photo/erich wagner west end station...

Vol. 11, No. 17 Alexandria’s only independent hometown newspaper April 23, 2015

Moves afoot at City Hall to staff Station 210 as early as DecemberBy Chris Teale

At 8:30 a.m. last Saturday, city officials were scheduled to cut the ribbon to mark the open-ing of Fire Station 210 on the West End, near the Van Dorn Metro station. But City Manager Mark Jinks abruptly called off the ceremony after feedback from citizens and city council-ors, with a rescheduled time and

date yet to be determined. It was another dif-

ficult moment for the fire station, which officially opened last week

with a paramedic unit, a truck and a fire engine, but no crew of firefighters assigned to man the engine itself. “Fire protection is not the only intended purpose of Sta-tion 210; the station currently houses an active medic unit (i.e. ambulance and crew), EMS su-pervisor, field training officer, SCBA service center, the fire protection systems office and training and outreach facilities,” said city spokeswoman Andrea Blackford in an email explain-ing the original decision to hold a ribbon-cutting ceremony. “The presence of a new medic unit in the area is particularly impor-tant, since there are far more medic calls than fire calls in any community. The city is actively

working to staff the fire engine at [Station] 210.” Fire Chief Robert Dubé in-dicated at a fiscal 2016 budget work session last month that even if the fire department were to overhire new recruits — tem-porarily add employees to fill a staffing shortfall — and train them, they would still be unable to staff the station until Decem-ber 2016 at the earliest due to a number of factors, including a larger number of retirements than anticipated and an overall lack of staffing. Officials currently are ex-amining a number of different options, most notably the use of overhire to temporarily swell

Defense attorneys argue Seyoum was insane

By susan hale Thomas After two days of delibera-tion, a jury had not yet reached a verdict Wednesday as to the fate of Dawit Seyoum, accused of first degree mur-der in the killing of D.C. Department of Corrections deputy director Carolyn Cross in September 2014. Over the course of the trial, the basic facts of the case were not at issue — Sey-oum confessed to the crime shortly after his arrest. Instead, the case has centered around whether the defendant was in-sane at the time of the crime. Cross and Seyoum were strangers but lived in adja-cent apartment buildings at Seminary Towers on Ken-more Avenue. Cross’ daughter, Clarissa Davis, found her in Cross’ apartment after she was unable to reach her mother by phone — she was scheduled to drive her to the airport. But Seyoum had sneaked into Cross’ apartment and struck her 15 times with a large wrench. Four blows hit her skull. Seyoum put a plastic bag over Cross’ head and secured it with duct tape. He then stran-gled her, breaking her larynx. According to psychia-

trists’ testimony, Seyoum fled the scene when Cross’ phone received a text mes-sage from Davis displaying the word “Mom.” Hours later, Seyoum placed a 911 call from his own apart-ment. He had tried unsuccess-

fully to kill himself, cutting open his arms in his bathroom. Written in blood on the shower wall was, “I was the dirty one.” Prosecutors argued that Seyoum’s ability to formulate and carry out a plan

to kill Cross was a sign of his sanity, but the defense said he suffered from untreated schizophrenia and his actions were in response to delusions. Family members and a for-mer school counselor said Sey-oum was a promising young student, despite enduring a number of childhood traumas, including seeing the capture

SEE Trial | 6 SEE fire sTaTion | 7

No verdict in D.C. corrections official murder case

West End station officially opens without firefighters

PHOTO/ERICH WAGNER

City leaders postponed a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the newly opened Fire Station 210 on Eisenhower Avenue last week after outcry from West End residents over the lack of firefighters at the facility. City councilors now are contemplating how and when to pay for full staffing at the station.

Dawit Seyoum

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education or work. seyoum knew something wasn’t right.”

– Kale Daniel, cousin

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COrrECTiON Due to a technical error, page 23 of the April 16 edition of the Times did not run as intended. If you wish to read the missing page, visit http://alextimes.com/wp-content/uploads/ 2015/04/04_16_2015-Alex_Times_FinalDraft_Web-23.pdf. The Times regrets the error.

The weeKly BriefinG

Sheriff’s Office welcomes seven new deputies

Alexandria Democratic Committee to host debates ahead of primary elections

Clarence Tong, Kerry Donley win local Democratic committee straw poll

On April 17, the Alexandria Sheriff’s Office swore seven new deputies into its ranks at the Alexandria Courthouse. Frederick Amponsem, Ja-mal Muldrow, Deon Best, Jo-vanna Purdy, James L. Hensley, Jr., Shayla Leonard and Anton Keith all received their badges and credentials in a ceremony conducted by Edward Semo-nian, clerk of the circuit court. All seven deputies, as well as the new pre-trial probation officer Andrew Dziopa, began training this week.

- Chris Teale

Local voters will have the chance to hear from all of the Democratic candidates for the upcoming Alexandria mayoral, city council and Virginia House of Delegates 45th District pri-maries as they all square off in public debates and candidate forums ahead of the June 9 pri-mary election. On May 5, the candidates for city council will come to-

gether for a nominee forum, joined by the three candidates for mayor — incumbent Bill Euille, former mayor Kerry Donley and Vice Mayor Al-lison Silberberg — who will engage in their first debate. Francis C. Hammond Middle School at 4646 Seminary Road will provide the venue, with George Burke scheduled to be moderator. June 2 will see the mayoral

candidates once again debate with each other, just one week ahead of the primary. In addi-tion, the five candidates for the 45th District of the Virginia House of Delegates will also be on hand to discuss the issues, with Julie Carey of NBC4 acting as moderator. George Washing-ton Middle School will serve as the venue for the second debate.

- Chris Teale

Just 51 days before the Democratic primary elections for mayor and the 45th Dis-trict of the Virginia House of Delegates on June 9, candi-dates Clarence Tong and Kerry Donley won in the Alexan-dria Democratic Committee’s second annual straw poll last weekend. In the three-way Alexan-dria mayoral race, former may-or Donley took victory with 57 votes over incumbent Bill Euille, who garnered 46 votes,

and Vice Mayor Allison Sil-berberg, placed third with 30. Meanwhile, the five candi-dates vying to replace retiring Delegate Rob Krupicka were involved in a similarly tight vote at the poll. Tong, who is currently the chair of the com-mittee but has recused him-self from the nominating pro-cess, triumphed with 48 votes, ahead of leadership consultant Julie Jakopic, who garnered 39 votes. In third place came city spokesman Craig Fifer, who

earned 20 votes, followed by liberal radio host Mark Levine with 18 and local businessman Larry Altenburg with seven. More than 130 Democrats participated in the straw poll, which was hosted at the Port City Brewing Company on Wheeler Avenue. It was the only opportunity for local voters reg-istered with the local branch of the party to express their views ahead of debates between the candidates later this spring.

- Chris Teale


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police arrest man following barricade Alexandria police arrested a man who barricaded him-self in his apartment Sunday night after officers attempted to serve him with a warrant. Police spokeswoman Crys-tal Nosal said around 7 p.m., officers arrived at the 2100 block of Jamieson Avenue to serve a warrant to Aaron Alan Jones, 42, for the violation of

a protective order. As police spoke to Jones through the door, an officer heard the sound of a weap-on inside the apartment and called for assistance. Officers secured the area, initially ask-ing other residents to stay in their apartments and later al-lowing them to evacuate the building.

Around 4 a.m. Monday, police were able to take Jones into custody without incident. Since the incident, he also has been charged with attempted burglary, which Nosal said oc-curred a couple days before the alleged violation of the protective order.

- Erich Wagner

Two men hospitalized following fight Police are investigating an incident where two men cut each other during a fight Fri-day night and were sent to a local hospital. Late Friday, police re-sponded to the 700 block of N. Ripley St. for the report of an assault. Police spokes-woman Crystal Nosal said

that two men who knew each other were in an argument that turned physical. One suspect had a knife, while the other suspect wield-ed a machete. Both men cut each other, and were hospital-ized with non-life-threatening injuries, Nosal said. Neither man had been

charged in the case as of Wednesday, because in the case of a fight, where those involved are considered “mutual com-batants,” police must try to de-termine who the “predominant aggressor” is in order to bring a case successfully to court, No-sal said.

- Erich Wagner

The following incidents occurred between April 15 and April 22.

*Editor’s note: Police reports are not considered public information in Virginia. The Alexandria Police Department is not required to supply the public at large with detailed information on criminal cases.

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PHOTO/CHRIs TEAlEThe Flying Fish restaurant at 808 King St. shut down unexpectedly last weekend, with its windows cov-ered with brown paper indicating that business has ceased.

Employees raise questions about Flying Fish owner after abrupt shuttering

By Chris Teale

Old Town residents craving sushi were left perplexed this week to be greeted with a sign on the front of the Flying Fish res-taurant, a staple at 815 King St. since it opened in 2005, that said it was closing on Sunday, April 19 for “repairs and renovations.” Even more confusing was the news Monday that every piece of restaurant equipment, furni-ture and decor was up for sale in an online auction, including the 55-inch flat screen televisions, the sushi display cases and the waste bins. Alexandria-based Rasmus Auctions are leading the sale, with noon to 4 p.m. Friday advertised as a time for the pub-lic to inspect the merchandise on offer and an April 27 deadline for bids.

But the apparent closure was something that former employee and manager Jimmy Madden said he saw coming, and was part of the reason he left Fly-ing Fish for a position at Two NineTeen on King Street a few months ago. “A couple of weeks ago, because my wife works for PetSmart — she’s really big into animals and stuff like that — she was helping him keep the fish tanks he has there clean,” Madden said. “She was giving him new ideas for the fish. I ran into him in the grocery store and he was like, ‘Listen, can your wife find a home for these fish? I can’t take them with me.’ “I’m like, ‘Where are you going?’ And he wouldn’t an-swer, so I told the entire staff. I was like, ‘Listen, he’s trying to get rid of his pets, I don’t know a more obvious sign than that that

Something fishy about restaurant closing

SEE flyinG fish | 9


and deportation of his father at the start of a war between Er-itrea and Ethiopia, where he was born. “He challenged himself with AP classes and assimilated well into a foreign environment,” said Lynette McCracken, a counselor at Yorktown High School in Arlington. With dreams of becoming a doctor, he enrolled at Old Do-minion University, where he shared a room with his cousin, Kale Daniel. Daniel said Sey-oum seemed to have a successful freshman year, and loaned his cousin his car for the summer. But at the end of summer break, Seyoum was withdrawn, unkempt and had no sense of time, Daniel said. He also had no idea where his cousin’s car was. “He couldn’t focus on edu-cation or work,” Daniel told the court. “Seyoum knew some-thing wasn’t right.” In October 2008, Daniel sought help for his cousin at ODU’s student health center. Over several months, Seyoum was seen by several doctors, all of whom described Seyoum as depressed, anxious, withdrawn, detached and exhibiting a flat affect — all early signs of schizophrenia. Seyoum was referred to Dr. Edwin Gate-wood, a psychiatrist in Norfolk in December of that year. “He felt a dog was trying to talk with him,” Gatewood said. Seyoum was prescribed Pro-zac, but Daniel said Seyoum didn’t like the way the medica-tion made him feel so he stopped taking it. Seyoum dropped out of school and went back home to live with his parents. During the trial, Seyoum sat motionless with his head down and his eyes closed. His only movement over the course of the trial was when his mother testi-fied and began to cry. Seyoum, with his eyes closed, reached up to wipe his nose. Asked if she thought her son was mentally ill, Seyoum’s mother said, “In Ethiopia, the mentally ill are on the streets and dirty.” The last time Daniel saw his

cousin, just a month before the slaying, Seyoum said he wanted to see a doctor but, with no job or health insurance, he didn’t have the means. The Thursday before Cross’ death, Seyoum had a fight with his mother. His mother said it was nothing, but Seyoum told detectives he felt rejected. On Friday night, Seyoum was pacing outside his apart-ment building when he told psychiatrists he felt someone was staring at him and spotted Cross on her balcony smoking a cigarette. He saw her flick her cigarette butt off the bal-

cony and said he felt the ground move and negative vibrations run through his body. He said he believed Cross was sending him messages and trying to intimidate him. He told Dr. Michael Hendricks he wanted to get back at Cross, so he committed Saturday to mak-ing that happen. On Saturday, Seyoum took a bus to Seven Corners and Bai-ley’s Crossroads where he sold his father’s guitar for $230 and bought duct tape, a wrench, pep-per spray, a box cutter, white lin-gerie, a bottle of Johnnie Walker and a key fob to Cross’ building. Later in the afternoon, Seyoum drank the scotch and early Sun-day morning made his way into Cross’ building.

