It's WINDSday | May 29, 2024

Celebrating the Power of Wind, Clean Energy and a Green Environment

Photos Courtesy of RPS Protected Species Team

DEME and its heavy lift vessel, the Orion, installed the first of 176 CVOW monopiles on a WINDSday, May 22. We wish we could say it was planned that way, but as VB Mayor Bob Dyer has said, "Someday, every day will be a WINDSday.” That will be, if all goes as planned, sometime in late 2026, when the wind turbines, substations, and transmission cables are all in place and sending electricity into the power grid, making Virginia a world leader in renewable energy.

As of Tuesday, three of the 272 or so foot-long foundation pieces were in the seabed, with more waiting at (or on the way from Germany to) Portsmouth Marine Terminal for pick-up and delivery to the site, starting 27 miles off the coast. 

After learning about Delegate Bonita Anthony, you will ask why she is not Governor Bonita Anthony. Patience.

Consider her academic credentials: Booker T. Washington High (1986), BS in Electrical and Electronics Engineering at ODU (1992), Masters in Modeling and Simulation at ODU (2016), Master of Divinity at VA Union (2002).

Now, her work history (after student internships at NAVSEA and Naval Aviation Depot): Electronics Engineer with the FAA, Associate Engineer at Newport News Shipbuilding (helped design propulsion systems for new Ford Class carriers), left and halved her salary to teach briefly at a private high school in Norfolk, CTE Instructor at Booker T., Drafting Teacher at ODU, Director of Advising and Asst. Director of Engineering Fundamentals Division (ODU for 12 years), Executive Director of Retention and Persistence at VA State University (Present), where, among other ambitions, she is helping to double the number of computer science students over the next 20 years.  

And if that’s not enough, she decided in 2023 to run for Norfolk’s 92^nd District House seat, winning 78% of the vote over two challengers. In her first session (2024), she patroned 24 commendations and bills, most importantly HB 1345 (passed unanimously and signed by the Governor), which enables students to earn high school credits for industry-certified workforce credentials achieved through internships or apprentices completed outside of regular school hours. “Those should count toward graduation,” says Anthony, who is now on the state’s Modeling and Simulation Advisory Council and, by the way, is also a classically trained violinist specializing in jazz and gospel.

G.L.O.W. (Girls Lead Offshore Wind) Event at ODU, March 2024

She is also a certified drone pilot and “a big supporter of offshore wind,” she tells us, forseeing drones performing remote oversight of the blades out at sea. Indeed, Fairwinds Landing at Lamberts Point, where Dominion Energy is building its CVOW Operations center, is in her district, and hundreds of high school students (and parents) are fortunate to have such a knowledgeable advocate as their representative in Richmond.

We did not mention Bonita’s party because it doesn’t matter. The General Assembly needs a diverse set of Virginians to make smart policy. This rookie is already doing that in workforce development, and we have a feeling she’s just getting started.  

It was pure happenstance that I was wearing Orioles gear when I visited Maracaibo’s Venezuelan Bistro on a recent Thursday afternoon. Because when Leonardo Rangel walked in with his chef, co-owner and father of the same name, he was similarly clad. “You’re a Baltimore fan too?” I asked. “Yeah, and we just came back from a Tides’ home game” was the reply. Two men after my own heart.

Well, they are from baseball crazy Venezuela. And their menu, featuring such authentic dishes as Lemito Neptuno, Paella Marnera, and Arepas, makes you want to hop a flight to Maracaibo, their hometown, where papa sold cars for two decades before he, his wife and son, who was armed with a business degree, came to America. “I love to cook but hadn’t worked in a restaurant until I got here,” says Leonardo I. After a modest success on Newtown Road, they went bigger on VB Blvd closer to Lynnhaven, even opening a Venezuelan steakhouse, La Cuisina, next door.

But back to baseball, several of which are among bottles behind the bar along with a Grayson Rodriguez bobblehead, yes, the Grayson Rodriguez now starting for the O’s after a successful stint in Norfolk. “In 2022 we got a call from the Tides, asking if we could make meals for the players and staff,” says Leonardo II. And they did and continue to do so, delivering three dinners and two breakfasts a week, the latter from Granier, a bakery the Rangels own on Laskin Road.

Tides clubhouse worker Mitch Everett with Maracaibo pre game buffet

If you come to Maracaibo, you can also enjoy live Latin music, drinks and dancing and talk to the proprietors about beisbol. I have a lot of WINDSday friends. Needless to say, Leonardo Sr. and Jr. are now two of my faves.

https://maracaibobistrovab.com | 2876 Virginia Beach Blvd, Virginia Beach | (757) 917-5187

Most of Hampton Roads is flat, but the hills are alive in Norfolk behind ODU in what was once a city dump and then a nine-hole golf course (with some balls still in the rough). Today, it's undeveloped, but that is about to change…slightly.

After months of lobbying and petitions raised by local citizens led by Brian Friedman and Dave McDonald, it appears Lambert's Point will have some new open space thanks to a small line item in the 2025 municipal budget. City Manager Pat Roberts included $31,000 “to provide a passive recreation space at Lambert's Point. Funds will be used for waste disposal at the site, landscaping services, and signage."

According to Friedman, who spoke to WAVY-TV, it will be a "park for all seasons, where people can walk and take in the sunset, fly a kite, or even go sledding in the winter."

Kudos to the Friends of Lambert's Park, although they would love a bit more land, perhaps from ODU, that has an unused golf driving range adjacent to the 15 acres. HRSD controls most of the property, which fronts the Elizabeth River and has excellent views of both the water and the city's bustling maritime waterfront. Stay tuned for perhaps an active grand opening of a pleasing yet passive park. 

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