Friday, May 22, 2009
HeraldTrib Today, May 22, 2009
One distinct difference between owning a single-family home and a garden-style townhouse, I’ve found, is the number of times people knock on my door politicking for something.
I lost count of the number of times someone tried to get me to vote for Obama. And three of the five candidates for the House of Delegates race for the 47th have made their appearance, though I was only home for one of them (Alan Howze). Andres Tobar has not made it, as far as I know, and Adam Parkhomenko told me after the ACDC debate that he skipped my house because he knew I was Patrick Hope’s friend, and he did not want to take time talking with someone he was sure wouldn’t vote for him anyway.
When I lived in the Arlington Oaks townhouse, Josh Ruebner the Green Party candidate running for County Board at the time, was the only candidate in 10 years to show up at my door, as far as I recall. I wasn't home, so he left a flier.
All that got me thinking a month ago, so I started sending out emails to people I know living in apartments, and those people have had largely the same experience that I had—no one came calling.
In a recent interview, Miles Grant, who is one of the five running for the House of Delegates' 47th seat, said that he did not get any serious contact from Obamites in the run-up to last year’s primary though, as a member of Arlington Young Democrats, he was a likely primary voter!
Miles lives in Historic Ballston Park (near the Eastern Carry-Out), and swung by my house about a month ago.
Alexandra Morrow, of Arlington Oaks, wrote me an email about a month ago:
“I have not had anyone and personally am thankful I have not. After a long day, I really don't want to contend with people buzzing and trying to gain access to the units. They may avoid us because you do have to gain access not only to the units but then to the doors, and no one wants to be that one person who let's them in!
“I never had anyone knock on my door for the presidential election either, nor did I see anyone around the neighborhood. My guess is they know their time is better spent on communities where they don't have to work as hard just to get to the front door.”
It’s interesting to me, given that it shows off two of the concerns the candidates expressed to me: they don’t want to appear pushy or as though they are somehow invading privacy, and they don’t want to spend time just trying to get through the main door only to find hostile people at the apartment door.
People at the Buckingham Outreach Center, on the Gates of Ballston property, said they had not heard of candidates canvassing there. Writer, HeraldTrib columnist, and Chatham resident Vic Socotra said no one had knocked on his door, ever.
The only person in a complex who said they did get activity was Tom Lauria, in Hyde Park Condominium. They are a rather politically active bunch (I went to a meeting with Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple there a couple years back). The way the meetings were described, however, was that someone invited the candidate in to the community room, and people came from apartments to meet that person.
That fits more with what the candidates say they do. They tell me they find friends in the different places and ask those friends to set-up meet-and-greets of different sorts, breakfasts, happy hours, and such.
For instance, Pat Hope had a “Latinos for Hope” rally at the Buckingham Community Center.
Miles Grant said he gives fliers to supporters in apartment complexes and asks that they distribute them to a list of likely voters who also live at that place. He said he has a volunteer who coordinates that activity.
If that doesn’t work, he joked, “What we’re doing is renting fire engines with ladders that will go up to about the 10th floor and [we’re] just sticking our fliers to the outside of people’s windows.”
The group experience has a different feel than that of someone knocking on your door.
When Alan Howze stopped by, I told him that I write this blog and that I’m a friend of Pat Hope’s and have every intention of voting for him. Alan looked at me with a kind of curious smile and said, “Let’s get coffee.” It was a face that said, “I can change your mind.” I was happy for the opportunity.
He and I have had coffee; in fact, coffee with him made me think of asking the other candidates the same. I have met with four of the five candidates (Adam Parkhomenko’s campaign said they didn’t have time in his schedule). Transcripts of those taped interviews will be out next week.
Nick Benton, the Editor/Publisher of the Falls Church News Press, gave $200 to Adam Parkhomenko’s campaign at some point during the first three months of this year. Just letting you know.
Along those lines, Pat Hope asked me if I’d put a lawn sign in my yard, and, citing my role here at the HeraldTrib, I said no. Pat asked if Cathy, my wife, would be willing to do it, and I said he would have to ask here.
We have a lawn sign.
I’m a journalist, but I don’t see why my wife must give up her right to free speech. (I know this will rub some of you the wrong way, but at least I’m up front about these matters.)
The naturalist and TV persona, David Mizejewski, (featured in a story, below) told me that the eastern tent caterpillar is not invasive, nor is it harmful to the environment and backyard (it leaves behind a few holey leaves).
What I didn’t write was that he and I (we’re about the same age) remember the late 1970s in the northeast when the gypsy moths came in and defoliated entire forests. Since the gypsy moth is also a tent-builder, many people (I’ll include myself here) believe all tent caterpillars are bad. They’re not, and you can fairly easily tell them apart. Gypsy moth caterpillars have a series of blue and red spots along their bodies, whereas the eastern tent caterpillars have a golden squiggle, with blue stripes. Here’s a couple images to help:
I was sick. It has been some combination of head cold and allergies that has been laying me low for about two weeks. (That is part of why the Police Notes, below, are so delayed.)
