Departments previously housed in VB Municipal Center Building 2 on modified hours, services Friday to honor mass shooting victims

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — The employees formerly headquartered in Virginia Beach Municipal Center Building 2 will be operating under modified hours and services on Friday in observance of the mass shooting that occurred last year.

On May 29, only mission-essential and mission-critical functions will continue with modifications; while certain departments will be unavailable for parts of the day and others, the entire day.

The shootings on May 31, 2019, took the lives of 12 people, seriously injured four people, and left the community devastated. This weekend marks one year since the tragedy.

List of expected modifications and temporary changes

Virginia Beach Public Utilities

Customer service functions will be closed to the public on Friday, May 29.
Routine service turn-on or turn-offs on May 29 will be suspended. Customers needing services turned on or off from May 29 to May 31 should submit all service requests prior to May 29.
On May 29, customer service agents will only handle routine online inquiries, which can be submitted at www.vbgov.com/puonlineservices.
Customers should call 311 for water and sewer emergencies during this time.
Appointments for payment of line fees will not be scheduled for this day.

Virginia Beach Public Works

Offices will close at 2 p.m. on Friday, May 29, except for Public Works Waste Management, which will provide its usual services, including recycling and trash collection, until daily routes are completed.
The Virginia Beach Landfill & Resource Recovery Center will remain open during its normal operating hours.
Public Works construction projects, with Public Works inspectors, will also continue as usual.

Planning and Community Development

Requests for inspections should be made on Thursday, May 28, or on Monday, June 1.
Due to limited staffing, please allow for delayed response until Monday, June 1.

Information Technology

Staff will be on standby to address any network, systems and application issues.

Ways the community can commemorate the one-year mark

On Friday, May 29:

Wear blue, the color of remembrance.
Place Forget-Me-Not display in your window for the weekend.
Add the Forget-Me-Not social media frame to your Facebook profile photo for the weekend.
Wherever you are on Friday, May 29 at 4:06 p.m., observe a moment of silence.

Friday, May 29 through Sunday, May 31:

Visit the “Lighting the Path: Together We Remember Tribute” installation at Building 2 and at Mount Trashmore Park (side of the hill that faces 264).

On Sunday, May 31:

At 4:06 p.m., the City will release an online remembrance ceremony that will be a tribute to the victims, their families, friends and colleagues at loveforvb.com. It will also play on VBTV (Cox channel 48 & Verizon channel 45) and youtube.com/VirginiaBeachTV.
Plant Forget-Me-Not Flowers – If you have a green thumb, plant some Forget-Me-Nots. They’re a perennial and will bloom year after year. In general, the meaning behind this flower is remembrance and love. We adapted it, creating our own version that includes elements representing the 17 victims and the community that surrounds them.
Window Displays – You can show your support and honor the memories of those we lost by downloading a finished version of our Forget-Me-Not flower design or get the therapeutic benefits from coloring and creating art by downloading one of the blank coloring sheets. Just download the Forget-Me-Not symbol of your choice and place it in your window or somewhere it is visible to those passing by.
Leave your porch light on blue or white in remembrance.
Social Media Frame – We created Forget-Me-Not frames you can add to your Facebook profile picture.
- Go to www.facebook.com/profilepicframes.
  - Search for “Love For VB.”
  - Choose the frame you want to use from the results.
  - Click Use as Profile Picture.
- Or, use these links below to go directly to the frame.
  - Love For VB 1
  - Love For VB 2