ABCDE METRO tuesday, july 13, 2010 LOCAL HOME PAGE 78, 9 a.m. 82, noon 85, 5 p.m. 79, 9 p.m.


Obituaries Harvey Pekar, whose autobiographical “American Splendor” comic books became a cult movie, dies at 70. B5


We get answers Have you noticed an incorrect sign or broken playground equipment in your community? Report it on The Daily Gripe at PostLocal.com.


THE REGION


Beefing up bus security After an impostor takes a Metrobus from a garage under the watchful eyes of agency employees, Metro takes steps to better ensure a repeat incident isn’t so easy to pull off. B8


MEMBERS WANT FULL VOTE


Clubhouse renovations tied to county byway


by Annie Gowen When officials at the Army


Navy Country Club in Arlington County decided to replace the fraying clubhouse with a $49 mil- lion facility offering expansive views of the Washington skyline, club members — including many generals and other high-ranking military officers — gave the proj- ect hale and hearty support. Until they learned that the


PHOTOS BY SUSAN BIDDLE FOR THE WASHINGTON POST William Smith, who has macular degeneration, navigates a Silver Spring sidewalk full of obstacles for pedestrians, blind or not. Shedding light on sidewalk safety


Blind blogger documents pedestrian hazards and prods Montgomery officials to fix them by Rick Rojas


T


he great irony for William Smith is that the worse his vision be- comes, the more he sees. There is the bus stop on Fenton Street in Silver Spring, encased by


a concrete wall so close to the street that it’s nearly impossible for a blind or disabled person to get to. There’s the crosswalk where Georgia Avenue forks onto Veirs Mill Road in Wheaton that could pass as a maze. And don’t even mention the construction zones that frequently block sidewalks. Smith, 46, notices such things mainly be- cause of his inability to see them. The stay-at-home dad is legally blind. He has a progressive eye disorder that inhibits his central vision. But that hasn’t stopped him from walking the streets of his Silver Spring neighborhood, camera in hand, to document each and every obstruction. The hurdles he faces spurred him last year to launch a blog, Montgomery Side- ways. There he chronicles the impediments he encounters, raises safety concerns for other disabled residents and lets Mont- gomery County officials know where they have fallen short.


Smith said he seeks to raise awareness be- cause the problems he finds aren’t mere in- conveniences. They are roadblocks to some-


views would come with a price: Arlington agreed to let them build a new clubhouse about 20 feet higher than zoning rules would allow — if the club would let the county build a public bike path on the eastern edge of the golf course, which abuts Inter- state 395. Apublic bike path? Cyclists and


skateboarders whooshing by? Distracting concentration on Red Hole Five? That would not do. “Once the word gets out to the


younger generation there is a se- cluded place to come and visit and have some fun, you can bet they’re going to be there,” retired Navy Capt. Louis Kriser said at a recent public hearing. “Gangs. Ri- vals. Hazards to pedestrians com- ing in and out. . . . I can see The Washington Post: ‘Golf Ball From Army Navy Country Club Fifth Hole Hits Baby.’ ” Last week, the normally staid


country club was roiled by contro- versy when 14 of its members sued the club’s leaders, saying that they cut an inappropriate deal with the county for the bike path — or “hell’s canyon,” as one called it — without a vote from its members, which they say violates the club’s bylaws. “They risked their lives in Iraq and can’t even get a vote at their own country club,” one supporter said.


To update his blog, Smith has to sit close to his 42-inch computer monitor, which strains his eyes. It’s “physically painful,” he says. To take photos, he shoots “from the hip.”


thing much more precious: his independ- ence. “Initially, it was just so I could walk around,” he said of his blog. “I realize now, stuff like good sidewalks don’t happen by themselves. I’m making it matter to people,


and if I can make it matter to people, hope- fully it will make people do something about it.” The things that Smith notices now ha-


blogger continued on B8 Benjamin Chew, an attorney for


the “disgruntled generals,” said that his clients think the entire club, which includes 2,400 local members, should be allowed to decide the matter. “All our clients want is due process and a vote. That’s as American as it gets,” Chew said.


