The February BSCL meeting on February 4th will
feature our guest speaker, Mr. Bill Roberts of the
Arlington County staff, to talk about improvements
to Barcroft’s portion of Columbia Pike. He brings
good news that work is scheduled to begin in early
summer. It will bring significant improvements to
our streetscape, and no doubt, some disruptions at
times. Most importantly we will finally get long
sought relief to the intersection of Four Mile Run
“Minor” and Buchanan Street. Our neighborhood
has long lobbied for this improvement, and when
completed, we’ll see a world of difference at a very
difficult entry point to our neighborhood.
The discussion will be moderated by Barcroft’s own
Pamela Holcombe, Executive Director of the
Columbia Pike Revitalization organization. Please
join us for this important update.
Kathy Kerr reported on August 3, 2009 that she saw the Google Maps car passing through the neighborhood taking photos. You will see them on Google Maps when you look up a Barcroft address and select Street View. Check out the Community House at 800 S. Buchanan St and you will see a sign on the fence for our National Night Out ice cream social that week. Or check out 4614 Sixth St S and you will see a person trimming roses and putting them in a CVS bag. At 702 S. Wakefield two people are working on a bicycle, way back up the driveway. The school bulletin board has "First Day of School -- Welcome Back." Across the street, Dave Oddenino's tomato plants are strikingly healthy. On 7th St around the corner a red-headed teacher with an armload of books lets the Google car pass before crossing the street to her car. Further down 7th (the only street with two motorcycles) toward the park two guys stand gawking at the Google machine. In the 4800 block of S. 9th, a runner is struggling up the hill from the park toward Buchanan. There is lots more to see with this remarkable service.
Our park project received final County Board approval on July 21!
Here is the CNN video on Barcroft Elementary School's year round school program.
Our Fourth of July Parade was great!
We Celebrated
Our Nation's 233rd Birthday & the 21st Annual Barcroft Parade. The weather was great, the parade was a hoot, the Great Zuccini performed for the kids, the food was fabulous and the atmosphere was warm and friendly.
Here are our photos.
Here is a YouTube video!
The video takes about six minutes. At 1:49 you can see Julianna Ditta, the pogo stick girl above in Jenny Markley's photo, go flying by on her pogo stick.
At our May meeting we elected the following slate of officers for 2009-2010:
President: Bryant Monroe
Vice President: Steve Wilson
Treasurer: Gary Lefebvre
Recording Secretary: Jennifer Lis
Corresponding Secretary: Wes Stein
Membership Secretary: Peg Lefebvre
Board Member: Mike Behringer
Eileen Melia honored as "Person of Vision"
Barcrofter Eileen Melia was named on March 10 by the Arlington County Commission on the Status of Women as a 2009 Person of Vision. Here is the award citation and more about her accomplishments.
Barcroft Walkabout now on the Web.
The County filmed a ten minute walking tour of the neighborhood last summer, hosted by Randy Swart because nobody else would do it. It features interviews with Miriam Hughey-Guy and Greg Zell.
Arlington Mill Meeting March 3rd
The Arlington Mill Center Steering Committee met on March 3rd to advise the County on community views of what should be done with the existing Arlington Mill Center building while the project to replace it is on hold. The private partner is unable to raise financing. The wait may be six months to two years. The County is considering what to do with the building in the interim. Eric Harold is our representative on the Steering Committee.
Friendship Quilt from 1948 surfaces
After 60 years a quilt made by members of the Barcroft Bible Church with the names of about 500 Barcroft residents and others has been found in a cedar chest. We have its fascinating history and all the names.
Barcrofter on ABC on Inauguration Day
Long time Barcroft resident Joan Mulholland was interviewed about 2pm on Inauguration Day on ABC news. The reporter opened with "you remember from your history books the legendary Freedom Marchers" then showed some sketched portraits from that era and one of them was a very young Joan! Then he turned and there she was standing with another Freedom Rider, recounting some of her experiences on the Freedom Marches of the 60's and how remarkable it is that racial barriers broke down fast enough that Barak Obama could be elected just 40 years later. The reporter concluded with a statement that he was honored to be interviewing people who had changed the course of history. Joan was also honored by the Jackson (Mississipi) Academy band, whose director and son have composed music in her honor. You can see a video clip of that. Just ignore the irritating 30 second ad that delays the video briefly. You can also see police mug shots of Joan at age 19 after being arrested at a sit-in in 1960.
President Heidi Wicker sent this letter to the Examiner on November 17, 2008 asking that they stop delivery to the neighborhood. It worked! For about two weeks! Our thanks to the Examiner distributor for their brief but welcome cooperation. Now we are back to wishing we could stop the trashing of our neighborhood.