Anyway, if someone was at the meeting and can give a nice emailed round-up, I'd sure appreciate it. I know American Service Center detailed their redevelopment plans, and apparently someone else was coming, but I do not have details, though I'd love them!
And remember that Rolling Thunder will be rolling and thundering down Arlington Blvd this weekend, with campers no doubt already filling the Assembly of God field. Look for pictures next week. (The police traffic alert is here.)
The Week’s Headlines…
As always, you can scroll down to see all the recent stories, or simply click the links below (if the link doesn't work, scroll down to find the story, and email to tell me what's busted: heraldtrib@gmail.com --Steve Thurston).
Today's Headlines:
Headlines from Earlier in the Week:
Labels: 47th, campaign, election, environment, house of delegates, politics
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
ASC's "Environmentally-Sound" Choice Has Not Convinced B'ham Neighbor
The heat was pushing 100 degrees, and the weather was dry July 9, 2007. Buckingham felt just a bit like an oven. As well, the corner of N. Glebe and N. Carlin Springs roads smelled of chemical solvents at about quitting time that Monday.
One person in the neighborhood told the county that the American Service Center Body Shop where workers painted up to 250 cars a month on N. Glebe Road, was illegally dumping noxious fumes into the air.
The double-wide, glass doors on the Glebe Road side of the building on that day were wide open, and two, newly painted, black Mercedes sat just inside. The sidewalk in front of those doors was dusted with paint from the shop floor. The stench was incredible. “I don’t deal with air quality,” said Richard Freeman at that time. He is a county code enforcer. He said air quality is much more a job for the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, which said some of those issues were the concern of the federal Environmental Protection Agency. In the late summer of 2007, Mr. Freeman said he was only concerned with overspray on the property, and he had seen the booths that the painters used and the certificates from the state saying that they were in compliance. He said he had gone by a few times to smell and hadn’t noticed anything that bad. As well, the fire marshall conducts an annual audit of the location and has found nothing wrong. In 2006, the EPA checked out the site and found nothing wrong. In a recent interview, Body Shop Manager Jim Bergin denied having illegally dumped fumes. At the time, you could not have told that to Mick Pulliam, the resident of The Carlin, an apartment high rise at 4300 N. Carlin Springs, who was trying to get the county to investigate. He said the stench in his building’s backyard, which sits adjacent to ASC’s backyard, was overwhelming. “Nothing can be done unless the inspector actually sees the infraction,” Mr. Pulliam wrote in an email in 2007. “It seems that the paint trail coming from inside the building, and going almost out to the road, is not proof of where the paint is coming from.” Code inspectors checked the paint on the sidewalks and determined it was allowable, as it was not overspray, but dust from the sanding room floor that the tires tracked outside with them. The good news for Mr. Pulliam is that these arguments may be moot. Last November, ASC switched their paints from solventborne to waterborne, and they have finished a renovation of the building at 640 N. Glebe that includes air conditioning, so the door should not need to be opened. They are first in Arlington to make the switch to waterborne paints. "American Service Center has made an environmentally-sound decision to convert its shop from a solventborne system," the company wrote in a press release last April. (The person who could speak to these issues at Specialty Auto Body, the other paint shop on nearby N. Quincy Street, was out of the office until next week, the manager said.)
“Waterborne paint is almost odorless,” said Matthew Shaffer, the BASF paint sales representative at ASC. Paints are roughly 80 percent liquid. That liquid makes it possible for the paint to be sprayed onto a surface. The liquid dries off and the pigment remains. Waterborne paints shift the liquid from a chemical solvent—such as xylene, toluene or methyl ethyl ketone—to water, and therefore the smell from the evaporating liquid changes from chemical to virtually nothing. As well, the air in the paint booth goes through "two or three filtering systems" before being released to the atmosphere, Mr. Bergin said. "It emits less...contaminants."
