DATE: Sunday, June 29, 1997                 TAG: 9706270264

SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON   PAGE: 09   EDITION: FINAL 

                                            LENGTH:  109 lines

FYI

Here's an updated look at what's been happening in Virginia Beach during the past week. What's in store? Demolition began Tuesday on the old Cherry Cottages and Kitchens complex between Arctic and Baltic avenues at 30th Street near the Oceanfront to make way for a new Harris Teeter supermarket.

A mechanical shovel was on the scene, knocking down the first of nine buildings on the 15-acre site now owned by the grocery chain.

Construction on the Harris Teeter store is to start around July 1, said Thomas F. Betz Jr., a Virginia Beach lawyer representing the grocery company.

The motel and cottage complex were developed back in the '50s by Wilson Cherry, a Virginia Beach policeman, and his wife Elizabeth.

Cherry later acquired the Cherry Motel on the southeast corner of Arctic Avenue and 30th Street. The family retained an interest in the complex until 1991, after the elder Cherry's death, said daughter Rosalee Jewell.

Harris Teeter originally planned to start building a new Oceanfront store in April, but negotiations with the city over road and drainage work and plans for developing the rest of the 15-acre lot came to an impasse. Store officials decided to proceed with construction in July, although questions on who is responsible for paying for infrastructure improvements and development linger on. Taking the plunge

Second term City Council member Linwood O. Branch III said adios to bachelorhood as he and USAIR flight attendant Robin Lee Ross, 35, flew to Bermuda to tie the nuptial knot.

The two were married June 17, said a smiling Branch, adding ``I got permission from the mayor to take the day off (from a regularly scheduled council meeting) to do it.''

The two have been dating for four years, said Branch, and decided to make the match permanent. Ross is a Virginia Beach resident.

``I don't know why I didn't do it sooner,'' said Branch, whose family owns and operates an Atlantic Avenue hotel. Scout's honor

Clean the Bay Day proved to be more of an adventure than members of Boy Scout Troop 902 had bargained for.

Two weeks ago, while slogging along the banks of the Scenic Waterway that snakes under a Virginia Beach Boulevard bridge near Lynnhaven Parkway, they came upon what at first looked like an abandoned stove.

On second glance, said troop leader Bob Spadaccini, the cleanup crew discovered that the object actually was a safe, half submerged in the mud.

A top compartment had been ripped open and the Scouts found the remains of a bank bag and checks dated March 1997 from Blimpie's Sandwich Shop in Greensboro, N.C.

Virginia Beach police later confirmed that the safe had been taken in a burglary of the North Carolina sandwich shop earlier in the year, then dumped in the waterway. Police also said that it was the second safe to be dumped in the area this year.

The Scouts chalked up their discovery as ``their good deed for the day,'' said Spadaccini. A lot later

The City Council was briefed in closed session Tuesday on three plans to combine commercial and business use of the 31st Street lot on the Oceanfront.

No action was taken until resort planners get a look at them.

The proposals call for:

An Oceanfront hotel on the lot configured to allow visitors approaching the beach from Laskin Road and 30th Street to get a glimpse of the Atlantic. The hotel would be angled to permit public uses - arts and entertainment as well as lounging on the 300-by-150-foot lot itself.

A complex that combines an upscale night spot with some tony retail outlets.

A fast food franchise located on the periphery of the lot, which would be cleared and landscaped for public use like the 17th Street Park and its Dairy Queen outlet.

The council decided to run the proposals past the Resort Area Advisory Commission and the Economic Development Authority before deciding what to do with the property.

Meanwhile, a campaign by a citizens' group to preserve the tract as an open public park continues to gather momentum. It is led by school teacher Doug Thompson and civic activist Maury Jackson. Thompson continues to gather signatures on a petition to save the lot as an open vista to the sea and at last count he had amassed more than 6,000 names. Jackson continues a letter- writing campaign to sway council members. Dolphin run

Broad Bay, normally a haven for swarms of jet skiers and recreational boaters each spring and summer, has become a winter hangout for at least one bottlenose dolphin with a penchant for croaker and spot.

The bay provided not only winter refuge, but an ample food supply for the dolphin, researchers for the Virginia Marine Science Museum said.

Researchers spotted the adult marine mammal last Friday near the Great Neck Road Bridge and thus officially confirmed its presence in inland waters, although bay residents and fishermen have seen it splashing around in the shallow, protected waters for months.

Researchers theorize that the dolphin is a female that was left behind by its school mates last year to fend for itself. It had no problem finding food, researchers say, because it seemed sleek and healthy.

Dubbed the ``Broad Bay Dolphin,'' the animal apparently has defied conventional wisdom by surviving the winter in chilly and relatively shallow inland waters with sufficient food supply to carry it through some cold, cold months.

Museum officials sent staffers and a veterinarian to check on its condition throughout the winter. MEMO: Complied by Bill Reed. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by CHARLIE MEADS

The Cherry Cottages complex makes way for a Harris Teeter

supermarket.

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