DATE: Sunday, April 6, 1997                 TAG: 9704040162

SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER      PAGE: 16   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Letters 

                                            LENGTH:   76 lines

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR - CHESAPEAKE

This is an open letter to Chesapeake residents who were unable to attend the Chesapeake City Council meeting March 25. The following is an outline of agenda item No. 8, the redesign of Kempsville Road.

Kempsville Road is simply translated by the City Council majority as a six-lane highway and truck route displacing 13 homeowners along Phases II and III.

Chesapeake demographics are apparently defined by the council majority as the future over-development and exponential growth approved by the council to date.

It is the opinion of the council majority that Battlefield Boulevard, a business route, and Kempsville Road, a residential corridor, are synonymous. Residential corridors will be nonexistent in Chesapeake by the year 2015.

Written commitments previously made by the council in 1994 concerning the design of Phase III are recognized by Council members Dalton S. Edge, John M. de Triquet and Alan P. Krasnoff. Mayor William E. Ward indicated this commitment was no longer ``feasible.''

It is evident the majority of the City Council has little desire to preserve the quality of life or property values in Chesapeake communities. The uniqueness of Chesapeake is being bulldozed, paved, expanded and destroyed. The City Council has the ability to control and carefully plan Chesapeake's growth by eliminating the plan to transform Kempsville Road from a two-lane road to a six-lane highway.

Contact the City Council today and express your views.

Karen A. Chamberlain

Sanjo Farms Drive Mixed message

I opened The Clipper on Easter morning and was instantly drawn to the articles that featured photographs of rabbits being hugged and lambs frolicking. I put down the paper, topped off my coffee and propped up my feet for a good read.

The rabbit story was a heartwarming tale about local folks who rescue and rehabilitate abandoned and abused rabbits. it was comforting to read about people who are kind merely for kindness' sake.

Then I turned to the lamb story, only to find out it was about farmers who have them killed for money. Of course, the story was sad, but what really worried me was that The Clipper might expect readers to find these stories comparable.

Perhaps I am wrong. Maybe the stories were juxtaposed to show us two diametrically opposed interpretations of our roles as stewards of the animals. While one adheres to the spirit of Easter and is motivated by love and concern for life, the other is propelled by indifference and exploitation for profit.

I doubt there was a sermon uttered on Easter morning that espoused the virtues of the latter.

Susan Perna

Rabbit Run Pathetic exhibit

It more than saddens me that Rite-Aid was pig-headed enough to go ahead and build that monstrosity in Great Bridge at Battlefield Boulevard and Cedar Road after all the community opposition to their locating there.

Yes, they've bulldozed a formerly beautiful historical spot and are probably building on a graveyard. But what about traffic problems here? Rite-Aid never acknowledges the very real problem that they are making worse by their being here. Instead, they just try to gloss over any public opposition to them by offering that pathetic ``history wall.''

It's pretty obvious that Rite-Aid could care less about our local history or the public struggling to drive through this congested area.

I can only hope that they fail and fail soon. I and my family will certainly never shop there, and I urge others to do likewise. I never really cared for them before at the other two or three locations they closed down for lack of business in the Great Bridge area anyway.

What does gladden me is the lack of cars parked in front of that Rite-Aid as I drive by on a daily basis..

Charles Scott

Plimpton Drive

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