| ARLnow.com - Part 42

Scammer Targets House Fire Victims’ Fundraising Efforts

Published November 17, 2014 at 2:30PM

The online fundraiser set up to help Bill and Sarah Barkes — the survivors of the fatal house fire from earlier this month — has reached more than $70,000 in donations, but at least one scam artist appears to be trying to profit from the family’s pain.

According to an update on the Barkes family’s GoFundMe page, a Craigslist post was made by someone posing as a relative of the family under the guise of “collecting money through Paypal.”

The GoFundMe page is maintained by Joy Chadwick, the sister of the mother who died in the blaze trying to save one of her daughters, Emily, who also died. Chadwick has been updating the nearly 1,000 people who have donated to the cause in the two weeks since the fire. Chadwick wrote yesterday that Sarah was released from the hospital after more than a week in intensive care.

“[Bill Barkes] said the doctors were very excited about how fast Sarah was healing and at the this time no surgery is needed,” Chadwick wrote last week. “He said she is working hard on her physical therapy. If she continues with this progress she might be able to leave the hospital by Saturday. She is excited that some of her teachers are coming to visit her today.”

Chadwick wrote the family still has “not decided where they will live.” The cat that was missing after the fire was found and is currently living with Chadwick’s other sister, according to the page.

Do-it-Yourself Whiskey Aging Kit Seeks Kickstarter Contributions

Published November 17, 2014 at 12:30PM

Editor’s Note: Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow.com, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups and their founders. The Ground Floor, Monday’s office space for young companies in Rosslyn, is now open. The Metro-accessible space features a 5,000-square-foot common area that includes a kitchen, lounge area, collaborative meeting spaces, and a stage for formal presentations.

Michael Volz and Bryan Olson look like kids in a candy store in Volz’s kitchen, filled with jars of differently colored and aged liquors, with wood charring in the oven and a German shepherd peeking his snout in for smells of the activity.

This is ground zero for Age it Yourself, the company Volz and Olson started this year that allows anyone with their kit to barrel-age whiskey — or any liquor, for that matter — without waiting years and using giant, or even small barrels.

The method is simple. Each kit comes with a mason jar and freshly charred American oak, from fallen trees in the backyard of Olson’s family’ home in Great Falls. The oak is cut in a specific way to maximize the long grain wood — the only part of a real barrel liquor touches — and charred in a custom oven Volz built with his carpenter father.

The wood, jar, a special glass bottle, a flask, a funnel and instructions are then shipped, ready to use. Whoever buys the kit simply has to add the liquor, which can be anything from moonshine, to create a standard aged whiskey, bourbon, to age it further, or even cocktails like Manhattans. The kits sell for $50, and each batch of oak can be used about three times.

To help launch the company, Volz and Olson created a Kickstarter with a goal of $10,000 to buy more glass, fulfill orders faster and generate buzz. Volz admitted that he and Olson have slaved over the method and recipes so much that they haven’t focused much on the digital marketing side of the business — the Kickstarter has 12 backers and $731 donated with 17 days to go — but the Kickstarter is just one component of the business.

“We’re sort of going at it with three tiers,” Volz said. “There’s the retailers and customers and, there’s the wholesalers to push it to more people, and one thing we’re seeing that we didn’t expect is the producers, the distilleries, have interest.”

One distillery, Iowa Legendary Rye, is already in contact with Volz and Olson. The market is there, as Olson said, because “If you want to start a new liquor company, and you want to sell aged liquor, you can’t sell it until it’s aged. You need to age it quicker.”

Volz and Olson met at law school at George Mason University in Arlington, and both graduated this spring right as they were developing the idea. Volz is a veteran of the D.C. bar and restaurant scene, and he’s used his connections to place Age it Yourself in a few locations, including The Liberty Tavern in Clarendon, that want to barrel-age their cocktails on the bar.

The interest from businesses along the supply chain of the liquor market gives the pair confidence that regardless of the Kickstarter, they have a viable path to move forward as a successful endeavor.

Of course, the big question with a company like Age it Yourself: how does it taste? How does it work?

Volz and Olson indulged ARLnow.com with a brief tasting session, starting off with a sip of moonshine “to see what we’re starting with.” After that, it was on to the whiskey, aged in the jar for just over a week. The first difference was the color: the spirit starts to brown within hours after contacting the oak. After a week it’s a deep, translucent color, and it tastes sweeter, and, like Volz described, a little like a campfire. (more…)

Board Approves Resident Plan for Future of Waverly Hills

By Ethan Rothstein

Published November 17, 2014 at 11:15AM

The residents of the Waverly Hills neighborhood in North Arlington want more mixed-use development and to be able to age in place, according to the community’s just-approved Neighborhood Conservation plan.

