News

According to an email from the county, contractor Clark Construction has excavated to a depth of 20 feet but is about to hit bedrock. Once it does, Clark will need to start blasting to reach the ultimate depth of 100 feet. The blasting is expected to start “in the near future.”

County officials say they’re doing everything they can to keep the noise down, including putting a concrete cap on the “blast shaft” and using “blast mats.”


Around Town

By a vote of 55 to 4, members approved a $3.1 million renovation plan (see: Option C-2) that includes enhancements to the club’s three pools, more terrace space and a new clubhouse. The existing Victorian-style clubhouse, built in the 1890s and known as the Febrey-Kincheloe House, is expected to be torn down by the end of the year.

Association President Pat Shapiro says the clubhouse is in poor condition and it would be too expensive to try to safely restore it.


Around Town

Construction is underway on the Garfield Park at Clarendon Village luxury apartment complex, at the corner of 10th Street and Washington Boulevard in Lyon Park.

Workers in heavy equipment have been busy laying large metal beams while clearing debris from the site, which used to house a CVS Pharmacy. But at least one neighbor is upset about one type of “debris” that’s awaiting removal.


Around Town

The buildings that used to house Arlington Motorcar Service, Medical Service Corporation International and the Fashion Dreams tailor between Rosslyn and Courthouse are no more.

Demolition work has reduced the three small buildings on the 1700 block of Wilson Boulevard to rubble. A large, empty lot and a pile of debris is all that remains. (See the before and after photos below.)


Around Town

The photo (above left) of some sort of yellow rig near the Bishop O’Connell High School football field has neighbors speculating, according to TBD. Some believe that work is getting underway on a controversial athletic field renovation before the project has been formally approved by the county board.

We don’t know about that, but it does vaguely remind us the oil derrick from a 20-year-old Saved by the Bell episode entitled “Pipe Dreams,” in which oil is discovered underneath the Bayside High School football field. For a while, everybody thought the oil money was going to bring exciting improvements to the school, but in the end a beloved duck died and the whole situation was judged a fiasco.


Around Town

Per Arlington County code, boats, boat trailers and commercial vehicles (defined by Virginia law as a vehicle over 12,000 pounds) are prohibited from parking on the side of a street next to property zoned for residential use — except when unloading/loading or performing services. Motor homes and camping trailers are prohibited from parking in a residential zone for a period of more than five consecutive days.

But as many drivers of such vehicles have figured out, the law does not apply to the sides of streets abutting property zoned as “special” — which includes schools, libraries, community centers, parks and other county-owned property. As a result, the curbs next to some county properties have become a free parking lot of sorts for big trucks.


News

On Saturday the board unanimously approved up to $15 million in bonds to fund the last phases of the Cherrydale Fire Station 3 project ($7.5 million), the initial construction of the Arlington Mill Community Center ($5 million), and the construction of a new park at the Buckingham Village 1 apartment complex ($850,000).

The projects were previously approved as part of the county’s Capital Improvement Programs.


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