Barcroft Vote Totals
Unofficial but not far from final.
Total voting: 1647, including 418 voting in advance.
Turnout: 80 per cent of our 2061 active voters.
These totals are for November 4 voting only, and do not
include any of the 418 advance votes:
Obama: 835 vs. McCain: 376
Warner 885 vs. Gilmore 303
Moran 790 vs. Elmore
Favola 789 vs. Reeder 266
Garvey 855 and Viola-Sanchez 796
Housing authority: Yes 323 vs. No 815
Metro bond: Yes 880 vs No 279
Neighborhood Infrastructure bond: Yes 792 vs No 354
Utilities bond: Yes 937 vs No 233
School bond: Yes 860 vs. No 308
National Guard Report
The National Guard issued a Finding of No Significant Impact for their expansion on Arlington Hall. They ignored our comments on the delay in constructing their parking garage. Here is a copy of the draft. On December 9, 2008 they broke ground for the new office building, still without funding for the garage to park the cars the new space will generate.
Our Fourth of July Parade was a hoot!
Organized by Parade Director for Life Andrew Hunter, the 2008 Barcroft 4th of July Parade was a grand event. This year you can see the entire parade go by on YouTube. It takes five minutes, and if you have a fast connection you can click on "View in High Quality" to see it better.
Here is our usual assembly of still photos, including another YouTube video link to hear Michael Nazaretz and Julie Gorka playing a nice waltz.
We approved our Neighborhood Conservation Plan update on May 1st! Here is the draft plan we approved with some changes. The final will be posted soon. Here are the responses to our neighborhood survey.
We approved a budget of $1100 for the 4th of July parade.
We approved the NC Plan draft with some changes to be posted later.
Barcroft has lost a true neighborhood character. Jack Turner passed away in May of 2008.
Jack was known to most as the trumpet player who organized and led the Fourth of July Parade band. With the exception of the Tom Palance years around the turn of the century, Jack had been leading the band since the first parade. He borrowed a bass drum, rousted out players, assembled the music, and lent his patriotism and spirit to the proceedings.
Few know that Jack was also our Master of Signs. Every month he posted the "Barcroft Meeting Tonight" signs at all entrances to the neighborhood, taking the signs around late on the Wednesday night before the meeting and collecting them afterwards. He took a step ladder with him to make sure he could position them at the exact height he wanted them, and positioned them very precisely. If you ever saw one upside down, Jack did not post it!
Jack did not make our sloppy signs. In real life he ran the Turner Sign Company, specializing in beautiful hand-lettered signs that had more style and were actually less expensive than the computer generated ones. His hand-lettered signs can still be seen every Fourth of July. How he tolerated our old spray-painted signs made with stencils was a mystery.
Jack played in the Barcroft Holiday Band too, and every year he did a trumpet solo during the program. Every year he picked something that was difficult for him to get right and had a glitch somewhere in the song, but recovered and sailed on.
Jack was many other things--husband to Lane, his wife of many years, choir member whose practices prevented him from coming to the BSCL meetings the signs alerted you to, active member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, organizer of the old Arlington Fourth of July parades on Wilson Boulevard many years ago. He had an indomitable spirit, an enduring optimism, boundless energy and a "can do" approach to life that lasted though his battles with the cancer that ultimately ended his life.
Jack was one of our Barcroft characters. I will miss him every year at the holiday program, on the Fourth of July, and on those cold dark nights every month when the signs have to go up. He lived a good and full life, but his passing leaves a hole in the fabric of the neighborhood.
Randy Swart
and this from Tom Palance, former Barcrofter and professional trumpet player now living in Massachusetts:
How very sad it was to hear about Jack. I have very fond memories of him, his character and the Barcroft parade. He was always trying to improve on the trumpet even taking a few lessons from me....not sure I helped much, but was encouraging to see a 70 year old still trying to improve!
I played taps for him today out my back yard facing the Atlantic in his home state of Massachusetts. Please give my our best to all.
Tom and family.
Barcroft Elementary in the Washington Post
The Barcroft Elementary School was featured in this Washington Post article on the school. It's a great article about a wonderful school that isn't meeting No Child Left Behind goals.