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Trial FROM | 1

what proves his guilt,

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SEE Trial | 11


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This is the area that really

needs a service, not only because we are expanding but because we already have a longer response time. you can be sure that the neighbors that live all around here are really very concerned that this had not been completed so that we could have something here.”

– Dell Pepper, city councilor

the numbers of firefighters above normal levels, and cross-training medics so they also can be qualified to operate fire ap-paratuses. “[Overhire] would acceler-ate the process, but keep in mind that, as we didn’t have them to start with a year-and-a-half ago, we’re going to start the recruit-ment process now for a school that we can’t run until Febru-ary because we’ve already got a school in the middle of [train-ing] and in the late summer we want to run another school that will cross-train medics,” Dubé said at the session. “Statistically, we can’t do all that training with a very small staff, so we can’t get that school in until February next year. “If we got an overhire for this coming year, which cur-rently is not in there, and we got the number we needed, and we didn’t have a significant amount of retirements that we didn’t plan for, we could get that engine in

service in December 2016. That would be the earliest.” Since then, two budget mem-os from Morgan Routt, the assis-tant director of the city’s office of management and budget, have indicated that with an accelerat-ed hiring plan, the station could be staffed between December of this year and March 2016 if there are enough qualified applicants to go through recruit school. In the second of those memos, dated April 17, Routt notes that there were approxi-mately 500 applications for firefighter/medic positions, and of those, 29 are already certi-fied as medics and could be ex-pedited through the process. It means staffing the engine may be a possibility far sooner than originally thought, although it is still a long process to ensure every recruit is fully prepared for the demands of the job. The document notes that while approximately $900,000 would be required to staff the engine by December 2016, the city would need to spend an ad-ditional $400,000 to place fire-

fighters at Station 210 by March of that year. “Basically, it’s amping up our hiring process to see if we can get a recruit class sooner, look-ing at expanding overhire, which is where we temporarily expand

the workforce to staff the engine now and then once the cross-training model kicks in, we’ll catch up later,” City Councilor Justin Wilson said. “There are a couple of different options where we’re tweaking how we’re doing staffing. “All of them have a number, it’s expensive, and that’ll be the council’s decision, how to allo-cate resources to make that hap-pen and when it happens. There’s a couple of different timelines. We could continue to be patient [and wait] for the cross-train-ing model to get implemented, that’ll take a while. It could take years. We could do the overhire solution. There’s a couple of dif-ferent ways we could do it and we’re looking at all those differ-ent options.” As the Times reported last year, the West End has some of the slowest fire responses times in the city of Alexandria, given that the city’s goal is just five-and-a-half minutes from the time a fire is reported. With the area’s expansion in recent years, many feel that it is more impor-

tant than ever to ensure it has more adequate fire suppression available. “This is the area that re-ally needs a service, not only because we are expanding but because we already have a lon-ger response time,” said City Councilor Del Pepper, a West End resident. “You can be sure that the neighbors that live all around here are really very con-cerned that this had not been completed so that we could have something here. “I think there’s also in addi-tion to the concern what would happen if we had a fire, not only is there that concern, there’s a feeling that something was promised and it’s not being de-livered. That’s why we’re mov-ing forward. You can be sure I’m out there putting all the pressure I can to make sure we get this.” “I think more than worried, [people are] exasperated that so much time has passed and we’ve seen lots of excuses as to why things couldn’t be fully opera-


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let’s eat Walk into a la Lucia at 315 Madison St., and you will imme-diately notice its quiet bar that pro-vides a terrific spot to meet with friends, talk, grab a drink before dinner or even dine. It has a com-fortable yet contemporary flair that still retains a welcoming feel. With 75 wines, a number of domestic beers from small local breweries, liquors, Scotch whis-keys and cocktails, there are a multitude of reasons to call in at the bar of a la Lucia. Moreover, for those who dine in the bar on Sundays, Mondays or Tuesdays, you can get a bottle of wine with dinner for 25 percent off the al-ready extremely competitive wine prices. The signature cocktails are one major reason reason many frequent the a la Lucia bar. For

those who long for the garden parties of England, the Pimm’s summer cocktail made with Pimm’s, fresh berries, mint and lime soda is not to be missed. The peach season is almost here, and the Bellini with prosecco and peach puree is refreshing and will give everyone who drinks it the summer feeling. Another drink with a sum-mery flair is the “a la Lucia Kir Royale,” which contains pro-secco, Chambord and a twist of lemon. Although there are several signature cocktails, the WiseGuy is a hit drink all year round for those who love vodka, Campari, grapefruit, lemon juice and or-ange juice. The signature cock-tails are so delicious; it is tough to sample only one. For those seeking a special

place for an intimate cocktail party or dinner, a la Lucia has a handsome private dining room adjoining the bar area. It is the perfect spot to hold a cocktail party with the delectable a la Lu-cia hors d’oeuvres or dinner menu that is planned with the expert guidance of Rebecca Beard, the events planner. As the summer months ap-proach, make sure to stop in at a la Lucia and enjoy a cold drink in their memorable bar

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someone’s leaving.’ They were like, ‘He said in September, it’s remodeling.’ All of a sudden it’s happened.” Staff reported being told of the abrupt closure on Satur-day evening — the restaurant was usually open from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Saturdays — dur-ing their shifts. But it was not owner Larry Vallieres who told them at the time, but rather the

kitchen manager, who informed them that the kitchen was being packed up and that the restaurant would close. “We heard rumors through the kitchen staff,” said former employee and manager Alex Anastasia. “Once those rumors started to fly, they started flying around the entire restaurant and then pretty much the entire staff knew halfway through the shift on Saturday.” They had started to notice things amiss as early as Friday,

when the restaurant began to run out of basic supplies like food, alcohol and liquor. It quickly became apparent that orders to suppliers had not been placed. “Pretty much as the shift progressed, we as the long-standing staff there pretty much started putting the pieces to-gether,” said Alexis Von Schoe-

ning, a full-time employee and manager who had worked at the Flying Fish for a total of five years between two stints. “We had not gotten a beer order in, we had not gotten a liquor order in, the kitchen started running out of food, which means the kitchen didn’t order any food. “About a couple of hours into

the shift, we were like, ‘That’s it, the writing is on the wall.’ We started suspecting things on Fri-day when we came in and stuff was already in short supply.” At the end of the night, Von Schoening said that Vallieres called his staff together and

flyinG fish FROM | 5

SEE flyinG fish | 11


far has garnered 345 signatures since it was published on March 15. He added that the civic as-sociation have had board meet-ings on the issue and are looking to reach out beyond their active members to other residents of Cameron Station to make them aware of current developments. The frustrations of residents in the West End are shared by other city councilors, with John Chapman in particular believ-ing the city should have been better prepared for the neigh-borhood’s expansion and the inevitable strain on existing firefighting resources. “We looked at it, and staff looked at it, as a balancing act where it should have been an ex-

pansion,” he said, referring to a failed effort by city leaders last year to move some staff from North Old Town to staff the new station. “When you open up a new fire station, you don’t shut down one. … We’re in a mode where we’re going to be expand-ing, and I think that hesitation on a number of fronts to fully have a conversation about what expansion really means, what it means in resources, what it means in logistics, what it means in staff has really brought issues like this to bear. “[I] think staff did lay out options for that expansion but I think there’s hesitancy on a number of fronts to do it and do it fully because it does require new resources, and we all know resources are scarce and folks don’t like their taxes going up.” Thanks in part to their shared frustrations, Impastato gives city council credit for taking West End residents’ concerns into ac-count, especially as they search for a way to fund firefighter staffing at Station 210. “I think we’re getting our point across in terms of very recent correspondence that I’ve seen,” he said. “I think that the mayor and city council are tak-ing our concerns seriously, I do see some movement, which we’re very pleased to see, in terms of moving more rap-idly to getting the station fully staffed and operational sooner than the end of next year.”

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fire sTaTion FROM | 7

we just want to see that

station there up and running as an efficient and fully staffed station sooner rather than later, particularly in light of the [planned expansion of] norfolk southern’s ethanol transloading facility.”

– arthur impastatoPresident, Cameron

station Civic association

tional, why a fire truck couldn’t be there, why the foam equip-ment to combat an ethanol fire could not be located there,”

added Arthur Impastato, presi-dent of the Cameron Station Civic Association. “We just want to see that station there up and running as an efficient and fully staffed station sooner rather than later, particularly in

light of [the planned expansion of] Norfolk Southern’s ethanol transloading facility.” Impastato said residents have expressed their concerns in a number of ways, including signing an online petition that so


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flyinG fish FROM | 9

apologized for the restaurant needing to close. Von Schoening recalled that he reportedly was trying to find investors to help fi-nance the business, but they had not come through in time. Both employees noted the issues that Vallieres had with the lease of his property, owned by Rob Kaufman of commer-cial real estate company PMA Properties. His lease originally had been scheduled to expire in February, but he negotiated an extension. The two parties ran into difficulties when it came to ne-gotiating rent, with Kaufman apparently wanting a higher monthly rate from Vallieres than the approximately $16,000 per month he was paying. “Basically [Vallieres’] lease ran up and the owner of the building was asking for an ex-tra $10,000,” Madden said. “He wanted $26,000 a month and my boss couldn’t wrap his head around it. I told him to just open for lunch and that’ll cover your bill, you make more than enough money here. He couldn’t wrap his head around it, so he decided to close the building.” “I did have some meetings with him in his office, where he’s trying to show us the lease and he made the landlord come into the building at one point and tell us that we were not closing,” Von Schoening said. “From what we put together and what Larry himself said was that it was a leasing disagreement. Rob wanted more rent, and that was the spur of all the rumors.” Those rumors swelled for months, and the uncertainty was the catalyst for Madden to resign and move to Two Nine-Teen. All three former employ-ees noted that it created a tense atmosphere, with staff feeling insecure in their futures. “I tried warning everybody about the place closing down, and people were halfway-listen-ing,” Madden said. “They didn’t discredit me completely but they just weren’t sure so it caused a lot of panic amongst staff. “I didn’t really know what

was going on, what was hap-pening, and in the end when it finally happened they all were destroyed. Every single one of them. The way they found out was halfway through the shift, the kitchen manager finally broke and told them it was their last day and they’re packing up the kitchen so be ready with ev-erything.” “The owner tried to tell us that oh no, he wasn’t shutting down, it was staying open, it was staying open later and renovations were going to hap-pen later in the year,” Anasta-sia said. “Essentially, he pretty much lied to everybody.” Thankfully for the eight front-of-house staff of the Fly-ing Fish, a resolution has been found already. After some work behind the scenes by Madden, the employees all have been of-fered positions at Two NineTeen following a successful joint in-terview. “I got the play-by-play all the way down the street,” Mad-den said. “That night [Saturday], I talked to my current owner Patty and told her, ‘Listen, you have a group of rockstars down the street who have just lost their home. It’s one of the strongest staffs I’ve ever worked with. I would hire every single one of them right now.’” Neither Vallieres nor Kaufman responded to calls for comment for this article.

