Neighbors,

See below a notice to the “Friends of West Gateway Park” to do a little Park clean up on May 3. Please feel free to join. West Gateway Park covers US 66 from Ft. Meyer to Nash Street.

There’s been some chatter that maybe this is an attempt by Arlington officialdom to divert attention from the Wilson School parcel, particularly Rosslyn Highlands Park. Rosslyn Highlands Park is part of the Wilson School parcel located between the school and firestation. It contains a sitting area, plus the basketball court and playground.
I can only respond that:
1. Improving the friendliness and utility of West Gateway Park would be good for our neighborhood, and,
2. Trading off Wlson School for West Gateway Park is not my agenda and it’s never been the North Rosslyn agenda. Rather, civic-minded Arlingtonians, including RAFOM, the Civic Federation, Friends of Arlington Parks, Preserve Arlington, and many others agree that the Wilson School parcel, particularly its greenspace, is the heart of our residential neighborhood.

Mark Antell
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TO: Friends of West Gateway Park

I’ve scheduled a get-togther with Lyndell Core ‘our’ park manager on Saturday, May 3, at 3:30 PM.
The range of possible park modifications that Arlington Park Dept is considering are included at the bottom of this note.

We have three tasks to complete during the May 3 get-together:
1. A clean-up. Bring light gardening tools.
2. I think we would do well to precede our meeting with Lyndell with a free-wheeling discussion among ourselves on how to make West Gateway Park more inviting and usable.
3. After our clean up, a discussion with Lyndell about what we see and what we want.
So I guess we’d get together at 3:30, talk for awhile, and start to clean, and then clean and talk some more after Lyndell arrives at 4:00.

For those who enjoy organizational strategy, I post some thoughts below:
1. We don't yet have a clean up schedule for the year. Once we've set that, I'll post it to NRCA website.
2. Friends of West Gateway Park will continue to report to the NRCA board routinely.
Mark

References:
- Minutes of our first clean up and meeting are available at NorthRosslyn.org Forum in the section on Gateway Park
- Included below is a recent note from Lyndell Core (Arlington Parks official who has invited community input on West Gateway Park).

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On Friday, April 4, 2014 8:37 AM, Lyndell Core <Lcore@arlingtonva.us> wrote:
Mark:

I was in Rosslyn yesterday morning to review some of the construction along Moore, specifically the site called Crandal Mackey that has been swapped for public space further in the block. We are negotiating to get the construction company to move some of the boulders to park sites for landscaping projects and to add design elements to the sites. I was with the Landscape and Forestry manager and Landscape Supervisor. We were able to spend about 30 minutes on a quick review of West Gateway.

Landscaping will add the topsoil and grass seed to boost the lawn area.

It was suggested we may want to remove some of the benches.

Use community volunteers and other resources to apply mulch to the interior planting beds to smother out weeds.

Develop a plant list for some colorful native plants that can be planted in spring.

Plan the removal of the stumps from the shrubs and other woodies we cut back in those beds.

Do we want another picnic table?

Would grills make sense there??

Have the green dogs rules signs had any impact? I have not heard any reports of dogs off leash from this area. That does not mean it is not happening it just means it may not be reported..

Apologies for not getting back to you sooner.

Lyndell D. Core
Park Services Area Manager
Urban Operations, Parks and Natural Resources Division
2700 S. Taylor Street
Arlington, VA 22206, Telephone: (703) 228-6523

I will be unable to assist on May3, but do want to be part of this project. Do have Lyndell look at how the "Aztec" stair painting has not lasted well, esp. the down ward path (rather amusing) Terri Prell

Mark, we plan to participate. Thanks for arranging this.

Susan and Jeff Vincent

Dear Mark,

I will be there on 03 May 2014 to assist in the clean-up of Gateway Park.

Perdita Welch