Va.-Army Deal Changes BRAC Plans
Plans to transfer thousands of Army jobs out of Arlington and into Fort Belvoir south of Alexandria have been altered to accommodate traffic concerns.
The Army had planned to move 22,000 of its employees to Fort Belvoir in accordance with the Base Realignment and Closure Commission, or BRAC.
But local government officials were concerned that moving that many workers to Fort Belvoir would create catastrophic traffic problems for the southern Fairfax County area.
To solve this problem, the Commonwealth of Virginia and the Army reached an agreement last week that would place some of the 22,000 employees slated to move out of Arlington into a GSA warehouse near the Franconia-Springfield Metro Station.
"I salute the Army's decision to place as many jobs as possible near Metro," U.S. Rep. Jim Moran (D-8) said in a statement. "[The] warehouse site is a superior location affording easy access to public transit. Taking cars off the roads reduces traffic and improves everyone's quality of life."
The BRAC commission's recommendations were signed into law by the President in 2005 but the moves are not scheduled to be completed until 2011. The number of jobs leaving Arlington due to BRAC was not changed as a result of the deal reached last week.
Arlington Woman Killed By Train
A 64-year-old Arlington woman was struck and killed by a six-car Metro train, causing multiple subway stations to be closed for hours.
The woman was hit by an Orange Line train in the Ballston station heading in the direction of Vienna at 9:38 a.m. on Monday morning. She was pronounced dead shortly thereafter.
Steven Taubenkivel, a Metro spokesperson, said that, while the incident is still under investigation, preliminary reports indicate that the woman "intentionally placed herself in the path of the train as it was approaching."
The death on the tracks caused major delays for the Orange Line. The Ballston and Virginia Square stations were closed until 12:30 p.m. on Monday. Trains were also forced to turn around at the East Falls Church and Clarendon stations.
— David Schultz
Suspect In Apartment Burglaries Apprehended
Arlington County Police have arrested a man who may be responsible for as many as 30 apartment burglaries in the county since the beginning of 2007.
Dwane Fairmont Earl, 47, of Washington, D.C., is being charged with two counts of burglary and two counts of grand larceny. He is also being charged with several burglaries in Montgomery County, Md. and is currently being held in the Montgomery County Detention Center on $25,000 bond.
Arlington Police had been seeking the suspect in the burglaries, which occurred in high-rise apartments in Rosslyn, Ballston and Crystal City, for several weeks now. Surveillance videos at two of the burglary locations captured images of a man who resembles Earl entering the building by "piggybacking" behind residents.
Items taken in the burglaries include laptop computers, jewelry and cash.
Energy Secretary To Speak in Arlington
Samuel Bodman, the U.S. Secretary of Energy, will speak about air quality issues at a conference in Arlington later next month.
Bodman, who was sworn in as secretary in early 2005, is the keynote speaker at Air Quality VI, a conference that is being held at the Gateway Marriot Hotel in Crystal City.
The conference is being organized by the University of North Dakota’s Energy and Environmental Research Center.
The center’s director, Gerald Groenewold, said in a statement that "Secretary Bodman is the leader of all primary energy and environmental programs in our country. [He] is a very informed man with respect to our nation’s energy and environmental issues."
U.S. Sens. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) will also be speaking at the event.
The conference, which was first held in 1998, will begin on Sept. 24. For more details about Air Quality VI or to register for the conference, visit the Energy and Environmental Research Center’s Web site at www.undeerc.org/AQVI.