>>> this time on norfolkperspectives, talking about the environmental action awards anda previous winner right here with the picture.and the national drinking water week is coming up this month.public works and transportation engineers talk about safetystatistics, but it's going to be more exciting than that.and botanical garden talking about eagle cam and eagle fest.stay tuned right here on norfolk perspectives.captioning provided by caption associates, llcwww.captionassociates.com
>> welcome to norfolkperspectives. i'm bob batcher, and i've gotthree very special people here who have done great stuff foryou. they're going to be asking youto get involved. john deuel, recyclingcoordinator, executive director of keep norfolk beautiful andyou got two beautiful women with you too.>> thank you, bob. >> is that what you do, you hangaround with beautiful people? >> whatever i am do.>> keep it pretty.
>> we'll agree.>> that's right, one way or the other.>> nar re-butler, that's the first thing you've agreed withme in years. marie butler, landscapecoordinator for the virginia zoo, how you doing?>> fine, thank you. >> i got to tell you, when ifirst saw you, i didn't recognize you.where's the hat? >> i didn't think it would be soflattering under the light. we're keeping norfolk beautiful.>> there you go.
and cocoa butter.>> yes. >> it's got down here radiopersonality for 95.7, but the heck with that, you were lastyear's big winner. >> yes, yes!>> so they gave you a picture of a tree.>> i love it. >> really?>> a big oak tree. isn't she beautiful?she's beautiful. >> you know the story behindthat tree? >> they told me, but i can'ttell you right now.
>> it's actually a life oak, awill loby live oak out on the base, about 600 years old.>> 600 years old. >> whoa.>> so we pick a unique norfolk picture, a scene to use for ourawards, and the frame is also significant.we usually do it from remilled lumber, so it's from an existingor reclaimed barn or pier or something like that.>> okay. now, you know, i got to tell theviewers because just in case they forgot, you hang around,not only beautiful women, but
you're at risk of the threelittle pigs coming in and blowing your place down becauseyou work in a hay office. >> straw bale room, analternatives building material and we demonstrate that and someother things at the morgan center.>> and cocoa? >> yes.>> let me just preface by saying, my mother did not nameme a stripper's name although i wish i had a stripper's body.my real name the tanya. >> what do you go by though?>> both.
>> both?>> yes, cocoa. >> what did you do to get theaward? >> i allowed holly carsonchristopher, not allowed her, but i accepted her to come oninterview. our radio stations have, likeyou have this perspective, we have hampton roads perspectiveand it's a 30-minute segment on all four of our radio stations,z-104, 94.9 the point, 2 wd and 95.7 r&b where you can discusswhatever nonprofit organization information you want to giveout, so holly has been coming up
there for like two years now andafter giving out that information i also formed a teamof my own, called team mother earth, team me, and we alsocleaned up parts of norfolk. >> okay.do you know holly has not bought a new christmas gift in 20years? >> she's great.>> i don't think she has. >> she doesn't have to.she has some great idea. >> and she just regifts it allandä¸-- is that reused? >> reused, yeah.>> or reduce.
now, the zoo also, though, isinvolved in doing a lot ofä¸-- >> and they won an award aswell. >> really?>> yeah. >> what was the award you won?>> watershed protection award and marie can tell you betterwhat that was about. >> when people come to a zoo,they're thinking animals but the first thing they see is oursettingä¸-- >> which is gorgeous.>> from a gardening perspective, our plants as well, but we'resurrounded by wetlands on three
sides.so we have the lafayette river and we have wetlands on eachside of the zoo and in a very environmentally sensitivelocation, and we take that as a great responsibility.not just to protect it from any messes me might make, butä¸-- wemight make, but to enhance what's out there as well, sowe've had wet lands restoration projects, oitionster resä¸--oyster restoration projects take place at the zoo.we've put in four rain gardens at the zoo to absorb rainwaterrather than send it out to the
river.we've floating islands in duck pond that absorb knew trints inthe water, and they look like the floating gardens of norfolknow, but they're wonderful habitats for the animals, theduck and turtles, but they also purify the water.we've done knees in conjunction with other agencies.the master gardeners, the national wildlife federation,the elizabeth river project, lafayette river projects, boyscouts, high schools, so it's a big educational tool.>> really bringing people
together.>> we could do any of these projects and they would clean upthe earth, but who's going to learn to carry it on to the nextgeneration if we don't teach it? >> yeah.well, i have a confession to make, john.and i don't know why, when you guys come on, i always seem likei have to cleanse the spirit, but i came over and tiekpictures of your patio at the morgan center because we werelooking at doing things in our backyard and is it okay that istole that idea?
