The meeting starts at 7PM at Mount Vernon Recreation Center (2701 Commonwealth Avenue), but it will be preceded by a walking tour in Mt. Jefferson Park at 6PM.

Cost of a Flush

Alexandria Renew Enterprises has developed a new video to explain the "Cost of a Flush."

Alexandria Renew operates the City's waste water processing system, and this video tells the story of the importance of their work.

Youth Mental Health First Aid

Mental Health First Aid can be every bit as critical as performing CPR in saving a life.

In two sessions, starting tomorrow, the ACPS FACE Center and the City will be conducting training on Youth Mental Health First Aid.

Sign-up to reserve your spot.

Choose a Congressman

The Republican Party recently nominated Micah Edmond as their choice to run for Congress from the 8th Congressional District

The Democrats will be selecting their nominee at a primary on Tuesday, June 10th.

The absentee voting for the primary has now begun both in person and by mail.

See the Stars

Tuesday June 17th is the final TC Williams Planetarium show of the season.

The Planetarium welcomes residents of all ages, but is limited to 35 in a show.

Registration opens tomorrow. Sign-up online.

Alexandria Marketing Fund

The Alexandria Marketing Fund is a public/private partnership fund dedicated to supporting efforts to promote Alexandria as a place for commerce.

Applicants may be non-profit organizations or groups of businesses interested in promoting visiting, shopping or dining in Alexandria.

The Fund is now accepting applications with a deadline of Thursday, June 26th.

Alexandria Waste Watchers

The City is a looking for a few good volunteers to join Alexandria Waste Watchers.

To evaluate efforts to reduce the volume of refuse we collect from our curbside customers, the City is piloting smaller trash cans. Volunteers will provide additional data to the City about their recycling behavior.

To sign-up, contact the City's Recycling office at 703-746-4133 or e-mail.

Real Estate Tax Due

The First Half of the Real Estate Tax is due on Monday June 16th.

There are six convenient ways to pay.

With only three meetings left until the Council recesses for the summer, our dockets tend to get longer as we work to get it all in.

On Monday, we again gathered at the Rocky Versace Plaza and Vietnam Veterans' Memorial. We honored the 67 Alexandrians lost in Vietnam, as well as all of those who have given the ultimate sacrifice for our nation.

With the budget completed, we have the opportunity to return to more long-term efforts.

The Council held another joint meeting with the School Board to discuss the proposed Youth Master Plan and the opportunity to share more services between the two organizations.

Please let me know how I can be of assistance. Contact me anytime.

Council Initiatives

Paving The Way

For good reason, the City Council receives quite a few complaints about the condition of our roads. During the worst of the recession, the Council deferred street maintenance to focus on more dire capital priorities. As a result, the condition of our roads is quite poor.

In the Capital Improvement Program recently approved by the

Council, the resources available to street reconstruction and resurfacing has been doubled.

These resources will enable the City to significantly expand our paving activities. This will occur during this upcoming fiscal year (beginning July 1), as well as years beyond.

For each road considered, the City will assign a Pavement Condition Index (PCI) score, and prioritize repairs and resurfacing using that score. In October, the City performed a City-wide scoring effort.

While this list is subject to change, the adopted budget included a tentative schedule for the next few years.

In FY 2015 (July 1, 2014 - June 30, 2015), the City plans to spend $4.3 million to pave:

E. Howell from Mt .Vernon to Jefferson Davis Hwy
Duncan Ave. from Mt .Vernon Ave. to Bellefonte
N. Gordon St. from Duke St. to the dead end
Wheeler Ave. from Duke St. to the dead end
W. Bellefonte Ave. from Russell Rd. to Jefferson Davis Hwy
Eisenhower Ave. from S. Van Dorn to Clermont Ave.
Princess St. from N. Columbus St. to Cameron St. via Buchanan St.
N. Pitt St. from Bashford Ln to Pendleton St.
Beauregard from Mark Center Dr. to Lincolnia Rd.
Ridge Rd from Crestwood Dr. to Braddock Rd.
Janneys Lane from Cloverway to King St.
Taney Ave from Van Dorn St. to the dead end
Yoakum Parkway from Edsall Rd to Stevenson Ave.
N. Hampton Dr. from Ford Ave. to King St.
King St. from Radford St. to Janney's Lane
Royal St. from Gibbon St. to Jones Point Dr.
Monroe Ave. from Stonewall Rd to Leslie Ave.

