Ballston Building Seeks Permission for Lighted Sign
The Ballston Point office building at the corner of Wilson Blvd and Glebe Rd wants to add a lighted sign along its roofline. The County Board is scheduled to look at whether to grant a permit for the sign at its meeting on Saturday.
AES Corp. requested the permit to put a 63-square-foot lighted sign on the eleventh floor of the cylindrical tower portion of the building. It would consist of the company’s logo, along with the letters “AES.”
The sign will not directly face any residences and there have been no complaints from nearby neighborhood associations. Reviewers found the request to be in accordance with the county’s current sign regulations and proposed changes to the regulations, and recommend approval of the permit.
The applicant agreed to only have the sign lit up from 8:00 a.m. to midnight each day, and to install a sensor that automatically adjusts the sign’s intensity based on the time of day.
Volunteers Wanted for Acting, Gardening
A variety of volunteer opportunities exist throughout the county, but a few might be considered plain fun instead of work. One of them involves being an actor and another involves gardening. Check out the details below. More information about these opportunities and others can be found on the Volunteer Arlington website.
- Arlington’s Medical Reserve Corps seeks volunteers to be actors in an emergency response drill on Saturday, April 28. The drill will test the current point of dispensing plans for oral antibiotics given to the public in case of an aerosolized anthrax attack. No experience is necessary. Volunteers will receive an hour of training, then participate in the drill as actors for one hour. Contact Grelia Soliz at (703) 228-0711.
- Clarendon Presbyterian Church is looking for volunteers to be gardeners for its Plot Against Hunger program. Two plant beds are being built along the Jackson St side of the building to grow vegetables, which will be donated to the Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC). Help is needed for a variety of responsibilities that include set up, gardening and delivery of the food to AFAC. Volunteers will complete a short training session. Contact Gillian Burgess at (646) 284-8894.
- The USO of Metropolitan Washington seeks helpers at Ft. Myer. Volunteers will assist military service members, military dependents, military reservists, National Guard and military retirees who use the USO Lounge at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall. Volunteers will provide courteous service to guests while answering questions, managing DVD and video game check out, keeping the lounge neat, brewing coffee and replenishing snacks. Occasionally, volunteers will help with USO events in the Lounge. Volunteers must be at least 18 years old and have a valid U.S. identification. Access to a computer is preferred. Volunteers are required to attend an orientation. Contact Emily Urban at (703) 696-0958.
Board Expected to Defer Pines of Italy Permit Request
The recently-opened Pines of Italy restaurant (3111 Columbia Pike) is applying for a live entertainment and dancing permit, but it doesn’t look like the request will be granted at Saturday’s County Board meeting.
Due to concerns from police and the Arlington Heights Civic Association (AHCA), the recommendation is to defer the permit request until the board’s September 15 meeting. Police note previous violent incidents at this site, and suggest future trouble could arise based on the history with the property’s management. AHCA opposes the permit due to the potential for crime and noise to impact neighbors.
A letter from the AHCA president says representatives met with the three partners of the property to address resident concerns. The property apparently is divided into a restaurant, a hookah bar and a night club and has one partner for each entity. The partners reportedly said the entertainment permit was not needed for the restaurant or hookah bar to do business, but wouldn’t specifically say it was for the club.
County staff recommended deferring until the September 15 meeting in order to give the restaurant owner time to establish a clean track record. If there are no issues for a six month period, which began at the Pines of Italy opening in February, the county will consider issuing the permit. The owner was asked to demonstrate good management and to establish better relationships with neighbors during this time period. County staff states in the permit report that the owner has agreed to the deferral.
In its letter last month, AHCA said if no problems arise from the property for one year, it will reconsider its position on the permit. In recent years the property has been home to a succession of restaurants, including Padrino’s Fine Italian Cuisine, Club 31-11, Coco’s Italian Restaurant, Lalibela II, and Cottage Ethiopian Restaurant.
Truck Takes Down Power Lines in North Arlington
An accident on N. Taylor Street in Cherrydale has left power lines strewn across a quiet residential block. Police, firefighters and Dominion Power are all on the scene.
An officer at the scene said it appears a tall moving truck had become caught on low hanging wires over the street, but didn’t realize it and kept driving. The wires came down, along with a power pole which held a transformer.
There are currently wires in the street, across sidewalks and in people’s yards. The lines are no longer live, and crews are working to move them. Nobody was hurt in the incident
Seventy-six customers were without power for about an hour and a half. Right now, only 10 are still without power. Dominion Power spokeswoman Le-Ha Anderson said those without electricity are the ones closest to the downed transformer, and power should be restored somewhere between 4:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. Crews are bringing in a new power pole and transformer to be installed, hopefully also by 6:00 p.m.
Taylor Street remains closed between 15th and 16th Streets. Arlington County police will stay on the scene to direct traffic until the road re-opens.