i haven't done it yet.>> it's how you apply it and that's what we recognize, so weactually do an award that could be under watershed protectionbecause you're going to be better filtering storm waterthrough that system, that paver system, or you might getä¸-- youcould be eligible for a green building pioneer because that'sabout how you do structures as well as gardens differently andhave a less of an impact on the earth.>> so if i know somebody who should be nominated or i think ishould be nominatedä¸--
>> you can self nominate.>> how would you do that? could you?>> you can self nominate. >> did you bring a form withyou? >> i did not.i did not think of you at that point.>> well, it would be on recycled paper anyway.>> but you've been helping to share our story so well with thecitizens of norfolk and this particular effort is really achance for us to step back from the hard work and the citizensare doing a lot of hard work to
keep our community clean.we want to recognize those that are going above and beyond andit's a great time. we do it in june every year.june 15th this year is the event, but the nominations aredue by april 27th. >> so where does somebody get anomination form? >> they can call us at theoffice, 441-1347 and we'll get them a nomination form for thecategory they're thinking about. there's a bunch of differentcategories, or they can go online and nominate online andthat's just fine too.
that's norfolk beautiful.org.>> cool. great stuff.now, what picture are you going to use this year?>> we haven't decided yet. i think we're still evaluating.if somebody has a good idea for a unique norfolk environmentalpicture, we'll like that. >> okay.i want to find auto what it is and thenä¸-- find out what it is.>> maybe yowell get one. >> maybe.thanks a lot for this, what you guys are doing and reallybringing people together in
relationship to a futuregeneration. >> thanks, bob.>> when we come back, we're talking about national drinkingwater week and we want you to go get that waurs during the psa.stay tuned. [ä¸children laughingä¸]>> mom, can we get some ice cream?>> please, mom, please? >> no, we're having dinner soon.>> please! [ä¸ice cream truck musicä¸]>> you don't have to be perfect to be a perfect parent.there are thousands of children
in foster care who will take youjust as you are. >>> welcome back to norfolkperspectives. okay, so you've cleaned it upand been recognized for it and it's the right thing to do, butnow we're talking about that clean and pure water coming into your kitchen or bathroom faucet.eric tucker, assistant director of utilities.>> yes. >> how's it going?>> great. >> it's so cool to talk to youon the sofa because it seems
like most of the time i'mtalking to you, we're getting ready for a hurricane or you'rein the middle of granby street with a giant geyser coming out,so in the calm of the moment, it's going to be fun to touk toyou. >> yes.>> and we're going to talk about what it means when there's ageyser coming out. >> sure.>> deidra harmon, you're with the department of publicutilities as the public information specialist.>> yes.
>> i'm going to be real frank.you've been doing this for about a year now, right?>> yes. >> so how much can you talkabout water? >> a lot.it's so essential and vital to our lives and we're going tocelebrate it during drinking water week this year.>> i know one way of celebrating and that's to take a swig ofgood clean water out of the faucet, right?>> that's right. >> okay.now, have you found that in your
journeys around now that you'reworking for utilities, that you keep hearing about the virtuesof bottled water? >> wellä¸-->> and how do you answer those with your dear closest friends?>> well, we encourage people to take a sports bottle like yousee on the table and fill it up with tap water and it's soconvenient and less expensive is what we tell a lot of people,that if you grab that or a pitcher and fill it up withwater and put it in your refrigerator, it's a lot moreconvenient and you don't have to
make that extra trip to thegrocery store to purchase bottled water.>> and it's more environmentally friendly.>> that's true, because i mean iä¸-- i can't say that, can i?i fill up my recycling bucket quite often with those bottledwaters because your not supposed to reuse those bottles anyway,the soft plastic ones. >> but at least when you'redrinking tap water, you're not contributing that plastic bottleto the landfill. and so that's one of thehighlights of drinking tap
water.>> because my wife will tell me that that bottle will stay inthe landfill forever. >> yes.>> okay. whereas this doesn't.now, let's kind of take the journey.where did this water start off at yesterday?>> well, it copsä¸-- >> a couple days ago?>> it could have come from a number of different sources.the city of norfolk is very fortunate in that we have eightsources of water.
