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Fairfax Co. unveils plan to prop up
fund 27 renovations, two newschools
BY KEVIN SIEFF
In preparation for a projected enrollment boom, Fairfax County education officials unveiled a plan Thursday to renovate a slew of aging schools at a cost of $805 million through the next decade. The plan also funds renova-
tions at 27 schools, as well as the construction of one middle school and one elementary school. An unexpected savings of $31
million from lower than estimat- ed construction costs for recent projects will help the district accelerate its plan — which is awaiting School Board approval — moving schools up the dis- trict’s renovation list by several years. Fairfax is in the middle of its
most ambitious boundary study in recent memory, prompted by explosive growth and the im- pending closure of Clifton Ele- mentary and Pimmit Hills Alter- native High schools. The district expects to grow by 2,900 students in the next year. Such growth, spread unevenly
across the county, has forced offi- cials to consider both projected enrollment numbers and aging infrastructure in determining where limited capital improve- ment funds are allocated.
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aging infrastructure $805millionwould
Activists wage campaign against Wal-Mart in D.C.
Retailer proposes 4 District officials point to Sun-
rise Valley Elementary School in Reston as an illustration of why schools need to be renovated. Classrooms in Sunrise Valley are divided by temporary walls, a relic of the “open plan” schools of the 1970s. Fifth- and sixth-grad- ers are taught in a temporary classroom, and surplus techno- logical equipment is stored in the same room as the school’s kiln. “This comes as great news for
us,” said the school’s principal, Elizabeth English, who will help plan the renovation before it be- gins in 2013. The district’s renovation list,
which includes schools from across the county, was estab- lished by an independent study several years ago and will not be revised under the current capital improvement program. Some parents, whose children
attend schools at the bottom of that queue, have expressed disap- pointment at the long lag be- tween the announcement of the capital improvement plan and slated start dates for renovations. But officials say the renova-
tions, which are funded largely with $155 million annual install- ments from the county’s Board of Supervisors, must be done incre- mentally. “There’s not a single school on
this list that shouldn’t be renovat- ed today. But parents and teach- ers have to be patient until we have the money,” said Dean Tis- tadt, the district’s chief operating officer.
sieffk@washpost.com
sites; Georgia Ave. store the most contested
BY JONATHAN O’CONNELL
Neighborhood activists, af- fordable housing advocates and labor unions are mounting cam- paigns aimed at thwarting Wal- Mart’s plan to open its first stores inD.C. A handful of residents of
Brightwood, anUpperNorthwest neighborhood that includes Georgia Avenue, wrote members of the D.C. Council this week to oppose a proposed Wal-Mart on Georgia Avenue. The group has also created a Web site, Ward Four Thrives, to spread the word. Thursday night, about20activ-
ists staged a protest at the home of a development executive plan- ning the store, walking in circles on the snow-covered sidewalk chanting “Keep D.C. Wal-Mart free.” As part of a national strategy to
serve more urban markets, Wal- Mart announced last month that it planned to open four stores in the District. The company said it would sell fresh food and create 1,200 jobs with competitive wag- es. Wal-Mart has not signed any leases and hasmet with residents and city council members to boost support. The announcement took some
critics by surprise. Thomas P. McNutt, president of Local 400 of theUnited Food and Commercial Workers, which represents em- ployees of area GiantandSafeway stores, acknowledged he had been caught flat-footed by the announcement, though the com- pany has been considering D.C. locations for years. McNutt said he was preparing
a forceful response. “We are going to bring the fight to them,” he said. Of the planned stores, in wards
Wal-Mart locations by 2012
1. Georgia and Missouri avenues NW
2. New York Avenue and Bladensburg Road NE
3. 801 New Jersey Ave. NW 4. East Capitol and 58th streets SE
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THE WASHINGTON POST
4, 5, 6 and 7, the proposedGeorgia AvenueWal-Mart, inWard 4, has drawn the most criticism. Unlike other spots, the site at Georgia and Missouri avenues, home of a former car dealership, is adjacent to several small businesses that could suffer. In a letter Tuesday to members
