DATE: Saturday, September 20, 1997          TAG: 9709200388

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

                                            LENGTH:  137 lines

HAMPTON ROADS [BRIEFS]

CHESAPEAKE

Council OKs building

for Fourth Precinct,

community officers

Construction will begin soon for a new, larger police building in Western Branch that will accommodate community policing officers.

The City Council approved funds Tuesday night for a new Fourth Precinct building, Capt. Hank Fletcher said Friday.

The new building will be at the location of the current one, near the intersection of Pughsville and Taylor roads, Fletcher said.

Once construction begins, operations will move to the service road of the Western Branch community center into portable classrooms borrowed from the school district, said Fletcher, who expected the new building to be finished within a year.

The city's community policing officers currently work only out of the Second Precinct in South Norfolk.

VIRGINIA BEACH

Delegation from Japan will

mark anniversary with city

The cities of Virginia Beach and Miyazaki, Japan, will celebrate their fifth-year anniversary as sister cities with a concert at the 24th Street Park and the dedication of a Japanese garden at Red Wing Park next week.

The mayor of Miyazaki, Shigemitsu Tsumura, as well as members of its city council, other residents and the Miyazaki City Wind Orchestra are part of a 100-member delegation visiting Virginia Beach for the celebration.

A highlight of the week is the dedication of the Miyazaki Japanese Garden at Red Wing Park at 2 p.m. Thursday. The garden, a symbol of friendship between the two cities, will showcase the serene and distinctive traditions of Japanese gardening. After the dedication, the visiting orchestra will perform a free concert at 6:30 p.m. at the 24th Street Stage, as part of Virginia Beach's ongoing Neptune Festival activities.

Also during their stay, members of the Japanese delegation will explore Virginia Beach's volunteer programs by riding along in emergency vehicles to see how police, fire and rescue efforts are administered here. Other delegates will tour social services, libraries, public utilities, public works and other departments to see how volunteers help the city.

Neptune Festival parade

to feature famous names

When the Neptune Festival XXIV Grand Parade kicks off at 1:30 p.m. Sept. 28, former NFL quarterback Bernie Kosar will be leading the pack as grand marshal.

Kosar, best known as a quarterback for the former Cleveland Browns, is a majority stockholder in Tidewater Management Group, which owns 12 Arby's franchises.

Kosar also will be signing autographs from noon to 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 27, in front of the Arby's at 14th Street and the Boardwalk.

Following behind Kosar in the parade will be the Budweiser Clydesdales. The eight-horse hitch team will head down Atlantic Avenue with the parade procession between 16th and 31st streets.

The horses, an elite group of animals that must meet size, color and disposition standards to become Budweiser Clydesdales, also will be on display Sept. 26-27 at 30th Street and Atlantic Avenue.

After the parade, the horses will move on to Charlotte, N.C., to perform at a football game.

REGIONAL

Carrier America to begin

its trip to mothballed fleet

The carrier America will make perhaps its final voyage out of the Norfolk Naval Shipyard on Monday, when it will be towed through the Elizabeth River between downtown Norfolk and Portsmouth and on to Philadelphia, where it will join the mothballed fleet.

Retired on Aug. 9, 1996, after 31 1/2 years of service, the former Norfolk-based 1,047-foot aircraft carrier has been in the Portsmouth shipyard since, receiving long-term preservation to its equipment in preparation for being moored at the Navy Inactive Ship Maintenance Facility in Philadelphia.

Navy officials said the America is scheduled to leave the Portsmouth shipyard at 8 a.m. Monday and pass the shipyard's huge hammerhead crane on the Elizabeth River about 9 a.m. Its tow will then take several more hours before reaching the mouth of Chesapeake Bay.

Public invited to comment

on child-care proposals

A legislative panel will discuss recommendations regarding child care in Virginia at a special meeting on Tuesday in Richmond.

The Commission on Early Childhood and Child Day Care will review the recommendations of a Joint Legislative and Audit Review Commission study, with an eye toward proposing legislation for the 1998 General Assembly Session.

The public is invited to comment.

The JLARC study recommended:

Adding child-care regulations to reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

Excluding convicted felons from providing child care.

Hiring more state licensing specialists to ensure two annual inspections a year of each day-care facility.

Changing guidelines of the Virginia Child Care and Development Fund to better address needs of the working poor, and to ensure a more equitable distribution of child-care subsidies.

The panel will meet Tuesday at 10 a.m. in Senate Room A of the General Assembling Building in Richmond. Portsmouth

Housing programs to get

$2.5 million U.S. grant

U.S. Rep. Norman Sisisky, D-4th Dist., announced on Friday that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will allocate a $2.5 million grant to the Portsmouth Redevelopment and Housing Authority.

The grant will be allocated to several different projects administered by the PRHA. These include the Family Self-Sufficiency Program at the Ida Barbour Park housing complex, addition of window security screens at the Washington Park housing complex, and lead-based paint abatement and comprehensive modernization at the Dale Homes complex.

Monday's program begins

church's concert series

The annual midday concert series at Monumental United Methodist Church in Portsmouth will open Monday with a noon program by violinist Allegra Tortolano Havens, with Michael Regan on organ and piano.

The church is at the corner of Dinwiddie and Queen streets.

Havens is a violinist with the Virginia Symphony and the Virginia Opera. Regan is music director at Monumental United Methodist.

The concert of music by Mozart, Franck, Handel and Prokofiev is free and open to the public. A light lunch will be offered for $2.50 after the concert.

ALSO . . .

Virginia Beach - Kids Cove playground at Mount Trashmore Park will be closed for annual maintenance Monday through Thursday. It will reopen Friday. Call 563-1100. MEMO: Staff writers Ida Kay Jordan and Lewis Krauskopf contributed to

this report.

Send Suggestions or Comments to webmaster@scholar.lib.vt.edu