Oak tree struck by lightning in Va. Beach

By Ruth Moon
The Virginian-Pilot
© July 26, 2011

VIRGINIA BEACH

A towering old oak tree in Pungo has a fresh scar after it was hit Sunday night by a lightning bolt that stripped bark along the length of its gnarled trunk with a fearful crack.

Wendy Moulton was inside her house a few feet away from the 100-foot-tall tree when the lightning struck around 7 p.m. She, her husband and daughter all jumped and screamed at the sound, she said.

“The jets go over, and that’s loud. This was louder than the jets,” she said. “Even my husband jumped, and it normally doesn’t faze him.”

The strike cut a fresh scar about a foot wide down the massive tree, from a high branch to the ground. Foot-long chunks of bark were littered around its base on Monday.

The family’s Internet, cable and phone were knocked out.

Jerry Moulton, Wendy’s husband, said he’s sure the tree is an oak, but he’s uncertain which kind. Maximum life spans for oaks can vary from up to 150 years for some species to 400 or even 600 years for others, according to the Virginia Big Tree Program website run by Jeff Kirwan, an emeritus professor of forestry at Virginia Tech.

The Moultons moved to the house on Muddy Creek Road last year, and Wendy said a 75-year-old neighbor remembers seeing the huge tree as a child.

It’s impossible to accurately age a tree without counting the rings in the trunk, said Carolyn Copenheaver, a tree age specialist at Virginia Tech’s forestry program.

“I’ve had trees that are, I would say, 20 inches in diameter, and one will be 40 and one will be 150 and they will be growing right next to each other,” Copenheaver said. “You really can’t tell the age of a tree from the size.”

Tom Carroll, an arborist with Poor Folks Tree Service in Virginia Beach, said he examines a handful of lightning-struck trees every month. Some die, typically within a week or so, he said. But if the leaves don’t turn brown and start wilting, trees usually heal around the gash. Bugs and diseases can pose more of a risk to a lightning-damaged tree because protective bark is gone.

Lightning struck in Chesapeake and Virginia Beach about 1,000 times from 7 to 9 p.m. Sunday, said Dan Proch, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Wakefield. That’s not unheard of, he said, and the heat probably contributed.

“When it’s hotter, there’s kind of more energy for storms to build,” Proch said. “The taller the storm, the stronger the storm, the more likely it has lightning in it.”

There’s no predicting what trees will survive lightning strikes, Kirwan said. The Moultons are rooting for this one.

“I’m hoping the man upstairs will keep this tree alive – it’s such a beautiful tree,” Jerry Moulton said. “With the way it’s grown all these years, I’d hate to have to take it down.”

Ruth Moon, (757) 222-5130, ruth.moon@pilotonline.com

Original story here.

Virginia falls to 12th place for clean beachwater

By Ruth Moon
The Virginian-Pilot
© July 1, 2011

VIRGINIA BEACH

Virginia slipped to 12th from fourth out of the 30 states ranked for clean beach water in an annual report by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

“Testing the Waters 2010: A Guide to Water Quality at Vacation Beaches,” released Tuesday, ranks coastal and Great Lakes states. States collect measurements of bacteria in beach water, which the environmental group compares to create the rankings.

Dan Horne, an environmental health supervisor for the Virginia Department of Public Health, said bacteria levels were unusually high in 2010 but he did not know why.

“Last year was a very unusual year,” Horne said. “It could be birds, animals, people not picking up after their dogs on the beach, those kinds of issues. We didn’t really see a correlation last year that we would expect from the rainfall events.”

The number of beach-closure days in Virginia increased from 51 in 2009 to 81 last year, according to the report. The count adds up all closure days at individual beaches in Virginia during the year.

In Virginia Beach, a city ordinance closes water to swimmers when the Department of Health finds too much bacteria in the water, though the beach stays open. As soon as the water sample shows too much bacteria, the Department of Health takes a new sample. The water reopens as soon as bacteria levels drop. For the past seven years, beach closures in Virginia Beach typically lasted a day or two.

The Virginia Department of Health in 2010 issued 12 advisories that the water was too bacteria-laden for safe swimming at some Virginia Beach beaches, Horne said. Chic’s Beach had the most, three advisories, according to data from the Virginia Department of Public Health. There were only two such advisories in Virginia Beach in 2009. So far in 2011, Chic’s Beach has been closed two days.

In Norfolk, there were nine closures last year, all at Capeview Avenue.

In the Hampton Roads area, the worst beach offenders last year were on the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. At Hilton Beach in Newport News, nearly one in three weekly samples showed water polluted above the standard; at Lesner Bridge and Chic’s Beach in Virginia Beach, about one in eight samples was polluted above an acceptable level determined by the Environmental Protection Agency.

It’s hard to tell where the beach water pollution comes from because Virginia does not track causes, said Jon Devine, senior water attorney with the council.

Stormwater runoff, wildlife droppings and sewage leaks are possible sources of contamination. In general, the most common cause of bacteria-rich beach water is rainfall draining off roads and fertilized lawns, said David Beckman, water program director at the council.

