Four Mile Run

Police Identify Bicycle Accident Victim

By ARLnow.com

Arlington police have released the identity of the bicyclist who was killed in South Arlington over the weekend.

The Arlington County Police Department is investigating a fatal traffic accident that occurred on [Sunday] in the 4000 block of Four Mile Run Drive. At approximately 2:56 p.m. on May 8, 2011, police responded for a bicyclist that collided with a vehicle.

Fitzgerald Pollard, 44, of Arlington, was riding his bicycle south on South Walter Reed Drive, turned right onto the access road of Four Mile Run Drive and crossed into oncoming traffic. Mr. Pollard then struck an occupied vehicle. He was transported to a local hospital and pronounced dead.

The Arlington County Police asking that any witnesses of the accident contact the Department at 703 558-2222, or Detective Don Fortunato at 703 228-4197.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Trail Parking — This car chose an interesting place to park — on a stretch of trail between the county’s new Dept. of Human Services building and Washington Boulevard.

Snakehead Fish Invade Four Mile Run — Predatory snakehead fish have invaded the waters of Four Mile Run, between Arlington and Alexandria. There’s concern that the so-called “frankenfish” could kill off native fish in the stream, as it has decimated native populations of bass and shad in the Potomac. [WJLA]

Marymount Names New President — Arlington’s Marymount University has named a successor for retiring president James Bundschuh. Matthew Shank, dean of the business school at the University of Dayton, will take over as president in July. [Washington Post]

Cell Phones to Get Emergency Alerts — Soon, cell phones in the D.C. area will be capable of receiving emergency alerts via text message. [New York Times]

Gaslight Square Condos Selling Quickly — McWilliams|Ballard and Abdo Development have sold nearly $12 million worth of luxury condos at the still-under-construction Gaslight Square project between Rosslyn and Courthouse. [Marketwire]

BREAKING NEWS — Bicyclist Dead After Collision With Car

By ARLnow.com

(Updated at 9:25 p.m.) A bicyclist was struck and killed by a car near the intersection of Four Mile Run Drive and S. Walter Reed Drive this afternoon.

The driver remained at the scene and cooperated with investigators, according to Arlington County police spokeswoman Det. Crystal Nosal. Police are still investigating the accident — which occurred around 3:00 p.m. — and will release the victim’s name when next of kin are notified.

According to police, the adult male cyclist was turning onto the Four Mile Run Drive access road from southbound Walter Reed Drive when he collided with a car heading in the opposite direction. The man was brought to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Arlington County transportation officials are in the process of planning safety improvements for the intersection, which handles bicycle traffic from the W&OD Trail.

See the police press release, after the jump.

Hat tip to @abend0c4

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Where Are The Trout?

By ARLnow.com

With floundering finances, Arlington budget sharks were forced to cancel the county’s annual trout fishing season this year.

“Trout season” is actually an artificial creation in Arlington County — a contractor stocks Four Mile Run with trout trucked in from a hatchery. But don’t tell that to the dozens of kids who show up with their parents every year with rod and reel in hand, eager to catch a fish.

In announcing that trout fishing was canceled, the county parks department advised anglers that trout fishing is still available in Fairfax County. More information about fishing in Fairfax is available here.

Community Garden Plots: A Tragedy of the Commons?

By ARLnow.com

There are eight community gardens around Arlington, and each has a wait list. At the South Four Mile Run garden, however, one gardener is wondering why the county is allowing the high-demand plots to fall into a state of disrepair.

“I am a co-gardener of a garden plot in the Fort Barnard Community Gardens, [and] if my garden plot looked the way that many of the plots on South Four Mile Run do, my plot would be considered abandoned and the privileges to the plot would be revoked,” the man wrote in an email to a county official. He asked that his name not be used in this article.

“Nearly all of the plots are in violation of one or more of the County Community Garden Rules,” the gardener wrote. “I waited for 2 years to get a garden plot. To see residents [who] have garden plots neglect them and not use them to their full potential is frustrating.”

The man called the Four Mile Run garden an “eyesore” and said sent photos along to prove it. He said the photos show:

  • “Many of the plots were never cut back and cleared for the winter. Vines and weeds have overtaken many of the plots and fences. In some cases the vines have grown beyond the boundaries of garden plots.”
  • “Many of the gardeners have erected 6-8 ft wooden structures that are crudely constructed to grow vines on. Many of the structures have collapsed, are broken, or leaning.”
  • “Trash such as empty buckets, jugs, milk crates, tarps, propped up carpets that are used for weed barriers, wheelbarrows, shoes, lumbar, broken chairs, bed frames, and PVC pipes are some of the items that litter the garden plots.”
  • “The fences that create the boundaries for the community garden are in disrepair. Many of the rails are broken and laying on the ground. In one garden plot the fence has been pulled down because of the weight of the weedy vines growing on it.”

The county’s 200+ community garden plots are in high demand among apartment and condo dwellers who have a green thumb but no land to call their own. But Jamie Bartalon, the landscape and forestry supervisor for the county’s parks department, says that regulations only require the gardens to be cleaned up in time for the summer growing season.

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Fire at the Carlton Condos on Four Mile Run Drive

By ARLnow.com

Firefighters are on the scene of a fire on the second floor of the Carlton condominium at 4600 South Four Mile Run Drive.

Firefighters are reporting that there was a kitchen fire in one of the units. The blaze is now under control, we hear.

There was heavy smoke on the building’s second floor when firefighters arrived.

Update at 1:30 p.m. — So far, no injuries have been reported. The building is being ventilated. Police have shut down some streets in the area.

