Police responding to a telephone threat against The Children’s School (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Map showing approximate location of shooting (via Google Maps)
Police on scene of possible shooting (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Police on scene of possible shooting (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Police on scene of possible shooting (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Police on scene of possible shooting (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
(Updated at 11:20 p.m.) Arlington County police are investigating a possible shooting in the Ashton Heights neighborhood near Ballston.
The investigation seems to be centered around the intersection of N. Piedmont Street and 5th Street N., about two blocks from Mosaic Park to the north and the Buckingham Center shopping strip to the south.
The gunfire happened around 3:45 p.m. Multiple people called 911 to report hearing 2-3 shots fired and seeing an SUV fleeing from the scene, along with a man fleeing on foot, according to scanner traffic.
So far no injuries have been reported, but officers say they found some broken glass, potentially from the SUV’s back window.
POLICE ACTIVITY: At approximately 3:45 p.m., police were dispatched to the 500 block of N. Piedmont Street for the report of shots fired. No injuries have been reported. Expect continued police presence in the area. pic.twitter.com/6Dzr59rnIW
Arlington County is applying for $15 million in federal funding to improve cycling and walking connections around Arlington National Cemetery.
The money would partially fund the construction of a long-proposed Arlington National Cemetery (ANC) Wall Trail along Washington Blvd, which would connect Columbia Pike and the Pentagon City area with Memorial Avenue and the Arlington Memorial Bridge into D.C.
The Arlington County Board is scheduled to review the application on Saturday.
“The ANC Wall Trail will provide a missing link in the County and regional non-motorized network that will complete a bicycle and pedestrian connection between all three of the County’s major development corridors,” the county says in a report.
Right now, the cemetery is an “effective barrier to demand for non-motorized travel to and across Memorial Bridge,” according to the county, as security concerns after 9/11 led the Department of Defense to prohibit travel through the burial grounds.
The trail would run along the western side of Washington Blvd from Columbia Pike to Memorial Drive. Currently, there is a trail on the other side of Washington Blvd, a highway also known as State Route 27, but it gets dicey near Memorial Circle for pedestrians and cyclists looking to access the nearby Mt. Vernon Trail or cross into D.C.
Renderings of Arlington National Cemetery expansion and Columbia Pike reconfiguration project (via National Capital Planning Commission)
The Columbia Pike interchange with Washington Blvd is set to be modified as part of the ANC Defense Access Roads Project, which will also move Columbia Pike closer to I-395, realign S. Joyce Street, build a new S. Nash Street connector road, and remove part of Southgate Road.
This work, funded by the federal government and managed by the Federal Highway Administration, will facilitate the addition of 70 acres to the southern portion of the cemetery, making room for 60,000 burial sites and space for the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial Visitor Education Center.
Road work is underway, and early next year, road users can expect to be redirected from the Pike to side streets near Pentagon City. The new burial ground could open in late 2025.
New cycling and pedestrian facilities and grading for the connection to the future ANC Wall Trail are also included in the project. Part of its scope includes designing the trail, for which Arlington County agreed to pay $500,000.
The county expects final designs to be developed over the next year or so. The overall cost of the trail is estimated at $25 million.
Once the wall trail is built, cyclists and pedestrians will be able to connect to Pentagon City via S. Joyce Street at the southern end of the ANC Wall Trail. It will allow safer bike and pedestrian travel between Pentagon City and Columbia Pike to D.C. and the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor.
North of Memorial Avenue, cyclists and pedestrians would be able to link up to the existing trail alongside Route 110, which provides a connection to the Iwo Jima Memorial, to Rosslyn, and to the larger network of bicycle and pedestrian trails along the R-B corridor, the county says.
The $15 million, if awarded, would come from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s “Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity” (RAISE) program, which has $1.5 billion earmarked to reimburse localities for surface transportation projects.
The Transportation Department caps awards at $25 million, and one state can receive no more than $225 million. Awards must be split evenly between urban and rural areas.
There is a “low likelihood of a funding award compared with other external transportation capital funding programs,” the county report notes.
Arlington applied last year and was denied funding — along with every other application from Virginia, according to the report. Staff will be meeting with federal transportation staff to understand why and plan to use that information for the new application.
The location of the dredging, with target areas encircled (via Google Maps)
Arlington County plans to dredge stretches of the Four Mile Run and lower Long Branch Creek channels to alleviate potential flooding.
The project targets sections of the waterways near Mt. Vernon Avenue, bordering the City of Alexandria, where U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) determined soil deposit levels were “unacceptable” for stormwater management.
The Arlington County Board is slated to review the project this Saturday.
