April 25th, 2010 Posted in Meeting Minutes | Comments Off
Tara-Leeway Heights Civic Association
Minutes, Jan. 11, 2010 Meeting, 7 pm, Westover Library
Attendees:
TLHCA Board Members: Bill Braswell, Alyssa Cowden, Dru Fearing, Roberta Fox, Carolyn Hall, Karl Hartmann, Ray Keaney, Todd McCaracken, , Dave Shepherd, Pam Silberstein, Ted Stump
Guests: Einar Olsen
- Welcome and Introductions
TLHCA Board President Dave Shepherd welcomed everyone to the meeting and all Board members introduced themselves. The TLHCA board is now meeting at the Westover Library and next month will meet in a larger community room there.
II. Topics/Speakers for Upcoming TLHCA Meetings
Dave asked for suggestions for topics & guest speakers for the next few TLHCA meetings. Topics suggested included solid waste & recycling update; air quality and the County Board’s new environmental initiative; county & APS budget issues. Alyssa and Ted will organize a discussion and line up speakers for the February TLHCA meeting on issues related to the new library-Reed School building, including demolition of the old library and county plans for that space. Also, there was discussion regarding the TLHCA annual meeting in May, procedures for nominating a slate for the board, bylaw requirements for notice, etc.
III. Discussion Re County Budget Issues and Potential Impact on TLHCA
Bill Braswell and others made the following points about the Arlington County budget situation:
(i) residential and commercial real estate assessments are down from last year (NB – the County released a press release on Jan. 15 indicating combined real estate assessments are down 7.2% overall, and the combined county-APS budget shortfall is now projected to be $65 million)
(ii) funding from the state, as well as local property taxes and fees, is down
(iii) half of the shortfall will be made up through increases property taxes and fees, and half will be made up through budget cuts;
(iv) the county has made it clear that the budget for human services will be maintained at its present level.
There is a backlog of Neighborhood Conservation (NC) projects, and potential budget cuts may only exacerbate that. Regarding specific TLHCA projects:
(i) Big Walnut Park will not be affected because it already has been funded
(ii) the 22nd St Greenway project is currently going through the Transportation Commission staff review
(iii) traffic calming for the Patrick Henry Drive-18th St-Jefferson St – there has been a proposal to paint crosswalks at certain intersections on Patrick Henry, and a traffic count (# of cars plus speeds) has been done on Jefferson St, but no results are available from that yet. Pam Silberstein & Karl Hartmann volunteered to organize a neighborhood meeting of affected residents to further explore these issues. Possible invitees include the TLHCA police liaison and someone from DES to attend.
IV. NCAC Update – Bill Braswell; Library Update – Ted Stump
Bill reported that at the most recent funding round, there were 50 civic associations qualified to present proposals; 29 projects were proposed and only 3 were considered for funding. He said there are problems with the NC/DES process.
Ted reported that there are many outstanding issues involving dangling wires, tree plantings, awkwardly placed lightpoles, etc, as well as the schedule for demolition of the former Westover library building. He is trying to schedule a walk-through for sometime in the next week with various county employees and the site manager to identify the problems.
V. Miscellaneous
(i) There was a discussion regarding the approval of minutes from past meetings. Bill Braswell moved and Ray Keany seconded, that meeting minutes be approved by email. The motion was approved unanimously.
(ii) Dave reported that there will be a meeting Jan. 28 to discuss long-term transit improvements, featuring Arlington Rapid Transit (ART), WMATA, and DART (?). It’s from 7 to 9 pm, at 2800 Wilson Blvd.
(iii) The status of the I-66 widening project discussed at the TLHCA September meeting is that it is still in litigation.
(iv) Alyssa mentioned two recent events: a water main break on Lexington, that residents were not made aware of; and what appeared to be police activity on the site of the old library due to a large gathering of young people.
(v) Bill stated that TLHCA delegates to the Arlington Civic Federation need to attend the meetings.
VI. Treasurer’s Report
Dru Fearing reported that there is about $2,000.00 in the TLHCA bank account. The inclusion of a reply envelope in the last newsletter clearly was effective. There was discussion of enlarging the newsletter back to 8 pages.
VII. Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 8:30 pm.
Pam Silberstein, Secretary