Brief Minutes of the NRCA general meeting of 3/5

Turnout was fair. 10 members of NRCA. One guest from RAFOM. Plus two speakers.

Paul Derby reported on finances (we’re scraping by).

If you haven’t paid dues recently, your 2009 membership dues ARE DUE. $10 for a ‘place at the table’ in County governance, that’s a pretty good buy.

Paul also reported on our continuing substantial engagement with Metro to maintain the Rosslyn and Arlington Cemetery stations.

Paul also noted that we need to select an additional NRCA director at our next meeting. We have a board vacancy.

Jennifer Zeien reported that construction was stopped on all Rosslyn projects except Turnberry. County staff is negotiating with developers some ways to ameliorate the current poor visuals downtown. Jennifer also reported that the County Board has voted to allow extended construction hours downtown. It was a 3:2 vote. Chris Zimmerman and Walt Tejada voted to maintain the same quiet rules in Rosslyn that apply in the rest of Arlington.

Mark Antell reported on Wilson School. He left the NRCA meeting a bit early to appear (with Paul Mulligan) before the School Board in support of a recommendation* that the Wilson building and playfields be designated an historic site.

Mark also reported that we will participate with Rosslyn Renaissance on Arlington neighborhood day in May. We'll put up a table, distribute some materials, and encourage memberships and activism. Volunteers to join with Mark are welcome.

There was some discussion concerning aggressive panhandling on the skywalk. We provided information to help one member who wanted to discuss this problem with the police.

Dulce Carillo from Arlington County discussed the Diversity Forums recently held throughout Arlington. These demonstrated that Arlingtonians celebrate our highly diverse community.

Lastly, Bruce Nicholson of the USPS spoke to us about mail service. He acknowledged that we had suffered poor service in the past but he thought that we were likely seeing great improvement now that we have a assigned mailcarrier.

Mark Antell

*recommendation from Arlington County's Historic Landmark and Architecture Review Board