The USACE inspection determined the channel had “excessive shoaling” due to shallow water depths. Dredging the soil deposits will address this shoaling and ensure the channel can handle large, once-in-a-century floods, the county says.
As part of the project, erosion damage and degraded stream conditions will also be repaired and debris and vegetation will be cleared. Construction is slated to begin in September and last until February, according to a project webpage.
The maintenance work “addresses maintenance of the Four Mile Run streambed that is required by the USACE, would help alleviate flooding along the Long Branch Tributary and would not significantly change any facilities, program or services provided to the community,” per a county report.
The entire project will take four to six months, Department of Environmental Services spokeswoman Aileen Winquest tells ARLnow. For one month, while work on the Lower Long Branch channel takes place, some access to Troy Park will be limited.
“While the dredging work in Lower Long Branch is underway, there will be a small area at the end of Troy Park (closest to Glebe Road) that will be closed because it will be used for accessing the stream,” Winquist said. “There will be parking restrictions near that end of the park. The majority of the park will remain open and accessible.”
There will be a public meeting about the project in May, she said.
Arlington and the City of Alexandria worked with the USACE to design and build a flood-control channel in this portion of Four Mile Run — not far from where the creek meets the Potomac River — in response to repeated flooding that began in the 1940s. The channel, dubbed the Four Mile Run East and West Levee System, was built between 1974 and 1984. USACE inspects the levee every year to see how well it’s being maintained.
Arlington County will pay for the $5 million project and will receive partial reimbursement from the City of Alexandria, leaving the county on the hook for $2.88 million.
Clarendon Sector Plan update area (via Arlington County)
The Joyce Motors building in Clarendon (via Arlington County)
The Lot in Clarendon (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Clarendon (file photo)
Updates to a 14-year-old plan guiding future development in Clarendon are entering the home stretch.
This Saturday, the Arlington County Board is slated to authorize public hearings on the Clarendon Sector Plan update, which could culminate in a vote on whether to accept the updated plan on April 23. The county is also still seeking feedback on the updates.
The update did not revisit any of the 2006 plan’s overarching goals, which envision Clarendon as an “urban village” with “accessible and connected spaces, and a rich mix of uses” that build on the area’s historical commercial focus, according to the county.
Instead, the updates focused on whether the 14-year-old plan’s recommendations for specific sites needed to be updated as new proposals come in. It provides guidance on land use, building heights and forms, and transportation, and explores how the county can redevelop a parcel it owns with some combination of a new fire station, open space and affordable housing.
Members of nearby civic associations, the Planning Commission and the Housing Commission are urging the county to prioritize different elements on the publicly-owned site, located at 10th Street N., between N. Hudson and Irving streets.
The lot is currently is home to three aging county buildings: Fire Station 4 (3121 10th St. N), the Fire Prevention Office (1020 N. Hudson St.) and Clarendon House, which has been vacant since the county moved the mental health rehab program run by the Department of Human Services to Sequoia Plaza (2120 Washington Blvd) in 2015.
Both Fire Station 4 and the Fire Prevention Office — home to the offices of the Fire Marshal and Battalion Chief — have reached the end of their useful life, the plan says. The Fire Prevention Office building will be relocated to county offices at 2020 14th Street N. in Courthouse while Fire Station 4 could be rebuilt on the same property or elsewhere.
Fire Station 4 and the Fire Prevention Office (via Google Maps)
The Planning Commission favors using the land for a blend of government and community facilities, such as a rooftop public space above a proposed fire station.
Ashton Heights Civic Association President Scott Sklar writes in a letter to the county that neighbors envision “a significant, unique playground for children from the new residential buildings, along with some basketball, racquet or pickleball courts in the space adjacent to the fire station, as it would be centrally located to serve Clarendon and nearby residents.”
Lastly, the Housing Commission would like to see affordable housing co-located at the site, as the sector plan area has only 82 committed affordable housing units — the lowest number in the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor, says Housing Commission Chair Eric Berkey said in a letter to the county.
“The Commission stated the priority should not be to provide luxurious amenities to those who live in single-family detached homes, but rather to provide homes to those who cannot afford them,” Berkey said. “Anything other than a structure which utilizes the full zoned height maximum would be a missed opportunity for the County-owned land.”
Covid cases in Arlington on 3/17/22 (via Virginia Dept. of Health)
If you haven’t received a Covid vaccine booster shot yet, expect a call or text message from the state health department.
Arlington residents started getting the reminders from the Virginia Dept. of Health this week, at a time when the local decline in Covid cases is showing signs of bottoming out.
