November 15, 2022 Meeting Minutes
1. Call to order. Linda LeDuc, President pro-tempore called the meeting to order at 7:10PM on Zoom.
Agenda:
Welcome and introductions
Neighborhood News:
Your comments/questions
Guest speaker- Kasey Spriggs, Arlington County Manager for South Arlington Parks
Ms. LeDuc welcomed everyone and reported on the meeting she conducted with Membership coordinators Ms. Janet Valenzuela and Noreen Quill.
Interesting ideas came out that meeting to expand participation in the community.
Yard signs to inform residents about our meetings in Arlington Mill.
Connect with the Parents association of the schools in the area
Reach out to the multi-family buildings in the area to have one representative to attend our meetings from their building/condo associations. This is to make sure they are informed of the important updates in the area.
Ms. Bolanos reported that she always posts the upcoming meetings using the Next Door app. There she also noticed some residents in Arlington Mill were confused about the Arlington Mill Civic Association; they thought it was part of one of the buildings in the area.
Ms. Bolanos was able to clarify the confusion and posted our website www.arlingtonmill.org in case people wanted to read more about our association and the importance of participating.
She will also continue her efforts informing neighbors and posting future events in the app, on our Arlington Mill Facebook page, and web page.
2. Form Base Code Advisory Working Group
Ms. Quill participated on behalf of our Arlington Mill Civic Association, she reported that a few issues have arisen related to the Columbia Pike Corridor. She will continue to attend and report back any relevant issue that needs to be addressed by our neighbors.
3. Mr. Spriggs opened his presentation by thanking everyone on the Zoom meeting he had a few issues to report.
He manages the Tyroll Park located in our neighborhood, and he wanted to share with everyone that a new bollard was installed after three others were destroyed by people trying to bring cars inside.
Unfortunately, he reported that some teenagers have been consistently damaging the bathrooms and the pavilion. It was reported that the bathrooms were being destroyed and they also damaged the door that opens and close automatically. Mr. Spriggs asked the Arlington Mill Civic Association if it was fine to close the bathrooms for the season. Everyone agreed that it was fine to close the bathrooms for the season, he stated they will repair them.
Neighbors mentioned that is unfortunate that unsupervised teenagers are doing so much damage to our public property that we treasure so much. It took 13 years to build this park and it so sad to know this.
The group discussed ideas to try to limit the vandalism. They are as follows:
Building partnerships with Arlington Public Schools, Arlington Parks, and other non-profit organizations to create awareness in residents and students to take care of our community.
Organizing a cleanup in the Spring that could bring the community together and raise these issues.
On a positive note, Mr. Spriggs reported that they won Federal grant funding to beautify the park in the Spring. We could also take this opportunity to create a community event when all the new trees are planted in this park.
The idea sounded very interesting to everyone participating and would be a positive event for the community. We all want to save the trees and increase the tree canopy in Arlington.
PLANS FOR THE FUTURE
Linda LeDuc and Miriam Bolanos will be meeting with the Mr. Justin Beck, Public Engagement Specialist from Arlington County Manager’s Office, in December.
Our website is now updated and working www.arlingtonmill.org for anyone to access our meeting minutes and other information.
Ms. Harrington sent a message to the Board stating that her husband can kindly manage it and add the updates related to Arlington Mill.
Our next meeting will be on JANUARY 10, 2023 at 7:00 pm. We hope to see you.
This meeting was adjourned by Linda LeDuc at 8:05 pm.