“This one was painted 45 minutes ago,” Mr. Bergin said. He stood in the finishing area of the paint shop where the cars get buffed after painting. If it were going to smell, it would smell the worst right where he was standing he said. “Eventually, [the use of waterborne paints] is going to be mandated,” he had said earlier. That’s what happened last year in Canada. California has already made the shift. It’s more than a quality-of-life issue for people living around a body shop. The solvents are Volatile Organic Compounds, which, when loosed into the air and bombarded by sunlight, can create ozone and other pollutants. According to the EPA, one category of the solvents, diisocyanates, is the number one cause of workplace asthma. In January 2008, the EPA issued rules that required many industries, including auto paint shops, to lower their VOC emissions, but they did not require a switch to waterborne paints. Mick Pulliam is not so sure about any of this. “We shall see if there is an improvement. However, I am not sure that the type of paint is going to change much. The idea of having paint fumes in my lungs does not make me happy. (No matter what kind of paint they use.),” he wrote in a recent email. Labels: american service center, environment
Friday, May 15, 2009
From Animal Planet to Lubber Run
“Urban natural areas have a different sort of stressors on them,” David Mizejewski said. The impermeable roofs, roads, driveways and parking lots in the area send a lot of water into storm drains which empty into streams like Lubber Run. But overall the streams in Arlington are OK, he said. “We do have such a great, green infrastructure in Arlington,” he said. The county supports a program to protect Lubber Run from invasive plant species. The county has three nature centers inside its borders, staffed by professional naturalists. It says a lot about the county government and the citizens who support these, he said. “You just don’t see that in a lot of other places,” he said. (Gulf Branch Nature Center was saved in the county largely through citizen activism when the county budget was approved just weeks ago.) Strolling in jeans and flip-flops, he stopped near the rest room building and looked to the hillside that rises behind it. He noticed how much undergrowth the park has, and attributed part of that to the few deer in the county. He said that hillside was the perfect habitat for the mountain laurel that grows there. With the old growth trees, mountain laurel and the oak seedlings sprouting through the dark, leaf-strewn soil, he said, “We could be in the Shenandoah.”
Lubber Run might not have the invertebrate life—snails and crayfish—of a truly healthy stream, but it does support dace, those minnow-like fish, in the deeper pools of the stream. The streambed is gravelly, rather than silty, which allows plants to grow and fish to spawn. A pair of mallards was eating and resting in the stream. Near his house, he said, on Four-Mile Run, he has seen kingfishers and great blue herons which means they must be finding something to eat. “On the whole, these urban ecosystems are in pretty good shape,” he said. His show which ran a couple seasons, (and can be purchased on DVD) was a “Trading Spaces” sort of show for the backyard. It focused on making-over backyards to attract wildlife. Landowners, however, must recognize the limits to this: they have to plant native plants to attract native animals and insects.
“You need bugs for birds,” he said. Take the eastern tent caterpillar. It is not invasive, nor is it bad for area trees. It feeds off plants in the rose family, which include a number of fruit trees, such as the black cherry Mr. Mizejewski found in the park, a nice web of caterpillars stuck to the “Y” of a branch. They might look ugly and leave a few holey leaves in their wakes, but they might also attact the yellow-billed cuckoo. Those birds like the fuzzy bugs.
An employee of the National Wildlife Federation in Reston, he is promoting their new “Be Out There” program which encourages families to spend more time in nature in order to grow healthier and appreciate nature more. He also has a new blog on the Animal Planet site called “Animal Oddities.” Mr. Mizejewski is not against bringing home wildlife from t he park; his old show often made habitats for critters like pollywogs. But practice “catch-and-release” he said, returning the animals to the place where they were found, and do not keep animals captive too long. “Parks are hugely valuable,” Mr. Mizejewski said. “They are the community’s backyard.” Parents can teach their children to be respectful of the parks. “It’s for everybody, including the wild animals, including the streams.” Labels: environment, lubber run park
Related sites…
Friday, May 08, 2009
HeraldTrib Today: May 7, 2009
I had a snarky piece already to go about how tough it was to find the Sun Gazette's coverage of its parent company's troubles on its web site.
(The parent, American Community Newspapers Inc., filed for Chapter 11 protection at the end of last month.)
But I see the coverage is on page 10 of the current print edition. Good. (I don't actually like being snarky it just makes us all defensive, and that's not a good position for journalists to be in.)
Scott McCaffrey, the Sun Gazette editor, has been covering his parent company's troubles, but only on his blog, which no doubt gets far less readership on the main news pages.
Here’s the really interesting part: in one of the blog posts, there’s a link to “read the story here”. It’s an actual news story that has a date stamp of April 29, but I went back to find it on the main site, and not there! So, the story exists, you just have to know to look for it. When you click the story, it says it is archived in "hot news." Was it posted there? Here, and only here, is the Sun Gazette story on line.
I wrote about the story last week. After I covered the story, I sent it to some area newsies who hadn’t heard (though I was nearly a week late in my coverage), and then I sent it along to my realtor (who I talk with or email daily) who said he hadn’t heard anything. He also said he would have liked to have known this as his office does a lot of advertising with the Sun Gazette (no kidding!).
People, in other words, seem interested in this as news, not banter, Scott. You probably should have made sure this story stayed on the main News site, not just on your blog.
By the way, Scott, I liked the first blog entry you posted yesterday with the headline: “That’s why you shouldn’t let amateurs loose in the newsroom." It got my snark way up! I was happy it hadn't been aimed at me. (In fact, you've been very nice to me and my blog lately. I'll admit it makes me nervous.)
And so that this joke isn't only inside baseball, Scott was poking at the Loudoun Times-Mirror which quoted its own staff in a story about the Sun Gazette's parent company filing for Chapter 11 protection. Unfortunately, the Loudoun paper apparently did not mention that the people quoted were their staff--reason enough to poke them.
