News

Donaldson Run Water Advisory Lifted

By Heather Mongilio

Signs line the Donaldson Run trail.

An advisory warning to people to avoid contact with water from Donaldson Run has been lifted.

The advisory was put into place on July 11 after sewage from a broken pipe leaked into the stream by Military Drive. Two additional leaks followed three days later, causing the county to issue another advisory.

The first leak spewed 4,500 gallons of sewage. The second leak released 9,000 gallons and the third had 11,250 gallons, county spokeswoman Meghan McMahon said.

The sewage in the water was naturally flushed out and the county fixed the broken pipe, as well as the protective casing around it.

The county recently tested the water downstream from the break for E. Coli and found normal levels, according to a county press release.

Although there is no more sewage in the water, people should still never drink or bathe in stream water, according to the county. Residents should also always wash their hands after coming in contact with water from local streams.

ACPD Seeks Help in Finding Sexual Assault Suspect

By Heather Mongilio

Alleged rape suspect (Courtesy of ACPD)The Arlington County Police Department is seeking a man suspected of sexually assaulting a 25-year-year old woman in Courthouse.

The suspect allegedly forced the woman into bushes near the corner of 15th Street N. and N. Scott Street early Saturday morning. The woman was able to kick the man in the groin and fight him off after he grabbed at her pants, police say.

A sketch artist worked with the victim to produce a sketch of the suspect. He is described as a Hispanic man weighing between 150 to 175 pounds and is between 5’6 and 5’8 feet tall. He was last seen wearing a white t-shirt and jeans and has an athletic build.

Anyone with information can call Detective Robert Icolari at 703-228-4240 or email him at [email protected]. Anyone with information who wishes to remain anonymous can call 866-411-TIPS (8477) to leave a tip with Arlington County Crime Solvers.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Ballston as seen from the top floor of an office building

Fire Station Relocation May Go to Voters — A controversial plan to relocate Fire Station 8 from Lee Highway and the Hall’s Hill neighborhood to a locale further north, in order to improve response times, could be put to voters. Opponents may push for a stand-alone bond issue for construction of the new fire station, which would put it on the ballot. The idea was floated during a well-attended community meeting on the fire station relocation plan last night. [InsideNova]

North vs. South Swimming Pool Divide? — Swimming has always been a significant part of life in Arlington, but current pool options are tilted toward north Arlington, says Our Man in Arlington columnist Charlie Clark. Building the stalled Long Bridge Park aquatics center could help alleviate the divide, Clark reasons. [Falls Church News-Press]

Arlington Family Kicked off Flight — An Arlington family was kicked off a JetBlue flight from Boston to Baltimore on Monday, reportedly because of a squirming two year old and FAA regulations. [WUSA 9]

DCA Screeners Find Two Guns in Two Days — Screeners at Reagan National Airport found two guns in carry-on baggage over the course of two days this week. The two men who had the guns in their bags are now facing weapons charges. [WJLA]

I-395 Exit to Close Temporarily — The exit from northbound I-395 to Washington Blvd will close overnight Sunday and Monday for paving and lane striping, VDOT says. [Patch]

Marymount Volleyball Coach Competes as a Pro Player

By Heather Mongilio
1/3

The volleyball coach at Marymount University knows a thing or two about the sport. Off the court, he’s a professional player, himself.

This summer, coach Hudson Bates will compete in pro beach volleyball tournaments in Seattle, Los Angeles and Chicago, according to a university press release. In between competitions, Bates will also be gearing up for the next volleyball season at Marymount.

“It keeps me busy,” Bates said. “I usually go from playing in a beach tournament over the weekend to recruiting at an indoor club tournament during the week.”

Bates is the university’s first men’s volleyball coach. The program was started three years ago and Bates was hired a month before the first season started.

“We had to scramble to put a roster together from nothing,” he said. “They called us the Bad News Bears. But I got hooked up with a couple of players. We found a few who were already here who had played in high school. We even had a few who had never played before.”

The first year, the team ended with a 9-20 record. Last year, they went 14-20, but this year Bates has high hopes, he said.

“Getting those wins is just like a drug,” he said. “It keeps you going back for more.”

Bates started off as an indoor volleyball player, playing  in college at George Mason University. After graduation, he spent two years as an assistant coach for the school, while also training with the USA National Team. Bates has also played professional volleyball in Puerto Rico and Qatar.

Back and knee pain forced him off of the indoor court and outdoors onto the beach.

“Now I like playing on the nice, soft sand,” he said.

Despite the pain from playing indoors, Bates will often demonstrate moves for his players and join them in practice. This helps the players to learn, said Tomasz Ksiazkiewicz, a junior volleyball player at Marymount.

“We always talk about leading by example and Coach Bates always lives up to that rule,” Ksiazkiewicz said. “I have never seen him take days off either at the gym, court, or his office. If you see him around he’s always working on something or helping others out.”

Public Meeting Scheduled on I-66 HOV Lanes, Tolls

By Heather Mongilio

Traffic on I-66

(Updated on 7/31/15) The Virginia Department of Transportation is going back to Arlington residents to hear their concerns about its planned Transform 66 project.