In FY 2016 (July 1, 2015 - June 30, 2016), the City plans to spend $3.6 million to pave:

Duke St. from N. Quaker Ln. to S. Jordan St.
Prince St. from Dangerfield Rd. to S. Columbus St.
S. Van Dorn St. from S. Pickett St. to Edsall Rd.
N. Van Dorn St. from Seminary Rd. to Menokin Dr.
Eisenhower Ave. from Bluestone Rd. to Mill Rd.
E. Taylor Run Pkwy from Duke St. to Dead End
S./ N. Jordan St. Entire Length
Cambridge Rd. from Duke St. to Janney's Ln.
Braxton Pl. Entire Length
Hilltop Terrace Entire Length
Putnam Pl. Entire Length
Westview Terrace Entire Length
E. Oxford Ave Entire Length
E./ W. Myrtle St. Entire Length
Dawes Ave. from King St. to Seminary Rd.
CityWide Alley Resurfacing
Hume Ave. Entire Length
Raymond Ave. Entire Length
Fordham Rd. Entire Length
Farm Rd./ Wellington Rd. from Chalfonte Dr. to Circle Terrace

In FY 2017 (July 1, 2016 - June 30, 2017), the City plans to spend $4.8 million to pave:

Russell Rd. from Mt. Vernon Ave. to Masonic View Ave.
Cameron St. from Union St. to Buchannan St.
Mt. Vernon Ave. from Braddock Rd. to Hume Ave.
Randolph Ave. Entire Length
E. Braddock from Russell Rd. to N. West St.
N./ S. Columbus from Green St. to Oronoco St.
City-Wide Alley Resurfacing
Pickett St. from Van Dorn St. to Valley Forge
Kennedy St./ Landover Rd. Entire Length
N. Pickett from Polk Ave. to Dead End
N./ S. Henry St. from Slater's Ln. to Franklin St.
Pendleton St. Entire Length
N. Owen St. Entire Length
St. Stephens Rd. Entire Length
Colonel Ellis Ave. Entire Length
Chambliss St. Length in City
Francis Hammond/ Skyhill Rd
W. Timber Branch Pkwy. From Braddock Rd. to Dead End
Taney Ave. from N. Early St. to N. Gordon St.
Leslie Ave. from Randolph Ave. to Duncan Ave.
E. Glebe Rd. from Jefferson Davis Hwy to Russell Rd.

See the Future

The City's effort to bring a new Metro Rail station to Potomac Yard continues to make progress. We are now on schedule to complete the Federally-required Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process at the end of this calendar year.

To support the analysis of the three build options, the City Council allocated funds to produce a physical model of the options, as well a digital model showing the impacts of the project on the George Washington Memorial Parkway.

The physical model is in the Vola Lawson Lobby at City Hall for the remainder of this month.

As the process continues, I welcome your feedback on the proposed sites.

Improving Efficiency and Transparency

One of the first things I advise any new City Council observer is that the most important work of the Council is not what occurs on the dais during meetings. The formal Council meetings are the conclusion of the process for most efforts.

The real work and deliberation occurs in Council work sessions, briefings, etc. The Council also has important deliberations and discussions during closed executive sessions.

Work sessions of the Council are informal meetings typically held just before a Council evening meeting. They are open to the public and held in the Council workroom, which is adjacent to the Council chamber.