When I went back to find the post for my own snark-filled reasons, at 9:13a.m., I found the post was was gone! At noon it came back on-line with a different headline and different content. (As Scott would say,“Whoopsie” —we’ve all hit “post” when we don't mean to.)
Today, the blog covers the same story (I think) but gets angry at the misspelling of the Sun Gazette's name.
If you read the actual newspaper, drink beer, and feed your kids beans from cans, you know what joy it is to get the big, blue recyclable canisters.
My family and I recycle everything we can—newspapers, envelopes, sheets of paper (including the 80 or more that come home every Friday in the kids’ folders), bottles, cans, plastics. We’re still unpacking, so we have corrugated and flat cardboard. Tissue boxes, toilet paper rolls, milk jugs. Everything. Pull the cardboard tag off a new shirt? Yup, into the recycle bin. This is something I’ve taken from Arlington Oaks. I was on the board and active in the community while there, so I know that recycled waste was cheaper to haul away than garbage destined for the landfill. So I did my part to save the condominium a few bucks a year. When I arrived at the new house about six blocks away (in Arlington Forest, aka “West Buckingham”), I found the yellow recycling bucket on the back porch, lacking. The sorry excuse for a container worthy of saving the environment had broken sides and was, at best, half the size of what we required. Because of its small and lidless design, on Wednesdays (just before garbage day) our back porch looked like a small landfill. I think the squirrels (stupid squirrels!) even took out some of the items hoping to find remaining food. But now, now we have reached recycling Nirvana! I am at peace and in love!
The students that I mention in my essay, below, are back together (didn’t see that coming). I was rather surprised, I’ll admit, that they broke up just in time for me to write the essay!
The race for the House of Delegates’ 47th District gets weirder by the minute. The chatter I have heard and read seems to leave people in the dark as to what the endorsement by POTUS-42 means. Turn out on June 9 for the Democratic primary will be the key, I’m guessing. Will an endorsement by the former Commander-in-Chief be enough? We’ll see…
The Week’s Headlines…
As always, you can scroll down to see all the recent stories, or simply click the links below (if the link doesn't work, scroll down to find the story, and email to tell me what's busted: heraldtrib@gmail.com --Steve Thurston).
Headlines from Earlier in the Week:
Public Service Announcements
Labels: 47th, environment, sun gazette
Friday, March 13, 2009
Polar Bears on Library Night
K.W. Barrett Elementary School’s Library Night celebrated second grade teacher Julie Schneider’s trip to Churchill, Manitoba Canada to study global warming.
Students and parents in attendance watched the teacher’s video blog and listened to the book “Winston of Churchill: One Bear's Battle Against Global Warming.” It’s a cute story in which a stogie-smoking polar bear wants to impress upon people the need to save his habitat, but gets the help of his wife only when he agrees to stop smoking!
Following the watching and reading, students made polar bear necklaces using yarn, glitter and white foam. A good time, as they say, was had by all on Tuesday night.
Ms. Schneider, now back in the States, was in Manitoba for about a week. Check out her blog. Labels: Barrett, environment, library
Monday, March 02, 2009
Political Storm Coming to Gulf Branch
On fence posts and the sides of log buildings hung more signs of another kind of storm.
“Shame!” one read, and “Save Gulf Branch Nature Center!” read another. One listed a March 14 rally at the park.
In the proposed budget released Feb. 21, County Manager Ron Carlee has asked to close and demolish the “obsolete” Gulf Branch Nature Center building, moving all the animals and indoor programming to the Potomac Overlook Regional Park, not quite two miles away, or to other locations in Arlington. Outdoor programming at the forge and log cabin in the Gulf Branch park would continue, the county has said.
Email listservs buzzed over it. Lillian Prins started a facebook page which now has over 1,900 friends. Gulf Branch Neighborhood resident Suzy Wagner started a web site and petition. Over 2,000 electronic signatures have been collected.
Ms. Wagner does not believe the claims that the building is obsolete and that the programs could be absorbed into other places in Arlington.
“It’s not accurate. It’s not true,” she said.
She believes that other places like Potomac Overlook and Long Branch Nature Center (just off S. Carlin Springs Road) do not have room either for all of the indoor activities or for all of the animals—Gulf Branch has a beehive, lizards, turtles and fish.
She wondered what would happen to the Native American exhibit in the lower level of the building. The display of weapons, pottery shards and a reproduction of an Indian canoe are part of the 25-site Native American historical trail in Virginia.
The rest rooms will be gone when the building is demolished, so the programming outside will be limited, she said.
Ms. Wagner lives on the trail that leads to the park, and she said she still hears her late father calling it “the gem in the woods behind you.”
If the center is cut from the budget as a step toward more efficiency, it would not close until the end of the summer to preserve summer camps, said Susan Kalish, the director of marketing and communication for the Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Resources. The cut would save about $132,000 in this year’s operational budget and would cut the position of the nature center director.
She has not been let go yet since the budget has not been adopted. Given the uncertainty of her position, however, she is elligible for other jobs in the county.
