THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 30, 1995 TAG: 9504280195
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 68 lines
Nearly 5,000 feet of public beach in Ocean Park will get a sand infusion this summer.
The City Council on Tuesday voted 8-2 to make it happen, but first the project - requiring the dumping of 50,000 cubic yards of sand on the shoreline west of Lesner Bridge - must be put up for public bid.
Cost of the replenishment program is estimated at $400,000.
Local sand hauling contractors can compete for the job by submitting bids, which will be opened at 2 p.m. Friday at the city's Beach Management office.
Sand replenishment work would cover a stretch of Chesapeake Bay beach extending from the bridge to a point near two high-rise condominiums, said Carl Thoren, who heads the Beach Management office.
Ocean Park civic leaders requested the sand haul through Bayside Councilman Louis R. Jones, who represents them.
Council discussion of the project Tuesday centered around the potential source of sand and the cost of hauling it to the beach.
Thoren told council members that Womack Contractors of Chesapeake, the company building the golf course on the old Bayville Farm property, must get rid of 50,000 cubic yards of sand by May 31 and has offered to haul it to Ocean Park beach for $7.31 a cubic yard - or $365,000.
Another potential sand source, Thoren said, was the site of the second Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, which has yet to get under way. This sand has been offered to the city free.
``They have agreed to put it on the Ocean Park beach,'' Thoren said. ``The only thing is, I don't know when - probably '96 or '97. The sand is available unless something happens to the Bay Bridge-Tunnel project.''
Councilwoman Barbara M. Henley wondered aloud why Womack would charge the city to haul sand from the golf project, where the company is obligated by contract to remove 50,000 cubic yards by May 31.
``With an excavation like this I thought they'd be doing folks a favor by giving it away,'' she said.
The idea of paying for a sand haul, when the service is offered free from another source, irked Councilman Robert K. Dean.
``It almost seems we're being held hostage for buying sand for $7.30,'' he said. ``It's not a good use of public funds. This is not a good deal.''
Councilman Linwood O. Branch III saw merit in the project. ``I just don't feel that we have much public beach in this city,'' he said. ``We need to come up with a nourishment plan.''
There is $1.23 million in the city budget to pay for the Ocean Park sand haul, City Manager James K. Spore told the council.
Once bids are in and reviewed, city administrators could award the job without having to return to the council for approval.
The project could begin by June 15, Thoren said in a telephone interview after the meeting.
Voting against the project were council members Dean and Nancy K. Parker. Voting in favor were Branch, Henley, Jones, Louisa M. Strayhorn, John A. Baum , Harold Heischober, Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf and Vice Mayor William D. Sessoms. Councilman William W. Harrison was absent. ILLUSTRATION: Staff file photo by PAUL A. AIKEN
Sand replenishment work would cover a stretch of Chesapeake Bay
beach extending from the bridge to a point near two high-rise
condominiums in the upper lefthand portion of the picture.
by CNB