we have eight reservoirs thatbring the water home to norfolk. basically, it can start as farwest as isle of wight county with our three westernreservoirs or it could come from our in-town lakes which we havefive in-town lakes. >> so those are pumped in bypipe, right? >> yes.>> and two, morris bridges? >> quon of our water treatmentplants, our 37th street water treatment plant on the westernside of norfolk and our moore's bridges water treatment plantwhich is over by lake taylor
high school.>> now, so the water is, as it's coming through the pipeline, isit kind of checked and tested there or does it get at moors'sbridges? >> at that point, when we firstdraw the water out and bring it home to norfolk, it's what wecall raw water. andä¸-->> that's pleasant. >> we call it raw water becauseit hasn't been treated yet. >> okay.>> so once the water arrives at our treatment plants, it goesthrough filtration and treatment
processes in order to make itclean and safe for you to drink. >> and then it's find out topumping stations? >> and then it's pumped from thewater treatment plants to your home.>> okay and that's where you open the tap and you gotä¸-->> and it's there for you all the time.>> now, how do i know it's really clean because there'sä¸--i remember as a kid, i could smell the chlorine, and, man, itwas punched full of stuff. it doesn't have a smell to itthat i can smell anyway.
>> well, chlorine is put in thewater as a disinfectant to help clean the pipes and everythingto make sure that there are no contaminants or bacteria in thewater. we don't use free chlorine asmuch as we used to. we use a process, a chemicalmake-up of chloramines, which is a combination of chlorine, butnot as strong as chlorine. >> once i've consumed it, i goto the other room in my house and you guys are part of thattoo, right. >> absolutely.>> but does it come back around?
>> no, what actually happens is,of course, we provide the water to your home, you use it andwhat's left over does return to the wastewater collectionsystem. the city doesn't actually treatwastewater. we collect wastewater and wepump it to the hampton roads sanitation district where theytreat the water. >> and it goes sprays else andthis startä¸-- someplace else and this starts all over again backin theä¸-- so what do you have coming up for water week?>> well, we have some exciting
events.we have a group of four gentlemen led by russell stevensthat will participate in the water rodeo which this year willbe held in virginia beach, so they will be participating inactually three events over the course of a couple days.it's may 7th through 9th, and they will participate in splishsplash is one of them, and rapid tapping and meter madness isanother event, and we have a great team and our norfolk'sdepartment of utilities as actually participated for the 21years that the rodeo has existed
in the state of virginia.>> cool. and then they will have theä¸--the report will be coming out too, right?>> yes, we have our water quality report that will be sentby mail to all of the residents who drink our water, so it'sover 200,000 individuals who will receive the water qualityreport, and also during drinking water week, we'll have a post'contestä¸-- poster contest that we'll have with the rec centersand also i'll be out with the ask hr green.org trailer onwednesday, may 9th at the
macarthur square light railstation. right adjacent we'll be thereand give out this refreshing norfolk water and water bottles.we'll have lots of give-aways. >> and more events can be foundon your website? >> yes, on our website atwww.norfolk.gov/utilities. >> let's toast to that goodreport that's going to be coming out in early may.thanks for everything you guys are doing to make sure we can dothis. >> thank you, bob.>> when we come back, we're
talking about trafficstatistics. don't turn your tv off, it'sgoing to be great stuff. for those of you who stay tunedfor traffic statistics, guess what?david scott, city of transportation engineer is notgoing to talk about statistics, are you?>> we're going to talk about safety, traffic safety and howthe statistics are actually improving around norfolk.>> because i was going to say, i practice saying that wordstatistics.
>> that's right.>> so we better talk about it. they're coming down, right?>> they're coming down. over the past couple years,we've been tracking statistics in the city of norfolk andtraffic fatalities are actually going down and we have a lot ofreasons for that and we track why that happens.and really, traffic safety is everybody's business.>> okay. now, i know that quite oftenyour name is mentioned at civic league meetings because theywill talk about people speeding
through their neighborhood andthey will say, we, david scott can take care of that.>> yes. >> but how do you take care ofthat? >> you got to recall that,again, it's a community thing. we want to make sure thateverybody is conscious of what it means to be safe and drivesafely. if you look at the statisticsagain, the fatalities are down, accidents are down, but it'sbecause everyone is aware. we have to make sure that thecommunity is aware of signage.
signage is clear.the signals are clear. you can see the signal as youcome up to the intersection and we want to make sure that wecommunicate with the public that speeding is not safe, and so aswe make sure that the public is aware of that, we end up drivingthose statistics down. there's a lot that we can do asa city. the city of norfolk does a lot.as you say, we attend a lot of civic league meetings, talk tothe community about how to be safe, how to drive safer, how toimprove the neighborhood.