Country Club Army Navy


Country Club Army Navy GENE THORP/THE WASHINGTON POST The club, which was founded in


1924 for military families’ recrea- tional use, sits on 254 rolling acres. The golf course has 27 manicured holes, and the club also has tennis courts, a swim- ming pool and plenty of trees. It even has a magnolia bog, a rarity. Retired Army Lt. General Er- nest Graves, a member of the club’s board, said the club had long planned to replace the club- house, which hasn’t had major al- terations since 1940. The club’s members voted in 2008 to em- bark on the project. A design team drew up plans last summer for a building inspired by a Virginia manor home, with high-ceiling terraces offering a sweeping view of the Washington Monument. For years, Arlington planners


and cycling enthusiasts have hoped to forge a new pathway from the Arlington Ridge neigh- borhood to the Pentagon City area


clubhouse continued on B4


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Arlington View


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JOHN KELLY’S WASHINGTON


‘Welcome to the Hollow’ When Darrell Smith Sr., left, attended summer camp, none of the counselors looked like him. But now, at Camp Moss Hollow, he’s a role model for kids who might not have many. B2


Plans for bike path at Army Navy club lead to uproar, suit


Proposed connection would allow bikers and pedestrians easier access to either side of I-395.


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Hoffman- Boston Elementary School


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and a hairy predicament


Iwould consider my household to be like: —A Library —Middle of the Road —A Carnival


PETULA DVORAK K


itten shopping. Fraught with peril, right? Funny how something so


fluffy and cute turns prickly so fast. Cat shopping in my home town meant you finally gave in to that cardboard box full of mewing furballs outside the Safeway. If someone bothered to tape a “Free Kittens” sign to the box, they were from a good home. If the sign was spelled correctly, they were high class. For us last week, acquiring a feline companion in the nation’s capital began with filling out a compatibility survey to help match us with the perfect animal. The first question in the


Washington Animal Rescue League’s surveymade me laugh out loud:


Since there was no “Utter pandemonium peppered with chaos” choice, I checked off the last option, then wrestled with the rest of the survey as my sons fell in love with a different citizen of the shelter’s Kitty City every five seconds. For the past 18 years, we had been dog people. And early this year, we lost the second of the old hounds who had served as our surrogate children all those years (sorry about the Halloween costumes, dogs). We were looking forward to some pet-free time. The children rebelled. I tried


fish. It worked for two weeks. Enter: Grandma. “I’ll get you a


kitty for your sixth birthday,” she promised the older boy. So we started our monthly visits to the rescue league’s plush shelter, where cats roam free, sip from a cascading waterfall, and


dvorak continued on B8


Cute and cuddly,


Doughboy has resting place, 91 years later


Body of WWI soldier unearthed in France by relic hunters


by Michael E. Ruane and Edward Cody


On June 8, 1921, an Army cap- tain wrote Mrs. Nora Grady of New York to report that officials had been unable to find the body of her brother, Thomas D. Costel- lo, who had been killed in France during the late war. The captain reassured Mrs.


Grady that the search would con- tinue. But “some time may yet elapse before definitive informa- tion can be given in this case.” On Monday, 89 years later — and 91 years after Costello, a pri- vate in the 60th Infantry Regi- ment, was killed by German artil- lery in a patch of woods called the Bois de Bonvaux — his remains were laid to rest at Arlington Na- tional Cemetery. He was buried at 11 a.m. on a hill beneath a freshly trimmed swamp oak, not far from his World War I commander, Gen.


SARAH L. VOISIN/THE WASHINGTON POST


Michael J. Frisbie receives a flag from Brig. Gen. Donald L. Rutherford at the funeral for World War I soldier Thomas Costello.


John J. “Black Jack” Pershing, who had led the “doughboys” to Europe in 1917.


A warm breeze rustled the


leaves as a bugler played taps and a French Army colonel came by to pay his respects. “I wanted to show the gratitude of my coun- try,” said Col. Brice Houdet.


Costello’s fairly complete skel-


eton was discovered by relic hunters in eastern France in 2006, along with the remains of several other soldiers, and arti- facts such as a blue-beaded rosa- ry, a smashed French coin, a pocketknife, toothbrushes and the remnants of boots and uni-


forms. He was identified after an in-


vestigation by the Defense De- partment’s Joint POW/MIA Ac- counting Command that matched, among other things, dental records and evidence of the fatal head wound Costello had suffered. Pentagon officials said it was one of only a handful of instances in recent years in which the re- mains of a World War I casualty were discovered and identified. Also present Monday was a Costello family descendant, Mi- chael J. Frisbie, 43, a truck driver from Stockton Springs, Maine, who flew down for the funeral with his wife, Leanne, and daugh- ter, Brittani. They


sat in the


green-covered graveside chairs reserved for family members. Frisbie, who had no idea he was a relative until he was con- tacted about two years ago by a Pentagon genealogist, said he be- lieves that Costello was his great- great uncle. But the distance of the connection “doesn’t matter,” Frisbie said. “He’s a fallen soldier, and if I can honor him, that’s


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