Deadline for National Guard Comments has passed
At Thursday's meeting we passed this resolution finding that the National Guard's environmental assessment was "flawed," challenging the findings of the assessment and insisting that the garage be built at the same time as the building that will add 1200 employees on the Arlington Hall site. The National Guard made a point of telling us that comments on the environmental assessment of their expansion project must be received by Sunday the 6th of April. You can email your comments to margaret.moffett@ng.army.mil or fax them to Beth Erickson at 703-607-8329. The BSCL and Alcova Heights Citizens Association have sent a joint letter to the Guard. Send your comments now! (Here is the Guard's report as a huge file, or if that's too slow a download for you, try just the summary.) Unfortunately the report says "Because of current funding restraints, the ARNG expects to complete the building expansion phase of this proposal before the implementation of the parking garage phase. The ARNG is currently working to obtain additional funding to build the garage by 2011; however, construction of the garage is scheduled to begin in 2014." Email Randy Swart if you also need the Appendices and he will drop off a CD to you with the 256 meg file.
Don't wade in Four Mile Run
The sewer main rupture upstream at Carlin Springs Road that dumped some extra raw sewage into the stream on March 28 has been cleaned up, but the water in Four Mile Run is never clean enough to play in, and anyone who comes in contact with it should go home and wash.
The County press release recommends "normal stream precautions."
If you drill down far enough you find this stream report
and what is says is:
"Also, bacteria levels in Four Mile Run, like most urban streams, routinely exceed water quality standards for primary contact recreation (swimming, etc.). Unfortunately, a DNA study just completed by the Northern Virginia Regional Commission (NVRC) suggests that most sources of bacteria in Arlington streams are not readily controllable because they come from urban wildlife. Waterfowl, raccoon, and deer accounted for the majority of the bacterial DNA samples collected in the Four Mile Run watershed. In contrast, human and dog DNA were identified in about one-third of the samples."
Executive Committee Meeting Minutes
New Corresponding Secretary Wes Stein takes very good minutes. Here are his minutes of our April 2 Executive Committee Meeting.
Energy Audits
Here is Barbara Swart's presentation on Energy Audits: A Barcroft Consumer's Experience. It shares what she learned by having an audit done and doing more herself. She also covers how to compare your energy use to the average use in the US, and what the most likely energy issues are for Barcroft homes.
Traffic calming works!
Check out this report from the County's Jeff Sikes, and you will see that traffic calming has reduced our "85th percentile" speeds for all the calmed streets, and as an added bonus it has reduced our cut-through traffic. (The 85th percentile speed means that 15% of the cars are still going faster than that, but it is the benchmark that traffic engineers use.)
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Surveys for the Neighborhood Conservation Plan update have been compiled and entered into a database. You can see the checkbox responses totaled on this summary page. The many pages of written comments--all captured in the database--have been distributed to the drafting committees for each chapter.
See this page for more on drafting our new Plan, ready now to go to the County Board for final acceptance.
Musical garden at Barcroft School
A message from BSCL president Pat Williamson:
The BSCL voted on November 2, 2006 to support Principal Miriam Hughey-Guy's decision to keep the sound-dampened percussion instruments of Barcroft School's Musical Garden without restricting access after hours or on weekends. The recommendation included asking Ms. Hughey-Guy to explore with APS the possibility of using a web-cam to monitor after hours abuses of the musical instruments.
Last year County staff held a hearing on a project they are planning to upgrade Columbia Pike from Wakefield St to Four Mile Run. See this page for more on the issues from our neighborhood's perspective. Here is our letter to the County on the intersection of Buchanan and Columbia Pike. The final design for the project appears unlikely to generate much cut-through traffic in Barcroft. You can see it on the County Web site including a full drawing of the changes. Timing is uncertain, perhaps months or perhaps years in the future.
We have official permission to do park maintenance in the area along the W&OD and Four Mile Run from Columbia Pike upward. Here is our letter from Arlington County Parks.
in this .pdf page.
Barcroft Weather: NOAA has the forecast by the hour, and Eric Parker has wind and temperature measurements from 5th and Abingdon.
Here is Elizabeth Rives' PowerPoint presentation on Right Tree, Right Place, Right Now! as presented in a BSCL meeting. (3 megs, a good two minute download for most broadband connections)
Have you paid your dues? The new dues year begins September 1st.
What We Like About Our Neighborhood
We are a nice, quiet neighborhood originally established in 1903. We have about 800 mostly modest single-family homes, and about 400 apartments along our outer edge. Most of the houses here were built in the 1930-1970 era. We have an active civic association, an historic Community House and a monthly neighborhood ewsletter, The Barcroft News, first published in 1903.
The Barcroft School and Civic League sponsors neighborhood events ranging from an annual Fourth of July Parade to a Christmas visit from Santa Claus, meet-the-candidates nights before elections, spaghetti dinners and a coffeehouse to showcase neighborhood talent. These events retain the strong spirit of community existing here for over 90 years. This is a good place to live.
The Barcroft Community House, our neighborhood icon.
The Community House is fully handicapped-accessible.
Here is a google map and you can get directions.
Welcome to Barcroft Neighborhood