Waverly Hill is the area north of I-66, south of Lee Highway between N. Glebe Road and Utah Street. According to a survey of almost 400 residents in the 3,800-person neighborhood, 70 percent of Waverly Hills residents want to retire in the neighborhood.

“Seventy percent is a very large number, and I don’t want to say we’re transient, but there are a lot of people that come and go from Arlington,” Arlington County Board Chair Jay Fisette said. “It shows how many people like it enough to suggest that they want to live their whole life here and take advantage of the services into retirement.”

The County Board approved the new neighborhood conservation plan, which includes a request to implement a master plan for Woodstock Park (pictured), which would include a vision for future improvements. The County Board approved a $644,000 renovation for the park in June, which will include a new playground and basketball court, under construction now.

County Board members said they expect the update to the NC plan for the community to serve as a model for other civic associations, both with a focus on aging in place and the update’s thoroughness; according to the county’s press release, the civic association spent more than 1,000 hours on the process.

“This plan gives us an inclusive outline for preserving our livable community while addressing the concerns of our residents,” Michael Polovina, president of the Waverly Hills Civic Association, said in the release. “We are very proud to have accomplished this revisioning after a process that took several years to complete. The next 15 years look very bright for Waverly Hills.”

Other priorities for the update include facilitating mixed-use development along Lee Highway and Glebe Road, with nods to affordable, senior accessible housing. The neighborhood also requests a sidewalk on 20th Road N. adjacent to N. Utah Street and further pedestrian improvements for walking to nearby schools like Washington-Lee High School and Glebe Elementary.

Arlington Agenda (Nov. 17-23)

By Ethan Rothstein

Published November 17, 2014 at 5:00AM

Arlington Agenda is a listing of interesting events for the week ahead in Arlington County. If you’d like to see your event featured, fill out the event submission form.

Also, be sure to check out our event calendar.

Tuesday

The Invisible Women in Arlington
Patrick Henry Elementary School Library (701 S. Highland Street)
Time: 7:00-9:00 p.m.

An informative program about homeless women in the county, with speeches by the executive directors of A-SPAN and Doorways. The free event is sponsored by Arlington Branch of American Association of University Women.

Thursday

Rock Spring Garden Club Floral Design Event*
National Rural Electric Cooperative Building (4301 Wilson Blvd)
Time: 6:30-9:00 p.m.

Designers from Company Flowers will be demonstrating easy techniques for beautiful displays, with door prizes and gift shopping. Tickets are $25. For more info, tickets, and registration, contact Renee Bayes at 703 241-2651.

Saturday

Live Music: Free Concert*
Rock Spring Congregational Church of Christ (5010 Little Falls Road)
Time: 10:30-11:30 a.m.

The IBIS chamber orchestra performs a free concert of Andre Caplet’s Conte Fantastique. The chamber features a harp, strings and Soprano Elizabeth Kluegel. Concert is free, but donations are encouraged.

Live Music: Hollertown
Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington (444 Arlington Blvd)
Time: 7:30-10:30 p.m.

Bluegrass band Hollertown plays a benefit show for Little Friends for Peace. Tickets are $10 to see the band that plays everything from bluegrass standards to Lady Gaga perform.

Sunday

Girls on the Run 5K*
1121 19th Street N.
Time: 8:30-11:00 a.m.

This family friendly 5K takes the participants along the Potomac River, starting and ending in Rosslyn. The event is aimed at girls, ages 8-13, to foster “self-respect” and healthy living. Register here.

Kinhaven 5k and Fun Run*
Bluemont Park South Shelter (325 N. Manchester Street)
Time: 9:00 a.m.-noon

A 5K and a 1K fun run to benefit the students of Kinhaven Preschool. The race goes along the W&OD trail with the families of Kinhaven cheering the runners on the whole way. Register here.

Arlington Bus Tour*
1805 S. Arlington Ridge Road
Time: 9:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

A bus tour of the sites of Arlington, including the Air Force Memorial, the Nauck neighborhood, the West Boundary Stone and the Ball-Sellers House. Tickets are $40 and are available online.

*Denotes featured (sponsored) event

#Arlington Agenda

Rosslyn ‘Corridor of Light’ Not Expected Until 2017

By Ethan Rothstein

Published November 14, 2014 at 4:40PM

Artist rendering of Rosslyn’s Corridor of Light project (image via Arlington Arts)

The “Corridor of Light” public art project that’s been discussed for six years is not expected to come to N. Lynn Street in Rosslyn for another three years, at the earliest.