but it's also incumbent upon thecitizens, those drivers to, pay attention.most of those fatalities occur when a driver of a vehiclehitses a pedestrian or someone on a bike or hits another car oranother vehicle. those are the things we'retrying to avoid by having you slow down, pay attention, anddrive safer. >> that's an ongoing discussioni have with my wife because, you know, she is trying to beat thatone light or sheä¸-- i do it too. but, you know, yeah.okay, here's the question.
you're getting to a merge lane.should you get in the lane that's merging as soon as yousense it or go all the way to the beginning and cut over?>> i think it's always, as we all learn when we first got ourdriver's license, move over when safe.i think you shouldä¸-- if you have an opportunity, you beginto merge over when safe. most people like to run to thefront and get up front. >> yeah, get there quick.>> get there quick, but i think you have to use common sense,drive safely, and that's what
the goal is to make sure we'resafe. >> you guys are beingä¸-- you'rebeing very humble because we just had a huge new introductionof a new moving vehicle that interacts with roads and that'sthe tide, the light rail. >> yes.>> and that wasn't just a matter of you guys tweaking a couple oflights and making it happen. i mean, there was a lot of workand there'sä¸-- we need to mention this name.we talked in brie tape about puttingä¸-- pretape on puttinghim on the spot, john stevenson,
the guy works 24/7.>> yes, great guy. >> what was he doing in all thattime? >> john stevenson is one of ourengineers. he took charge of ourneighborhoods safety group. he's responsible for workingwith hrt and getting those lights coordinated andsynchronized with the hrt system.the light rail comes through now and you've introduced, as yousaid, you've got a lot of things going on at that oneintersection.
you not only have pedestrians,you have people on bikes, people who want to drive through andnow you introduce not only the buses that are also goingthrough that intersection, and now you've also introduced thislarge vehicle that has to have priority, which is the lightrail train. the train is not going to stopon a dime. it's not going toä¸-- it has toget through and move people in and out of the city, so you nufintroduced all of these different factors into a singlesystem and we're goingä¸-- we
have to make all of those workand we have to make sure that they work in conjunction withother signals in the system. so this signal does not operatealone. it actually goes through acomputer coordinated system which we control from our smarttraffic center downtown. so not only are we controllingthat one signal and that one intersection, we're controllingmany more and we're watching traffic.>> it's got to work. >> correct.we're watching progression,
making sure that traffic movesso if we're stopped here, we could make sure that theprogression works with the other signals and coordinate the othersignals in the system. >> okay.well, david, i was going to ask you a whole lot more questionsabout how to get through those red lights when i'm running latefrom work, but you know what? we're going to save that foranother show because they just told me our segment is overwith, but do you have that little gizmo thing that you canget home?
>> no.>> you have to stop at the red light like everyone else?>> like everybody else. >> thanks a lot for being hereto help communicate not just road safety but bringing thecommunity together to they can have input in making theirneighborhoods safe. >> absolutely.>> wleen we come back, we're talking about the botanicalgarden and yes, we're even going to talk about eagles.stay tuned. yes, we're going to talk norfolkbotanical gardens, but are we
going to talk flowers?i don't know. donna krabill, director ofcommunication and education, how are you doing?>> i'm great. >> it is one garden.>> one garden, singular. >> but a lot of stuff in thatone garden. >> yes, many gardens within agarden. >> and if you're totallyconfused by flowers and you're a young kid, you're going to seeallison zaun, right? >> that's right.>> even though you're a senior
youth.>> i deal with the little kid. >> what do you mean by littlekids? >> anybody who can learn aboutplants is somebody i'm going to try to talk to and we have kidsthat viflt wild areä¸-- visit wild that not even crawling yet,but for summer camp, we're dealing with kids age 4 up to 4.>> and what kinds of stuff do they learn about?>> a whole diverse array of things.we have week long camps that run for nine queex and it's anythingfrom fir ratsä¸-- pie rats to
straight gardening to science onanimals. >> i couldn't tell a differencebetween an oak leaf and an elm leave.>> you need to come to summer camp and we'll teach that.>> i would? we have to talk to a personwho's never been to the wow garden.what makes it wow? >> it's amazing because we'rerepresenting a whole world so plants from across the entireglobe and also some of the plants close to home and foundright here in the americas.
