DATE: Sunday, November 2, 1997              TAG: 9711010272

SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON   PAGE: 09   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: FYI 

                                            LENGTH:  119 lines

NORWEGIAN LADY STILL MISSING AFTER SEARCH

FYI is an update of the news and happenings that have affected Virginia Beach during the past week.

The mystery of the whereabouts of the original Norwegian Lady statue, a carved wooden figurehead from the ill-fated Norwegian bark, Dictator, which foundered off the Virginia Beach shoreline in 1891, remains just that. A mystery.

The weathered figure stood at 16th Street and Oceanfront overlooking the Atlantic from the time it washed ashore.

Although it was replaced by a bronze statue in 1962, the original wooden carving become a symbol of the Beach and its storm-tossed past.

It disappeared after Hurricane Barbara in 1953, which damaged the lonely figure and city workers carted it off for the safety of Boardwalk strollers. Supposedly it was stored in a city garage at Parks Avenue and 15th Street, but a FYI foray into the 52-year-old building last week failed to turn up anything.

Wayne Creef, who is in charge of Beach maintenance for the city - as well as the compound containing the garage - says he doesn't recall seeing the figurehead, but that doesn't mean it still isn't in existence. He's still poking around.

Fielding L. Tyler, executive director of the Old Coast Guard Station Museum, a repository of the city's history, says the only known remnant of the figurehead is a piece of the pedestal, which is on display at the 24th Street museum.

As for the rest of the piece, Tyler offers these disquieting theories: The figurehead was buried by a city employee; the figurehead was burned by a city employee; the figurehead was stolen by a person or persons unknown.

Anyone with some solid clues as to its whereabouts is urged to call FYI at 490-7217. A good Samaritan

Loi Nugent was headed to TJ Maxx at London Bridge Oct. 19 to do some Christmas shopping. After all, that time of year is fast approaching.

When she drove off from her Great Neck home, she forgot to take the purse off the trunk of her car and put it in the front seat with her. As she rounded the corner of Wolfsnare Drive and Great Neck Road, car and purse parted company.

As luck would have it, the purse was quickly discovered lying in the street by Lenore Walter, a Great Neck resident and returned with all the Christmas shopping money and contents intact. Nugent says she is eternally grateful to Walter and even telephoned FYI to say so.

``I tried to pay her but she wouldn't take any money,'' Nugent said. ``She said God would repay her.'' Dan'l's panel found

While the search goes on for the lost Norwegian Lady figurehead, one long-lost item has been found.

That's the Daniel Boone marker No. 7, which stood at the Oceanfront at 17th Street from 1937 to 1976, attached to a stone monument made in the shape of an arrowhead.

It was removed to make room for two bunker-like restrooms at 17th Street, which have since been removed to make room for a Dairy Queen ice cream outlet and a wide green park.

What is left of the marker, a cast iron plaque, now resides in a box in the attic of the Old Coast Guard Station Museum at 24th Street, right above the office of executive director Fielding L. Tyler.

News reports and historical records show the marker was one of 358, scattered across the country - from Virginia to California - by an itinerant Kentucky minister who initially intended to mark the historical wanderings of the American frontiersman and sharpshooter.

The story goes that J. Hampton Rich in his travels, began handing out markers to any community leaders who could ante up the cash. As a result the plaque was erected in many American localities where Boone never set foot, including Virginia Beach.

Statistics show graffiti is on the wane in Virginia Beach, but it still pops up from time to time in unexpected places.

Just look under the Rudee Bridge, or the rear wall of the Quality Inn motel at Cypress and Parks Avenue or the bus shelter in front of the Association Research and Enlightenment library on Atlantic Avenue at 67th Street.

The spray-painted handiwork of illusive taggers isn't confined just to the Oceanfront, says Andy Friedman, head of the Department of Housing and Neighborhood Preservation. It's all over the city.

A few years ago city officials began cracking down on clandestine art form, mainly by stepping up a campaign to erase it, cover it up or wash it away as soon as it appeared.

``We did research in other cities,'' said Friedman. ``One lesson we learned was that quick abatement helps get rid of graffiti, because it's not around long enough for them (taggers) to admire it.''

Statistics provided by Friedman show that his department fielded 343 graffiti complaints in 1994 and abated 317 cases of tagging on private property - the abated cases were a combination of ones called in as complaints and ones city workers discovered on their own. In 1995, they received 116 complaints and abated 45; in 1996 they received 84 complaints and abated 148; and in the first quarter of 1997, received 29 complaints and abated 100.

How many taggers have been nabbed by police? Neither Friedman nor the police know. ``It's not a top priority thing with us, so we don't keep records,'' said Police Department spokesman Lou Thurston. Closed for the winter

Brew-Thru, the drive-through convenience store that opened on Pacific Avenue and 29th Street nearly three years ago amid much controversy has closed its doors for the winter - not for good.

That's the word from Harry Tully, one of three local businessmen with a financial interest in the establishment.

The three men bought out the Brew-Thru franchise, which began in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and had planned to expand the it nationwide.

Closing the store down for the winter is in keeping with the practice followed by the original North Carolina store, said Tully. Otherwise business is just fine.

``We showed a profit over last year year,'' he said.

The opening of the Virginia Beach Brew-Thru prompted the City Council last year to pass an ordinance forbidding drive-through businesses at the Oceanfront. The exception to the rule: drive-through teller windows at banks. ILLUSTRATION: File photo

The whereabouts of the original Norwegian Lady statue, a figurehead

from the ill-fated Dictator, remains a mystery. The statue

disappeared in 1953.

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