Trial FROM | 6

Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Cathryn Evans argued Seyoum’s ability to organize a plan spoke volumes as to his sanity. “What proves his guilt, proves his sanity,” Evans said. “The afternoon Seyoum was

interviewed by the detectives, he confessed and said, ‘I am the responsible one. If it’s a lifetime in prison or the death penalty, I’ll take it.’” But defense attorney Jasmin Mize said Seyoum was actively psychotic at the time of event and Seyoum told experts he felt “propelled’ to execute his plan and “it felt right.” Dr. Michael

Hendricks and Dr. Anita Boss testified that Seyoum’s plan was driven by mental illness and he could not resist the com-pulsion to carry out the attack. “This wasn’t a plan, it was a series of events based on things that weren’t real,” Mize told the jury. If found guilty, Seyoum fac-es life in prison.

PHOTO/CHRIs TEAlEA sign on the front door of the Fly-ing Fish informs customers that the restaurant is undergoing ren-ovations. But all the saleable as-sets of the restaurant have been put online for auction.


The road to Staunton is paved with great attractions By JorDan wriGhT My plan to spend a weekend in Staunton was hatched last year when I heard about a young chef who was gathering a national reputation for imagina-tive food served up in a tiny brick build-ing he calls The Shack. Chef and restaurateur Ian Boden has lit up the food world, garner-ing awards and tons of ink with his use of Virginia farm products in imaginative and delicious ways. But as with all trips, the more you research your desti-nation, the more you lose track of your itinerary. The plan was to head out mid-morning on a Friday and drive straight to Staunton, but that idea went out

the window when I realized all the fun places we would pass along the way. From Interstate 66, take U.S. Route 17 to Delaplane and Three Fox Vineyards, where owners Holli and John Todhunt-er express their love of all things

Italian. In the barn-style tasting room you’ll

find mostly Italian varietals from es-tate-grown grapes. Relax in a ham-mock or toss a game

of bocce. A few miles away sits

the 200-year-old mansion and gardens of Long Branch

Plantation. Described by Washington Irving in 1853 as a

“noble mansion crowning a ris-ing ground,” it is worth a tour for its period architecture and antique furnishings, as well as a chance to learn about its horse retirement facility.

Just across U.S. Route 50 and a short drive along Millwood Road is the Locke Store in Mill-wood. The original general store, founded in 1836, is now a food emporium chock-a-block with craft beer, wine, locally raised meats and cheeses and tempting baked goods by pastry chef Ka-tie Kopsick Shapiro. Sandwiches there feature bread made from flour ground across the street at the Burwell-Morgan Mill. Getting on Interstate 81 from there was a cinch and we soon arrived in Staunton, where we checked into the Stonewall Jackson Hotel and Conference Center, a centrally located Co-lonial revival hotel built in 1924 and recently remodeled. From our room we could see the Mill Street Grill below — a handy spot for a quick dinner before the curtain rose at the Blackfri-ars Playhouse around the corner. If you’re looking for fancier fare, try Zynodoa, a local favorite that features a modern setting with upscale dining.

The playhouse is part of the American Shakespeare Theatre, a year-round performance venue fashioned after the theaters of 17th-century England. Shake-speare’s plays are offered with on-stage seats for chosen audi-ence members, and the theater’s productions are always rous-ingly entertaining. Be sure to get there early for the mini-concerts before the play. On Saturday, we began our day at Joel Salatin’s 550-acre Polyface Farm in nearby Swoope. The author, speaker and farming guru is renowned for his sustainable farming practices and was featured in the documentary “Food, Inc.” Chefs and eco-friendly farmers hang on his every word, and the farm itself is a testament to Sala-tin’s humane animal husbandry practices. You can see the pigs, cows, chicken and sheep in their grassy habitats or shop for meat and cider in the farm store. Before lunch, we meandered over to a massive building with

plate glass windows and filled with classic cars that we had noticed the previous evening. A cavernous 27,000 square-foot former Ford dealership on South New Street, Elder Antique Auto is owned by Bruce Elder, an avid collector who sells and restores antique vehicles. Roaming through the three-story build-ing, we came across dozens of beautifully restored cars in-cluding a 1924 Model T, a 1925 Rolls Royce Twenty and some notable racers like a 1953 single seat vehicle called ‘The Lincoln Special” — a Dreyer Champ car that ran on a dirt track. Lunch at the Pampered Pal-ate Cafe was a lovely respite. The quaint spot on East Bever-ley Street specializes in home-made soups and sandwiches and is surrounded by tons of interesting stores, art galleries, breweries, a wine tasting room, glass-blowing studio and shops featuring local handicrafts.

A worthy trek, with wonderful detoursGeT ouT of Town

PHOTO/JORDAN WRIGHTOn your way to Staunton, be sure to stop by the Locke Store in Millwood. The traditional general store features craft beer and wine, local meats and cheeses, as well as phenomenal baked goods by pastry chef Katie Kopsick Shapiro.

SEE sTaunTon | 16

PHOTO/JORDAN WRIGHTAlthough the facade is unassuming, The Shack is renowned for its local ingredi-ents and innovative take on New South-ern cuisine.


Camp & Enrichment directory

Call 703-739-0001 to Advertise!

each monday

TAVERN TODDLERS Join other families as you and your toddler (walk-ers through 36 months) have fun in Gadsby’s Tavern Museum’s historic ballroom. Playtime features a craft table, book corner, toys, as well as group dancing.Time: 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.Location: American Legion, 400 Cameron St., check in at museum first.Information: 703-746-4242 or www.gadsbystavern.org

now to april 26

STUDENT ART EXHIBITION Del Ray Artisans and the T.C. Williams High School Art Department jointly present the 18th annual Student Art Exhibition. The exhibit will feature art-work from T.C. Williams High School students in grades 9-12.Time: Thursdays and Sundays noon to 6 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays noon to 9 p.m. Location: Del Ray Artisans, Nicholas A. Colasanto Center, 2704 Mount Vernon Ave.Information: 703-402-4847 or [email protected]

now to may 8

PRINCESS FOR A NIGHT COLLECTION The Princess For a Night (PFAN) project is collecting dry-cleaned formal dresses, shoes, handbags, jewelry, unused make-up and “nice” shopping bags so young ladies across the region can attend prom without breaking the bank.Time: 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday to FridayLocation: T.C. Williams Main Office, 3330 King St.Information: [email protected]

now to september 26

BASEBALL BOAT TO NATION-ALS PARK Avoid the crowds and take a leisurely cruise from to Nationals Park along the scenic Potomac River for a select number of Washington Nationals home games. Boats returning to Alexandria depart 20 minutes after final pitch.Time: Nationals home games

CalenDar

To have your event considered for our calendar listings,

please email [email protected].

Location: Alexandria Marina, 1 Cameron St.Information: 703-684-0580 or www.baseballboat.com

april 23

COMING BACK TO THE HOOP FILM SCREENING Join the Alexandria Film Festival at a screening of Coming Back to the Hoop, winner of the 2014 Audi-ence Award. The film chronicles a local Alexandria woman as she returns to play competitive Basketball after a 40-year hiatus. A questions and answer session with film star and director, Jane Pit-tman, follows after the screening. Admission is free.Time: 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.Location: Beatley Central Library, 5005 Duke StInformation: www.alexandriafilm.org

ALEXANDRIA SESQUICEN-TENNIAL LECTURE “Now He Belongs to the Ages: Lincoln in Diverse Perspectives” by Stephen Smith, on how Abraham Lincoln gained the presidency and how he dealt with the challenges he faced.Time: 7:30 p.m.Location: Lloyd House, 220 N. Washington St.Information: 703-746-4554 or www.historicalexandria.org

april 24

MAKE A SPLASH Bring the whole family to Family Fun Nights for swimming and fun for all ages on Friday evenings. Pool games include beach ball relays, water basketball, diving for prizes and fun on the ‘Aqua Challenge’ float-ing obstacle course. Admission is $4 per person.Time: 6 to 9 p.m.Location: Chinquapin Park Rec-reation Center & Aquatics Facility, 3210 King St.Information: www.alexandriava.gov/c/1028

april 25-may 25

MOUNT VERNON’S HISTORIC PLANT AND GARDEN SALE Historic trees, shrubs and plants as well as a wide variety of annu-als, perennials, heirloom tomatoes and herbs, each carefully nurtured in the Mount Vernon greenhouse, will be available for purchase. Spectacular hanging baskets, grown at Mount Vernon, will be available in limited numbers. In the gardening tent, you will find books, tools, seeds and decorative items.Time: All dayLocation: George Washington’s Mount Vernon, 3200 Mount Ver-non Memorial HighwayInformation: 703-780-2000 or www.mountvernon.org

april 25

MSA PERFORMS ‘LA FILLE

MAL GARDEE’ Metropolitan School of the Arts’ (MSA), pre-professional ballet company of Lor-ton, Va. will perform the comedic, family-friendly spring ballet, “La Fille Mal Gardée”. Tickets are $7 for ages 9 and younger and $10 for ages 10 and older.Time: 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.Location: George Washington Masonic National Memorial, 101 Callahan DriveInformation: 703-339-0444 or www.metropolitanarts.org

ALEXANDRIA EARTH DAY A program that includes children’s activities, exhibits by community groups, food and tree sales, recy-cling, Arbor Day tree planting and a musical performance.Time: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.Location: Ben Brenman Park, 4800 Brenman Park DriveInformation: 703-746-5418

RAPTOR RAPTURE See live raptors up close, when the Friends of Dyke Marsh, the Raptor Conservancy of Virginia and the National Park Service will host “Raptor Rapture” in celebration of Earth Day. Look for tents near the restrooms along the Mount Vernon trail in Belle Haven Park. Time: 10 a.m. to noonLocation: Mount Vernon trail, Belle Haven ParkInformation: www.fodm.org

NORTHERN ALEXANDRIA NATIVE PLANT SALE The largest native plant sale in the D.C. metro area hosts 15 vendors from four states selling native peren-nials, shrubs and trees for sun or shade. Time: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.Location: The Church of St. Clem-ent, 1701 N. Quaker LaneInformation: 571-232-0375 or www.northernalexandrianative-plantsale.org

april 26-29

MOROCCAN ARTISANS SHOWCASE A celebration of Moroccan culture with a multi-day festival featuring vendor sales, food, music and entertainment.Time: Sunday 1 to 8 p.m., Monday to Wednesday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.Location: Market Square, 301 King St.Information: 202-297-0445

april 28

IDENTITY THEFT: WHO’S GOT YOUR NUMBER? Protect your-self from identity theft and learn what to do if you’re a victim of fraud in this seminar presented in partnership with CommonWealth One Federal Credit Union. Free.Time: 7 to 8 p.m.Location: Beatley Central Library, 5005 Duke St.Information: www.alexandria.lib.va.us or 703-746-1751

The Odd Couple 4/25 - 5/16

The Odd Couple - LTA presents Neil Simon’s comedy classic with a twist! Unger and Madison are at it again — Florence Unger and Olive Madison, that is — a in Neil Simon’s hilarious contemporary comic classic. Come watch this time-honored comedy reinvented from a different perspective as the ladies take over the juicy roles of the famously mismatched couple to give this well-

known play a whole new life. Watch and laugh as this “odd couple” learn that friendship may have its ups and downs but in the end it overpowers all. Warning — show contains adult language.

600 Wolfe St, Alexandria | 703-683-0496 www.thelittletheatre.com

Coming soon

SUMMER THEATRE CAMPSRegister

Now!SEE CalenDar | 21


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Bringing an international feelEngland Under-19s conclude gruelling U.S. tour with Spring Fling appearanceBy Chris Teale

In just three months, the England Under-19s girls na-tional lacrosse team face their toughest challenge as they head north to Scotland for the Under-19s Women’s World La-crosse Championship. As part of their three-year plan to prepare for the World

Cup, a squad of 25 players went on a 10-day tour of the United States to face top-quality op-position and make their case to be included on the roster ahead of the final squad being an-nounced. After losses to Georgetown Visitation, Notre Dame Prep and St. Anthony’s as well as a win over Holy Child, Eng-land arrived at St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes for an exhibition game against the highly rated

PHOTO/CHRIs TEAlE England Under-19s attacker Alex Drewe passes the ball under pressure from St Stephen’s and St Agnes defender Posie Paoletta during their exhibition game ahead of the Spring Fling tournament.