“Hopefully she’ll [Director Denise Chauvette will] apply for something else,” Ms. Kalish said, adding that the staffing cut had nothing to do with performance as all the staff and naturalists are good people. Some positions in the county government have been made available for people who wish to, and are qualified to, move. Larger severance packages than normal are being awarded for those who leave, Ms. Kalish said.
If the building were gone, the county would not need to spend the money on projected repairs and maintenance.
“A recent report said that we had to spend about $236,800 in maintenance to keep it running by [the end of] 2010,” Ms. Kalish said. By the end of 2024, that number is about $910,000, about $56,000 per year.
Of the $236,000, $153,000 is to fix the fire panel, Ms. Kalish said. But the old stone house nestled on a tree-covered hillside needs a lot of other work, too. The county needs to repair shingles, overlay asphalt, repair the retaining wall, and provide safe access to the attic, among other repairs.
“Of everything I just said, $71,000 has already been done,” Ms. Kalish said.
If it is so close to unusable, Ms. Wagner wondered, “then why did they invest $70,000 in it last year?” She said she feels as though north Arlingtonians pay much of the county’s taxes, but that their services get taken.
“I don’t think they’re trying to punish us who provide all the revenue to the county,” she said, but with the fights over Gulf Branch and, in the past, the Cherrydale branch library, the county does not see their needs.
The age of the building is not the only issue.
“The other bigger issue, I think, is that it’s not ADA accessible,” Ms. Kalish said. The building, an old home with access to the main floor only via a stairway, was never meant to be a nature center and is not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. A certain level of major renovation eventually would force the county to make the center compliant, she said. She said that the federal government considers the Potomac Overlook center to be ADA compliant.
Ms. Wagner countered that Potomac Overlook Park with its long hill from the parking lot to the center is still not wheelchair friendly.
Closing the Gulf Branch center will not have to start until end of summer after camps and other planned programming have finished. The pond (the spring peepers are already coming out), the creek, the spring house, forge, and other outdoor programming can stay, Ms. Kalish said. Pretty much all the staffing for programming will stay, but they will not need the director.
David Turvene, of Lyon Park, walked the woods with his children on Saturday. He said he comes rather often since it’s a great place for the kids to see a little nature.
“I think it’s a shame” that the center might close, he said, adding, “I understand the budget issue, though.”
He said he is involved with people fighting for funding the Thomas Jefferson Center and school and knows that county will have to make tough decisions. “It’s all priorities,” he said.
On the wooded hill above the nature center Saturday, Jeff Dolan piled invasive plants that he pulled up from around the trees. He is a volunteer who has a section of the woods to care for; his section, like those of other volunteers, is marked with a little, black sign on the side of the trail. He plucked enough English ivy and other plants to fill a large garbage bag.
Mr. Dolan has worked in the woods a couple times and said he will miss the center’s staff if they have to work from the Potomac Overlook Regional Park.
“We won’t have them to go to,” he said. It is a big deal for the environment of the park, he said. “They do a lot of good stuff.”
Ms. Wagner said that she fears the county is not saying all that is really going on. She fears that if the center is gone, the park itself will fall into disrepair.
$150,000 a year to run the center is not all that much money, and some of that could be made up by charging more for summer camps and other uses, such as birthday parties at the center. She said the county could rely on more volunteers and a full-time director that is shared with Potomac Overlook park. There are ways to close the budget gap without closing the park, she said. If the park falls into disrepair, however, the county might just look to sell it to a developer.
Closing the center “just doesn’t add up,” she said.
Related sites…
Labels: budget, environment, gbnc, gulf branch nature center
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
County Lifts Second Advisory on Lubber Run Water
The county took the precautionary measure of warning residents to avoid contact with the waters downstream from a sewage spill site in Lubber Run Park. The precaution was meant to allow the normal ecological process in the streams to reduce the potentially elevated bacteria levels caused by the release.
Following several days of stream flow and rain, Arlington County now recommends that residents resume adherence to its normal protective precautions for safe use of its urban streams. You can find information and safety tips on Arlington streams on the Arlington County Department of Environmental Services web site.
Related stories…
Labels: environment, lubber run park
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Hoe, Hoe, Hoe the Boat!
Like so much that happens in the greater Buckingham area, the Teen Boat Project in Lubber Run Park came about thanks to caring adults, hard working teens and a little bit of dumb luck.
“We found this old boat that the teens had built” at the Arlington Mill Community Center, Joyce Harris-Gray said yesterday afternoon while a handful of the 25 participating teens painted the gunwales with positive messages. Ms. Harris-Gray directs the Lubber Run teen program.
The boat is a half-dozen or so years old, and was sailed at one point, but Luis Matos said he found it “under the deck” at the Arlington Mill Community Center. No one was quite sure what to do with it. Mr. Matos is working at the Lubber Run Community Center while Arlington Mill is redeveloped.