The seven-day moving average of cases has risen modestly over the past week or two, from a low of 24 cases per day on March 8 to about 35 cases per day today.
The county’s test positivity rate has continued to fall, however, reaching 3.2% today, the lowest point since late November. And Arlington is still well within the CDC’s new definition of a “low” level of disease, under which the federal agency recommends making masks optional.
Arlington Public Schools, meanwhile, has reported 54 positive tests among students over the past week, equal to the number of cases over the previous seven-day period. Most of the newer APS cases are in the 22207 zip code of North Arlington, with Nottingham Elementary School, Williamsburg Middle School, Yorktown High School and Jamestown Elementary School reporting the highest number of cases weekly cases.
Covid cases in Arlington Public Schools, by zip code (via APS)
No Covid-related deaths have been reported in Arlington over the past week. There is renewed concern, however, about the long-term implications of even mild cases of Covid, with articles published over the past week or so citing new research about loss of brain matter and cognitive decline among those who contracted the disease.
The message will read: “Virginia Department of Health records indicate you are eligible for a Booster COVID-19 vaccine. For walk-in clinic times and appointments, visit https://www.arlingtonva.us/COVID-19 or call our COVID-19 hotline at 703-228-7999. Please disregard this message if you have already received your Booster.”
The message will also be sent in Spanish.
COVID-19 vaccine boosters are recommended for everyone age 12 years or older who completed their primary series of Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines at least five months ago. If you received the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine at least two months ago, you are eligible to receive a booster. If you are moderately or severely immunocompromised and received three doses of Pfizer or Moderna at least three months ago, you, too, are eligible for a booster shot.
Arlington residents who are eligible for COVID-19 booster shots will receive the texts and calls. These voice or text messages are legitimate messages, not a hoax or scam. VDH will use contact information provided during your initial appointment sign up.
Not everyone will be contacted at first, and individuals do not need to wait for this notification to get a vaccine booster. To find a vaccine location near you, visit vaccines.gov, walk-in to one of the County’s clinics, or call our COVID-19 hotline at 703-228-7999.
Firefighters rescued three dogs from a house fire in Arlington early this morning.
The fire broke out shortly before 1 a.m. at a home on N. Kensington Street, just north of Langston Blvd in the Leeway Overlee neighborhood.
The house filled with smoke after a fire in the dishwasher, according to scanner traffic. The residents made it out okay but told arriving first responders that their three dogs were still inside. Firefighters searched the house and were able to find each dog one-by-one, apparently in different parts of the house.
No people nor pets were hurt, the Arlington County Fire Department said this morning.
“Smoke alarms SAVE LIVES!” the fire department said on Twitter.
(2/2) Crews quickly extinguished the fire and were able to locate and remove all 3 dogs. Occupants were alerted to the fire by their smoke alarms. There were no civilian, pet, or firefighter injuries. Smoke alarms SAVE LIVES! More Information: https://t.co/4tewzJh95d
A long row of Capital Bikeshare bicycles in Rosslyn (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
A new bike share station is potentially coming to Virginia Hospital Center, perhaps as soon as this summer.
At the County Board meeting on Saturday, members will vote on an agreement to install a Capital Bikeshare station at 1800 N. Edison Street in the Halls Hill neighborhood, where construction is currently ongoing to expand Virginia Hospital Center.
The agreement between the county and the hospital will grant permission to Arlington to install, operate, and maintain the station for at least a decade. It also asks VHC to pay $35,000 for the station’s installation and $17,300 annually for operational and maintenance costs.
The station could be installed by this summer if the agreement passes, a county spokesperson tells ARLnow. Since it’s listed as a consent item on Saturday’s agenda, it can be reasonably assumed the agreement will be approved.
The idea for a Bikeshare station at that location was first proposed to the neighborhood civic association way back in 2016, according to the Board report. At the time, the association’s members had no issue with the proposal.
Capital Bikeshare stations are owned by D.C. area localities and operated in partnership with the CaBi program, which is now a part of Lyft.
“Capital Bikeshare is a popular bike-sharing system in the Metropolitan D.C. Region,” reads the Board report. “Recognizing this trend, Arlington County Commuter Services has partnered with MetroBike in the continued development of a network of strategically-placed bike-sharing stations in various locations around the county. This bike-sharing partnership promotes the ideals of ‘car-free’ transportation, a healthy lifestyle and environmental stewardship.”
In recent years, more and more bike share stations have popped up around Arlington. There are now currently 104 Capital Bikeshare stations in operation in the county, a spokesperson says.
Construction is coming along on the 245,000 square-foot outpatient facility and parking garage adjacent to Virginia Hospital Center’s existing campus. It is expected to be completed in late 2023.