SEE enGlanD | 15

Alexandrian team before par-ticipating in their Spring Fling tournament the following day with games against Collegiate of Richmond and Holy Cross from Kensington, Md. Saints were dominant as they beat the English 17-5, but the team from across the pond ral-lied the following day to take two straight victories at the tour-nament: 11-9 over Collegiate and 11-8 against Holy Cross. Their Spring Fling games were enormously challenging for England, trailing at points in both contests before they pulled through for the victo-ries. It capped a rewarding ex-perience for the national team, who head into the World Cup with great optimism after some tough tests. “We’ve gone from strength to strength, and we’ve achieved more here than I ever thought we would achieve,” England head coach Nicky Budd said.

“I think what’s invaluable is the game experiences that we’ve had. Being a couple of goals up and having to see the game out for four minutes, things like that. Being one goal down and losing by one goal and realizing we should have turned it around. “We focused a lot on our standards of performance, on what we need to turn games around. It’s invaluable, and out here being able to play these long games with a stop-clock, it’s really good because our girls don’t get much exposure to that.” For the players, coming up against high quality opposi-tion is something they do not experience very often. Outside of the World Cup, the major competition is the Home Inter-nationals tournament against Scotland and Wales, which England won in late March be-fore heading stateside. To face

the likes of SSSAS and Colle-giate amongst others was a test they believe will stand them in good stead. “I think the tour has been such an important experience for us, especially with our build-up to the World Cup,” vice-captain Zoe Thursz said. “Coming out here and playing opposition like this and growing as a team and knowing that we can go from maybe a poor performance at the beginning but pick it up to-wards the end has been so cru-cial our build-up.” “Just challenging ourselves against stronger opposition has been really good,” cap-tain Emma Adams agreed. “The preparation and mentally simulating a World Cup with the number of matches we’ve played has been good for us to know we can finish strong at the end.”


Having faced such a sus-tained level of high competi-tion throughout, the players also spoke of their pride at being able to rise to the occa-sion, even as fatigue began to set in. “Mentally, the games are very close, there’s one or two goals in it along the whole way of the games,” captain Olivia Wimpenny said. “For us to come up with two wins today is very positive for us mentally as well as physically.” “[The other teams’] stick-work and their level of play is phenomenal,” said vice-captain Taya Jackson. “But we feel like we’ve stepped up to their level. You’ve got some great players who can take a ball and run it down the whole pitch, but we’ve really stepped up and I think we’ve matched their level.” After returning home, Budd formally announced her 20-play-er squad that will face Wales, Canada, Australia and the U.S. in pool play before the start of the knockout stage. Their cam-paign starts on July 23 against the Welsh in a tournament that brings together 15 teams from around the world, including a team from the Native American Iroquois tribes, and Budd feels her team have taken plenty from their experience in the United States.

“Initially, we didn’t do too well; the score lines were a couple of goals out of a win, but I think they realise that ac-tually if we dig deep with the longer games and keep men-tally strong, they can come out with a win,” she said. “That’s what’s really impor-tant, because ultimately at the World Cup we’re not going to be winning easily, we’re going

to have to win by small mar-gins, and I think this exposure to that type of experience here will be amazing for us in the World Cup. “Mentally, they are really strong and their fitness has held up really well because it’s been a tall order. The fact that they’ve experienced a loss by one goal and won by one goal, they think they can do it.”

PHOTO/CHRIs TEAlE England Under-19s midfielder Freya Savage holds off a challenge from Collegiate midfielder Campbell Brewer during their clash at the SSSAS Spring Fling.

enGlanD FROM | 14

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420 East Monroe Avenue, Alexandria, VA 22301 (703) 838-8085 www.ymcadc.org

By Chris Teale

Preparations for the 2015 season in the Cal Ripken Collegiate Baseball League ramped up for the Alexandria Aces as they announced their 30-player roster for the up-coming year. Head coach Dave DeSilva has assembled a strong squad for this year’s league, which is divided into north and south divisions for the first time, and the Aces welcome a number of NCAA Division I players to their roster this year.

One notable inclusion is Alexandria native Billy Le-scher, who pitches for the University of Pennsylvania in the Ivy League, who gradu-ated from West Potomac High School last year and will join a 16-player pitching staff at the Aces. Meanwhile, Wilmington University of Delaware is well represented with three of their players making the roster, while the University of Nebraska-Ke-arney has two players. A number of strong base-ball schools also send players to the Aces for the summer, in-

cluding pitcher Matt Doughty from the University of Virginia and infielder Jackson Owens from the top-10 ranked Florida State Seminoles. The Aces begin their South Division campaign on June 2 away to the Herndon Braves, with their home opener com-ing two days later against the Gaithersburg Giants. They come into this season on the back of a playoff appearance in 2014, which came to an end at the hands of the Rockville Ex-press after a 23-17 record over-all for the Aces.

Alexandria Aces announce 2015 roster

17th AnnualBusiness Philanthropy Summit

Invest in Our CommunityJoin us for a breakfast event that brings together businesses and nonprofit organizations to discuss community needs and celebrate local philanthropy.

KeyNOTe SpeaKer:U.S. Representative Don Beyer, Virginia’s Eighth District

Emceed by Rebecca Cooper, ABC7/WJLA-TV & News Channel 8.

Use your mobile device to scan the QR code to register online for $35 or visit https://squareup.com/market/volunteer-alexandria/

summit-event-registration

Wednesday,May 6, 2015

7:30 – 9:30 a.m.

First Baptist Church2932 King Street

Alexandria

www.volunteeralexandria.org


From there, we walked to the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum. On dis-play are hundreds of Wilson’s personal effects, including his roll-top desk and 1919 Pierce-Arrow presidential limousine. A recent addition is a walk-through trench that trembles with the sounds of a World War I battle-field. Next door to the museum sits the Presbyterian Manse, Wilson’s birthplace. The three-story brick home is filled with Wilson family heirlooms and antiques, and a guide is there to describe daily life in the mid-19th century. Afterwards, take a relaxing 45-minute guided tour around the city by trolley. Departing from the local visitors center, it’s a terrific opportunity to see the historic homes and churches that abound, as well as Mary Baldwin College, whose cam-pus is smack dab in the middle of town. The town’s splendid and varied architecture was one of its most surprising aspects. At last it was time for our long-anticipated dinner and the spark of this pilgrimage: The Shack. After a short stroll from the hotel, we shed any precon-ceived notions of what a restau-rant should look like and trusted in the chef, even though the place looks more like a pop-up or a way station for a collection of mismatched chairs and tables that have lost their homes. Still, it’s cozy, unpretentious and quite serious about its mission — a 180-degree turn from the greasy, calorically weighty cooking of most Southern style restaurants. Here sauces are lightened and cooking methods respect the fresh ingredients. Expect to taste dishes you thought you knew, but here are elevated to an ap-preciative art form. In a short time, Boden has ascended the ranks through the emerging cooking style of New Southern cuisine, taking famil-iar Southern dishes and rein-venting them to be more inter-esting and more alluring.

A paper menu with the date on top lets you know that the menu is at the whim of the chef, the season and the farmers he trusts. Though I can assure you our meal likely won’t be on the menu when you visit, the over-all quality will remain constant. You get to have your own expe-rience with whichever ingredi-ents Boden plays around with that day. We tried nearly everything on the menu, and found some

favorites — winter vegetable salad with farro, bitter

greens and chick-weed, dressed in a barrel aged maple vinaigrette; esco-lar lettuce wrap, a

raw fish paired with cracklings, house-made kimchi, miso and key limes. Entrees that sang to us were the Berkshire pork loin with country ham-fried rice, spinach puree and deli-cata squash topped with fava bean shoots; and king salmon with roasted crosnes, Brussels sprouts and lady apples in a red wine butter sauce. Desserts that made us swoon were sorghum cake with brown butter apples, buttermilk whey and bay leaf;

and a madcap fling with a sweet treat called “Junk Food” which turned out to be a slice of oat-meal cream pie plus a cruller and a blondie. After a good night’s sleep we returned for brunch. When you have reveled in the best there is, why not revel again? I state my case for the biscuits and rabbit gravy, the Wagyu oyster steak with rosemary pistou, and the creamy heirloom grits served in a cast-iron pan. There is no shame, just glory and a sharp sense of wanting to return. Before heading home one last stop beckoned — the Fron-tier Culture Museum, a place passed countless times while driving down I-81 towards the Blue Ridge Mountains. This open-air living history museum reflects the early German, West African, Irish and British pio-neers who bravely brought their trades, farming methods and building styles to rural America. Authentic costumed docents roam the farm sites and wooded acres, instructing guests on how

settlers lived and thrived in the Shenandoah Valley before and after the Revolutionary War. You will learn that a number of these historic homes were brought over piece-by-piece from the Old World and reassembled. Plan on spending at least three hours at the museum: You wouldn’t want to miss seeing the heritage-breed horses or holding a baby lamb. In good weather a picnic purchased in town would make for the per-fect day.

Our Savior Lutheran School Pre-K (age 4 by September 30th) through 8th grade

Thursday, April 23rd, 9 - 11 am and 6 - 8 pm

825 South Taylor Street, Arlington, VA 22204 • (703) 892-4846 • www.osva.org

• Extended day program available• Small class sizes, diverse student body• Christian education, fully accredited and licensed• We start each day with The Pledge of Allegiance and My Country ‘Tis of Thee

~ Salute the Scottish Walk ~Our sweet Twinkie is ready for Alexandria’s parade

and a new home for the holidays.

Twinkie, a brown/peach tabby is 4 years old Her green eyes glow with affection for humans,

as she loves companionship.

Can you share the love this season? Twinkie is anxious to meet her new person!

FOR MORE INFO ABOUT ADOPTABLE CATS, PLEASE VISIT WWW.ALExANDRIAANIMALS.ORg

OR PhONE US AT 703-746-4774.

ThANK YOU

~ Canine Health Care ~

www.diannhicks.com

The Alexandria Animal Shelter’s Pet of the Week is sponsored by Diann Hicks, finding

homes for pets and humans, alike.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT SARAH’S FUND, PLEASE CALL

703-746-4774 OR VISIT US AT www.ALExANDRIAANIMALS.ORg/DONATE

THANk yOU

Puppies require surgery sometimes. “Sarah’s Fund”

provides Shelter pets with needed procedures.

This puppy will soon undergo an operation to repair

“pulmonic stenosis”, with donations from Alexandrians.

Your five-dollar donation adds to Sarah’s Fund and

together with contributions of others, ensures that

medical care is there when needed.

ADOPTABLE PET OF THE WEEK

~ Salute the Scottish Walk ~Our sweet Twinkie is ready for Alexandria’s parade

and a new home for the holidays.

Twinkie, a brown/peach tabby is 4 years old Her green eyes glow with affection for humans,

as she loves companionship.

Can you share the love this season? Twinkie is anxious to meet her new person!

FOR MORE INFO ABOUT ADOPTABLE CATS, PLEASE VISIT WWW.ALExANDRIAANIMALS.ORg

OR PhONE US AT 703-746-4774.

ThANK YOU

~ Canine Health Care ~

www.diannhicks.com

The Alexandria Animal Shelter’s Pet of the Week is sponsored by Diann Hicks, finding

homes for pets and humans, alike.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT SARAH’S FUND, PLEASE CALL

703-746-4774 OR VISIT US AT www.ALExANDRIAANIMALS.ORg/DONATE

THANk yOU

Puppies require surgery sometimes. “Sarah’s Fund”

provides Shelter pets with needed procedures.

This puppy will soon undergo an operation to repair

“pulmonic stenosis”, with donations from Alexandrians.

Your five-dollar donation adds to Sarah’s Fund and

together with contributions of others, ensures that

medical care is there when needed.