“They were going to trash it,” he said. But since he grew up on an island, he could not scuttle a boat. They considered a number of options including slicing it in half length-wise and hanging it on a wall.
They said they talked to Carol Hoover, the Lubber Run Center director, about installing it in front of the center on N. George Mason Drive, but she suggested the location inside the park, where a tree had been planted by other teens a half-decade ago. The location at the north end of the park is supposed to be a garden, but has fallen into a bit of disrepair. So, with some Junior Master Gardener Training from the 4H, the Teen Boat Project that turned this dinghy into a flower garden set sail.
Yesterday, while most of the teens set-up the Haunted House at the Lubber Run Center, a handful cared for the boat-garden and the space around the tree. Over the summer, the boat had gotten a new coat of paint and was hand-lettered with positive messages about staying out of gangs and away from drugs. Recently it was repainted, and yesterday, the teens stenciled on more positive messages. It looks a little neater. The group, Mr. Matos said, is always looking for donations of plants and seeds. Swing by the Lubber Run Community Center, 300 N. Park Dr., with donations.
Related sites…
Labels: environment, lubber run center, lubber run park
Friday, October 24, 2008
Sewage Spills into Lubber Run Again
Fifteen hundred gallons of raw sewage spilled into Lubber Run stream yesterday morning for the second time in 10 days, only a day after the county issued a statement saying the water had cleared from the previous spill. Yesterday’s spill occurred during the peak morning hours when sewage overwhelmed two pumps set up to divert sewage away from lines that are being restored with an epoxy-like liner. Although there are four pumps on site near the picnic pavilion in the park, only two are in operation at any one time, said Dave Hundelt, of Arlington County’s Department of Environmental Services. Bringing another on-line is more than just switching a valve. Temporary pipes have to be installed, for instance. If the relining project were to go on for days or weeks more, the effort would be worth it, Mr. Hundelt said, but A.M. Liner East, Inc., the contractor that is relining the pipes, should be done with the major work today, and the sewage lines can be reopened. Therefore, the county chose instead to bring out a pumper truck for this morning, which acts as the third back-up pump to take some pressure off the two pumps already operating, he said. He was on-site for the operation this morning. In the past, county staff has said that the water is cleared after about a week, or some really strong rains. (The forecast for Saturday is about 100 percent rain.) Last week, a diversion plug was overwhelmed and sent sewage out a manhole. The contractor should be out of Lubber Run completely by the middle of next week, Mr. Hundelt said. Labels: environment, lubber run park
Related stories…
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
County Lifts Water Pollution Advisory for Lubber Run
Arlington County has lifted the advisory issued on Wednesday, Oct. 15 for parts of Lubber Run and Four Mile Run.
The County took the precautionary measure of warning residents to avoid contact with the waters downstream from a sewage spill site in Lubber Run Park. The precaution was meant to allow the normal ecological process in the streams to reduce the potentially elevated bacteria levels caused by the release.
Following several days of stream flow, Arlington County now recommends that residents resume adherence to its normal protective precautions for safe use of its urban streams. You can find information and safety tips on Arlington streams on the Arlington County Department of Environmental Services web site.
Related stories…
Labels: environment, lubber run park
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Sewer Line Failure Pollutes Lubber Run
Just before dawn this morning, a heavier-than-expected flow in a sewer line leading into Lubber Run Park hit and overwhelmed a sewer diversion plug, overflowing a manhole with raw sewage, and polluting the stream near Arlington Boulevard. Arlington County repaired the problem after the contractor, A.M. Liner East, Inc., called in the spill.
“The contractor called us right away,” said Myllissa Kennedy with the county’s Department of Environmental Services. “There still is an investigation going on as to why it happened.”
Residents are advised to keep themselves, their children and pets away from the stream for any activities including swimming, fishing and wading, the county advised in its press release. Although county officials say the problem has been repaired, and the county is working to clean as much of the sewage as possible, nature will have to do the final work, flushing the remaining sewage downstream.
It may take a week or more to return back to normal, depending on the weather.
“What they like to wait for is a couple of good rains,” before health inspectors check the water again, said Mary Curtius, a county spokesperson.
The county likely will absorb much of the cost for the clean-up as the problem was not intentional, and the contractor worked with county staff to fix the problem and clean-up the site at the time of the accident, Ms. Kennedy said.
Since late September, the contractor has been working on the sewer pipes, lining them with smelly, resin-soaked felt tubes, “similar to a sock.” Once the felt liner is in place, hot water activates the resin and the felt becomes a hard plastic, the county’s web site devoted to this project said.
The sewer diversion plugs send the waste through alternate pipes while one section of pipe is being repaired, Ms. Kennedy said.
According to one of the contracted employees, the liner is good for several decades.
The project, part of annual maintenance, is expected to take about a month.
An intentional spill of port-a-potties into Lubber Run occurred last June.
