THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 20, 1996 TAG: 9610200045
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: 94 lines
Calvin and Mozell Rogers were worried when a city inspector wrote up their South Norfolk house for peeling paint and broken boards.
``I was thinking, where was I going to get the finances to fix it?'' said Calvin Rogers, a former welder who is retired on a disability.
Then Rogers and his wife heard that civic leagues and other volunteers would do the repairs for free.
``This is one of the best programs out there, because it's a program of sharing,'' Rogers said Saturday as nine volunteers showed up at his house on 22nd Street. ``It really came at the right time.''
In recent years, civic activists have been urging Chesapeake to step up enforcement of property codes, especially in the aging South Norfolk community that is struggling to revitalize.
But the activists said they did not want code enforcement to become too great a financial burden on fixed-income homeowners, especially those who are elderly or have disabilities.
So when the City Council initiated its Neighborhood Preservation Progam for South Norfolk earlier this year, the Chesapeake Council of Civic Organizations began mustering volunteers and raising money to help with repairs.
``It's really heartening to see that other communities in the city are really concerned about the problems in South Norfolk,'' said Jerry Johnson, 52, a lifelong resident of the community and vice president of the South Norfolk Civic League.
Calvin and Mozell Rogers said they learned of the program at a neighborhood meeting. They applied through the capital improvement needs committee of the Council of Civic Organizations.
``This doesn't just help the elderly and disabled, which itself is a big thing,'' said committee Chairwoman Anne Tregembo. ``It also helps the community and the city, because when you have a trashy looking community, it invites criminals and criminal activity. And that's one thing we're getting rid of in South Norfolk.''
So far, the committee has received 12 applications, approving nine. Work has begun on three houses, Tregembo said.
Once an application comes in, Tregembo intervenes with the city's inspectors, asking for and receiving extensions of time to do the repairs.
Tregembo has not lived in South Norfolk since 1964, but she stays involved because she was born and grew up there, as did her father, the late George Leonard Grimes.
``My grandfather moved there in 1888,'' Tregembo said. ``He was a contractor and built many of the Victorians you see there . . . So my roots and my heart are there.''
On Saturday, volunteers set up scaffolding and ladders to work on the Rogers' gray, two-story house.
Among them were B.J. and Sarah Whitehurst, each 63 and wearing matching gray-and-white sweatshirts.
B.J. Whitehurst, retired owner of a nursery and landscaping company, grew up in Greenville, N.C.
``It was nice in a small town where people didn't have to depend on government,'' Whitehurst said. ``They depended on each other.''
Today, many pressures and impersonal business decisions drive communities apart, he said.
``It's the same way in business. The banks don't know you, personally, and that's sad,'' Whitehurst said. ``If a small business can't get help from a bank even though it has a good balance sheet, then what happens to the individual who's lower down on the ladder and has no balance sheet?''
John Cosgrove, 42, an electrical engineer who lost his bid for mayor last spring, said he volunteered to help paint the Rogers' house because he believes in South Norfolk's revitalization efforts.
``People down here are working hard to improve their neighborhood, and the rest of us ought to help them,'' he said. ``If we want to have a community, we have to act like a community.''
Cosgrove also credited Gene Waters, president of the Council of Civic Organizations.
Waters, 48, said the repair program helps residents in newer areas of Chesapeake become familiar with the city's old core. South Norfolk was independent until 1963, when it merged with parts of old Norfolk County.
The push to renovate properties in South Norfolk also involves a bit of regional cooperation, for which Waters is an advocate. Several months ago, Waters and civic-league leaders from other Hampton Roads cities held a forum on property code enforcement and learned of a ``Neighborhood Sweep'' program in Norfolk.
The Chesapeake Council of Civic Organizations urged a similar effort in Chesapeake, Waters said. Once it was approved, the civic leagues spread the word to South Norfolk residents and businesses.
``But we wanted to pick up from that and go to the next step'' of helping homeowners who could not handle the repairs, Waters said, as his daughter, Melody, 7, scraped paint from the trim of the house.
In addition to helping homeowers bring houses up to code, activists have opened the South Norfolk Preservation fund with help from the Bank of Hampton Roads. It has about $1,100.
Eventually, Waters wants to start similar repair efforts in other aging areas, such as Portlock and Crestwood.
``This is just a spark,'' he said. ``As code inspectors move around the city, we want our civic-league teams to follow.'' MEMO: For information about applying for volunteer help or to become a
volunteer or donor, call Anne Tregembo, 484-0267. by CNB