The art will consist of 68 sculptures, lanterns and light fixtures by Venice, Calif.-based artist Cliff Garten. The pieces will be placed from the Lynn Street Esplanade over I-66, through the Central Place development, to the Meade Street bridge over Route 50.

The project will be constructed in three phases. Phase I will be at the Lynn Street Esplanade — the two-part intersection with Lee Highway that doubles as a bridge over I-66 — with four, 20-foot tall “luminous bodies” on each corner of the intersection. This phase of the project is expected to be complete in 2017, in conjunction with planned safety improvements for the “Intersection of Doom,” at one corner of the Esplanade, Arlington Cultural Affairs spokesman Jim Byers said.

Phase II consists of four, 26-foot tall luminous bodies — different in form from the ones in Phase I — at the corners of the 19th Street N. intersection, plus four at the corners of the Wilson Blvd, and five mid-block on Lynn Street in the Central Place development. There will also be 16-foot lanterns all along the block and illuminated bike racks and benches. This phase of the project is expected to be completed in 2017 along with the Central Place office and residential towers.

Phase III is largely the same in scope and look of Phase I, except on the Meade Street bridge. The $5 million renovation of the bridge, intended to make it more modern and pedestrian-friendly, is expected to be funded in 2019 as a joint project among the county, the National Park Service, which owns part of the land for the bridge, and the Virginia Department of Transportation. Phase III is expected to be complete and funded along with the construction.

When complete, the project is intended to tie together Lynn Street in its complete run through Rosslyn. The luminous bodies — giant, stainless steel structures with environmentally friendly lights — will be able to be programmed for different colors, and change with the seasons.

The project will be largely funded by JBG Companies’ contributions to the county’s public art fund, which were part of negotiations for extra density of the Central Place skyscrapers. Garten has already been paid design fees for Phase I and III, Byers said, but how much he has been paid was not made immediately available.

Garten spoke to the Washington Post in 2008, when the project was already being planned, and said he estimated he would need $750,000 to $1 million to complete the project.

“The next level of public art has to move to embrace the city at a large scale, which means to work with the city’s systems and infrastructure,” Garten told the Post. “That could be dealing with water systems. It could be sewer. It could be lighting infrastructure, as it is here.”

Arlington Nonprofit to Donate 100,000th Bicycle

By Ethan Rothstein

Published November 14, 2014 at 1:30PM

Arlington-based charity Bikes for the World, which takes used bikes and ships them to underprivileged communities around the world, will donate its 100,000th bicycle tomorrow.

The charity will send the bike as part of a shipment of 500 bicycles to Costa Rica, to be distributed to workers who use the bikes as part of their jobs in their rural economy, according to a Bikes of the World press release.

Bikes of the World has been sending bikes around the world, to places like the Philippines, Ghana and Afghanistan. The bikes help children get to school and help families climb out of poverty by providing reliable transportation. The bikes also provide jobs for people in the receiving countries, who get work reconditioning the bicycles once they arrive.

The 100,000th bike will be loaded into a shipping container tomorrow at noon at 1420 S. Eads Street as part of America Recycles Day. All of the bikes the nonprofit ships are donated by Americans in eight states and D.C., and recycled for their use internationally.

Image via Bikes for the World

Neighborhood Petitions to Save 200-Year-Old Tree

By Ethan Rothstein

Published November 14, 2014 at 11:00AM

Neighbors of a large oak tree on the corner of 27th Street N. and Nottingham Street are concerned that a new development will tear down their “champion tree.”

The tree, according to an online petition the neighbors have launched, is more than 200 years old and is the largest Wildenow’s Oak — a natural hybrid of a black oak and southern red oak — in Virginia. It’s on Arlington’s list of “Champion Trees.”

“Local naturalists have examined it and found it to be in excellent health,” the petition states. “In its long life, the tree has survived the widespread felling of Arlington’s trees during the Civil War and the neighborhood’s transformation from farms to a suburb dotted with neat rows of brick colonials, Cape Cods and ramblers.”

The lot on which the tree sits is slated to be redeveloped by DS Homes, a small construction company based in Manassas. When reached by ARLnow.com, DS Homes employee Manny Carneiro said “the plan right now is to save the tree.”

Nonetheless, Carneiro pointed out that the tree is on the lot and things could change. At the very least, DS Homes will have to trim some of the massive tree’s branches during construction, when it tears down the current home, built in 1950, for a new one. DS Homes bought the property to redevelop last month, according to Arlington County property records.

The online petition has 324 signatures as of 10:55 a.m. The petition’s organizers have a goal of 400 signatures.