Looking at the Key Bridge and Rosslyn (Flickr pool photo by Jeff Vincent)
Obit for a Local Legend — “John T. ‘Til’ Hazel Jr., a Virginia lawyer and developer who played a crucial role in building the Capital Beltway and transforming Northern Virginia from a rural outpost of Washington into an economic powerhouse, died March 15 at his home… He was a force behind the rise to prominence of GMU, acquiring land and lobbying for a school of law in Arlington, Va.” [Washington Post, Virginia Business]
County Holding Covid Remembrance — “The County Board invites members of our community to join in remembering Arlington neighbors who have lost their lives to COVID-19 over the past two years… Saturday, March 19, 2022 | 02:00 PM.” [Arlington County]
Repeated Thefts from Courthouse CVS — “The male suspect entered into the business, went behind the counter and attempted to open the cash register before being confronted by an employee. The suspect then walked through the store and stole a beverage and food items before leaving. The suspect then reentered and exited the business two more times, stealing more beverages and food items in the process. During his third entry into the business, the suspect was confronted by an employee and attempted to throw a beverage at a witness who approached him. The suspect then fled the scene on foot but returned a short time later and was taken into custody by responding officers.” [ACPD]
Beyer Blasts Plane Plan — “Congressman Don Beyer (D-VA), Representative of Northern Virginia and member of the Quiet Skies Caucus, today wrote to the heads of the U.S. Secret Service and the Federal Aviation Administration seeking a halt to procedural changes for regional airplane flight patterns. Beyer’s letter noted that the because the changes were not preceded by an environmental review process and were implemented just before a major drop-off in flights caused by the pandemic, their impact on noise levels in the region is just starting to be felt in full for the first time now.” [Press Release]
It’s St. Patrick’s Day — Rain in the morning and afternoon. High of 57 and low of 50. Sunrise at 7:18 am and sunset at 7:18 pm. [Weather.gov]
Historically, the school has kept a menagerie of animals for students interested in pursuing careers in animal care and veterinary science, including a miniature horse, goats, cats, dogs, turtles and birds. Today, the program serves about 120 students.
Since the deaths of “Rocket” in 2021 and the miniature horse “Snickers” in 2020, however, Arlington Public Schools administrators have denied requests to adopt new large animals.
APS says this is because it is updating the Animal Science program as part of the planned renovations to the Career Center. Farm animals will no longer figure into the program because they are not required to teach the four courses that will be offered: Small Animal Care I and II and Veterinary Science I and II.
“We are in the planning process to modernize the Small Animal Science and Veterinary Science lab to ensure the lab mirrors local industry facilities,” APS spokesman Frank Bellavia said in a statement. “Students will continue to learn about and care for small animals in a modern lab that reflects industry-based standards and practices.”
The new space will feature improved work areas for students and staff and better housing, grooming stations and exam areas for animals, he said.
But students are petitioning APS and pleading with the School Board to keep large animals. A petition that started last year has regained steam and, as of this morning, has just shy of 2,600 signatures.
“The lack of farm animals would take away the experience that students would need to prepare them for going into college,” writes Washington-Liberty High School student Ellen Boling in the petition. “It could also lower the interest of incoming students in the course, which would result in fewer people to care for the animals.”
W-L senior Sean Bender-Prouty told the School Board in the fall that farm animals are critical for college readiness. He said the future Career Center redevelopment plans are hurting the students currently in the program.
“The potential loss of that space in the future is being used to deny students access to large animals now,” he said during the Oct. 14 meeting. “If you decide to redevelop the site and take away our green space, students may be permanently denied the opportunity to gain necessary experience with large animals.”
Bender-Prouty’s prediction has been a few years in the making. Officials have mulled ending the large animal component of the program since 2019, when it moved eight trailers onto the animals’ grazing space to accommodate an influx of students. This prompted APS to “reimagine that program for a more urban setting,” Bellavia said at the time.
The decision mystifies Animal Science instructor Scott Lockhart, who says large animals gain students entry to a job sector that is booming, given the shortage of large animal vets in the U.S.
“The number of jobs and pathways is being reduced tremendously,” Lockhart tells ARLnow. “We’ve always taken a wide view of animal sciences and now we’re reducing that to small animal care. It does have an impact on students and what we’re trying to prepare them for.”
The Enjoy Arlington 2022 spring catalogue (via Arlington County)
Waitlists, error messages and a call line 90 people deep thwarted Arlington residents’ attempts to enroll in spring classes through the parks department this morning (Wednesday).
