VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Chic’s Beach residents are no strangers to the parking issues in the area. But for his Eagle Scout project, one Virginia Beach teenager decided to try and make a difference.
“I thought if we put a bike rack there it would save people money, it would save traffic, it would save on parking tickets. And just helping the community out, putting it there,” said Dylan Welsch.
Welsch met with the local Chic’s Beach Civic League to discuss the possibility of building two bike racks for beachgoers. It was such a good idea, that the civic league decided to fund his project. He drafted the bike rack designs and got to work with his friends.
“It went really well it looks pretty good,” Welsch told News 3.
However, sometime near the end of June/early July, one of the bike racks went missing.
“I was just really disappointed in whoever stole it,” Dylan said.
This disappointment was felt by members of the community as well.
“As we’re a tight community we all sent messages like did you arrange for this? Did you hear from the city? Has anyone seen it? And we literally don’t know what happened to it,” said Cami Best-Jones, President of the Chic’s Beach Civic League.
One month later, and the bike rack is still nowhere to be found. So the civic league and Dylan are asking for the public’s assistance in finding it.
“We can only guess that it’s someone who visited our neighborhood and decided they wanted to disrespect it I guess,” Best-Jones said.
The bike rack is a light wooden color and has a Chic’s beach engraving on it. The civic league has been in contact with Virginia Beach Police about it as well. But if you saw Dylan’s bike rack, and for some reason thought you could take it home, you can always return it to the Chic’s Beach neighborhood, so the public can get some good use out of it.
“I would love it if someone found it, put it back where it belongs, and help the community out,” Dylan said.
