JROC Minutes

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Greg Velzy-Brian Mutchler, Presiding

 

Meeting Called to Order: 6:20PM

 

 

 

 

 

Conservation Easement Status:  Same old. Same old.

 

Northshore Takeout: Peter dumped riprap. Fear there may be some missing. Please pick up and place on hillside. Also toss rock upstream of stairs and below to stabilize stairs.

 

Trail Work: Nathan Burrell reporting:

 

*Belle Isle: Extensive work on Lost Trail and taking out “rebar hill.” Want to erase and reroute trail down from top hill to eastern hill to ease conflict between trail bikers and walkers. Split walkers and bikers to use Lost trail round to hydroelectric plant site and on to rocks or over bridge to Buttermilk Trail as route rather than down the middle of island. Make Belle Isle more desirable for bike riding.

 

*Buttermilk Heights: Four switchbacks eroded needing rerouting to two switchbacks plus $800 for bridge - 32 foot span. Need $800. This is a separate request from last month’s bridge restructure. Motion made, seconded. $Expenditure of $800 approved for bridge restructure.

 

Will be working for 3 weeks on Belle Isle. Also will be painting bridges this Sat. on Northbank and putting trash in bags at the edge of Mt. Calvary Cemetery.

 

MORE:  Nate Ayers, President of Richmond MORE presented information on the groups’ trail building and other efforts and discussed issues of concern to both MORE and JROC.

 

*Bike Patrol Pilot Program: The program was directed for June – December. They have heard no further word from the City. Their passes expired Dec. 31, 2007, and they need new ones to continue the incredibly successful night patrolling program: a courtesy patrol where their riders are trained CPR and First Aid. They are hoping to be able to ride every night. It was motioned, seconded and approved from JROC to give MORE full support for night patrol continuance. Adverse things have happened during their absence.

 

*Helmut Give Away: MORE gave away 425 helmets through a grant during Xterra weekend, which coincides this year with the James River Cleanup.

 

*MORE Meetings: More meets the third Wednesday of each month and Park Headquarters look at website www.richmond-more.org for information. Need to promote more joint efforts.

 

* Buttermilk West: Possibility of reopening Buttermilk West. Landowner Josh Rogers has done a lot of work making signs, working on area, but City not willing to proceed.. MORE carries the insurance and indicated that talks are proceeding, so there may be an opportunity here. JROC members are encouraged to write letters in support of developing recreational easements and in particular of awareness of the importance this extension is to trail system. Motion, seconded and carried to support recreational easements for Buttermilk West. It was also suggested that the city rent the land for the trail.

 

* Regarding Xterra, MORE got $0.00 for all the work done last year preparing the trails for Xterra - an event which really tears up the trails. Ralph took credit for the mix up and will take this on and talk to Jon Lugbill about making and increasing donation to MORE. JROC also suggested that they are more than willing to work financially with MORE on cooperative Park efforts.

 

Trail Hikes:  Loren: Many hikes on the calendar for the Spring but none for February. Also discussed establishing “kid hikes”

 

Tom Robinson: Maritime Museum: Just mention that Tom Robinson is floating the idea of a Maritime Museum trying to move Navy tug to Richmond. (See Richmond Times-Dispatch article below)

 

 

     

Jeff Smith: Sophie Smith is working towards her Girl Scout Bronze Award and wants to do something to focus on the James River – 15 hours by the end of March. She paddles the upper section of the river and suggested developing a paddling map featuring maybe one or more portions/features of the upper James giving directions and drawings or photographs at various water levels. All agreed this would be a great – much needed idea for all those boaters who don’t know the river and want to run it on their own.

 

JROC Website: Jim Juritsch is updating JROC website and may reformat. Rich, Margaret and Elaine Casper helping.

 

January Project: Turnout was great !!! Also working on the dump under Mt. Calvary Cemetery.

 

Pumphouse Ramp: Postpone ramp construction for the rime being to focus on constructing a bateaux dock. Once approved, will set date for building project. Need nail gun + fuel cells. Motion made to approve up to $600 for gun and for it to be engraved as property of JROC. Seconded and passed.

 

Sign for the Z Dam: Kayak sign done. Need to put up.

 

14th Street Ramp: (Keep on List) Handrail construction and best way to get gravel back into the parking lot (maybe on a small swale).

 

February Project: Belle Isle for the next three weeks.

 

 

Finished drafts of Fishing Guide and Photography Guide.

 

 FYI: JR Pope and City are paying for Pumphouse materials as long as labor comes from volunteers

 

Slave Trail hikes all February on weekends

 

Park signage moving to pictograms

 

Rash of break-ins car windows, etc

 

October 4-7, 2008 Governors Conference on Greenways, Blueways and Trails – JROC should be involved.

