DATE: Wednesday, November 26, 1997          TAG: 9711260525

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: PUBLIC LIFE
                                            LENGTH:   68 lines

YESTERDAY

CHESAPEAKE:

CRIME TRACKERS: The City Council approved $74,614 to hire two analysts, who will provide community policing officers with crime trend reports down to the neighborhood street level and use ``reverse 911'' technology to call dozens of residents at once about security risks. The positions were funded by a federal matching grant together with city dollars from the Police Department's drug asset forfeiture funds.

OCEANA CONCERNS: The Navy should attempt to reduce any adverse effects for Fentress-area residents and workers resulting from the planned transfer of F/A-18 aircraft from Florida to Virginia Beach, according to a City Council resolution passed Monday night.

BATTLEFIELD BYPASS PROGRESS: To pay for legal and financial consulting costs, the City Council on Tuesday allocated $325,000 from a General Assembly-created fund for the Route 168 South improvement project. The plan for Battlefield Boulevard South, which would route some traffic to and from the Outer Banks onto a separate highway, is considered the city's No. 1 road project.

EARLY PRESENT: Most city employees will not have to work the day after Christmas - Friday, Dec. 26 - under a holiday schedule adopted by the City Council. Details of the revised schedule will be distributed to all city employees this week.

NORFOLK

UNIVERSITY VILLAGE: The public got a chance to comment on city plans to designate a 10-block, 65-acre corridor along the east side of Hampton Boulevard as a redevelopment project that would allow Old Dominion University to expand and attract high-technology businesses. See page B5.

HUNTERSVILLE IMPROVEMENTS: The City Council approved a plan Tuesday by the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority to expand its Huntersville II redevelopment project. The authority plans to buy approximately 6.5 acres of blighted and vacant property on the east side of Church Street from roughly Johnson Avenue to just past C Avenue. The land, including the former Champale brewery site, will be used for parking lots and probably a mix of commercial and residential uses. The cost to buy, demolish and relocate about 20 families is estimated at $1.1 million.

PORTSMOUTH:

FORE A WHOLE LOT MORE: It is going to cost twice as much to improve the Links at City Park and Bide-A-Wee Golf courses. The Portsmouth City Council got a sobering update Tuesday. See page B5.

BORROWING APPROVED - The City Council unanimously approved issuing $22 million in public improvement bonds after a hearing. Some bonds floated five years ago may be reissued to take advantage of lower interest rates.

HOSPITAL BUILDINGS BOUGHT: The City Council unanimously decided to spend $507,472 to buy Portsmouth General Hospital buildings on Crawford Parkway. Maryview-Bon Secours, which is dismantling the medical facilities, will lease back the buildings for a year at $5,000 a month and pay all costs of maintaining them. At the end of the lease, Maryview has agreed to raze the buildings and give the city an ``environmentally clean'' site, said city officials.

TOWER RESTRICTIONS: The council unanimously approved an ordinance that calls for an administrative review of new commercial antennas on top of existing towers and buildings, toughening the process for approving communications antennas.

VIRGINIA BEACH

THE NAME GAME: Some are familiar, others historic. The city unveiled the names for the seven voting districts that will replace the old borough system in the spring elections. See page B6.

SOCCER HEDGE: The city decided to cover $472,000 in current and potential construction overruns on its 6,000-seat soccer stadium, soon to be the home of the Hampton Roads Mariners. See page B6.

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