Del. Patrick Hope organized a public meeting featuring representatives from VDOT on Saturday at Arlington Central Library auditorium (1015 N. Quincy Street) from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. to discuss the proposed changes to the highway inside the Beltway.

The planned features include turning the HOV lanes on I-66 between Rosslyn and I-495 into to High Occupancy Travel (HOT) lanes during weekday peak periods. These lanes would be open for anyone with three or more passengers or those who are willing to pay a toll. The new lanes would also not accept Clean Fuel license plates issued before 2006 as a way to avoid the toll.

The idea is to “deliver free-flowing and more reliable travel,” according to VDOT, but some Arlington residents have spoken out against the changes. Arlington residents packed into the library’s auditorium in June to hear from VDOT staff about changes. A lengthy Q&A period followed with many residents expressing their displeasure toward the proposed changes. County Board member John Vihstadt was also in attendance.

Attendees raised concerns about the amount of traffic that would be redirected to Arlington streets as a result of the lane changes. Others proposed that VDOT allow Arlington residents to use the HOT lanes for free since they were supposedly paying for the changes without getting any benefits.

An Arlington resident has also started a group to oppose the changes. The 66 Alliance had 350 members as of June 17.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Line at Pedro and Vinny's on Columbia Pike

ITT Tech Protest Only Included One Student — A protest outside ITT Tech’s shareholder meeting in Rosslyn earlier this week reportedly included only one person who had actually been a student at the for-profit school. The rest were from advocacy groups and a labor union. [Inside Higher Ed]

New Food Delivery Service Comes to Arlington — DoorDash, an online food delivery business that promises to get food to your door in 45 minutes or less, has launched in Arlington. DoorDash joins similar food delivery services like Seamless and Eat24 in entering the Arlington market. [WUSA 9]

Arlington Teacher Recognized at the White House — Arlington Career Center teacher Thomas O’Day was one of 10 educators nationwide to be honored as a 2015 Career and Technical Education Innovator. O’Day, who has been teaching television production at the career center for 27 years, received his recognition at an event hosted by the White House. [Arlington Public Schools]

New Affordable Housing Video — The group Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement (VOICE) is producing a series of videos in support of affordable housing efforts in Arlington. The first video profiles Marcos Rubio, a janitor at H-B Woodlawn who currently commutes from the Springfield area. [Vimeo]

House Fire in Alcova Heights — A small house fire broke out on the 3800 block of 6th Street S. in the Alcova Heights neighborhood around 7:00 this morning. The fire was extinguished and no one was hurt. [Twitter]

Fairfax County Approves Seven Corners Plan — The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors this week approved a sweeping redevelopment plan for the Seven Corners area, near Arlington. The plan, which was fought by residents in nearby single family home neighborhoods, calls for several thousand new homes, a revamped street grid and new shops and restaurants. [Washington Post]

New Grant to Help Keep People With Mental Illness Out of Jail

By Heather Mongilio

CIT Logo via Arlington CountyArlington’s Department of Human Services will now be able to staff its Mental Health Crisis Intervention Center around the clock thanks to a state grant.

DHS received a $222,225 grant, from the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Development Services, to hire a mental health therapist and a human services specialist, according to a County Board report. The new positions will help keep the Crisis Intervention Center staffed 24 hours a day instead of having on-call staff, said Kurt Larrick, a spokesman with DHS.

“Live coverage is critical in providing individuals in mental health crisis with timely access to services, assessments and treatment, and it helps ensure that law enforcement officers are able to return to service in a timely manner,” according to the Board report.

Police officers will drop off people they suspect have serious mental illnesses at the Crisis Intervention Center, where staff can help connect them with needed services, helping those with possible mental illness to get help instead of jail time.

The center is part of the Crisis Intervention Team, a partnership between DHS and the Arlington County Police Department to help train officers in handling those with suspected mental illnesses and combating mental health stigma.

As of July 23, more than half of ACPD officers were trained to be part of CIT. The training also extends to airport and Pentagon police, as well as other police forces in Northern Virginia and D.C., according to the CIT website.

While CIT has received funding before, this time it had to apply for the grant, Larrick said.

“We have received funding support from the state for this program in the past, but in this instance it was a competitive grant for which we applied and were chosen based on the merits of our program,” he said.

The Crisis Intervention Center has already seen success. There was a 19 percent increase of people brought to the center instead of jail from 2012 to 2014, and the county saves about $5,620 per person with a serious mental illness by keeping them out of jail, according to the Board report.