Photo via iPetitions

More Arlington Residents Walking and Biking to Work, Researcher Says

By Ethan Rothstein

Published November 14, 2014 at 10:00AM

The way Arlington residents commute continues to change, with more working remotely than at any point in the last decade, according to a new study.

The study, tabulated in infographic form (left) by county-funded transit research organization Mobility Lab, used 2013 data to analyze the commuting habits of of 131,300 working Arlington residents and the 180,300 who work in the county.

According to the study, 7 percent of all commuting trips by Arlington residents are either on foot or with a bicycle, and 4 percent of Arlington workers report either walking or biking to work. While 7.4 percent of commuting trips were biking and walking in the previous study, conducted in 2010, Mobility Lab Research Director Stephen Crim told ARLnow.com that he believes the 576-resident sample did not represent the county’s changing commuting patterns.

“We looked at this in comparison to census figures, and the census is showing really strong growth [in walking and biking] between the 2013 community survey and the 2010 community survey,” Crim said, “so we think there is an increase, but the sample didn’t pick that up.”

The longer term trend is clear: in 2004, only 4 percent of county residents biked or walked to work, and only 2.8 percent arrived at their jobs in Arlington via bike or foot.

The number of Arlington residents that drive alone to work is virtually unchanged — from 55 percent in 2010 to 54 percent last year — and hasn’t decreased significantly over the last 10 years, despite local officials’ emphasis on the “Car Free Diet.” Crim said that transit advocates should not be discouraged, however.

“A few percentage points over that period I’d say is real progress,” he said. “For Arlington residents, it’s a kind of hard argument to make because a lot of them are not going that far to work. Satisfaction across all the different modes is about the same. It’s that much more difficult sometimes, to make the argument, when someone still owns a car to not use it for work. They might have to drive a short distance or not get on a crowded interstate, so it’s a real challenge for all of Arlington’s programs.”

Compared with other jurisdictions around the region, Arlington’s residents lag behind only the District’s in alternative modes of transportation to driving. The regional average for those who drive alone to work is close to 70 percent, but only 38 percent of D.C. residents drive solo to the office.

Arlington residents’ use of Metrorail took a slight dip, from its peak of 27 percent in 2010 to 26 percent last year. The number coincides with the region as a whole; according to Mobility Lab, Metro’s ridership has been in decline since 2009.

The biggest statistical shift in working patterns comes from employees teleworking. In 2004, only 13 percent of Arlington residents said they teleworked at any point during the week. In 2013, that number is 30 percent, with the respondents teleworking on average 1.3 days per week. In addition, 19 percent of Arlington residents said they can’t telework at their current job, but “could and would” if the option were available to them.

Image courtesy Mobility Lab

Just Listed in Arlington

Published November 14, 2014 at 5:00AM

Just Listed banner

Just Listed highlights Arlington properties that just came on the market within the past week. This feature is written and sponsored by Team Cathell, “Your Orange Line Specialists.”

It seems buyers got the memo that these great interest rates won’t last forever. This week buyers ratified 65 contracts in prices ranging from $113,000 to $2.45 million. That’s three straight weeks of ratified contracts numbering above 60.

Interest rates did tick up slightly, which may have prompted some fence-sitting buyers to commit and sign contracts. Interest rates for 30-year fixed loans are running 4-4.15 percent, up from the 3.97 percent rate of just two weeks ago.

Buyers are also realizing that there are some really good values in the market right now and that they can negotiate on price. Meanwhile, only 48 new listings came on the market this week in Arlington. Some 41 of those are priced below $900,000, most of them condos.

You can access all active listings in Arlington on the Cathell Team website.

#Just Listed

Lyon Park Residents Divided Over Community Center Funding Plan

By Ethan Rothstein

Published November 13, 2014 at 5:10PM

The Lyon Park Community Center is set to break ground on its million-dollar renovation next weekend, but the community is divided about plans to pay for the construction.

Last night, 265 Lyon Park residents attended a meeting of the Lyon Park Citizens Association — a record, according to LPCA President John Goldener — to vote on whether the community center should take out a $600,000 line of credit to help fund the renovation.

Put up as collateral for the bank: the park and community center itself.

After a spirited debate, 121 voted to let the Lyon Park Community Center Board of Governors take out the line of credit, with 114 voting to proceed with the renovations, funded only by donations. The LPCA has been fundraising for five years, according to treasurer Bill Anhut, but they have raised $450,000, far from the organization’s goal.

“It’s been apparent the costs were going to come in higher than we expected, and fundraising was lagging because the process was taking so long,” Anhut said. The LPCA has been discussing renovating the Lyon Park Community House, built in 1925, for more than a decade. “People were wondering if we were ever going to get to the point where we put the shovel in the ground.”