 

Need floodlights replaces on top of headquarters building and lights to make women’s restroom brighter at Pony Pasture restroom

 

Black Bear sighting in Park.

 

Need map for Pony Pasture Kiosk

 

Trash on Belle Isle raining off Lee Bridge.

 

 

 

JROC Swap Meet: Sally next month

 

River Cleanup. Join Lynda Richardson and Mike Ostrander River Cleanup Sat. Feb 16 – 9:00 – noon. Meet at Pony Pasture

 

River Safety Education: In memory of gentleman killed at Pipeline Rapids, family wants to place a plaque for Swift Water Safety

 

 

                       

·        Membership:

 

43 paid members

 

 

Adjourn:           7:45PM

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Will their ship come in at last?

Effort to bring WWII tugboat to Richmond hitting choppy seas

 

Thursday, Dec 13, 2007 - 12:08 AM 

 

By MICHAEL MARTZ

TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

NEWPORT NEWS Tom Robinson has blown taps on his trumpet more times than he cares to count.

The Richmond native was a member of the U.S. Marine Corps Band during the Vietnam War and performed at the funerals of too many of his friends.

But Robinson wasn't quite prepared for the reaction the first time he blew taps on the boat deck of the former USS Zuni, a Navy tug that is the only ship left of more than 600 that took part in the invasion of Iwo Jima during World War II.

His audience was a work party of almost 70 volunteers, including elderly veterans using canes and walkers. By the dying of the last note, most of them were in tears.

"This is more than just restoring an old ship," he said.

Rescuing the Zuni, later named the Tamaroa by the U.S. Coast Guard, has become a quest of honor for Robinson and other military veterans who have spent five years trying to restore the ship and find it a home. They see it as a historic treasure that would draw tourists and educate children, preferably on the James River in Richmond.

However, Richmond hasn't welcomed the Zuni-Tamaroa to a berth on the city's fast-developing riverfront. The city never followed through on a commitment it made in 2002 to dock the ship at Richmond Intermediate Terminal, where Mayor L. Douglas Wilder wants to build a public marina.

The ship is docked here in Hampton Roads Harbor at the entrance to the Monitor-Merrimac Tunnel. The ship has had an enthusiastic reception in this seagoing, military-friendly city, but Robinson said, "The only reason I got the ship was to bring it to my home town."

Robinson, 61, is a feisty Richmond real estate broker and downtown booster who saved the historic Steamer Company No. 5 firehouse in Jackson Ward from demolition more than 30 years ago. The son of a city firefighter, he established the Virginia Fire and Police Museum in the old firehouse, where many members of his family had served.

The ship's boosters have pitched their plan to city officials, and the draft Downtown Master Plan cites the effort to establish the Zuni-Tamaroa as a tourist attraction at the terminal on Dock Street. However, the plan also shows an illustration of the ship docked in the Kanawha Canal near Great Shiplock Park, which isn't wide enough to hold it.

The developer of the proposed Echo Harbour condominium project near Great Shiplock Park has expressed interest in the ship, and a spokesman for Wilder didn't rule out a place for it on the riverfront. "If more specific information is forthcoming, we'll be happy to take a look at it," spokesman Linwood Norman said Friday.

In the meantime, the Zuni Maritime Foundation Inc. is trying to raise an estimated $300,000 to fully restore the ship, which is still capable of doing the job it was built to do in 1943.

The still-sturdy tug inspires intense loyalty from veterans who have volunteered to save the ship and share her story with a new generation. The foundation that owns the ship has more than 300 members, including 15 men who served on the Zuni in World War II and 75 who sailed on it during its 48-year career as the Tamaroa.

Richie Kocsis, who served with the Marines in the Korean War, shuffled on board last week with a shovel handle he used as a cane. "It's a retired shovel, like me," the Mechanicsville resident said.

The project also has gotten help from young people, including an Eagle Scout troop from Chester that restored 18 canvas and rope bunks in the crewhouse of the seven-deck vessel.

Aided with generous donations from the Navy, volunteers have restored much of the ship to its original condition. It still lacks the five guns it once carried. Other equipment won't be installed until the ship can be put into dry dock for full restoration, including being scraped and painted.

Originally, Robinson acquired the ship through an unnamed benefactor who purchased it for $400,000 and donated it. His plan was to dock the ship at Intermediate Terminal as an attraction that would help sustain the Annabel Lee, a riverboat that since has left Richmond.

He also wanted to honor Richmond's role in shipbuilding, including three of the first destroyers built for the Navy. He still hopes to establish a maritime museum on Chapel Island, where the shipbuilding industry was based.

However, Richmond's cool reception to the Zuni-Tamaroa has been frustrating, he said. "There seems to be some confusion about what they want to do."
Contact Michael Martz at (804) 649-6964 or mmartz@timesdispatch.com.