Highland Park Overlee Knolls Civic Association

Dear Neighbors:

HPOK will be holding a general membership meeting on Saturday Dec.1, from 11-12, in the Westover Library large meeting room. We have a lot to consider, including upcoming elections for HPOK Board members. We would like to get input from the membership on a number of other topics, including

1. What form of communication would you prefer? At the moment we have a website, https://hpok.org/, and we have social media lists including the Yahoo groups HPOK list, with roughly three hundred members, and the NextDoor HPOK list, with approximately 600 members. There are plusses and minuses to each. We would like to find a way to settle one one social media list

2. What would you like your Civic Association do do? In the past, Civic Associations have managed County Civic Improvement grants. However, this program has been badly stalled for the last several years and is currently under review. A civic association can organize neighborhood events, like the Halloween on the Greenway HPOK has helped organize for many years. It can organize and sponsor festival or neighborhood days. It can advocate for traffic safety measure or needed civic improvements. CAs can organize forums for County and school board elections, or sponsor informational talks by County staff. In the past year, the CAS has been very active in planning the upcoming Reed School demolition and reconstruction. Do you have a sense of what you would like your CA to do?

Please attend if you can. And then you can go get lunch in Westover!

The Westover Beer Garden is undergoing review of their permit for live music. The County will probably recommend that they only be allowed to have acoustic music in the future. If you have an opinion on this, you should contact the County at countyboard@arlingtonva.us

The Highland Park-Overlee Knolls HP-OK) neighborhood association is looking for a NEW Coordinator and volunteers for Halloween on the Greenway”. This is a wonderful annual event-but we need some help this year! And, it’s a lot of fun!!

Please let me know if you are able to step in as the coordinator. The neighborhood owns some decorations, but it will be important for the planning team to get started ASAP….to order other supplies and decorations for a successful event! And Halloween will be here before you know it!

Also, we will need volunteers (ages 13-to 103!!

I hope to hear from as many people as possible so that the annual festivities can continue!

Thank you!!

Contact momalle3@mac.com if you’d like to be involved

Arlington County works to extend and preserve its tree canopy. Trees shade us in summer and offer homes for birds and wildlife. They turn carbon dioxide to oxygen. They beautify the landscape. They increase your property value.

Arlington property owners can apply for a grant to get a native tree planted in their yard or green space. You can apply online by going to this address:

https://www.ecoactionarlington.org/community-programs/trees/

By June 22

At no cost to you,  the County will plant a 7-8 foot

Red maple

Sycamore

River Birch

Hackberry

Pin Oak

Swamp oak

American Holly

At the most recent meeting of the School  Board, APS office of facilities formally recommended the Integrated option for Reed. This is something of a reversal, since a week before they had dropped the Integrated option when cost estimates put it over budget by about 5 million dollars. You can see their recommendation at  this link

To recap, and simplify, in a six month process that began in September 2017, citizen advisory committees to the school board and county board met with APS and county employees and with VMDO architects to consider the Reed site for a 725 seat neighborhood elementary school.  The committees recommended the “integrated option,” which partially demolishes the existing building and puts a new multi story school in its place. The integrated building preserved green space and was thought to be under budget.

On closer examination, in light of increasing costs, the new estimates showed the school to be about 5 million dollars over budget. The committees were directed to reconsider two options which had earlier been rejected.

There was widespread dismay at this. The other two options involved using the existing building, which is poorly designed for upper level Elementary students, and also adding an entirely new build where the baseball field now sits. Public unhappiness with this option was quite clear.

School and County Board members, notably John Vihstadt and Barbara Kanninen, determined that the Integrated option should remain viable.

At this point, the Integrated Option has been formally recommended to the School Board APS Facilities. The School Board will vote to accept or reject that recommendation at its next meeting, on April 5.

Still remaining to be determined: how to come up with the additional five million dollars.

APS has announced the the option preferred by HPOK and five other local civic associations is now over budget, contradicting what they said over the last five months, and off the table. See the message from APS below. There is a meeting on March 14th, described to discuss the ridiculous mess APS has made of the process.

Reed Concept Design Update, March 8, 2018

The Reed Concept Design, which was originally scheduled to be presented as an information item at tonight’s School Board meeting, has been delayed to allow more time for review and consideration by members of the Building Level Planning Committee (BLPC), the Public Facilities Review Committee (PFRC) and members of the community.

While staff had intended to recommend the Integrated option, that is no longer being considered because the design cost estimate for that option significantly exceeds the funding available for the project. The final design cost estimates completed by the Architecture/Engineering (A/E) team and the Construction Manager at Risk (CMR) were both higher for all six of the alternative design options.

To ensure that the School Board’s action is based on the most complete and up-to-date information, final estimates are prepared at the end of each project phase. While initial project estimates were developed earlier in the process, the recent final estimates were higher due to more information being available on each option. The current estimates reflect the latest construction costs, which are rising rapidly in the DC metropolitan region due to the amount of construction activity and reflect the most current prediction of future escalation.

Therefore, an additional joint BLPC/PFRC meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 14. The meeting will take place in the Reed Multipurpose Room, and will begin at 7:00 p.m. The focus of the March 14 meeting will be to provide an additional opportunity to discuss and hear input on the concept design cost estimates for the Bridge and Upper Lower options – the two options now under consideration.

Based on previous review, staff has determined that the following four options are not feasible, based on feedback from the BLPC and PFRC and/or cost estimates. • The Integrated option, which is the preferred option of the BLPC and PFRC, is $5 to $6 million over the $49 million maximum funding available. • The Standalone option is also $5 to $6 million over the $49 million maximum funding available. • The North option, while close to the $49 million maximum funding available, was not highly favored by the BLPC and PFRC. • The East option is under the $49 million maximum funding available, but is least favored by the BLPC and PFRC, and does not provide an optimal environment for learning.

The meeting on March 14 will allow time for the BLPC, PFRC and members of the community to provide feedback on the Bridge and Upper Lower options. Both options are within the $49 million maximum funding available. The final recommendation will be presented to the School Board at the March 22 or April 5 School Board meeting. Individuals wishing to provide input may do so during the public comment section of the March 14 meeting. For those who cannot attend, they may contact the BLPC/PFRC or email comments to engage@apsva.us.