ADOPTABLE PET OF THE WEEK

The Alexandria Animal Shelter’s Pet of the Week is sponsored by Diann Hicks Carlson, finding homes for pets and humans, alike.

www.diannhicks.com

~ Hello, Cat Lovers ~Our cheerful tabby, Sissie, is now entertaining

options for her new home.

Sissie came to the Shelter in January, and has been living in our office area, where she supervises

productivity and keeps the Staff’s laps warm ♥.

Aged 8, Sissie knows the ropes about being a good kitty, and will make a smooth transition into your home.

FOR FURTHER INFO ABOUT THE ADOPTABLE CATS OF ALEXANDRIA, please call 703-746-4774

or visit alexandriaanimals.org THANK YOU

Daughters of St. Paul • 1915–2015 • Celebrating 100 Years

New documentary on the life of Blessed James Alberione, Founder of the Daughters of St PaulShowing at: St. Mary’s Lyceum 313 Duke St., Old Town Alexandria (near corner of S Royal St.) Refreshments provided

Free Film Screening Tuesday, April 28, 7:00 PM

Sponsored by: Daughters of St. Paul, Pauline Books & Media 703-549-3806 • [email protected]

www.pauline.org

PHOTOs/JORDAN WRIGHTThe Berkshire pork loin at The Shack (top) was particularly delicious, although be warned: the menu changes by the day. Elsewhere along the road to Staunton is Three Fox Vineyards, where you can taste a variety of Italian-style wines, hang out in the tasting room, or even play some bocce.

sTaunTon FROM | 12


Rebuilt. Revitalized.

Renewed.

MANY THANKSto this year’s

key supporters Last weekend, nearly 800 volunteers made hundreds of free safe and healthy home repairs

for low-income homeowners throughout Alexandria. Because of community support,

we have provided $6.9M worth of in-kind contributions to homeowners and non-profit agencies throughout Alexandria since 1986.

www.RebuildingTogetherAlex.org703.836.1021

BEFORE AFTER BEFORE AFTER


at home

By marTy ross

This year, there are more rea-sons than ever to grow your own tomatoes, peppers, lettuce and broccoli. It’s a banner year for the introduction of new varieties — now is a great time to make room for vegetables in your gar-den, or in a couple of big pots on a patio or balcony. Vegetable gardeners at every level of experience are looking for two things, says Rob John-ston, the founder of Johnny’s Se-lected Seeds in Albion, Maine. “They want a combination of easy-to-grow and real flavor-ful results,” he says. “They are going to the trouble of having a garden, and they want the result to be something special.” Johnston is a judge for All-America Selections, which con-

ducts trials of new vegetable and flower introductions at public, professional and university gar-dens across the country to iden-tify breeders’ best work every year. Last year, 28 trial gardens across the country participated in tests of new vegetable vari-eties. Johnston’s credentials are solid — he has been growing and breeding vegetables for 42 years. Johnny’s has introduced more than 60 different vegetable varieties, including the color-ful and delicious Bright Lights Swiss chard and, this year, a sweet little butternut squash called Butterscotch. They’re both AAS winners. This year is a banner year for AAS: 25 new vegetable, herb and flower varieties are 2015 award winners, more than any year since 1939. Most of the in-

troductions are vegetables and herbs, and some are the very first winners in their class: This is the first time Brussels sprouts, bok choy, garlic chives and oregano have received AAS recognition. Gardeners flipping through the catalogs and websites of seed

specialists aren’t just scouting around for another delicious to-mato or cucumber, says Diane Blazek, director of All-America Selections. They want compact plants and heat and drought tolerance, and they’re looking for vegetables pretty enough to

grow in a flower garden. Veg-etable gardeners love beautiful blooms, too, she says, and espe-cially flowers that attract pollina-tors to their vegetable crops. The gardeners who plant

SEE veGeTaBles | 19

PHOTOs/All-AMERICA sElECTIONsChef’s Choice orange tomato (left), and its sister, Chef’s Choice pink, are big beefsteak tomatoes, great for slicing or canning. The orange tomato was an AAS winner in 2014, and the pink variety is a winner this year. Basil Dolce Fresca (right) is a compact and beautiful plant for pots, says Diane Blazek, director of All-America Selections. It’s also drought-tolerant and grows quickly, so no matter how much you harvest, you’ll always be able to count on more basil through the summer.

A bumper crop of new vegetables

PHOTO/TRuPlACE This property has a professionally landscaped exterior and a beauti-fully renovated interior.

home of The weeK

As Alexandria grew, the populace moved further west from the Potomac River. New neighborhoods were born, but builders continued to combine the menagerie of architectural styles from Colonial and Queen Anne to Georgian and Modern. The home at 301 North Quak-er Lane adopted many Tudor characteristics with the central gable, the use of an oriel and quoins to soften the severity of the brick facade. Wander inside the iron fence and along brick walk-ways and enjoy the delights

of this combination of tradi-tional and modern features of this center hall design. A new kitchen with cherry cabine-try and state of the art appli-ances is graced with a large breakfast nook and entry to a screened porch, and adjoins a family room with fireplace. A first floor library with fire-place is the perfect spot for a lazy afternoon of reading. The top level of the resi-dence offers four bedrooms and three baths. The spacious master suite has its own two-sided fireplace and exquisite

updated bathroom. A second bedroom has its own bath, and the third and fourth bathrooms share a Jack-and-Jill bath. The walkout lower level features a large recreation room with fireplace and fifth bedroom, full bath and a wine cellar. Rounding out this gem is a side-load two-car garage, first floor laundry room, loads of storage and closet space and a total of five fireplaces. This lovely home is in a neighbor-hood with mature trees and has beautiful professional land-scaping.

Gracious center hall in MacArthur Elementary school district

At a Glance:Address: 301 North Quaker Lane Alexandria, VA, 22314price: $1,199,000Bedrooms: 5

Bathrooms: 4.5Year Built: 1986parking: Two-car garageContact: Donna Cramer, McEnearney Associates, Inc.,703-627-9578, www.donnacramer.com

PHOTO/TRuPlACE Inside is a large and gracious living room with fireplace, perfect for entertaining.


40-foot rows of beans or pepper plants are still out there, Blazek says, but breeders have devel-oped squash, cucumbers, beans and many other crops that flour-ish and produce an impressive harvest in small spaces — such as Mascotte beans, which are just the right size for a window box, or Patio Baby eggplant, per-fect for pots. “More and more people are growing in containers,” Blazek says. “They don’t have huge gardens, and they’re looking for vegetables that don’t take up quite as much room.” Gardeners are also looking for novelty, says Jessie Lieben-guth, a horticulturist at Reiman Gardens at Iowa State Univer-sity and an AAS trial-garden judge. “People want vegetables

that they may not be super fa-miliar with, but that are new and fun,” she says. Liebenguth, who has been growing vegetables since she was a child, admits she was sur-prised when she opened her first box of seeds for an AAS trial season, three years ago. “My jaw dropped, there were so many en-tries,” she says. “People are work-ing hard to develop new, exciting things — it’s encouraging.” The new AAS broccoli winner, Artwork, is grown for its prolific production of side shoots, which increases the yield to weeks instead of just a one-chop harvest. Bopak, the new AAS award-winning bok choy, is great for gardeners interested in a quick crop and in cultivating in flowerpots. It grows to about 2 feet tall and would look great as the centerpiece of a big pot, surrounded by trailing flowers

PHOTOs/All-AMERICA sElECTIONsTwo-tone Bossa Nova zucchini, a 2015 AAS winner, steals the show with its striking markings (top). Gardeners can count on this disease-resis-tant variety to produce squash for three weeks longer than most other summer squash. Patio Baby eggplant looks great in a pot (bottom) and produces an impressive harvest of 2- to 3-inch eggplants, great for roasting or for salads. It was a 2014 AAS winner.

veGeTaBles FROM | 18

Enjoy the Carefree Lifestyle You DeserveDiscover why many people like you have come to call

the Hermitage home—the chance to experience a new lifestyle with an array of services and amenities.

The residents at the Hermitage stay busy. Just ask Helena Scott, who was confined to wheelchair for 30 years because of Multiple Sclerosis and with regular physical therapy at the Hermitage, can now walk a mile a day when the weather permits. In her spare time, Helena knits scarves for fellow residents, volunteers in the beauty salon, sits on the Health Center Committee and delivers mail. Our residents also rave about our superb dining service, our courteous and helpful staff, and an overall feeling of caring and security that comes with living at the Hermitage.

You’ll also gain peace of mind knowing that health care and supportive services are available right here, if you ever need them.

For more information, call 703-797-3814.hCall

703-797-3814 to schedule a tour of our beautifully

appointed apartments.

h

“The Hermitage is where I’ve finally found my family.”

—Helena Scott

Alexandria, VAwww.Hermitage-Nova.com

or low-growing herbs. Liebenguth recommends peppers of various kinds for first-time gardeners looking for an easy crop. Cucumbers and cherry tomatoes are also encour-aging crops for novices, she says, because the harvest is impressive and the taste can’t be beat. If you haven’t grown veg-

etables before, start small, she suggests. “Wade in, try a cou-ple of herbs, make a bruschetta garden or a salsa garden.” Try mixing vegetables into a flower garden, Liebenguth says, “so it’s not one huge, overwhelm-ing space. You can walk along and enjoy your flowers, and you get a snack at the end.”

It takes about 10 years to bring a new vegetable to mar-ket, Johnston says, but waiting for the next big thing isn’t really necessary. With so many great new vegetable varieties already out there, you can scarcely go wrong. And, of course, the best vegetables you’ll ever eat are the ones you grow yourself.


1. Attendees walk through the back garden of a home on Prince Street, known as the “Double Dwelling.”

2. Ashli Douglas, a member of the Hunting Creek Garden Club, hosted tours of a home on South Lee Street.

3. Three-year-old Gillian Gochoel of Alexandria takes her ticket from hostess Christy Bellino outside of a home on Gibbon Street.

4. Sheila Kolb, center, and her fiance tour the courtyard garden of a home on Gibbon Street.

5. Visitors tour the dining room of a home on South Fairfax Street.

45

3

Photos by Laura SikesResidents and visitors alike took to the streets of Old Town to check out the meticulously groomed homes and gardens of historic Alexandria homes.

Garden Club of Virginia arrives in Alexandria for home tours


Turning Back Time

This week in 2014:Hunting for quality: Council approves latest Hunting Terrace redevelopment proposal“Long-standing plans to redevelop the land west of the Hunt-ing Point apartment complex finally kicked into gear earlier this month. After residents and city leaders soundly rejected multiple design proposals over the years, city council voted unanimously April 12 in favor of a plan to build two five-story apartment com-plexes at the 1199 S. Washington St. property.”

Caught on candid camera: reporter reveals the extent of police surveillance on personal vehicle“The police know exactly where my car has been — and when — during the past few months. They could have the same informa-tion — or more — about you. As a part of my series on the use of automatic license plate readers in Virginia, I wanted to find out what kind of information local police might have.”

T.C. grads honored for achieving their aca-demic, professional dreams “A James K. Polk Elementary School teacher will be among those recognized at the Scholarship Fund of Alexandria’s annual gala and silent auction Saturday. Vantross Medina-White went onto George Mason University after graduating from T.C. Williams in 1995, where she earned degrees in psychology and special education.”

