It's WINDSday | August 16, 2023

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

At 176 turbines, the 2.6-gigawatt Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Farm, which will power 660,000 homes, will be the largest off America’s East Coast.

But the world’s largest, 277 turbines generating 3.6 GW of electricity and lighting 6-million households, is now rising 80 miles off the coast of Yorkshire, England.

The scale of the Dogger Bank Wind Farm, according to 4C Offshore, “is immense, occupying an area almost as large as Greater London.” Each turbine is 853 feet tall. According to one of the developers, “Dogger Bank now cements the North Sea’s new role as Europe’s renewable power plant and as the home to a world-leading offshore wind supply chain." 

Construction is expected to take three years. 

At WINDSdays, we’re into all things green, so when Norfolk native and Hokie Dan Beck asked if we might be interested in witnessing the installation of hundreds of pallets of Sedums onto 25,000 square feet of roof at STIHL Inc.’s Guide Bar plant off London Bridge Road, we said, “we’re in.”

So to the roof we went, joining a dozen or so of Dan’s crew from Beck Roofing, which he founded in 1988, to receive 15 truckloads of material from a nursery near Blacksburg. It took more than a week to install the vegetation, which will help keep the roof cool, save energy and reduce pollution runoff. 

“This is the fourth green roof we have done on STIHL’s 150-acre campus,” says Beck, “and we hope to do more, for them and others.”

For STIHL Inc., which manufactures outdoor handheld power equipment and employs nearly 3,000 people in Virginia Beach, there are other intrinsic benefits that make these systems so valuable. 

“The green roof also dampens the outside noise volume from NAS Oceana next door,” says Mike Weber, Stihl’s Director of Environmental Health & Safety, “and it provides an opportunity with pollinator plants to improve the ecosystem in the area.”

Beck (www.beckroofing.com) specializes in commercial work, whether your roof needs repair, replacement or, if you want WINDSday’s attention, a green top.  

The sign on the wall says it all about Cutlass Grille and owner Shawn Dawkins.

Eat, Drink, Be Irie’, which means nice, laid back or in the case of his Towne Place at Greenbrier restaurant, a “good vibe.”

That it has. The Jamaican born Dawkins, the youngest of six and “the most likely of my mother’s sons to be in the food business” spent more than two decades in telemarketing before outsourcing of those jobs overseas led him back to his culinary roots.

“We started with a food truck here at summer festivals,” says the father of three whose wife Rachel is in the biz with him. “But in 2010, we went full time, making jerk chicken and other native dishes in a small joint off Battlefield Boulevard (“we only collected $87.86 one day”), but soon word spread.

“We took a bigger space in 2014 across from Chesapeake Regional and then a year ago January, made the big leap,” coming to his current 198-capacity establishment, formerly a Surf Rider. “We are doing great here, particularly on Friday and Saturday nights when we have live music and open our garage door to the outside. It’s fun.” He thanks God for his “love of cooking and people.”

And oh do we love Shawn, and not just because his Curry Goat, Rasta Pasta and steamed cabbage are authentic, and his Red Stripes are cold. “The service is wonderful, and there’s such great energy,” says regular Keith Jones. The Grille is colorful, full of island imagery (like of a cutlass, a machete used on Jamaican farms), is open every day but Monday for lunch and dinner off Eden Way North, is online at www.cutlassgrille.com and is now a WINDSday partner. Irie’! 

He wasn’t trying to get out, just get a look at the man talking in the corridor.

Indeed this doggie couldn’t have asked for better digs on a hot summer day, an 8x8 room with AC, a bed, TV, people to watch him, two Blue Buffalo meals, a bowl of water, and occasional outdoor romping. 

That’s what Christina Jensen provides her top clients at K-9 Resorts near Walmart at Hilltop.

She can accommodate over 115 pooches, 72 for boarding, the rest for day care in various accommodations based on the owner’s wish and budget.

Her wish after a couple decades working for a financial services firm was to be her own boss.

“My husband (an ex-Marine) and I took our dogs to a K9 Resorts in New Jersey where we lived. But we had been to VA Beach often and loved it, so we moved here in 2022 and opened a franchise the next year.” 

Now Christina and her team of 22 full and part timers are caring for canines. “I love coming to work,” says Melissa Thompson, “because they’re happy to see me, and I’m happy to see them.”

Visit our newest WINDSday Partner at www.k9resorts.com, and leave the dogs to them.  

The Coastal Edge East Coast Surfing Championship will be August 25-27, and our friends at Lynnhaven River Now are looking for volunteers to keep waterways and the beach clean (and serve beer!)

As a LRNow volunteer, you’ll receive a cool hat, access to concerts, an ECSC T-shirt, afterparty, refreshments, and snacks. 

CLICK HERE to sign up.

*Hang 10 happens when all ten toes are literally over the nose of the board and are dangling while balancing, and riding on the front of it.

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