North Carolina held steady in the beach water rankings at seventh place.

Beach closures nationwide increased 29 percent in 2010, though water quality measurements were essentially the same. Eight percent of tested water samples showed high levels of bacteria, compared with 7 percent in 2009.

Ruth Moon, (757) 222-5130, ruth.moon@pilotonline.com

Original story posted here.

Workers charged with stealing meter money

By Ruth Moon
The Virginian-Pilot
© June 17, 2011

VIRGINIA BEACH

When two men with “Meter Enforcement” printed on their uniforms poured a large amount of change into a coin-exchange machine, then drove away in a vehicle with a Virginia Beach Parking Enforcement logo, a store manager became suspicious, police said.

The manager alerted police, who investigated the Monday incident.

On Tuesday, police arrested Christopher Miles Williams, 33, and on Wednesday they arrested Mark Anthony Apperson, 51, both parking enforcement employees who work for a contractor hired by Virginia Beach. The men, who are not city employees, were charged this week with embezzlement and conspiracy to commit a felony, according to a news release.

The amount of missing change was $1,300, according to police.

Williams and Apperson were supposed to deliver locked boxes of change from city parking meters to a city account.

Both men are Beach residents. Williams was arrested at his home; Apperson turned himself in.

They are out on bond.

—

Original story here.

Va. Beach students become virtual virtuosos

By Ruth Moon
The Virginian-Pilot
© June 6, 2011

VIRGINIA BEACH

The 18-year-old senior with long blond-brown hair and tattoo-covered arms comes to high school 20 minutes early each day – for fun.

Tylor Charoenpojana is composing music in Fred Montgomery’s music classroom in Renaissance Academy before their 7:25 a.m. class. He uses music engineering software, and he wants to expand his 96-second composition to six or seven minutes and add several instruments to the string, synthesizer and rain sounds on the track. He’s been working on the piece for three weeks.

Charoenpojana is one of 13 students enrolled in Garage Band in the Classroom, for teens at the Beach’s alternative academy. The class has been packed since first offered two years ago, and a sequel, Garage Band II, is being added to the curriculum.

“Kids involved in school music programs have higher graduation rates than those that do not. It’s really simple,” said John Brewington, fine arts coordinator for Virginia Beach schools. “Kids that can identify with something they really like at school will gravitate to and want to continue doing that. This motivates them in other classes as well.”

Garage Band in the Classroom is the only class of its kind in the school division, Brewington said. Students use software to compose virtual instrumental tracks and repeating loops of music.

Schools typically offer orchestra, band and choir classes. This program relies less on group involvement than traditional classes, which have fared poorly at the city’s alternative schools, Brewington said.

“Even if some of the kids are not contributing at the same level or what have you, everybody gets a chance,” Brewington said. “We’re trying to get out of the ensemble mentality.”

Montgomery starts each morning with a presentation and lesson guidelines, then lets the students work on their own while he gives advice. For a music class, the room is eerily silent. A row of students facing computers lines the walls. Like pilots in airplane cockpits, each wears huge earphones. The “control panel” is a short keyboard students use to create drumbeats and other sounds by punching buttons or manipulating a mouse.

“In here we have assignments and everything which we have to complete, but we can be opinionated,” Charoenpojana said. “We can tweak it to a style which fits our interests, instead of ‘Must play Mozart, must play Beethoven, Bach or Pachelbel.’ ”

Like many students in the class, Charoenpojana’s arm is embellished with tattoos: on his underarm, scrolling curlicues which, he says, stand for faith, hope and love; on his forearm, a gun – part of the logo of his favorite band, Bullet For My Valentine.

After graduating in a few weeks, he plans to move in with a buddy to work on his heavy metal riffs while playing his way through college in a Marine Corps band.

This class is the last half-credit Denzel Garrett, 20, needs to graduate. He also sports a tattooed arm, adorned with a Ralph Waldo Emerson quote – “To be great is to be misunderstood” – and a treble clef. He wants to be a music producer. He credits the class with introducing him to music software and new sounds he’ll use in future productions.

Kevin Ortiz, 18, started at Renaissance Academy after Christmas. This is his first music class.

“I don’t really get bored in here. There’s a lot of sounds,” he said. “I actually enjoy it. I expected it to really drag. I like the vibe in the classroom. It’s comfortable – a comfortable environment.”

For Charoenpojana, the class is about creativity. One-third of the tunes on his iPod are pieces he created in the past five years.

He’s proud of his music. “I’ve actually had people ask, ‘What band is this, where can I find it, can I buy it?’ And I say, ‘It’s mine.’ ”

Ruth Moon, (757) 222-5130, ruth.moon@pilotonline.com

Original story posted here.

Virginia Beach cracking down on curfew at the Oceanfront

By Ruth Moon
The Virginian-Pilot
© June 06, 2011

VIRGINIA BEACH

Three teenagers from Washington, D.C., looked sheepish as Officer William Matos chided them for roaming Virginia Beach after the 11 p.m. curfew Saturday night over Memorial Day weekend.

Matos called one teen’s dad, who showed up shortly for the 13- and 14-year-olds, furious that his son hadn’t gone straight back to the hotel after leaving for ice cream an hour earlier.