CalenDar FROM | 13

april 29

ROBUST WALKATHON An event to raise funds for the Successful Aging Committee. Participants will alternate walking with exercise stations on the walking trail around the lake.Time: 10 a.m. to noonLocation: Ben Brenman Park, 4800 Brenman Park DriveInformation: 703-746-5429 or [email protected]

april 30

CIVIL WAR LECTURE “The Meaning of Freedom in the Aftermath of Slavery, 1865-1867” by Leslie Rowland of the University of Maryland. Drawing from the work of the Freed-men and Southern Society Project (FSSP) at the university, Dr. Rowland will discuss the aspirations of former slaves following the end of the Civil War and their struggle to make free-dom a reality.Time: 7:30 to 9 p.m.Location: The Lyceum, 201 S. Wash-ington St.Information: 703-746-4994

may 1-2

PRINCESS FOR A NIGHT DRESS SHOPPING The Princess for a Night project’s shopping and dress selection. All students in North-ern Virginia welcome. Time: Friday 3:30 to 6:30 p.m., Satur-day, 9 a.m. to noon.Location: T.C. Williams High School, 3330 King St.Information: [email protected]

T.C. WILLIAMS DRAMA PRO-DUCTION The T.C. Williams Drama Department presents their production of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” a musical, whimsical take on life, love and vocabulary. Tick-ets cost $15 for adults; $10 for ACPS staff, students and senior citizens.Time: May 1, 7:30 p.m.; May 2, 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.Location: T.C. Williams High School Main Auditorium, 3330 King St.Information: [email protected]

may 2-30

HISTORIC ALEXANDRIA ATTICS AND ALLEYS TOUR Visit rarely seen spaces at four of Alex-andria’s historic sites on this special three-hour walking tour of Gadsby’s Tavern Museum, the Stabler-Leadbeat-er Apothecary Museum, Lee-Fendall House Museum & Garden and Carlyle House Historic Park. Tickets are $35 each and can be reserved online.Time: Saturdays 9 a.m. to noonLocation: Departs from Lee-Fendall House Museum & Garden, 614 Orono-co St., or Gadsby’s Tavern Museum, 134 N. Royal St.Information: 703-746-4242 or www.alexandriava.gov/gadsbystavern

may 2-3

REVOLUTIONARY WAR ENCAMPMENT Step back in time and walk through a reproduction of the marquee tent that served as Gen-eral Washington’s field headquarters throughout most of the Revolutionary War. With more than 450 Revolution-ary War military re-enactors, learn more about life in the 18th century, discuss military techniques, and watch battle re-enactments.Time: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.Location: George Washington’s Mount Vernon, 3200 Mount Vernon Memorial HighwayInformation: 703-780-2000 or www.mountvernon.org

may 3

TITAN EXPO An annual community event for people of all ages, featuring carnival games for children and teens, a car bash, bake sale, bingo, used book sale, inflatables and music. All funds raised benefit the Larry Trice PTSA/SCA Scholarships for student graduates from T.C.Time: 1 to 4 p.m.Location: T.C. Williams High School, 3330 King St.Information: [email protected]

VISION WALK Stop by the Lions of Virginia screening unit for sight and vision screenings, and join the Lions Club for a walk to raise awareness of fighting blindness.Time: Registration begins 9 a.m., walk 10 a.m.Location: Cameron Run Regional Park, 4001 Eisenhower Ave.Information: 703-723-0077 or [email protected]

SHELTER WALK FOR HOME-LESS ANIMALS A 1.5 mile walk for people and their companion animals to raise awareness and funds for the Vola Lawson Animal Shelter and the activities of the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria.Time: 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.Location: Market Square, 301 King St.Information: 703-746-5580 or [email protected]

STEPALIVE WALKATHON A 5K or five-mile fun run from First Christian Church through Old Town and back.Time: 1:30 to 5:30 p.m.Location: First Christian Church, 2723 King St.Information: 703-837-9320

GEORGE WASHINGTON BIRTH-DAY CLASSIC 10K Join the Wash-ington Nationals’ George Washington and Woodrow Wilson, as well as 3,000 runners for this flat, USTA certified 10K race and 2K Fun Run. $35 per runner for 10K, $10 for 2K Fun Run.Time: 8 a.m.Location: U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, 401 Dulany St.Information: 703-829-6640 or [email protected]

may 4

YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH FIRST AID TRAINING (1 OF 2) The first of two sessions in which young people can learn how to give initial help to someone showing signs of a mental illness or mental health crisis. Regis-tration is free, but space is limited to 20 per class. Time: 4 to 8 p.m.Location: 4480 King St.Information: 703-746-3523, [email protected] or www.alexandriava.gov/dchs

may 5

U.S. PTO COMMUNITY DAY USPTO hosts its annual community day celebration to celebrate diversity and similarities of USPTO employees at the USPTO Headquarters.Time: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.Location: U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, 401 Dulany St.Information: 571-272-6310

may 6

YOUTH MENTAL HEALTH FIRST AID TRAINING (2 OF 2) The second of two sessions in which young people can learn how to give initial help to someone showing signs of a mental illness or mental health crisis. Registration is free, but space is limited to 20 per class. Time: 4 to 8 p.m.Location: 4480 King St.Information: 703-746-3523, [email protected] or www.alexandriava.gov/dchs

may 9

BARRETT BAZAAR A PTA-spon-sored carnival with children’s games and activities; food sales; music and pony ridesTime: 3 to 6 p.m.Location: Charles Barrett Elementary School, 1115 Martha Custis DriveInformation: 703-819-1506 or [email protected]

may 10

FREE MOTHERS’ DAY MUSEUM TOURS In honor of Mothers’ Day, moms enjoy free admission to two of Alexandria’s premiere historic sites. At the Friendship Firehouse Museum, mothers will receive a complimentary family photo.Time: 1 to 5 p.m. at Stabler-Leadbeat-er Apothecary Museum, 1 to 4 p.m. at Friendship Firehouse MuseumLocation: Stabler-Leadbeater Apoth-ecary Museum, 105-107 S. Fairfax St. and Friendship Firehouse Museum, 107 S. Alfred St.Information: www.visitalexandriava.com


To the editor: There is no plan to sell, priva-tize, redevelop or otherwise dis-pose of Alexandria’s City Hall. City Manager Mark Jinks has proposed that city taxpay-ers spend $56.5 million over the next eight years on a reno-vation of City Hall. While long overdue, this project comes at a challenging time for major city infrastructure investment.

With significant education, sewer, transportation and recre-ation infrastructure bills coming due, the voters of our city should expect their elected officials to pause and consider all options when making an investment of that magnitude. That may mean reducing the scope of the reno-vation, different financing mod-els, alternative ways to transition into the new space or other ideas.

That does not mean city council wishes to privatize the seat of our municipal govern-ment. It does mean city council is fulfilling its fiduciary respon-sibility to the taxpayers who pay the bills.

- City councilors John Chapman, Tim Lovain,

Del Pepper, Paul Smedberg and Justin Wilson

To the editor: The Alexandria Times, in its April 9 editorial (“Pave the re-development path with common ground”), completely missed the point of the Iron Ladies’ appeal to the Virginia Supreme Court and the notice of intent they re-cently filed with that Court. The notice signaled that the Iron Ladies reserved their

right to seek a rehearing of the court’s March 27 decision up-holding the Alexandria Circuit Court’s dismissal of a lawsuit filed by the Iron Ladies chal-lenging the process by which the City of Alexandria ignored its own rules for handling zon-ing appeals. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court erred in uphold-ing the Circuit Court dismissal.

A rehearing would give the Su-preme Court the opportunity to correct that error. The Iron Ladies’ appeal reaches far beyond waterfront zoning issues to address an important zoning process is-sue affecting all Alexandrians. In essence, the appeal asks that

our view Opinion“Where the press is free and every man is able to read, all is safe.”

- Thomas Jefferson

A common feature of our culture is to play amateur psychologist and analyze whether people view the world with a “glass half full” or “glass half empty” outlook. If your glass is half full, you’ve got some of what you want, and that’s better than nothing. We tend to label such people as optimists. If your glass is half empty, you are focused more on what you lack than on what you have. Such people are rarely content. When it comes to the city budget, most of us fall in the glass half empty category. We want all of our personal pri-orities fully funded and are not satisfied with half measures. The most glaring example of a half measure in this year’s city budget is Fire Station 210, which was scheduled to offi-cially open with much fanfare last weekend. But the ribbon-cutting was abruptly postponed when city officials, led by City Manager Mark Jinks, realized West Enders decidedly view the new station as a glass half empty situation. There is near unanimous agreement the station is needed — the West End is growing rapidly and the new station is close to the Norfolk Southern ethanol op-eration near Cameron Station. The problem is that not enough money was set aside to build the station, buy both a medic truck and fire truck, and hire enough staff to operate both vehicles. As the station was under construction last year, the city’s first proposed half measure to include staffing in the budget was to move firefighters from Station 204 in North Old Town. This would have worsened response times in the midst of Alexandria’s tourist hub. Nearby residents raised a ruckus and the idea to move firefighters out of Old Town was shelved. But the money wasn’t in the budget to fully staff the new station this year. So the station opened this month without fanfare — and without firefighters. Obviously, this situation is not tenable in the long-term. The glass half full perspective is that the station is being brought online in stages, and having an operational medic unit near the Van Dorn Metro station is decidedly better than nothing at all. According to city spokeswoman An-drea Blackford, there are more emergency calls for medi-cal assistance than for fire suppression in any community. The fire equipment is there and firefighters will be added at some point in the next 18 months or so. But given the sense of many in the West End that they are consistently treated as second-class citizens, city offi-cials should have known residents would see this as a glass half empty. There’s a perception, probably warranted, that greater priority is given to funding city services in the Old Town, Rosemont and Del Ray sections of Alexandria. Someone on the city’s staff or on city council should have realized that ensuring the new station had firefighters warranted being a priority. And it should not have taken an ill-conceived ribbon-cutting ceremony to bring the issue back to the forefront. That’s just bad governance. City leaders should prioritize fully staffing Station 210 as soon as possible.

Half a fire station is not enough

your views

Councilors: City Hall is not for sale

Waterfront lawsuit is about process, not development

SEE lawsuiT | 24


To the editor: On June 9, residents will have the opportunity to elect the Democratic Party’s can-didate to be the next mayor of Alexandria. There are three choices: incumbent Mayor Bill Euille, former Mayor Kerry Donley and Vice Mayor Allison Silber-berg. In my view, Silberberg stands head and shoulders above the others for the fol-lowing reasons:• She is the only candidate

to make an effort to learn the concerns of residents across the city, hosting Saturday morning cof-fee hours at a variety of venues and by attending meetings of civic orga-nizations throughout the city.

• She is the only candidate to earn the endorsement of former state Sen. Patsy Ticer, who described Sil-berberg as “a voice of rea-son.”

• She is not beholden to

special interest groups.• She has the courage of her

convictions; all too often, hers is the sole dissenting vote on a controversial is-sue.

• She appears to be the only one of the three candidates who truly understands the value of Alexandria’s unique perspective on the history of our nation and that this is essential to the attractiveness and quality of life of our city.

In marked contrast, the current and former mayors appear to have pursued a strat-egy of divisiveness, impos-ing on different areas of the city one unwanted and ugly development after another. Remember when BRAC was supposed to be located near a Metro stop? And what about the polarization engendered during heated battles over the controversial waterfront development plan, which per-sists to this day? Then there were the bul-lying tactics Mayor Euille

used to force the Old Do-minion Boat Club to move out of its historic location at the foot of King Street. And there was the Beaure-gard Avenue “Corridor C” redevelopment, the Potomac Yard Metro station contro-versy, etc. The most recent egregious examples are the embarrassment of construct-ing a fire station without al-locating sufficient funds to provide staff for it and the ridiculous idea of selling our historic City Hall. If either Mayor Euille or former Mayor Donley is elected as the Democratic candidate for mayor, we can be absolutely certain that more of the same will con-tinue. Isn’t it time for the city to try a fresh approach? In my opinion, Allison Silberberg is the only candidate who has the potential to be a candidate for all of Alexandria. Let’s give her the opportunity to show what she can do.

