Attached is the presentation from the Arlington County Police Department at our Civic Association meeting on September 19, 2022.
At Monday’s general meeting of the civic association, all current officers were re-elected without dissent for another one-year term. No other candidates came forward at the meeting. The current officer list is available here.
Re our discussion of the newsletter; the decision was made to reduce printing to 3x per year in association with major events: February/Member Drive, June/4th of July Parade and Picnic; November/Holiday Fund Drive.
Several members present volunteered to help contribute articles and solicit advertising.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Approximately twenty people attended the Civic Association meeting on Tuesday evening 17 September at Firehouse 9.
The agenda included:
We reviewed a proposal by Capital One Bank to donate land to the County to enable the completion of the missing segment of 11th St South between South Monroe St and South Glebe Rd, through the Pike 3400 (Rosenthal) site.
While most attendees were in favor of the extension, as it has long been part of the Columbia Pike redevelopment plan, we did have concerns with the intersection designs at
South Glebe Road and South Monroe Street as proposed by County staff. Both these intersections are shown as ‘driveway’ style entrances rather than standard intersections. The Civic Association feels that these new street segments should be designed to resemble all other intersections in the neighborhood. We will be appealing to the County Board to address our concerns as talks with County Staff gave reached an impasse. More details on this project may be found here.
Update (22 September): Several officers of the Civic Association spoke about our concerns at lat night’s Board meeting. On a motion from Board Member and Douglas Park resident Chis Zimmerman, the item was deferred to the October Board meeting with instruction to Staff to work with the DPCA in resolving our concerns. In addition, there have been last minute snags in the legal language between Capitol One Bank and the County regarding the necessary easements.
Update 2 (22 October): In negotiations with Staff, DPCA was able to have the intersection of 11th St South and S Monroe St altered to a standard intersection. We were less successful with the intersection at S Glebe Rd as that intersection is under the jurisdiction of VDOT and any significant design changes would trigger a very lengthy review process. With Staff assistance, we have identified several small design changes to give the intersection a more conventional appearance without triggering VDOT review. In addition, the County and Capitol One Bank have resolved their issues with the legal language of the easements. The project was approved by consent at the County Board meeting on 9 October.
We heard presentations from 49th District Virginia House of Delegates candidates Alfonso Lopez and challenger Terrence ‘Terry’ Modglin.
Both candidates were given fifteen minutes to speak, followed by 15 minutes of questions from the audience.
The next Civic Association meeting is scheduled for Tuesday evening, 19 November 2013 at 7.30p.
Approximately twenty people attended the Civic Association meeting on Tuesday evening 18 June at Firehouse 9.
The agenda included:
Christin Jolicouer, Watershed Planner; Greg Emanuel, Director of Arlington DES and other DES staff presented an update on the 16th St South ‘Green Streets’ project. We also heard from residents on 16th St South affected by the project.
Afterwards, Civic Association attendees discussed the presentations and expressed numerous concerns with the project. A consensus emerged to have the Civic Association formally communicate those concerns to the County Board and DES staff. That letter is available here.
Update: Arlington County has agreed to delink the ‘Green Streets’ project from the previously approved traffic-calming project on 16th St South and revisit the ‘Green Streets’ project itself. See the full response in this post.
John Snyder, Immediate Past-President of DPCA, updated us on plans for the 31st Douglas Fourth of July Park Parade and Picnic.
Adam Henderson was elected President of the Civic Association.
The next Civic Association meeting is scheduled for Tuesday evening, 17 September 2013 at 7.30p.
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