Crime Report: Really Bad Day Edition
A woman had a double whammy of a bad day this past Friday night/early Saturday morning. Not only was her bike stolen from outside the Ballston Metro station, but a man tried to rob her at knifepoint while she was walking home after finding out that her bike was stolen.
ATTEMPTED ROBBERY, 04/14/12, 1400 block of N. Glebe Road. On April 14 at 12:20 am, after returning to Arlington from DC to find her bike stolen from the Ballston Metro stop, a female walking home alone was approached by an unknown subject with a knife. The suspect demanded the victims purse, causing the victim to begin screaming for help. The suspect fled the scene on foot without the purse and is described as a white male, early-mid thirties in age, approximately 5’6” to 5’8” tall, with a semi-muscular build and a chipped or missing front tooth. He was wearing a Phillies jersey and jeans at the time of the attempted robbery.
The rest of this week’s Arlington County crime report, after the jump.
Shuttleworth and Campaign Consultant Part Ways
The Bruce Shuttleworth for Congress campaign has parted ways with a political consultant following a rift over a press conference in which Shuttleworth accused primary opponent Rep. Jim Moran (D) of “corruption.”
Anthony Dale confirmed to ARLnow.com this morning that he and his political consulting firm are no longer working for the Shuttleworth campaign. He described his departure from the campaign as a decision that he initiated, though the campaign is insisting that Dale “did not quit but was terminated for cause by the campaign on April 11.”
Dale said he started to disassociate himself from the campaign following an April 10 press conference in which Shuttleworth suggested that “smoke-filled backroom, Tammany Hall corruption” was behind a mix-up that initially kept his name off the June 12 Democratic primary ballot.
“We were unaware that they were going to hold a press conference… we had no part in what they did in that press conference,” Dale told ARLnow.com. ”We just feel that the negative rhetoric that they continue to [engage in] is not in keeping with our company’s mission and values.”
In an email published by the Democratic blog Blue Virginia yesterday, Dale apologized for “not properly vetting Mr. Shuttleworth.”
“While I do believe that we should have an open and inviting election process… I do not believe such a process should come at the expense of attacking someone’s personal life or promoting unsubstantiated, false allegations,” Dale wrote.
In response, the Shuttleworth campaign sent out a press release criticizing Dale and emphasizing that he was “a field consultant, never a strategist, for the campaign.”
“Mr. Dale has been full of surprises during his time with the campaign, this most recent ill-advised letter is simply par for the course,” the press release said. “The campaign will not allow Mr. Dale, whose motivations for such egregious and ongoing unprofessional behavior are unclear, to distract the message of accountability, integrity and progressive values from reaching the voters of VA-8.”
The press release also said that Dale was hired after he “approached the campaign and offered his services claiming that he had serious issues with Jim Moran’s ethical lapses and disparaging comments about ethnic minorities.” Dale called that statement “completely inaccurate” and added that the campaign ”had unrealistic goals of what we were expected to [accomplish].”
Programming Director Leaving Artisphere
After only six months on the job, Artisphere’s programming director has decided to leave.
Rosanna Ruscetti joined the struggling venue in October, and was seen as someone who could help stabilize it. Just this year, Artisphere received accolades for its exhibit featuring famed Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.
Prior to working at Artisphere, Ruscetti had served as a programmer at George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium for 18 years. She had also been a consultant for arts programming and business development.
Ruscetti will be leaving for family reasons, we’re told.
According to a job posting, the new program director will have to plan performances and exhibits, negotiate contracts, and develop and manage a $500,000 budget. The position has a pay range of $53,580 to $88,545 annually.
Morning Notes
Students Welcome Shuttle Arrival — Students at St. Thomas More Cathedral School in Arlington welcomed the arrival of space shuttle Discovery yesterday by lining up in the school’s parking lot in the outline of a space shuttle.
Budget Proposal Includes Tax Hike, Pay Raise — At a work session yesterday, the Arlington County Board agreed to raise the real estate tax rate for its new budget — set for adoption on Saturday — by 1.3 cents above the current rate. That’s well above the 0.5 cent tax rate hike in County Manager Barbara Donnellan’s proposed budget. The new budget includes increased funding for schools, libraries, housing and employee pay raises — including a 2.8 percent pay raise for County Board members themselves. [Washington Post]
Board to Consider Crystal Drive Two-Way Project — The County Board on Saturday is expected to approve a $1.9 million contract to convert the portion of Crystal Drive between 15th and 12th Streets into a two-way street with bike lanes and various other improvements. [Sun Gazette]
Renovated Residence Inn to Reopen — A grand reopening celebration is scheduled at the Residence Inn hotel on Army Navy Drive in Pentagon City. The event, from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 3, will celebrate the recent “upscale” renovation of the hotel’s suites and public spaces. “The new look of our spacious suites will help our guests feel right at home and our totally reimagined lobby has wide open spaces to work and relax,” a company rep said in a press release.
Photo courtesy Chris Marquez