- Hugh M. Van HornAlexandria

To the editor: What more proof do you need? Our city leaders built a costly firehouse in Station 210 but failed to staff it. No explanation; no embarrass-ment; no consequences. If this mistake occurred in the private sector, those who made it would be cashiered for mismanagement. But in the Mayor Bill Euille-led, spend first and think later city council, the only result of this gigantic gaffe is the postponement of a ribbon-cutting ceremony. And to rub salt into the wound, shortly before the ceremony was shelved, Euille issued a State of the City speech in which he ex-tolled progress along the wa-terfront and in Potomac Yard. What he failed to mention is the former is a contentious

project, the cost of which has not been established beyond a rough estimate of multi-millions and whose benefits are airy-fairy conjecture. Absent too was the cost to le-gally bully the last of its op-ponents into submission. Neither did he observe the cost of the planned Potomac Yard Metro station. At a sum sure to approach the half billion-dollar mark, if not exceed that, this project will surpass all other 21st century major Alexandria taxpayer-funded projects combined. Keep this in mind when you vote for a new mayor and city council: the current cast of elected officials, and all their forebears selected by the Democratic Party primary, have never delivered any proj-ect on time or on budget. Nor have they balanced the city

budget in the last eight years. The solution to this spend-before-thinking sick-ness: Change the city charter to require referendums for large capital projects. A ref-erendum would require our elected officials to persuade us to approve their spending visions by explaining how they will benefit us, when and at what cost. The punch line to all of this: Without a referendum for major spending projects, we are giving carte blanche to a small group of elected officials to dip their hands into our pocketbooks with minimal explanation, to take whatever they need for what-ever public project they want, regardless how unnecessary, wasteful or divisive it may be.

- Jimm RobertsAlexandria

Silberberg is the best choice for mayor

Fire Station 210 merely the latest SNAFU

Every block has a person-ality, drawn together by the patchwork of the personali-ties of those who live there. Networks of old, young and middle-aged, low and high in-come, and diverse homeown-ers form a block-by-block quilt that bonds a community. For Michael, the quiet Al-exandria block he knew as a young boy in the 1960s has changed, replaced by bus-tling hotels and businesses. But two things remain the same: Michael still lives in the house he has called home his whole life and the generosity of his neighbors, who continue to help each other. John, a dis-abled Vietnam War veteran, also still lives in the Alexandria home where he grew up. He fondly remembers crawling under-neath the front porch with his brother and pretending it was his fort. Henry, his wife and two young daughters are newer to the community and to the country. But like other Alex-andrians, he and his family have been welcomed to this city of 151,000 people by their next-door neighbors and are making their own memo-ries. All of these proud resi-dents are tied to the city by the blocks on which they live. They also share a relationship with Rebuilding Together Al-exandria, a nonprofit that pro-vides free home modifications and repairs to homeowners with limited incomes. In fact, Rebuilding To-gether Alexandria volunteers helped Michael restore his two-story row home, allow-

ing him to continue to live independently in warmth and safety when a kidney illness prevented him from main-taining his home. They also ensured that John could re-main mobile and safe in his home by providing a variety of upgrades to improve ac-cess. And Henry’s children are breathing better after our contractors helped with mold abatement. It is our commitment to

our neighbors that makes Re-building Together strong and helps propel our goal to revitalize and stabilize our com-munity by ensur-ing residents can afford to maintain and stay in their homes. That’s why on National Rebuilding Day on Saturday, more

than 800 of our volunteers will work throughout the city, making repairs and renova-tions for vulnerable Alexan-dria homeowners. In addition, we will have a giant team of volunteers from Booz Allen working on nearly a whole block of homes to re-connect neighbors and help a neighborhood feel proud. House by house and block by block — our volunteers fix fences, do gardening, pro-vide electrical work, add grab bars, put in flooring and more — to pull together our tight-knit community and keep it moving forward. If you know of homeown-ers in need or would like to volunteer, contact Rebuild-ing Together Alexandria, visit www.rebuildingtogetheralex.org or call 703-836-1021.

The writer is the president of

Rebuilding Together Alexandria.

Helping vulnerable residents, one block at a time

my view By Katharine Dixon


the city play by its own rules in handling zoning protests, protests which the city char-ter provides are to be decided by the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals. The BZA is a sev-en-member citizen oversight board charged with providing a check on the planning direc-tor’s interpretation of the city’s zoning ordinance. In this case, now-retired Planning Director Faroll Hamer refused to accept the Iron La-dies’ appeal to the BZA chal-lenging the manner in which the city attempted to rezone the wa-terfront. When they attempted the next day to file a second ap-peal to the BZA, Hamer again rejected the appeal. In effect, Hamer took the position that

she alone could decide whether a decision of hers could be ap-pealed to the BZA. As it now stands, if Alexan-dria citizens seek to assert their rights under the city charter to appeal a decision to the BZA, they must now first get the ap-proval of the planning director to file that appeal. In effect, the planning director has become a gatekeeper for appeals to the BZA, a posture not authorized by the charter. Additionally, in noting that city council voted 6 to 1 to change the waterfront zoning, the Supreme Court erred in as-suming that, had the BZA heard the Iron Ladies’ appeal, coun-cilors still would have voted by a supermajority to change the zoning. In fact, it is quite pos-sible that had the BZA heard the appeal, the hearing and ruling

might have caused more mem-bers of council to vote against the zoning change, thereby de-feating it. At its core, the Iron Ladies’ lawsuit and their request for a rehearing is not about rede-velopment of the Alexandria waterfront. Instead, it is about the process by which zoning changes are made in the city. The state Supreme Court was asked to rule that the city must play by its own rules, whatever the outcome might be. All Al-exandrians will win if the court reconsiders its decision and rules in favor of the Iron Ladies. A decision in their favor will create the common ground the Times seeks.

- Bert Ely and Mark MuellerCo-chairmen, Friends of the

Alexandria Waterfront

lawsuiT FROM | 22Chamber Corner

with Susan Carroll

A good community hos-pital, especially in a city like Alexandria, enjoys a natural collaboration with public safe-ty personnel. Together, these entities continue to improve emergency response skills and create an environment in which best practices evolve, enhanc-ing the health and safety of every resident. This col-laboration is a major factor in making our community a safer, healthier place in which to do busi-ness and thrive. Inova Alexan-dria Hospital has a long, proud tradition of inno-vation in emergency care. In 1961, we were the first hos-pital in the country to staff an emergency department around the clock with full-time ER physicians. And last month, we received the Get With The Guidelines Target Stroke Honor Roll-Elite Plus Qual-ity Achievement Award for outstanding care of stroke pa-tients. This prestigious award demonstrates our commitment to ensuring stroke patients admitted to the emergency department receive the most advanced treatments based on nationally respected clinical guidelines, and it could not have been possible without our close partnership with the city’s police, firefighters and paramedics. Each day, our physicians, nurses, clinicians and staff interact with personnel from the Alexandria Police Depart-ment, Alexandria Fire Depart-ment and the Alexandria Sher-iff’s Office. We have worked hard to foster communication,

build trust and find new ways to improve care and save lives. Several years ago, we became the first hospital in Northern Virginia to collaborate with first responders in the field to flag incoming heart attack patients and expedite lifesav-ing care. As a result, outcomes

have improved. Inova Alexandria Hospital could not do what we do with-out the help and sup-port of these dedicat-ed first responders. I continue to be hum-bled by the bravery, self-sacrifice and community spirit

they demonstrate every day. Their commitment to protect and care for all who need it — sometimes at great personal risk to themselves — is the truest example of valor. As a partner with the Al-exandria Chamber of Com-merce, Inova Alexandria Hos-pital is once again proud to honor these men and women at the chamber’s annual Pub-lic Safety Valor Awards. The event allows us, and the city’s entire business community, to convey our gratitude to its public safety departments and honor those individuals who have demonstrated the true meaning of the word hero. We are privileged to pres-ent this year’s program, which will be held on Thurs-day, April 30, at First Baptist Church of Alexandria. I invite you to join me in saluting our heroes. For more information, please visit the chamber’s web site at www.alexchamber.com.

The writer is the CEO of

Inova Alexandria Hospital.

Inova Alexandria and Alexandria Chamber honor

public safety personnel

Susan CarrollTo the editor: On Saturday, Mayor Bill Euille voiced his support for the plans proposed by EYA along the waterfront at Robinson Terminal South. He claimed to offer a “historical” perspective of the waterfront based on his own life in the city — a short 65 years. Among other things, he re-called playing on the mid-20th century industrial areas along the waterfront, and then pointed to the mural on the south wall of council chambers, saying that it may reflect what the water-front looked like in the 1700s or 1800s, but that’s not what it was when he was playing there. He argued that this 20th century industrial past was not what he wanted to see in the design, and that what was offered is better than what is there now and also what was there when he was a child. He was happy enough with what he saw from the de-veloper. In effect, the mayor argued that those opposed to the sub-mitted designs are saying they want the waterfront he knew in the recent past. That’s not the

case, nor is it really the choice before us. It’s disingenuous to argue so. As Vice Mayor Allison Sil-berberg put it, the waterfront should reflect its past, but need not replicate what the mayor knew. She pointed out that she certainly was not supporting re-turning to what the waterfront looked like when Euille was a child. Instead, she wants a wa-terfront that embraces the city’s and the country’s heritage and relates to the Old and Historic District setting. The choice is not about whether the design is better than the 1950s; it’s about what is the best design to em-brace Alexandria’s past and that of the nation. Mayor Euille added that at 65 he won’t be here to hear the judgment of the next generations — “I’ll be gone by then” he says. He need not wait that long. The city council made a bad deci-sion and one that will destroy an opportunity to create a water-front Alexandrians can point to as their own — not something that, as the vice mayor pointed out, belongs at Landmark or elsewhere and anywhere. Good

enough isn’t good enough. In truth, the lithograph the mayor pointed to and then said he’d “love to restore all that” if it was possible, is actually a bet-ter example of what we should aspire to than the 20th century industrial look he claimed on Saturday to oppose. The im-age, printed by Charles Mag-nus in 1863 in New York, is recognized as one of the most accurate non-photographic de-pictions of an American “city” during that era, down to the in-dividual structures. It captures Alexandria’s heritage and offers design ideas more compelling than the developer’s. Even if you look at the por-tion of the print depicting what is now the Robinson Terminal South site, the true “historic” waterfront (not of the mayor’s 1950s) was far less dense than what we are now being offered. If Mayor Euille meant what he said on Saturday about restor-ing the 1860s waterfront look the print reflects, we could do much worse, and it appears we probably will.

- Hal HardawayAlexandria

Waterfront must reflect its past, and do so properly


Take the poll at alextimes.com

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42% Yes.33 votes

in response to “planning commission OKs robinson Terminal South project,” April 16:

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t the start of the Civil War on April 23, 1861, just three days after

resigning his post in the U.S. Army and exactly one month before Virginia’s vote in favor of secession, Robert E. Lee ac-cepted command of the Virgin-ia state forces. The handsome general, who lived nearby at Arlington House, grew up in Alexandria and lovingly con-sidered the city his hometown. Although born at Stratford Hall, the Lee family plantation in Westmoreland County, young Robert was brought to Alexandria with his sib-lings at the age of four in the winter of 1810-11 to live at 611 Cameron St. As a member of two of Virginia’s most illustrious families, his parents Ann Hill Carter and Henry Lee III feigned to have moved their children north to take advantage of the fine education-al facilities in Alexandria. However, in reality, Henry Lee had just emerged from a debtor’s prison in Montross, Va., after serving a one-year sentence. When he emerged from his jail term, the ninth Governor of Virginia, former Revolutionary War commander nicknamed “Lighthorse Harry of Lee’s Legion” and the man who had eulogized George Washington with the phrase, “First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen” found himself in seriously dis-tressed circumstances. Stratford Hall had to be transferred to his son from an earlier marriage, Henry Lee IV

known as “Black Horse”, who quickly became ensconced in debt and was forced to sell the homestead within a few years after the older Lees’ move to Alexandria. The Federal-style dwelling at 611 Cameron St., as seen on the left side in this photo dating from the 1920s, was actually built in 1795 by cabinetmaker John Bogue for his own use, along with the companion home next door that was purchased by rope maker James Irwin. That

same year, Bogue opened a ship joinery that doubled as a cabinet and home building workshop on Princess Street, near Hep-burn’s Wharf. A former British subject, Bogue had earlier been naturalized as a U.S. citizen. His business prospered quickly and in 1796 he opened a large store near his workshop that carried an extensive selec-tion of hardware and building materials. By the early 1800s he had relocated to a larger home and offered 611 Cameron St. for lease, which ultimately attracted the humbled Lee family. Although the home is often referred to as the General Henry Lee House, the fam-ily lived there for only about

a year. When the lease ended, Mrs. Lee moved the children to a home owned by a rela-tive, William Fitzhugh Lee, at 607 Oronoco St., near to other members of the family. Soon after relocating to Al-exandria, amid British provo-cations that would lead to the declaration of the War of 1812, Henry Lee was offered a mili-tary commission as a Major General. He readily accepted, but on the way to receive his command on July 27, 1812, he

was seriously injured in Baltimore while trying to defend his close friend Al-exander Hanson, editor of a local newspaper opposed to the war, from a mob attack. Hanson, Lee and others were severely beaten by the crowd, and Lee suffered se-rious internal injuries and head wounds. To recuperate, he traveled

around the West Indies and on his way back to Virginia stopped at the home of Gen. Nathanial Greene on Cum-berland Island, Ga., where he died suddenly in 1818. Robert was then only 11 years old and had only bare memories of his father. But years later, during the War Between the States, realizing that he would prob-ably never return to Arlington or Alexandria, he expressed to his wife a desire to reacquire Stratford Hall and possibility rebuild a life for them at the quiet family homestead. His dream never came to pass.

