President's Page

---

It’s April, the snow shovels are stored away, and spring is here in full

bloom. The neighborhood is looking green again with flowering trees

in abundance. Have you seen the cherry trees in the park? They are

beautiful as they are at this time every year. 

Along with the warmer weather, our civic league is planning some popular outdoor events. On Saturday, April 19th the annual Easter Egg Hunt event will be held in the Haygood Point Neighborhood Park at 10:00 AM. This event is open and free to all civic league member households. If you are not a member, with dues paid for 2025, it is not a problem, you can join or renew at the park entrance for the low annual household dues of $20 – cash or check. So, bring your children, grandchildren, nieces and

nephews (ages 0 to 11-ish) out to the park for this very popular fun event. 

The following Saturday, another outdoor event has been scheduled.

After receiving numerous requests from residents, we have scheduled a Community Yard Sale for Saturday, April 26th from 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM. Our civic league will advertise the event in the Virginian-Pilot and online and will place signs at all entrances to the neighborhood. We will make a list of households planning to hold a yard sale on our website. If you plan to offer items for sale in your driveway or garage,

send me your address. There is no cost to residents for participating in the yard sale.

On Sunday, June 22nd from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM we are planning a community picnic in the park for all residents of Lake Smith Terrace, Haygood Point and Governor Square. This will be a big fun-filled event. Watch for more details in the May edition of this newsletter.

Our neighborhood had a large turnout for the Paul Revere / Wakefield traffic signal information meeting at Independence Middle School on March 12th. Unfortunately, the meeting turned out to be more of a show and tell by VB Public Works. Many of us expressed our opposition to the planned traffic signal light to the project manager, Public Works Director, design engineer and others. Many of you have written letters

in opposition to public works and to the city council. There is no need to send messages to our District 9 councilman. He continues to be a cheerleader for the new traffic signal. I encourage you to send messages directly to Mayor Bobby Dyer (email: bdyer@vbgov.com telephone: 757-385-4581) regarding the potential harm that will be done to our neighborhood when this light is installed. Adding a third traffic signal

within a distance of six-tenths of a mile on Independence Blvd is waste of nearly $1M dollars. We will not stop the fight to prevent this unnecessary traffic signal from being installed. If need be, our opposition will remain strong right up to the next council election in November 2026 where we will make a difference.

We need residents to step up to fill positions on our civic league board of directors. Currently we need a secretary, a refreshments coordinator for our civic league meetings, and a youth representative, 9th–12th grade. We have a strong and vibrant civic league, one of the best in the city; but to continue serving this great community, we need more people stepping up to fill leadership positions. Please, let me hear from you.

- John Eason, President