A group of residents has circulated a flyer in the last month asking residents to vote in the motion against taking out the line of credit. The flyer reads, in part:

“Repaying the loan will cost $680,000-$800,000, primarily from new donations, from YOU or else LYON PARK COULD BE LOST TO FORECLOSURE … the community center risks default and the bank could take over operations.”

Goldener said that scenario is “impossible.” In the deed to the park and community center — which is owned by the LPCA, meaning it’s owned by the residents of the neighborhood — it is stated that the property can only ever be a park and community center, Goldener said. Cardinal Bank, which approved the line of credit, knows that and has no intention of foreclosing.

Even if the LPCA can’t repay the loan, Anhut said, a few residents have volunteered to be guarantors on the loan, meaning if something changes with LPCA leadership and the association decides to stop making payments, the residents would step in to cover the expenses.

The only reason the bank asked for collateral, Anhut said, was to protect its investment and prevent the LPCA from getting more money from another bank.

“The bank proceeded with the loan and understands they can’t look to the property to satisfy any default,” Anhut said. “The bank knows that if they were to foreclose on this property, the deed has a stipulation that it will forever remain a park. It cannot be changed.”

The flyer passed out also suggests undergoing a more modest renovation with the cash on hand, asking “why can’t a sunroom be built in a second phase?”

Goldener dismissed the notion that the renovations are more than the facility needs.

“There’s a misperception that the cost of this is a gold-plated facility and it’s not,” he said. “The reason it’s expensive is because we have to do completely redo all the plumbing, electrical, ADA accessible entry, exits and handicapped bathrooms, and the kitchen’s a commercial kitchen, so all of the costs are essentially triple what they would be for a home renovation.”

Goldener said the community has run a number of financial models, and the LPCA anticipates “easily” paying back the sum of the loan, with interest, within 10 years. The citizens association will also continue to fundraise during the renovations, and the organization will only dip into the line of credit when it runs out of cash on hand, Anhut said. When the renovations are complete, donations and rental fees will combine to go toward paying back the credit.

Lyon Park is holding a groundbreaking ceremony for the renovations on Saturday, Nov. 22, at 4:00 p.m. The community center is located at 414 N. Fillmore Street. The renovations are expected be complete by next summer

Photo courtesy John Goldener

Arlington Snow Crews to Plow Trails This Winter

By Ethan Rothstein

Published November 13, 2014 at 3:45PM

Starting this winter, Arlington County says it will be the first jurisdiction in the D.C. metro area to have a comprehensive policy of clearing some mixed-use trails during snowstorms.

The county announced today that it will start clearing 10 miles of trails at the same time as priority arterial roads. The Department of Parks and Recreation has cleared trails around the county before, but this will be the first time the highly-used trails will be plowed during and immediately after snowstorms.

The trails that will be cleared are:

5.2 miles of the Custis Trail, from the W&OD Trail to N. Lynn Street
2.25 miles of the Four Mile Run Trail from Reagan National Airport to Shirlington Road
1.25 miles of the Bluemont Junction Trail from Fairfax Drive in Ballston to the W&OD Trail
and 0.4 miles of the Route 110 trail from the Iwo Jima Memorial to Arlington National Cemetery

The county does not own two of the most highly-used trails in Arlington — the W&OD Trail and the Mount Vernon Trail. The Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority owns the W&OD and the National Park Service owns the Mount Vernon Trail. For updates during snow storms on the status of those and other trails around the county, cyclists and walkers should refer to the BikeArlington forums, the county says.

The county’s Dept. of Environmental Services is also starting a pilot program this winter to clear the county’s protected bike lanes of snow using specialized equipment. As more protected bike lanes come to the county — such lanes are in the design phase for S. Eads Street in Crystal City — DES is requesting more funding for the program for future winters.

According to WashCycle, a protected bike lane could be also coming to Wilson Blvd between Rosslyn and Courthouse. The bike advocacy blog says the cycle track is “in design and evaluation right now.”

Residents can monitor the progress of snow removal from roadways around the county by visiting Arlington’s snow and ice website, which has links to view the 83 traffic cameras around the county, and posts updates during snow removal processes.

DES received a $300,000 budget boost from the County Board this past spring, earmarked to allow trail plowing, according to the Washington Post. Cyclists represent about 1 percent of those who commute to or from work in Arlington County, survey data shows.

Arlington County has 92 drivers and 46 trucks among its snow-clearing resources. The drivers received computer-based simulator training to prepare for this winter season and potential safety hazards, the county said in a press release.

This winter, weather forecasters are predicting colder temperatures and more snow than normal.

File photo