Out of the Attic is provided by the Office of Historic Alexandria.

last Week Do you plan to participate in Spring2Action this year?

This Week Should the city have made fire staffing at Station 210 more of a priority at the start of budget talks?A. Yes, public safety is a top priority.B. No, the budget is too tight.

weekly Poll

ouT of The aTTiC

Brent writes: Robert Atkinson has it exactly right: Alexandria, and its water-front, should be allowed to evolve with the times. It’s refreshing to see the city planners approve a modern design that will be a nice visual counter-balance to colonial brick and mortar. I wish there would be more of it.

Chuck writes: I can’t wait for the next op-portunity I have to do something to the front of my house and the [board of architectural review] says it’s not in keeping with the historical nature of Old Town. This Robinson South design be-fits 1974 Warsaw, Poland, not Old Town. The BAR and city officials who approved this lost all cred-ibility and must be replaced at the next opportunity. This thing will stick out like a sore thumb. Contemporary design smack in the middle of what used to be a carefully preserved piece of his-tory. [It is] now blighted.

The local origin story of robert E. leefrom The weB

email comments, rants & raves to

[email protected].

who Cares?we Do.


ACrOSS

1 Buccaneers’ home6 Sharp mountain ridge11 Grind down16 U.K. television network19 Certain exams20 Russian country house21 Gave a great review22 ___ de Janeiro23 Barely begin26 Bird-to-be27 X-shaped cross28 Forebodings29 Con31 Condo division32 Parenthesis, essentially34 Little toymaker35 Branch37 Religious image (var.)38 French door part39 Darjeeling or oolong40 Home of the Taj Mahal42 “Let it stand”43 Botch things46 Smallish table adornment48 Picks from a menu52 Eurasian diving duck54 “How distasteful!”55 Adversaries57 Conventions58 Deep blue gem60 Prior to, old-style61 Crazy way to run62 Feeling of affection, with a cutesy spelling63 Big deal64 Rouses from sleep66 Chance occurrence67 PR company’s focus, sometimes71 When repeated, a dance72 Port of Belgium

74 Common deciduous tree75 Stomach acid, to a chemist76 Sounds of disapproval77 Actor Jackie and family78 Gives emphasis to81 Raymond and Aaron82 Congers83 Make a choice84 Song for you and I85 Period of greatest success86 Religious groups89 The world’s largest freshwater lake91 Pain-reliever’s target93 Pro basketball game locale94 .001 of an inch95 Fireplace shelves99 Casual talk100 ___ Aviv101 Org. for Venus and Serena Williams104 Building add-on105 Departure106 Curve enhancer108 City of Tuscany110 It’s short on stories112 .0000001 joule113 Harsh rebuttal117 Payable now118 4:1, e.g.119 “Same for me”120 Musical selection121 Non-P.C. suffix122 Turn topsy-turvy123 Worn and shabby, as a motel124 Bridge positionsDOWN1 Difficult-to-predict outcome2 Mysterious stuff3 “The Old Man and the Sea” fish4 Missouri feeder5 ___ Spumante

last week’s solution:

wee

kly

wor

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6 Attaches7 Sewer rodent8 Audio effect9 A restaurant may have one10 Chart holder11 Blows it12 Churchill’s “so few” (Abbr.)13 Eggs, biologically14 Point in math class?15 Adam’s home16 Post a best-ever score17 Water temperature tester, sometimes18 Convincing, as an argument24 Jalopies25 Ill-suited30 Identified wrongly33 Tapioca plant

35 “Haste makes waste,” e.g.36 Rolling in dough41 Brain cell43 Robinson or Doubtfire44 Official in a mask, briefly45 Vigor47 Butcher’s awful waste?48 City near Boys Town, Nebraska49 Type of novel50 Let someone walk?51 “Oh no, a mouse!”53 Eliminated, mob-style56 Portuguese lady58 Pump in the basement59 Altar avowal60 Missing from the USMC, e.g.62 Lawrence of Scandinavia64 More than one 32-Across65 Fresh-mouthed67 Thickheaded68 Ill-gains link69 Ring bearer, often70 It’s commonly requested73 Pickpocket targets76 Pay the price for78 Salesman’s preparation79 Grinder80 Caribbean, e.g.81 ___ canto83 Beast of fairy tales85 Attention-getting shout87 Dirty, run-down digs88 Horror sequel of 200590 Wet blanket91 Knuckle under92 Musical refrain95 Abdominal anomaly96 Rust causes97 Split98 Cordwood units102 Serves brewski after brewski103 Dickinson of TV and film107 Hosiery shade108 Wearing wingtips, e.g.109 “Laugh-In” comic Johnson111 Use a sponge114 One for the off-road115 Transgression116 Airport sched. letters

VOiD YOUr WArrANTY By Jill Pepper

NINA BALDUCCI BROWN, formerly of Alexandria, April 17, 2015

MARY LUCY GIAMMITTORIO, of Alexandria, April 1, 2015

RITA F. GRAY (93), of Alexandria, April 16, 2015

CHERLYN ARLAINE SLIGHT HARRIS, of Alexandria, April 14, 2015

CECILIA A. KOWALIK (93), of Alexandria, April 13, 2015

ALAN W. LAW (69), of Alexandria, April 8, 2015

STEVEN MCLAUGHLIN (67), formerly of Alexandria, January 6, 2015

DOROTHY G. NUNBERG (94), formerly of Alexandria, April 14, 2015

HELEN R. RODGERS, of Alexandria, April 4, 2015

MARY I. SMITH (71), of Alexandria, April 11, 2015

CHARLES T. STROBEL, of Alexandria, April 16, 2015

ROBIN L. TAYLOR (65), of Alexandria, April 16, 2015

ANNA ZIEMBA, of Alexandria, April 14, 2015

oBiTuaries

Obituary POliciesAll obituaries in the Times are charged through the funeral home on a per-word basis comparable to the space rate offered to nonprofit advertisers.

“In Memoriam” and “Thank You” notices are available through the Advertising Department.

Obituaries should be submitted through the funeral home. Each obituary must include the funeral home name for verification.

Deadlines are the Monday prior to the issue date. call 703.739.0001 for details.


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helP wanTeD

AlexAndriA BoArd of ArchitecturAl review

old & historic AlexAndriA district

leGAl notice of A PuBlic heArinG

A public hearing will be held by the Alex-andria Board of Architectural Review on WEDNESDAY, May 6, 2015 beginning at 7:30 PM in Council Chambers, second floor of City Hall, 301 King Street, Alexandria, Virginia on the following applications:

CASE BAR2015-0090Request for signage at 805 King St.APPLICANT: PMA Properties, 805, LLC

CASE BAR2015-0091Request for alterations at 656 S Columbus St. APPLICANT: Max and Paula Reele

CASE BAR2015-0092Request for signage at 5 Cameron St.APPLICANT: Blackwall Hitch

CASE BAR2015-0093Request to partially demolish and capsulate at 205 S Fayette St.APPLICANT: IGP Enterprises, LLC

CASE BAR2015-0094Request for alterations at 205 S Fayette St. APPLICANT: IGP Enterprises, LLC

CASE BAR2015-0097Request for alterations at 420 S Lee St. APPLICANT: Thomas Byrne

CASE BAR2015-0108Request for alterations at 1118 Prince St.APPLICANT: Timothy Burton

CASE BAR2015-0109Request to partially demolish and capsulate at 311 S St Asaph St.APPLICANT: Patricia and Ricky Fisher

CASE BAR2015-0110Request to alterations at 311 S St Asaph St.APPLICANT: Patricia and Ricky Fisher

Information about the above item(s) may be obtained from the Department of Planning and Zoning, City Hall, 301 King Street, Room 2100, Alexandria, Virginia 22314, telephone: (703) 746-4666.

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PUBLIC NOTICEAT&T proposes a modification to an existing facility with tip heights of 143 feet, 160 feet, and 161 feet on a building at 511 Four Mile Road in Alexandria, VA (Lynhaven). In accordance with federal regulation 47CFR 1.1307, the NEPA and the ACHP 36 CFR 800, parties interested in submitting comments or questions regarding any potential effects of the proposed facility on Historic Properties may do so by contacting Scott Horn (856-809-1202, [email protected]) at ACER Associates, LLC at 1012 Industrial Dr., West Berlin, NJ 08091.

ABANDONED WATERCRAFTNotice is hereby given that the follow-ing watercraft has been abandoned for more than 60 DAYS on the property of: William Harding, 2823 East Side Dr. Alexandria, VA 22306.Description: Bay Liner, 26’, 1996, white, Hull# USCA08FHH596, Registration# VA 7235 AZApplication for Watercraft Title will be made in accordance with Section 29.1-733.25 of the Code of Virginia if this watercraft is not claimed and removed within 30 days of first publication of this notice. Please contact the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fish-eries with questions.

COMPANION AIDE PROVIDERExperienced housekeepers needed to assist ag-ing and disabled individuals in the City of Alexan-dria with cleaning, laundry, meal preparation, gro-cery and pharmacy trips. Looking for professional individuals that are courteous, reliable and able to follow written and verbal directions. This is a contracted position that pays $10 per hour. Appli-cations are available at 4401 Ford Avenue, Suite 103, Alexandria VA, 22302 or can be download-ed at http://www.alexandriava.gov/dchs/adult-services. Applications can be faxed to 703-746-5975, mailed to the address above or emailed to [email protected].

leGal noTiCe

MOthER’s DAy BAzAAR (Sat, May 9, 2015)

4600 Duke St. - Main Lobby9am – 3pm, Each Rental Space — $17 (Pay By April 30)Call: 1 Marietha Mayen, 703-622-5938Or 2 Carol Montague, 571-274-0239 After 7:30 pm or weekends, anytime


To Sell or Not To Sell: That is the Question...

Give me a call and together we can determine the best solution for you in today’s interesting market.

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109 S. Pitt Street • Alexandria, VA 22314

Susan Anthony, gri29 Years of Experience$20+ Million Sold in 2013Life Member, NVAR Top Producers ClubLife Member, NVAR Multi-Million Dollar Sales Club

703.795.9536www.susanbruceanthony.com

I appreciate your referrals as they help me to continue to serve the community with 30 years of real estate experience.

407 Duke StreetOffered at $3,650,000

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3104 Windsong DriveOffered at $1,589,900

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331 Mansion DriveOffered at $1,385,000

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2925 King StreetOffered at $864,900

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2104 Wilkinson Place

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301 N Alfred Street

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1826 Potomac Greens Dr850 Merriewood Ln1007 Queen StOffered at $1,099,000

623 S Saint Asaph StOffered at $1,135,000

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400 Madison St #507

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photo/erich wagner west end station...

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