Related stories…
Labels: environment, lubber run park
Friday, June 06, 2008
Stay Out of Lubber Run Stream, Says County
Labels: environment
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
HeraldTrib Today: June 4, 2008
I’m not sure how I feel as I go on hiatus after I post a story about the Design Review Committee meeting tonight.
Part of the mixed emotion is that I know I go back to teaching at Montgomery College in Rockville in the fall, and I have yet to do all I want to do with this website. I had a full school year to get stuff done, how much time did I need? However much I wanted, it wasn't enough.
Despite wanting to continue for another month or more, I still must write a final report on the year-long project around which this web site was based, and I must get my syllabi ready. I’m still reading one of my adopted texts. I just don’t have the time for it all, especially since the kids are loosed on the world in just a couple more weeks—then look out!
On top of that, I have notes and ideas for stories that are only half done—to those people who are wondering where the stories about them are, I will get to them late summer or early fall.
On top of the on top of all that, the walls of my house look terrible. I really must paint. I will be paying attention to the doings of Buckingham, but I don’t know how much I’ll be reporting until the fall draws me back. Enough complaining of lost time, already. I'll see you in the fall.
I took a wheelchair ride last month, and I have yet to put all the notes and recordings together into a decent story. That will come either over the summer, or early in the fall. Sorry, Deb, for the delay (stupid flooded basement).
Another is about the new Buckingham Community Center, the building on the Gates of Ballston property near N. Glebe at N. Henderson Road. I do not know if the discussions about it would rise to “conflict,” but some of the people who use the current space—a pair of connected two-bedroom apartments on N. Henderson Road—are bothered by the fact that the space they will have in the new building is 1,500 square feet less than what they currently have.
Also, the space has fewer offices for private discussions. Connie Sherman, the director of the center, worries about what might happen to people who need to have personal conversations such as those involving AIDS or spousal abuse. AHC Inc., which owns and is building the center, has made a space they feel is large enough. It has a huge room for community events, a computer classroom, a day care center, offices for the tenants association and for the leasing and management office. County Board Chair Walter Tejada said there are limited resources to go around, and people will have to make due with what is available. “Once you get used to something, it’s hard to let go,” he said in a recent interview. I had planned on putting out a story about this before the center’s opening in July, but it looks like now, I’ll be asking people how it’s going.
I will be a little late to the DRC meeting tonight, but that should be OK as the Buckingham Shopping Center (the intersection of N. Glebe at N. Pershing Drive) is the fourth item on the group’s agenda.
Tonight Georgetown Strategic Capital will move a little closer to razing the Glebe Market and CVS buildings and replacing them with two huge, mixed-use buildings, retail on the ground floor, and three floors of market-rate apartments above.
This redevelopment of the corner does not go before the Site Plan Review Committee Rebeccah Ballo in the county’s historic preservation office told me because Georgetown Strategic is not asking for a zoning or density changes. It will go before the Planning Commission and, as the DRC is part of the Historical Affairs and Landmark Review Board, that board has been and will be involved, too.
County staff confirmed that the budget OKed last month has money in it to repair Barrett Elementary School's playing field. Although staffers originally said the project might get under way in the spring, it’s looking more like summer, but none I spoke with could give me a date. When we spoke last week, the project had not yet been bid.
The erstwhile beaver of Lubber Run still has no clear name, as based upon the survey a handful of you took last week. “Bucky” and “Lubby” tied, with three (!), votes each. “Big Tooth” received no votes.
Unlike Hilary Clinton, I can make THE decision, and say, “enough’s enough,” especially since I’ve seen neither hide nor hair Bucky Lubby since Mother’s Day. Call the beaver what you will, it's over.
My next-door neighbor, Scott Zoeller, called me to the mat last week when I didn’t run his picture and that of the baby robin nesting in the Norwegian blue spruce outside his townhouse. It was a cute little bugger, and has since flown the coop.
Now, Fuzzy, you can say that you are, as my son Harry says, “just a little bit famous.” Are we cool?
The Week’s Headlines…
As always, you can scroll down to see all the recent stories, or simply click the links below (if the link doesn't work, scroll down to find the story, and email to tell me what's busted: heraldtrib@gmail.com --Steve Thurston).
Today's Headlines:
Headlines from Earlier in the Week:
Labels: buckingham center, DRC, environment, lubber run park
Friday, May 30, 2008
Yearling Buck Stops By Arlington Oaks
A yearling buck, its antlers still covered with velvet, rested in an Arlington Oaks backyard this morning, about 7:15.
The deer was spotted by teen Oaks resident Nick Serene, and he pointed it out to others, including me.
“We do definitely have deer here in Arlington," said Rachael Tolman, a naturalist at the county's Long Branch Nature Center. She added later that deer are not terribly prevalent, but “They’re not uncommon.”
Ms. Tolman said the deer like to eat day lilies planted in yards. “They aren’t strangers to neighborhoods," she said.
They are more prevalent in parks, golf courses and along the George Washington Parkway in Arlington, and they will travel through connected open spaces. A half-mile trot from Lubber Run Park to Arlington Oaks is very little for a deer, she said.
