THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 2, 1994 TAG: 9409300247
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 19 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PATRICIA HUANG, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
The Girl Scout Council of Colonial Coast, which plans to build a new headquarters at a $2.1-million center near Chesapeake's City Hall, announced this week that the Chesapeake-based Armada/ Hoffler Construction Co. will be the project's general contractor.
The center will be constructed on 11 acres of land off Cedar Road that was purchased by the Girl Scouts in 1989. It is scheduled to be open next year for use by the council's 5,300 volunteers and 16,000 Scouts from Williamsburg and Gloucester County to the north to North Carolina's Ocracoke Island to the south. The Council's region also reaches as far west as Southampton County and involves 1,600 Girl Scout troops and groups.
A majority of the Council's girls, 34 percent, are residents of Virginia Beach, and 9.5 percent come from Chesapeake. About 12 percent of the girls are Norfolk residents and 10.7 percent are from Hampton.
Armada/Hoffler will be donating its work on the project, which is part of this year's United Way Capital Building Campaign, said Louis S. Haddad, Armada/Hoffler president.
Plans for the center, called ``A Place for Girls,'' includes approximately three acres of wetlands zigzagging across the site with a boardwalk, an observation tower and platforms. A bridge, to be built over Bell's Mill Creek, which runs through the site, turns a path from boardwalk to nature trails.
Other features of the plan include a fitness trail with exercise stations, a swimming pool facility and an 18,000-square-foot multipurpose building budgeted at about $1.3 million.
``As leaders in our community, we wanted to be involved with a project that will develop the leaders of tomorrow,'' said Chairman Dan Hoffler in a prepared statement. ``Girl Scouting builds strong values and a sense of self-confidence in addition to providing opportunities for fun and learning. We are pleased to help build a facility that will enrich the lives of so many young people throughout the region.''
The center will house sleep-in areas with kitchens and showers, arts and crafts rooms, pottery and science labs, music and dance studios.
``There will be a teen area, conference places where they come and cook and learn to use computers and just about anything the girls can think of that they want to do,'' said Nellie Hayse, council executive director. ``They can study the environment, nutrition, health and safety. . . . There's a lot of flexibility for the girls and their troop leaders to use the facility the way they want, be it for video production or to hold career conferences.''
A pamphlet about the new center describes it as ``a place where you can go and talk and not have to worry about what boys think and say. Girls need a place to do girl stuff. A place for girls is important. Because sometimes boys are thought more of.''
The site was selected by the Girl Scouts Council for its easy access off of Interstate 64 and its central location to the region's more than 25 cities and counties, Hayse said. ILLUSTRATION: Drawing
Headquarters for the Girl Scout Council will include an observation
tower, nature trails and a swimming pool.
by CNB