Typically, our City Staff or a citizen advisory Board or Commission is there to present a policy area to the Council and engage in discussion and feedback. Council frequently provides informal direction to the Staff about how a particular policy initiative should be formally brought to the Council.

The Council's executive sessions typically are held at the end of Council meetings, usually quite late at night. These are closed meetings, and can only be held to cover one of a short list of enumerated justifications for having a closed meeting. Most of the reasons involve situations where the City's financial or legal position would be threatened by public awareness of the material.

Only those matters that directly relate to one of the reasons listed in the State law can be legally discussed in those closed executive sessions.

During last year's retreat, the Council asked Councilman Smedberg and me to come up with recommendations for how the City might refine the structure of our meetings to improve transparency and efficiency.

Last month, we unanimously adopted our package of recommendations for improving the efficiency and public transparency of our meetings.

While the changes affect a variety of areas, the highlights are:

Work sessions will now be part of the formal Council meetings. This will allow for the work sessions to be televised and recorded.

Our two Legislative meetings of the month are now being re-worked. The first of those meetings will be focused on more routine Council business, and the second will have more policy discussion and debate.

Instead of having executive sessions at the end of our agenda, which frequently is very late in the evening, those closed sessions

will now precede the scheduled Council meeting for that evening. This will allow these very important discussions, which frequently involve litigation, real estate transactions, personnel matters, and other important discussions, to occur when Council and Staff are more awake.

These changes, among others, will go into place in the fall, and I'm confident that they will improve our efficiency and increase the transparency of our meetings. Let me know your thoughts!

Host a Town Hall in Your Living Room!

My regular series of Town Hall Meetings are back!

You supply the living room and a bunch of your friends and neighbors. I will supply a member of the Alexandria City Council (me) with the answers to any of your questions about our City.

Just drop us a line and we'll get a Town Hall on the calendar! Thanks for the interest!

Upcoming Issues

Transit Goes West

Leveraging a variety of Federal, State, Local and developer dollars, the first new transit project for the City's West End in decades is poised to come to fruition.

The West End Transitway will bring Bus Rapid Transit in partially dedicated right-of-way to the Van Dorn/Beauregard corridor. The project will connect Van Dorn Metro, the Shirlington Transit Center, Beauregard residential areas and the Pentagon.

In order to comply with Federal requirements to make this project eligible for Federal funds, the City is currently undertaking a combined Alternatives Analysis and Environmental Assessment (AA/EA).

A Policy Advisory Group has been formed to be appointed by the City Manager. The application deadline has been extended until June 6th.

Apply today to help shape the future of this important project.

Additionally, the City is seeking input using a survey for the upcoming process.

Aquatics

During the adoption of the FY 2014 budget, the Council set aside significant capital resources to maintain our aging aquatics infrastructure.

One of the central components of that new investment was the exploration of feasibility and construction of a 50 meter pool at Chinquapin Recreation Center.

With funding from the Council for a feasibility study, the City recently

completed a comprehensive study of the potential expansion.

While this is only an early step in the effort, this does validate some of the key assumptions and allows the City to move forward on the planning.

There was minor flooding in adjacent neighborhoods caused by leakages at Warwick Pool. As Council continues to choose capital priorities for the aquatics money that were set aside, working to rebuild Warwick Pool will have to be a priority to continue an aquatics use on that site.

Ike West Moves On

The Eisenhower West small area planning effort is now underway and proceeding.

The adoption of this plan will tackle questions about the future of heavy industrial uses in our City, as well as the viability of new options for transportation in the corridor.

The first community meeting will be held on Monday June 16th from 6:30PM to 8:30PM at Samuel Tucker Elementary School.

Additionally, there is a separate survey of the community to solicit input from the residents who may not be able to make the meeting.

Councilman Justin M. Wilson

703.746.4500

justin.wilson@alexandriava.gov

www.justin.net
Alexandria City Hall

301 King Street

Alexandria, VA 22314