Update at 2:25 p.m. — There was possible water damage reported on the first floor, as a result of the effort to extinguish the fire. So far, however, the Red Cross has not been called, and it sounds like few, if any, families will be displaced.

Update at 2:30 p.m. — Four Mile Run Drive has reopened. Firefighters from Arlington, Alexandria and Fairfax County were all on the scene, since the building is near the border with each.

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Contractor Vacates County-Owned Four Mile Run Drive Property

By ARLnow.com

Believe it or not, this run-down building at 3600 South Four Mile Run Drive has only been vacant for a couple of weeks.

Alberici Constructors, which recently wrapped up its work on the expansion of Arlington’s Water Pollution Control Plant, had occupied the building and the surrounding lot and the  for nearly four years. Although the property is now vacant, it’s still leased through early next year, when the plant’s final construction phase is expected to conclude.

The building and a large, adjacent lot have been owned by Arlington County’s Parks Department since July 17, 2002, when it was purchased with bond money for $3.6 million, according to county media relations manager Mary Curtius.

Curtius says a decision has not yet been made on what will happen to the 75,000 square foot property once it’s returned to the Parks Department. The property is across the street from an existing park, the county’s 22.4 acre Jennie Dean Park.

Sewage Release Prompts Water Warning

By ARLnow.com

Update on 10/22 — The advisory has been lifted.

Raw sewage overflowing from a manhole near the Long Branch Nature Center has prompted county authorities to issue a warning about the water in the Upper Long Branch stream and in Four Mile Run from Glencarlyn Park to the Potomac River.

People and animals should avoid contact with both streams until future notice, the county said Friday night. Among the affected areas is the popular Shirlington dog park.

From a county news release:

ARLINGTON, VA – Arlington County advises residents (and their pets) to avoid water downstream of a sewage release in Upper Long Branch stream. The area to avoid begins near the Long Branch Nature Center and continues through Four Mile Run at Glencarlyn Park to the Potomac River. This precautionary measure follows the discovery of sewage discharging from a sanitary sewer manhole near the Long Branch Nature Center on Friday evening, October 15.

Residents are advised to stay away from the affected waters – and also keep their pets away until further notice, to eliminate the risk of exposure to untreated sewage. Residents should not fish in the streams or have any contact with the waters – including wading or swimming – until further notice from the County. The advisory to avoid all contact is considered an extra precaution until the discharge is stopped and to allow the effect of the discharge to be diminished by natural flushing of the streams. The recreational areas affected include the following parks adjacent to the streams: Glencarlyn, Barcroft, Allie Freed, Shirlington, Jennie Dean and Four Mile Run.

Goat’s Head Among Weird Things Found in Barcroft Park

By ARLnow.com

A group of 20 volunteers conducted one of the more eventful clean-ups of Four Mile Run over the weekend.

The group, which cleaned up the portion of the stream that runs through Barcroft Park, filled 28 trash bags with items found in or around the water. Among the items they found were a bicycle, a computer, a 70 pound metal beam and — most amazingly — the severed head of a goat, horns and all.

“I have no clue what it was doing down there amongst the plastic bottles, pens, styrofoam cups, baseballs, etc… but it smelled quite foul and we bagged it with all the other garbage,” Dan Bronson of Arlington’s Community Volunteer Network wrote in an email. “It still had the skin on it so it hadn’t been there too long.”

Bronson said “everyone was mystified” as to how the goat’s head got here in the first place. One theory was that it washed downstream during Thursday’s storm.

“Who knows!” Bronson wrote. “In my experience Four Mile Run stream clean-ups tend to have at least one quite unusual object.”

To say the least.

Saturday’s stream clean-up was a joint effort of several volunteer organizations. There were six wounded warriors on hand from the veteran groups Team River Runner and The Mission Continues. Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment and the Community Volunteer Network sent volunteers and helped to organize the event. A couple of Lockheed Martin employees also joined the clean-up.

In addition to the stream clean-up, volunteers also pulled and threw away a number of invasive plants found around the park.

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Police Perform CPR on Man Found Unresponsive in Four Mile Run

By ARLnow.com

Police had to resuscitate a man Sunday morning after passersby spotted him sitting motionless in Four Mile Run near Shirlington.

The man rolled face down into the creek after officers arrived around 8:00 a.m. As onlookers gathered on the bike path above, officers pulled the man from the water and began performing CPR.

The man was alive when he was taken to the hospital, although his condition is unknown at this time.

Police say they believe he was under the influence of alcohol or narcotics.

Photo courtesy of Richard Burgess.

Believe It Or Not, It’s Trout Fishing Season in Arlington

By ARLnow.com

Holy mackerel, you say, there’s trout fishing in Arlington? You bet your bass there is.

On Saturday morning more than 100 anglers showed up at Bon Air Park, not far from the high-rises of Ballston, for the beginning of Arlington County’s trout season. From 9:00 a.m. to noon, the kids 15 and under has free reign of the prime fishing spots along Four Mile Run, without adult competition.

Arlington’s trout season lasts about six weeks, effectively ending when all the trout have been caught. Trout cannot naturally survive in Four Mile Run due to the lack of cool, shady spots during the summer, so the county parks and recreation department contracts with a fish hatchery in West Virginia to stock the stream from Barcroft Park to Bon Air Park every third weekend in March. An annual Four Mile Run stream clean-up, every second weekend in March, is timed to coincide with the beginning of trout fishing season.

The trout program has been around for nearly 20 years, but was nearly canceled this year due to the county’s budget problems. The go-ahead for this season came in at the last minute, which caused a drop in attendance on Saturday due to the lack of advance notice, according to veteran park ranger Lynda Kersey. About 600 anglers from all over the area will take advantage of the trout fishing by the end of the season, Kersey said.

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