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Recap of 2d May Civic Association Meeting

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Approximately ten people attended the Civic Association meeting on Monday evening 2 May at Randolph Elementary. The primary topic was a discussion of the Arlington 2017-2026 Transportation Development Plan (TDP).

Although numerous changes and improvements have been made to the TDP over the past few months, the plan continues to fall significantly short of addressing transit needs in Douglas Park and the Pike corridor in terms of adequate capacity, larger buses, and improvements to boarding systems and waiting areas to increase the efficiency of the lines. There are still two opportunities
to provide feedback to the County Board before final approval: The Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) hearing on Wednesday 22 June and the County Board meeting on 19 July. Learn more here.

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Recap of 16th December Civic Association Meeting

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Our guests at our December meeting were local USPS officials, on hand to discuss the continuing problems with mail delivery in 22204. This was our third meeting in the past year and a half. Unfortunately, neighborhood attendance consisted of the Civic Association board and a reporter for ArlNOW.

The Civic Association Executive Committee would like to remind residents that postal service delivery issues should be reported directly to the South Station manage and the Arlington Postmaster via email:

Arlington South Post Office Manager, Mr Jeff Simmons: Jeffrey.C.Simmons@usps.gov
Arlington Postmaster, Mr Walter Daniels: Walter.M.Daniels@usps.gov

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Recap of 24th February Civic Association Meeting

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Approximately fifteen people attended the Civic Association meeting on Tuesday evening 24 February at Firehouse 9.

The agenda included:

Annual Election of Officers
All current officers submitted their names for nomination for new terms. Nominations were solicited from the floor; none were offered. A motion to re-elect the current officers was made, seconded and agreed by the participants assembled:

  • Adam Henderson, President
  • Tony Brooks, Vice-President
  • Annette Pigott, Secretary
  • Al Fox, Treasurer

We discussed various current and upcoming projects along the Pike, including Arlington Presbyterian, Pike 3400 and 4707 Columbia Pike

We agreed to sponsorship of DP resident Sean Steele’s proposal for a spring cookout.

We solicited various proposals for our next Neighborhood Conservation project.
A list of proposals will be presented shortly on the listserv and in the next newsletter ahead of a final vote at the April meeting.

We discussed the need for volunteers to assist the Association with various tasks.
These include

  • Newsletter Advertising Coordinator
  • Newsletter Distribution Coordinator
  • Fourth of July Coordinator
  • Election Day Bake Sale Assistant
  • Writers for the update of our Neighborhood Conservation Plan

Further details regarding these opportunities will be forthcoming. If you can help, please email Adam Henderson.

Our next meeting is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday 21 April.

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Recap of 18th November Civic Association Meeting

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Approximately forty-five people attended the Civic Association meeting on Tuesday evening 18 November at the Arlington Mill Community Center.

The agenda included:

We had a forum with eight representatives from the US Postal Service
The purpose of this forum, which lasted approximately seventy minutes, was to discuss numerous issues with misdirected and undelivered mail and other service issues that have sharply increased in Douglas Park over the past year. Postal service officials listed to our concerns, apologized, and relayed some of the steps that they have undertaken in attempt to bring the issues under control. These include:

  • A new Customer Service Manager at the South Glebe (Arlington South) Station
  • Increased training for mail carriers in Douglas Park
  • A review of carrier routes in Douglas Park

Postal services officials acknowledged that these are only initial steps in addressing the problems. In addition, the postal service intends to bring in a review team to track carriers in Douglas Park for a period to ascertain whether they are performing route deliveries correctly and efficiently. Most importantly in this meeting, however, was the request for real-time data so that postal officials can track problems to specific personnel. The Arlington Postmaster, Mr Walter Daniels, has requested that residents email him directly with misdelivery or other issues on the day of or the day following the incident, letting him know the date, time, nature and address of the occurrence. Mr Daniels also indicated that where feasible, it would be helpful to include a photograph attachment of the mail panel of the misdirected piece, which will allow officials to determine if there are machine-sorting issues that are contributing to our problems.  UPDATE FEBRUARY 2015. Mr Daniels has moved on at USPS. Our new contact for mail problems is the new South Arlington Station Manager, Marcus Clinkscale. He may be reached at marcus.c.clinkscale@usps.gov.