of theD.C. Council, area residents Gerri Adams-Simmons, Michele Baskin and Rebecca Mills said they wanted “UpperGeorgia Ave- nue to thrive, not to become a sea of abandoned buildings with a Wal-Mart at the center.” Thursday night’s protesters,
most of whom were not from Brightwood, marched at the Woodley Park home of Dick Knapp, a vice president of the development firm Foulger-Pratt, which owns the site. “We’re trying tomake the point
that just as no one in Woodley Park would stand for aWal-Mart being built there, we don’t want one in our neighborhood either,” said Adrian Madsen, who has helped organize a “Wal-Mart Free D.C.” campaign and is a member
50 0 MD. 1
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of the group EmpowerD.C. Knapp, reached on the phone
before the protest, said he would continue to listen to residents at community meetings, not to the activists chanting outside. Wal- Mart spokesman Steven Restivo said the protest would not affect the company’s plans. “What we’re finding is that the
more people get to know us, the more they want aWal-Mart com- ing to their neighborhood,” he said. None of the council members representing the neighborhoods where Wal-Mart has plans has announced a stance on the pro- posed stores. Some have said they want to hear more from residents and from the company about wages and charitable donations. Council memberMuriel Bows-
er (D-Ward 4) toured small busi- nesses near Georgia Avenue last week, including a dry cleaner and a new empanada restaurant. She said then that she thought Foulg- er-Pratt’s design for the proposed Wal-Mart was “too suburban” and that she would like to see housing built there as well, as had been proposed previously as a stand-alone project. But she said many critics who
say they are worried about small businesses don’t seem to rely on the corridor for basic goods. “Every time, I ask them which
one do you shop at?” she said. “And they don’t have an answer.” Manny Hidalgo, executive di-
rector for the nonprofit Latino Economic Development Corp., is watching Wal-Mart’s plans be- cause his organization has pro- vided micro-loans and technical assistance to Latino-owned busi- nesses nearby. At the same time, Wal-Mart’s charitable foundation has helped to finance his efforts. Hidalgo said he will canvass neighborhood business peopleon the proposed store. “We’re reserving judgment on
whether or not it’s a good thing for now,” he said.
oconnellj@washpost.com
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2010 LOCAL DIGEST THEDISTRICT
Mistrial in case of bank vs. lawyers A federal jury just couldn’t de-
cide betweenWachovia Bank and the nation’s trial lawyers. U.S. Chief Judge Royce C. Lam-
berth of the District declared a mistrial Thursday after a jury could not reach a unanimous ver- dict, saying it was split 5 to 3 in favor ofWachovia, after five days of deliberation and an eight-day trial. The American Association for
Justice, formerly the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit seek- ing $6.7 million in damages after Wachovia rescinded a promised $89.5 million loan, sought to fi- nance the purchase of a new, 11-story office building at 777 Sixth St. NW in 2007. The bank cited the impact of the subprime mortgage crisis. The association, which
planned to buy the building out- right for $105 million, eventually bought it as a minority partner in a $123 million deal. “Both sides did a really good
job. . . .They sort of canceled each other out,” saidonejuror. “We just could not state a position . . . on how much a company should be responsible for representations that one [loan] officer makes.” —Spencer S. Hsu
VIRGINIA
Arlington Cemetery bill passed by House The U.S. House on Thursday
overwhelmingly passed a bill re- quiring the secretary of the Army to provide Congress with an ac- counting of all320,000grave sites at ArlingtonNational Cemetery. The bill, which comes on the
heels of a growing scandal at the nation’s most hallowed military burial ground, would also require a reviewof the contracts issued to digitize the cemetery’s paper re- cords and a study to determine whether authority over the ceme- tery should be shifted to the De- partment of Veterans Affairs. The legislation was previously approved by the Senate. In June, an Army inspector
The Magazine Perdition in the pulpit
The small Virginia church had known its share of troubles. But nothing compared to what happened after the new minister took the pulpit.
Arts &Style Top 10: Our critics look back at 2010 and name their ten best in movies, TV, pop music, classical music, theater, fashion, viral videos and more.
Outlook
Worst year: “The Fix” columnist Chris Cillizza hands out his award for who had the worst year in Washington. Plus his runners-up, and who had the best year.