The yearling rested for a few minutes, but the attention kept it from resting too long.
Since deer are prey animals they tend to be skittish, Ms. Tolman said. Some do not mind the attention from humans, while others do.
This is another reason to drive the speed limit in neighborhoods and to keep a lookout especially around dusk and dawn, she said.
“Typically it’s the first thing in the morning or around sunset,” that they're most active. At that time of day they can be hardest to see, as well, she said.
The Arlington Oaks Condominium runs on each side of N. George Mason Drive between Arlington Boulevard and N. Pershing Drive. Bethel United Church of Christ is at 4347 N. Arlington Boulevard.
Labels: arlington oaks, deer, environment
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
No Clear Nominee in Beaver's Name!
It’s too close to call! The campaign to name to the Lubber Run beaver will run yet another week as a clear winner has not garnered enough delegates for officials to call the race.
With two votes each, the names: Lubby, Bigtooth (or Big Tooth), and Bucky, are tied in a three-way race.
Voting will continue until next week when the results will be retabulated and a winner, with luck, will be chosen. If the campaign stretches on much more into the summer, beavers everywhere say the infighting threatens to tear apart the park’s wildlife and open up a chance for the squirrels to win.
So, make sure you vote in “Week Two of Name the Lubber Run Beaver” survey. Click Here to take it.
Last week's survey collected 12 responses, spread through a spectrum of ideas. The also rans, with one vote each: Kershplooshie, Chipper, Lucie Moon, Muddy, Hazel, Paco, and Lubber.
Unfortunately, I have not seen any more signs of the beaver, since the initial sighting on Mother's Day (May 11), but maybe it's just really, really sneaky. Vote today; make your voice count!
Related stories…
Labels: environment, lubber run park
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
HeraldTrib Today: May 21, 2008
Well, I’ve unburied myself, a bit, from the flood of two Mondays ago. I’m offering just a little update today, but will have more including the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony tomorrow (Thursday, 12:30) of the renovated intersection of N. Glebe Road and N. Pershing Drive. If you want to go, the ceremony starts near the Glebe Market.
I’ll admit that I do like what I see when I walk or drive through that intersection.
Make sure you scroll down to see the Lubber Run Beaver, and take time to name him/her/it.
The county’s Capital Improvement Program, proposed about two weeks ago, focuses monies largely on immediate needs and programs already underway in the county, so the Lubber Run Community Center once again did not make the list of buildings to be rehabilitated.
Saying “we still have work to finish,” County Manager Ron Carlee, told the county board the five-year CIP focuses on the $747 million to which the county has already committed. This includes 22 major capital projects and 33 neighborhood conservation projects.
“That is a big capital program,” he said, adding later, “We’ve got to finish these big projects.”
The CIP directs the county’s spending on major renovation projects for the next five years, and is funded largely by bonds. At the special meeting which outlined the 2009-2014 CIP, Mr. Carlee cited concerns that the county’s debt level on average would rise too high if they took on too much more debt to fund projects.
Renovations to the Lubber Run Community Center, according to interviews with Recreation Manager Carol Hoover last fall, have almost been funded by the CIP in the past. The 1950s era center is no where near handicapped accessible, as the only accessible floor is the basement level. One must take stairs to get anywhere else in the building.
Arlington Mill, Westover Library and Fire Station #3 are some of the ongoing projects that made the list.
More on this another day.
The Week’s Headlines…
As always, you can scroll down to see all the recent stories, or simply click the links below (if the link doesn't work, scroll down to find the story, and email to tell me what's busted: heraldtrib@gmail.com --Steve Thurston).
Today's Headlines:
Headlines from Earlier in the Week:
Labels: cip, environment, lubber run center, lubber run park
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Name the Lubber Run Beaver
The beaver “splooshed” in the water twice while I watched and followed it. I have looked since then and have not seen it, though the tracks I saw near where I spotted the beaver, look a little beaverish to me.
I was unable to get ahold of Greg Zell, the Arlington County naturalist, today. He and I spoke of beavers for a story in April 2007. According to him then, the county lets the beavers live if they are not bothering people or facilities, but if the beaver does cause damage, the county will euthanize it. Virginia law says that it is illegal to relocate rodents. Beavers are the largest rodents in North America.
For fun, before the poor thing gets the boot, I say we name the beaver. Put your two cents in on the Name the Lubber Run Beaver Survey. (Many thanks to my daughter Hazel for help in sample names.)
Related stories and sites…
Labels: environment, lubber run park
Monday, April 21, 2008
Barrett's Garden Party
K.W. Barrett Elementary School faculty, students and parents took the afternoon Friday to prepare the interior courtyard for growth and education. Weeds were pulled, beds were mulched, water was sprayed, and last year’s flowers were dead-headed. It was hot and sweaty work, but worth it by the looks of things.
Labels: Barrett, environment