In summary, the Postal Service now seems to be very aware of the ongoing issues in Douglas Park and has expressed a firm desire to address the situation. It’s now our job to make sure they follow through by providing the ongoing data they need to find the root causes. Postal officials have agreed to attend a future meeting of the Association, likely in February 2015, to update their progress and receive more feedback from residents.

We had an update from Alison Tomlinson and Allegra Jabo; our representative and alternate to the Thomas Jefferson Middle School Working Group (TJMSWG).

The TJMSWG is charged by the County Board with evaluating the Thomas Jefferson Middle School site and making a recommendation as to the feasibility of building a new 725-seat elementary school on the campus. The TJMSWG will present a preliminary report to the County Board in December and a final report in January 2015. An overview of the group, along with supporting documents, is available here.

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Recap of 25 February Civic Association Meeting

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Approximately twenty people attended the Civic Association meeting on Tuesday evening 25 February 2014 at Firehouse 9.

The agenda included:

We heard a presentation from Monique O’Grady, Arlington Public Schools (APS) parent and civic activist on the ongoing re-evaluation of the Arlington School Board’s commitment to a new elementary school in South Arlington. In 2012, Arlington voters approved a $42.6m school bond. Per APS’s fact sheet on the bond (seen here [PDF]), the funds were to be used to build additions to three North Arlington elementary schools and one new elementary school each in North and South Arlington. Now that all four North Arlington projects are completed or underway, the school board has suggested reprioritizing funds to finance needed middle school upgrades, leaving South Arlington without the promised new elementary school. Ms O’Grady has been active in leading the effort to work creatively with the board to both fulfill the commitment to South Arlington and to address the middle school needs. A copy of Ms O’Grady’s presentation may be found here [PDF].

In addition, Ms O’Grady has supplied a timeline of events and methods for those who wish to express their views on the situation:

  • 21 Febr: Twitter Town Hall at 12p for elementary and middle school options. Tweet to @APSVirginia. (Transcript [PDF]).
  • 22 Febr: Community Conversations with ambassadors regarding elementary and middle school options. Held at Jefferson, Kenmore, Williamsburg, Gunston, and Swanson from 10a to noon.
  • 26 Febr: Community Meeting #1 for update, feedback of middle and high school options at Gunston M S Theater 1 from 7 to 9p. Simultaneous Spanish translation services will be provided.
  • 28 Febr: Twitter Town Hall at 12p for middle and high school options. Tweet to @APSVirginia.
  • 1 Mar: Community Conversations with ambassadors regarding middle and high school options. Held at HB Woodlawn, Washington-Lee, Yorktown, the Career Center and Claremont from 10a to noon.

You may also write the school board at school.board<at>apsva.us and the county board at countyboard<at>arlingtonva.us. Folks can also get more information at www.apsva.us/moreseats.

You can also view the now-closed change.org petition to fund the South Arlington elementary school here.

Our annual election of officers.
Officers elected for the 2014-2015 term were:

  • Adam Henderson, President
  • Tony Brooks, Vice-President
  • Annette Pigott, Secretary
  • Al Fox, Treasurer

Email contact information for Civic Association officers may be found on the Contact page of this website.

The next Civic Association meeting is scheduled for Tuesday evening 22 April 2014.

 

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Recap of 12th December Civic Association Meeting

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Approximately ten people attended the Civic Association meeting on Thursday evening 12 December at Randolph School.

The agenda included:

We heard a presentation from John Vihstadt, chair of the Arlington Urban Agriculture Task Force (UPDATE: and now a candidate for the County Board seat replacing Chris Zimmerman).

Mr Vihstadt brought us up to date on the findings of the task force and their recommendations to update County agricultural regulations to the County Board, including those regarding the controversial issue of regarding ‘backyard’ hen-keeping.  Due to strongly divergent opinions on the issue among Task Force members, it seems unlikely that there will be a change to the current County policy regarding ‘backyard’ hen-keeping anytime in the near future.  A copy of Mr Vihstadt’s presentation may be found here [PDF].

