actions Moving Forward

The community is asking for Clearer Regulations and Signage for boaters and traffic

“Staff is working to place portable digital signage on Shore Drive to alert drivers on when the parking lot is full in hopes of reducing traffic congestion in and around the area. “

The community is asking for increased monitoring and patrols.

“Parks and Recreation will increase staffing at the Lynnhaven Boat Ramp for the summer season.” 

• ·         April 11 – May 1: 6am – 8pm 

• ·         May 2 – May 22: 5:30am – 8:30pm 

• ·         May 23 – Sept 4: 5:30am – 9pm 

• ·         Sept 5 – Sept 18: 6am – 8pm 

• ·         Sept 19 – Nov 2: 6:30am – 7:30pm 

• ·         Nov 3 – Dec 31: 6:30am – 5:30pm “

In answer to questions posed at the meeting:

• Parks and Recreation Director Kirschman thinks that closing the area to one group (beachgoers for example) but leaving it open for others (fishermen/ boaters) would cause more problems. If for example it remained open only for fishing after hours.
• The city beaches are by code open 24/7 unlike many parks in the city which close at dusk.