The Department of Parks and Recreation offers a variety of classes in the spring, fall and winter that range from gymnastics and swimming to ceramics and jewelry making. The classes for kids are particularly popular with local parents. And registration day system failures — like those from opening day of summer camp registration — are not new for these classes, either.
Some compared the registration process to “getting front row Bruce Springsteen tickets” — to wit, “stressful and horrible.” Others likened it to the summer camp sign-up drama three weeks ago.
This happens every time. It just happened with summer camps. It is truly inequitable that parents are expected to spend 60-90 minutes while the system times out to access these classes. You have to fix this.
After summer camp registration crashed immediately upon opening the morning of Feb. 23 — despite attempts to beef up the platform in advance — parks department spokeswoman Susan Kalish said the platform vendor conducted “tests and improvements that should have resulted in a smooth registration” on Wednesday morning.
That did not happen.
“This morning, Arlington County’s Department of Parks and Recreation saw slower than desired response times for the spring ENJOY Arlington class registration,” she said. “Even though we staggered class registration start times and limited user search capabilities, our vendor’s registration system could not handle the high registration volume.”
While the number of people competing for spots was high, it was still on par with prior first-day enrollments, she said.
Registration opened for gymnastics classes at 7 a.m., aquatics classes at 7:30 a.m., and all other classes at 8 a.m. Residents reported struggling to get their preferences despite having their fingers poised over their keyboards ahead of time.
DPR encouraged people to call the office for assistance with registration. The line was quickly swamped with callers, and while they waited, the online platform timed people out.
The line had 79 people on hold when I tried & I was booted out of the online system at least a dozen times before I gave up. Friends report the same. This system is failing working parents and all but ensures those most in need of affordable options for their kids won’t get it.
Those looking to enroll in just one class said even that was impossible.
Tried to register exactly at 8 am. Only wanted 1 class. Constant error messages. Called help line. 90th in line. 40 minutes later was told over the phone we were waitlisted. System thought we were non-arlington residents even though our account address was in arlington. Very mad
Following today’s issues, some repeated their calls on the parks department to fix the system, or change it to a lottery process. Under that system, parents would not have to wake up early and register at lightning speed, but it would add uncertainty to their kids’ schedules.
An unscientific ARLnow poll found 41% of respondents support a lottery system, while 58% said DPR ought to keep the current process but get better technology or a new vendor. At least one resident suggested Arlington look to the tech giant Amazon, currently building its second headquarters in Pentagon City.
Last month, Board Chair Katie Cristol issued a statement responding to and echoing parent frustrations with the process for getting into camp. She said the Board told County Manager Mark Schwartz and department leaders it expects a “full reform of registration.”
She reiterated those sentiments in a statement to ARLnow Wednesday morning.
“We’re disappointed and frustrated, and this highlights the need for the total redesign of the registration process to which DPR has committed,” she said of today’s issues.
DPR will start reviewing its processes and solutions this spring, Kalish said.
A plan for improvements to next year’s registration process could be ready by September, DPR’s Director Jane Rudolph told the County Board yesterday (Tuesday) during a work session on the upcoming 2022-23 budget.
She told the Board that preventing future breakdowns “is our highest department-wide priority.”
The timeline for DPR’s review of registration (via Arlington County)
“As we know, the issue goes beyond just a technology solution,” she said. “We have a high demand and not enough supply for certain camps and for certain age groups.”
DPR is looking into increasing slots where demand is greatest: options for older toddlers and elementary school-aged kids, as well as sports and robotics programs, Rudolph said.
House that caught fire in Maywood (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
House that caught fire in Maywood (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
A farmhouse-style home in Arlington’s Maywood Historic District was damaged by fire last night (Tuesday).
The home along 21st Avenue N. was built in 1910, according to a real estate listing from 2018. The listing mentions “vintage features” and “lavish woodwork.”
The fire broke out in the kitchen of the home just before 11 p.m., according to fire department dispatches.
“Crews arrived on scene shortly after dispatch and confirmed a working fire in a single family dwelling,” Arlington County Fire Department spokesman Capt. Nate Hiner tells ARLnow. “The fire was quickly extinguished and there were no injuries to civilians or firefighters. The cause, origin, and damage estimates won’t be available until the Fire Marshal concludes their investigation.”
Scorch marks could be seen on the front of the home this morning, as fire line tape surrounded the property.
While the flames were extinguished relatively quickly, a neighbor tells ARLnow that acrid smoke filled the Maywood neighborhood during the fire. Scanner traffic from last night also suggests that the home’s balloon frame construction prompted firefighters to work more aggressively to ensure that the fire did not spread to other parts of the house.
Another Maywood house was damaged by fire in March 2020.