“Allowing people with serious mental illness to receive treatment in the community as opposed to in a correctional setting, where they are unnecessarily criminalized, results in improved outcomes for the individual in crisis and significant cost savings,” according to the report.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Air Force Memorial (Flickr pool photo by Brian Irwin)

Justice Dept. Investigating Arlington Jail — The Justice Department has launched an investigation into treatment of deaf inmates at the Arlington County Detention Center. That follows a lawsuit by a deaf inmate who said he was not given access to a sign language interpreter during a six-week stay at the jail. [Associated Press]

Deer Takes the Stage at Signature Theatre — A deer wandered onto the stage at Signature Theatre in Shirlington on Tuesday. The deer apparently entered through a loading dock while crews were working on the set for an upcoming production. [NBC Washington]

‘Most Wanted’ Deadbeats — The Arlington Sheriff’s Office is making a push to promote a program for tracking down “deadbeat parents” who are late on child support payments. Many of the addresses on file for deadbeat parents are no longer valid, so deputies have taken to finding the offenders on social media. [Connection Newspapers]

Flickr pool photo by Brian Irwin

Downed Power Line Knocks Out Power in South Arlington

By Heather Mongilio
1/4

A downed power line at S. Chesterfield Road and S. Columbus Street has knocked out power to parts of South Arlington and Alexandria this afternoon.

As of 3:35 p.m., more than 1,200 Dominion customers are reported to be without power in the area. Among the reported outages are homes in the Claremont neighborhood, Claremont Elementary and Wakefield High School, the DMV on Four Mile Run Drive, and numerous traffic lights on Route 7, Four Mile Run Drive and George Mason Drive.

Police officers were directing traffic at the intersection of George Mason Drive and S. Columbus Street. They also blocked off Chesterfield Road from Columbus Street at 14th Street.

A FedEx truck pulled down the power lines, according to scanner traffic. The tractor trailer could be seen behind the downed lines at Chesterfield Road.

Dominion crews are now on scene, preparing to repair the power lines. At the outage’s peak, Dominion reported more than 3,300 customers without power.

Woman Sexually Assaulted in Courthouse

By ARLnow.com

Police car lightsA woman was sexually assaulted in the Courthouse area early Saturday morning.

Arlington County Police say a 25-year-old woman was walking home from a Friday night out in Clarendon when a man began trying to talk with her. When she walked past him, the man started following her, and she tried walking faster to get away.

At the intersection of 15th Street N. and N. Scott Street, the woman was grabbed from behind and pulled into some nearby bushes. The attacker grabbed the woman’s groin area and tried tugging on her clothing, according to police, but the woman fought him off by punching, kicking and screaming.

After being kicked in the groin, the man walked away towards Clarendon Blvd. The woman lost her phone in the struggle and flagged down a passerby to call police. Officers attempted to track the attacker down, but he escaped and remains at large.

“The suspect is described as a white Hispanic male, 20-30 years of age, 5’6″-5’8″, 150-175 lbs, wearing a white tank top and dark pants,” according to a police report.

Tow Truck Runs Over Small Dog in Clarendon

By ARLnow.com

Charlotte (photo courtesy Mayra Perez)(Updated at 1:25 p.m.) A tow truck accidentally ran over and killed a small dog in Clarendon on Friday, as the truck was in the process of towing a dog walker’s car.

Mayra Perez said she got the news that her 9-year-old Yorkshire Terrier, Charlotte, had been killed while she was in Chicago making preparations for her wedding next month. She took the next flight home.

“Instead of picking out her flower girl dress I’m picking out an urn for her,” Perez said in a phone interview, her voice trembling. “This is the worst possible thing that could happen… we are beyond heartbroken.”

The incident happened around 5:00 p.m. on Friday, on the 1200 block of N. Herndon Street in Clarendon.

According to police, a dog walker who has numerous clients in The Clarendon Apartments had parked illegally in front of the building. Building management called Advanced Towing to tow the car, not realizing that it belonged to a popular dog walker who often parked there while walking dogs in the building.

“As the tow truck was towing the vehicle away, the dog walker approached the driver while walking three dogs,” according to Arlington County Police spokesman Lt. Kip Malcolm. “A conversation or argument occurs and the dog walker asks the driver to pull around so that he can discuss it with management. As the tow truck driver is pulling away, one of the dogs was struck by the back, driver’s side tire and subsequently died.”

John O’Neill, owner of Advanced Towing, said the dog walker was walking away when the tow truck began to move. Unknown to the driver, the dog was on an extended leash and ran under the wheel as the driver began to move, O’Neill said.

“The tow driver is a dog owner and was devastated when he realized the dog had been struck,” O’Neill said. The driver was distraught and was given the rest of the day off, he said.

Perez, however, said that she heard a different version of events from the dog walker and a witness. She blames Advanced Towing for her dog’s death.

“Our girl was not on an extended leash,” she said. “I have the leash and my girls DO NOT use extended leashes.”

“You see this tow company in our neighborhood constantly flying down the street,” she said of Advanced. “It’s lie after lie. I just don’t find it fair. We lost our family member.”

Police investigated the incident but no one was charged. Perez said she and her fiancee, Aakash Desia, are planning on speaking to an attorney.

“It’s been tough… it’s a life changing event,” said Desia. “This is the worst kind of negligence.”

Desia questioned why tow trucks don’t have camera on the sides in order to avoid accidents like this. Perez, meanwhile, is mourning Charlotte and lamenting that she didn’t bring her to Chicago with her, as she usually does. Matilda, Charlotte’s younger Yorkie sister, is also mourning her death.

“Charlotte was loved and spoiled beyond measure,” Perez said. “She will be greatly missed by the both of us and her sister.”

View More Stories