The September chapter dinner meeting was held on Wednesday, September 17th at the Oakland Christian Church Community Center. The evening meal consisted of sausage and pepper hoagies with side salad and assorted desserts.
Chapter Treasurer, Tim Doxey
In lieu of a guest speaker, Chapter Treasurer Tim Doxey gave a presentation entitled “Chapter Park History and Future” covering the history of the how the chapter was founded, and the initial construction of the park.
Historical detail was provided about the formation of the fishing pond, dam, gazebo, and the archery/firing ranges to help broaden members’ understanding of not only where we are but also where we have been and where we need to go.
The Chapter is 71 years old, and the park is 62 years old. The original idea to charter a chapter came from members of a local Hunt Club. The original park parcel was deeded as part of an agricultural subdivide, with the non-useful property for agriculture being given to the Chapter. Shown below in this newspaper clipping, Burge Caton, Frank Crumpler (who were both Charter Members) along with William Harrel were all members of the original Board of Directors.
The total acreage of the park today has grown to approximately 45 acres, Tim noted, due to the acquisition of several adjacent park parcels. As a buttress against future housing developments behind our chapter park, these acquired parcels have helped to keep our dam in a low-hazard classification with the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), which helps us lower engineering costs with respect to dam maintenance and DCR regulations compliance. Tim summarized the Board’s perspective of the actions taken to this point with regards to our continuing liaison with representatives from DCR, as well as the City of Suffolk, with regards to our plan for repairing/replacing the dam’s primary spillway which consists of a corrugated metal pipe that is past its 50-year lifespan. Tim closed by asking that if anyone knows of any potential grants that might be available to help us with expenses relating to the dam, to please contact him or another officer or board member.
Following Tim’s presentation, Vice Present Darden Langston who presided over the meeting, announced that this coming Saturday there will be a park cleanup to spruce up the park in anticipation of the upcoming Youth Fishing Rodeo event on Saturday, September 27th. Board member Gary Brown, who is coordinating this event, asked members to contact him for signing up kids for this Fishing Rodeo event (with guardians to be in attendance) for this event, as well as for members to volunteer to help out at the event. Gary reminded us that the event is rain-or-shine, and that although lunch is not being provided, snacks and drinks will be available at the gazebo during this event. Gary encouraged members to help spread the word about the Fishing Rodeo, suggesting sharing of our website news article about the event via social media sites such as FaceBook (Meta).
Darden reminded everyone that the point of contact for purchasing 2026 DWR (Department of Wildlife) calendars should contact Virginia Wahab as announced in the September Chapter newsletter.
Chapter Ike Jonathan Echols reminded everyone that next month’s dinner meeting on Wednesday, October 15th is the annual FISH FRY after which the meeting was adjourned by Darden.
