A relatively brief Arlington County Board meeting on Saturday involved discussion of local glass recycling and traffic calming on 1st Road S.
As officials are in the midst of determining the county’s budget and wrestling with various other thorny issues involving President Donald Trump’s administration, this week’s agenda was unusually light.
However, leaders still touched on a few key topics.
Glass-recycling expansion sought: Public-comment speaker Sam Laveson asked Board members to expand the number of glass-recycling centers from the current five to include additional neighborhoods.
Glass can be recycled indefinitely without a loss in quality, and “it takes a lot less energy to recycle glass than to produce it from sand,” Laveson said.
“We would like to expand,” Karantonis said in response, pointing to economic costs as a reason for not moving forward thus far but saying the matter was under consideration.
Board members in 2019 removed glass from the list of items that can be placed in curbside recycling bins, also citing cost concerns. Drop-off sites are located at Quincy Park, the Arlington Trades Center and the Aurora Hills, Madison and former Lee community centers.
The county’s Solid Waste Management Plan, adopted last June, calls for adding two new drop-off points for glass recyclables in National Landing and on the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor.
Traffic-calming project approved: Board members approved a $330,860 project to improve conditions for the one-block stretch of 1st Road S. between S. Glebe Road and Old Glebe Road.
The roadway is located near Alice West Fleet Elementary and Thomas Jefferson Middle schools, and contains 11 duplexes, five of which have no off-street parking.
A new curb extension will be added at the entrance to 1st Road off the South Glebe intersection to narrow the roadway and slow traffic. Additional signage also will be placed in the vicinity, and visibility improvements are planned.
Residents had sought installation of a speed hump to discourage cut-through traffic, but county staff determined that one was not warranted.
Vote on grant funding delayed: Board members pulled from the consent agenda a proposal to provide 23 community organizations a collective $1.87 million in funding through the Rebuilding Trust & Community Grant initiative.
Proposed grants to individual organizations would range from $26,250 to $150,000 and would address issues ranging from education and economic empowerment to criminal-justice and legal-aid initiatives.
A public hearing on the proposal will be held tomorrow (Tuesday) at 6 p.m. It is the only action item currently on the Tuesday-night agenda.
Public-engagement complaint lodged: Joseph Ventrone, president of the North Rosslyn Civic Association, used the public-comment period to voice criticism of county-government communication to his neighborhood on two recent occasions.
Ventrone referenced a dispute over installation of telecommunications facilities atop a Rosslyn building that had obscured some views from condominiums at the Waterview as one failing. He also said his civic association had received no formal notice of plans to tear down the former Key Bridge Marriott hotel.
County Manager Mark Schwartz noted that information about the demolition had been reported multiple times in ARLnow. However, Karantonis said the county always works to do better with public outreach.
“We will take your testimony under advisement — we will have to engage further,” Karantonis said.