>> so you're teasing me.we are going to talk flowers for a minute.>> for a minute. >> okay, what's out there thistime of year? >> everything is blooming rightnow. the garden is absolutelystunning, so got to come out and see it.the azaleas are in bloom, the rhododendrons, the camellias arestill blooming and the tulips are opening up and everything ispopping right now. >> oh, man, you justä¸-- i justhad a flashback of my yard.
my camellias quit blooming, myazaleas are partially blooming and my daffodilsä¸-->> we still have some, but they're about done.you can come out this weekend, tooä¸-- well, no, this weekend iswpa, which wasä¸-- what's the date, the 7 nt.>> that's right because there's so much going, it's not just amatter of waiting for flowers to bloom or not bloomä¸-->> we have a veryä¸-- >> you have all kinds ofprograms going on. you have a big one coming upcalledä¸--
>> eagle festival.the 2012 eagle ffl on may 5th. i had included with your gardenadd nition from 0k to 4:00 and we'reä¸-- 10:00 to 4:00 and we'regoing to focus everything all day on eagles.we have vendors, arts and crafts, different organizations.right now we're probably up to 35 different vendors we're goingto have in. we'll have live music that thedoc robin band will be out performing and greg bockheimfrom the zoo will do a presentation and so we'llä¸-->> he's kind of a bird guy,
isn't he?>> he's a bird guy for sure and he will have live animals outand clark from the wildlife center of virginia will also bethere to do demonstrations and also simultaneously, insidewe're running an eagle symposium which begins on friday night,the night before on may 4th with a lecture with dr.ä¸brian wattsfrom the center for conservation biology at the college ofwilliam and mary, so we'll have a lecture and dessert receptionwith a night hike to follow that and an owl prowl and then thenext morning get up early at
8:00 and come in for a breakfastwhere the symposium and lectures begin.reese lukehigh will speak on the history of the eagles at thegarden. we have libby moheka andbringing in a specialist from oregon, he's the director of theinstituteä¸-- no. the institute of berkley.>> get it out. i'm just sitting here justä¸-- ihope you have a website because i forgot what the first one wasthat you mentioned because there's so much going on.>> there's so much and we have
worldwide speakers, specialistscoming in, and the price is phenomenal for the symposium.for $170, if you're a member, $150, that includes four meals,all the lectures, a barbecue social, hikes, tram tours, allkinds of things. and you can find all thatinformation on our website at norfolk botanical garden.org.and again, the symposium is on there too and that's just onsaturday from 10:00 to 4:00. >> wow.okay, let's back up. >> okay.>> i mean, did you ever think
that a garden that was created70-some years ago out of a swamp area and there was no airporthere yet, right? >> not yet no.>> and so it was the dream and a vision of really some visionarymen and women. >> yes.>> they employed people during the depression.>> next year is our 75th anniversary and our garden, weare so proud of the fact that we are the only existing gardenthat wasä¸-- that began with the wpa workers, 200 africanamerican men and women, 220 in
in total and we're the onlygarden left in existence started by wpa and we're going tocelebrate that all next year with our 75th anniversary.>> one of my favorite interviews was a woman that worked thereand she told the story of basically quitting because justthe funk that she still has, 90-something years old and herewe are now, the world is coming to the garden because of theexposure of the eagles. >> yes, we have a live eagle camand you can access that through our website also and it's inpartnership with wvce and with
special assistance from thecollege of william and mary, the center for conservation biologyand it runs 24/7, has sound this year thanks to a donor.we haveä¸-- >> sound?>> sound. we have hd cameras and it's justa fantastic story. there's all kinds of thingsgoing on with the eagles. this year as very unique story.we have four females flying in and out of the nest right nowand it'sä¸-- you know, it's been dubbed as "as the nest turns,"and it is trulyä¸--
>> are you talking with the kidsabout how much of the story you tell?>> not so much. i think the important things isthat kids are interested in learning about nature, so ifthey're watching the eagle cam at home and come in and talk tous, we can show them a rep public cal eagle skull, havethem compare their arm span to the wing span of an eagle andmake it interactive. >> and by the way, the aisraelyap are in full bloom? website again.>> norfolk botanical garden.org.
>> so explore the world bycoming to your website and may 5th is going to be the beginningof the celebration the eagles and let's close out with thatbecause that is a cool looking t-shirt.>> the following weekend after that, we have our annual plantsale too so don't nis out on that.>> that's right, mother's day is not complete -->> mother's day weekend, that's right.>> thank you for what you're doing to bring the world tonorfolk.
we want to hear from you, whatyou would like to see on tv-48, but more importantly, what'sgoing on in your neighborhood? what would you like to celebratein 2012? give us a holler and as ush,it's a wonderful time to be in norfolk just because of you.captioning provided by
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