Sports
Race to the playoffs: Redskins-Cowboys on Sunday isn’t the matchup of yore, but plenty of NFL games this week have playoff implications. We assess the teams and their chances.
Travel
Bunker mentality: The massive underground bomb shelters, tunnels and canals of Berlin offer an insight into wartime Germany, and a netherworld travel experience to rival the catacombs of Paris.
Some stories may not run due to breaking news. Dr. Gridlock ROBERT THOMSON Excerpt from
voices.washingtonpost.com/drgridlock T
he District’s plan to rebuild the New York Avenue Bridge was a long time in
themaking, but projectmanagers say it’s ready to go now, which means a very long period of dis- ruption for commuters. Now, a commuter’s first ques-
tion might be: “There’s a bridge on New York Avenue?” It’s not exactly your classic structure, but the aging bridge is very impor- tant to the 65,000 vehicles that use it on an average day. The location is just east of theWendy’s restaurantwherethe avenue rises over the tracks used by Amtrak, MARC, VRE, CSX and Metro to accessUnion Station. The importance of those rail
links created difficulties with the original engineering plan to re- place the bridge. There are plenty of wires and cables for the rail systems right under the bridge. And there’s almost no time of day when the tracks are inactive. The bridge replacement was rede- signed as the impact of those construction realities became clearer and is now ready to go.
Traffic impact The rebuilding of the bridge
will begin in the next few weeks and will continue into 2013. In the first phase, from winter into summer, one of the six lanes along this half-mile stretch of New York Avenue NE will be taken away by construction. At rush hours, there will be three lanes in the peak direction and two in the other direction. Then, starting summer, two lanes will be taken away for about two years. This will leave two lanes open in each direction, and proj- ect managers think it will result in traffic delays of 15 to 30 min- utes.
Because of the delay in getting the bridge project started, some
of the other road projects along theNewYorkAvenue corridor are further along than they would have been. This is particularly true of the Ninth Street Bridge reconstruction farther east. That should make the overall
impact on commuters more en- durable than it originally would have been. However, there are other construction projects scheduled to get underway dur- ing 2011 in the Interstate 395 tunnels and on the roadways above them. The District’s chief engineer, Ronaldo T. “Nick” Nich- olson, mentioned that to me. He knowsfrom his previous job coor- dinating work on Northern Vir- ginia’s megaprojects — including the HOT lanes, the Dulles Metro line and the Wilson Bridge proj- ect—that one commute can take a traveler through several major work zones. The impact of the bridge proj-
ect extends to pedestrians and cyclists: Both sidewalks along the bridge are being blocked off. De- tour signs point the way south. TheD.C. Department of Trans-
portation and Stratacomm, the communications company that it often employs to coordinate in- formation about high-impact projects, will try several strate- gies to ease the burden on travel- ers. For one thing, they plan to use traditional social media to spread the word about the overall plan and about current condi- tions. A new camera-based tech- nology will be linked to variable message boards near the work zone to describe current condi- tions. And the first 2,000 eligible commuters to enroll will get $50 a month that they can use for transit fares or vanpools. The program is called Bridge Bucks. The project also will adjust
traffic light signal timing along New York Avenue to ease conges- tion then monitor the results in
case the timing has to be adjusted some more.
Alternative routes Some drivers might be able to
alter their work schedules so not to travel during themost congest- ed times. Others might be able to use an alternate route around the work zone.Here are suggestions. lMontana Avenue to Rhode
Island Avenue to Lincoln Road to North Capitol Street. lWest Virginia Avenue to
Florida Avenue. l South Dakota Avenue to
Rhode Island Avenue to Lincoln Road toNorth Capitol Street. l Bladensburg Road to Flori-
da Avenue. l Kenilworth Avenue to ei-
ther Benning Road or East Capi- tol Street orHoward Avenue.
drgridlock@washpost.com
general’s report noted that there were more than 200 unmarked or mislabeled graves in three of the cemetery’s 70 sections. It also found that at least four burial urns had been dug up and dumped in a dirt pile. Since then, the cemetery has discovered more problems, including eight sets of cremated remains that were dumped in a single grave site. The bill “will provide the con- gressional oversight we need to ensure we fix any errors as quick- ly as possible,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), who spon- sored the bill. —Christian Davenport
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