Deborah Albert of Arlington Planning regarding the proposal to allow ‘jumbotron’ outdoor video screens in certain commercial zones.

As a part of the recent update to zoning ordinances,  a small number of large video screens (like used by WJLA Channel 7 in Rosslyn) will be allowed in a few commercial areas in the county.  Full details of the proposal may be found here [PDF].

Update:  This proposal was approved by the County Board on 17 December.

 

The next Civic Association meeting will be in late February 2014.

 

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Recap of 30 April Civic Association Meeting

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Approximately fifteen people attended the Civic Association meeting on Tuesday evening 30 April at Firehouse 9.

The agenda included:
Shannon Early, Landscape Architect for Arlington County’s Department of Parks and Recreation reviewed the current status of the Doctors Run Park Trail lighting project.
This project was approved by the County Board in February 2011 using funds from the Neighborhood Conservation Program. The project will install 6-8 LED lighting fixtures along the trail from the rear of Randolph Elementary School to South George Mason Drive, to enhance the safety of children walking between the school and Barcroft Apartments. In addition the project will:

  • Realign parts of the trail, especially to reduce the grade descending to and from South George Mason Drive.
  • Widen the existing trail, replacing the current asphalt surface with the County’s softer bike path paving.
  • Remove existing asphalt swales and install bioswales.
  • Install concrete steps on the approach to Randolph Elementary School.
  • Remove one tree.
  • Install a wood pedestrian bridge along the branch of the trail connecting to South Randolph Street.

The anticipated timeline:

  • Finalize plan and contracting draft (2 months)
  • Review and approval by various County departments (2-3 months)
  • Bid process (two months)
  • Construction (two months)

Completion is currently scheduled for Spring 2014.

No changes are contemplated to the trail between Randolph Elementary School and its eastern terminus at South Quincy Street and 12th Street South.

The Civic Association members present at the meeting were in general support of the project with a few reservations:

  • The ‘lights out’ time on the trail is currently set for 6.00p. A time of 6.30p or 7.00p is requested due to after-school programs, including extended day-care which runs through 6.00p.
  • No time was given as to ‘lights on’ in the morning.
  • Concern was expressed that the project be reviewed by the Arlington Historical Affairs and Landmark Review Board (HALRB) as the site was once a Civic War campground.
  • A request was made to remove the curbing at the South Randolph Street junction of the trail to facilitate bike use. Staff advised that the request was outside the current project scope.

A PDF overview of the project may be found here.

 

We discussed possible cleanup projects around the neighborhood. Suggestions included:

  • Weed/replant islands along South Highland Street
  • Continued cleanup around neighborhood entrance signs
  • Investigate repainting the information kiosk in Douglas Park
  • Increase participation in Marty Neilsen’s invasives removals in Douglas and Monroe Parks
  • Gauge the feasibility of a neighborhood cleanup day where residents could dispose of junk not normally picked up by regular refuse collections (Al Fox to investigate)

We discussed redoubling our efforts to update Douglas Park’s Neighborhood Conservation Plan. The current plan was approved in 1998. We have been working on the revision intermittently since the end of 2009. Two volunteers have stepped forward to update three sections of the document; we could still use assistance on other sections. To learn more or to volunteer, please contact any board member. An updated Neighborhood Conservation Plan is essential to participate in funding for various neighborhood projects such as the Doctors Run Trail Lighting project. Our goal is to complete our revisions by the end of the year and receive County Board approval early in 2014.

Douglas Park resident and Phoenix Bikes Executive Director Henry Dunbar presented a preliminary overview of new facilities for Phoenix Bikes. Phoenix Bikes is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization that teaches youth teamwork, hard work and entrepreneurship through bike maintenance and education programs. The bike shop is currently located in Barcroft Park. The new facilities are proposed for the northeast corner of South Walter Reed Drive and South Four Mile Run Drive, just across from our neighborhood in Nauck. Further details will be forthcoming as plans are developed.

The next Civic Association meeting is scheduled for Tuesday evening, 18 June 2013 at 7.30p in the basement meeting room at Firehouse 9.

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