“You always find the juveniles out,” Matos said. “I don’t see them causing problems most of the time, but unfortunately they do get in trouble down here.”

Teens have been getting more attention at the Oceanfront since large gatherings of youths between 17th and 21st streets disrupted the Boardwalk with a handful of fights two nights in late April.

Police made a few arrests, spokesman Adam Bernstein said, and responded by stepping up curfew enforcement the following weekends and sending curfew reminders to schools and media outlets.

The  April 20 incident caused the 17th Street Dairy Queen to close, the only time it’s ever closed early, said owner Richard Maddox, a former city councilman. Spring break is always a problem if it coincides with warm weather, Maddox said, because out-of-school teens flock to summertime businesses like Dairy Queen.

“It is a real challenge for us to staff our properties because we don’t have a summertime staff in place yet,” Maddox said of the April rush. “The police are dealing with the same issues.”

In a curfew crackdown May 6 and 7, police cited 19 teenagers along the Oceanfront. Since then, officers have cited fewer than 10 each weekend, Bernstein said.

An officer who stops a curfew violator can give a warning or issue a citation. Cited teens typically are taken to the 2nd Precinct office to wait for a parent and must appear in court with a parent or guardian. The outcome is often community service, according to police.

From mid-June to Labor Day, the Police Department uses increased patrols, bikes and mounted officers in its effort to avoid disruptions at the Oceanfront.

Officers on bikes can reach trouble amid the crowds faster than their counterparts on foot or in cars. In one Oceanfront scuffle over Memorial Day weekend, more than a dozen bike patrol officers arrived at the scene within minutes.

“The city spends $9 million a year marketing Virginia Beach as a resort destination,” Maddox said. “The last thing you want to do when you’re spending that kind of money and have a visitor coming here is give them a negative experience.”

Ruth Moon, (757) 222-5130, ruth.moon@pilotonline.com

Strewn thumbtacks create chaos for cyclists in Va. Beach

By Ruth Moon

//

The Virginian-Pilot
© June 14, 2011

VIRGINIA BEACH

Thumbtacks scattered along a bicycle route in the rural Pungo area jeopardized more than 200 cyclists, flattened at least 100 tires and caused crashes that hurt at least two riders this past weekend.

The cyclists suffered flat after flat caused by the tacks along Muddy Creek and Charity Neck roads on their Saturday morning route, participants said. Two riders skinned their knees and elbows, said Jack Kenley, another cyclist.

The thumbtack trouble is the latest in a series of incidents involving city bicyclists.

In late May, a Beach-based cycling club doubled a reward to $2,000 for information leading to the arrest of the vehicle driver in a May 3 hit-and-run collision on Shore Drive that injured a 55-year-old cyclist. Last week, a 33-year-old woman riding her bike on Shore Drive broke her back and leg when she was hit by the rearview mirror of a passing vehicle that didn’t stop.

Kenley and others said they believe the Pungo thumbtacks were scattered on purpose to upset the cyclists. Cars sometimes back up behind slower-moving bicycles and have to wait to pass on narrow lanes. While thumbtacks are too short to puncture car tires, they can pierce bike tires, stopping cycles suddenly and sending riders flying.

Cyclists also noticed thumbtacks on the road the previous weekend, though many had been squashed by passing cars. Jeff Craddock and several other cyclists picked up the thumbtacks that Monday morning, and he estimated they collected 100 or 200 at each of several intersections along the route.

“There’s been an occasional bottle broken or something, but you’re talking about one place at one time,” Craddock said. “Last week was every intersection on the 20-mile loop. Every intersection had tacks sprinkled on it.”

Such roadway risks are not normal, said Craddock, who has been riding with the group for about five years.

He said that this past weekend some riders suffered several flats, used all their repair-kit material and had to wait for friends to finish the route and pick them up in cars. Craddock had thumbtacks in both tires but managed to finish his ride before the tires went flat.

The cyclists average 25 to 30 mph and follow each other closely in single file to stay out of traffic on the narrow, winding roads, so one flat tire can cause chaos, said Joe Vizi, owner of Fat Frogs Bike and Fitness, which organizes the group that rode Saturday.

“When you come to a curve, we don’t look down to see if there’s tacks,” Vizi said. “We’re looking left and right to see if we have a problem with traffic.”

Kenley said he had to replace both of his tire tubes, which cost about $9 each, and a tire at $70. He said one person cycled the route an hour before Saturday’s 7:30 a.m. ride and didn’t notice any tacks, but they were scattered around intersections by the time the ride started.

“When we went out, there was one fall after another,” Kenley said.

Several riders filed police reports for both incidents, he said. Police didn’t provide further information Monday.

The city has provisions for new road projects to include bike paths and lanes, said Councilwoman Barbara Henley, who represents Princess Anne, including the Pungo area.

“I think safety is the issue,” she said. “It’s an ongoing issue because we certainly don’t have provisions for bike safety in this area.”

Ruth Moon, (757) 222-5130, ruth.moon@pilotonline.com

Story here.