Opinion Pieces
Opinion: Commentary: Beyer Submits Community Project Funding RequestsTo support Northern Virginia infrastructure, police reform, health care
Washington,
May 8, 2021
Originally Published in the Connection Newspapers “The Community Project Funding requests I submitted on behalf of Arlington, Alexandria, Falls Church, and Fairfax all support local initiatives which would significantly benefit our community,” said Beyer. “The infrastructure requests would enhance pedestrian routes in the region, support EV’s and other environmentally friendly initiatives, fund mental health resources, and support a pilot program for the deployment of body-worn cameras for the Alexandria Police Department. My requests also include funding to help implement some of the recommendations made by the National Park Service safety study for GW Parkway which was recently completed.” New rules adopted by the House of Representatives in the 117th Congress allow each Representative to submit funding requests for up to 10 projects within their district for FY22, without any guarantee of approval. Project requests must fall within a limited scope of federal accounts and direct funds to state and local government and select non-profits. Details can be found here: https://beyer.house.gov/blog/?postid=5133
Recipient: Arlington County Department of Parks and Recreation Amount Requested: $325,000 This project will mill and repave a segment of the Bluemont Junction Trail and adjacent connector paths. This is one of Arlington County s most heavily used multi-use trails, which serves many members of the community and surrounding areas, including commuters and recreational cyclists, joggers, pedestrians, and dog walkers. The current trail pavement and connectors are in deteriorating condition with limited or poor access from adjacent and intersecting streets. The trail, which was built in the late 1980s, runs for approximately 1.2 miles connecting the Washington & Old Dominion Trail (W&OD Trail) to the Four Mile Run Trail in and near Bluemont Park. Like the W&OD Trail, the Bluemont Junction Trail follows a former railroad route connecting the W&OD rail line to the Ballston area of Arlington, Virginia.
Recipient: Arlington County Department of Parks and Recreation Amount Requested: $800,000 This funding will go towards replacing an important pedestrian bridge in Glencarlyn Park in Arlington. The previous bridge was lost during an unprecedented flooding event in July 2019. Of the six pedestrian bridges lost in the flooding event, the most important one for connectivity is the bridge in Glencarlyn Park.
Recipient: Arlington County Government Amount Requested: $390,000 The funding would be used to purchase two medically equipped vehicles dedicated to the mobile crisis response team. The requested funds will support a “Help not Handcuffs” approach to ensure that persons in behavioral health crises receive the most appropriate assistance needed when and where they need it. A behavioral health response vs. a law enforcement response will increase community-based mental health care, decrease emergency department use, reduce inpatient admissions, divert from the criminal justice system and support racial justice.
Amount Requested: $600,000 The funding would be used to pilot a body worn camera program in the City of Alexandria. $600,000 would provide for 25 to 50 body worn cameras for the Alexandria Police Department to be deployed in the community with a focus on high-impact shifts and high-need areas. Body cameras are vital to the effort to bring increased transparency and accountability to policing in our community. They are a critical tool to be able to quickly establish what happened in incidents of police misconduct and serious abuse of authority. In addition, body camera footage can be key in assisting officers in their duty to uphold the law and protect the public. Body worn cameras were one of the practices recommended by the federal 21st Century Policing Report.
Amount Requested: $420,000 Communities across the Commonwealth are facing more frequent severe flooding events. In Alexandria, these events impact our City far beyond our well known Potomac River waterfront area. We are currently working to implement short-range and long-term flood mitigation measures to reduce and resolve the impacts of this recurrent flooding in our community. As part of this comprehensive flood mitigation program, the City is working to fund and implement spot improvements in particularly impacted areas of our community. These spot improvements are new storm sewer projects such as detention, pipes and other drainage improvements that make neighborhoods more resilient to climate change and flash flooding. Projects are typically $50,000 to $1 million each (depending on project location and scope) and can be delivered in 8-20 months. The City plans to spend a total of $2.5 million in FY 2022 to deliver eight projects. An additional $420,000 would allow the City to accelerate a key project area currently planned for FY 2023. Storm sewer systems in this neighborhood were designed and installed approximately 75-years ago and as such do not account for changes in climate now effecting the local weather patterns which form extreme rainfall events precipitating flash flooding on an alarmingly frequent basis. The project proposes to increase the inlet sizes and connecting pipes at key locations to more effectively move stormwater from the streets into the storm sewers and out to Four Mile Run.
Recipient: City of Alexandria Amount Requested: $300,000 The funding would be used Safety Improvements along the Southern George Washington Memorial Parkway – Belle Haven Park to City of Alexandria border. In 2020, the National Park Service (NPS) and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) completed a traffic and safety assessment on the southern section of the George Washington Memorial Parkway. The Southern George Washington Memorial Parkway Safety Study focused on nine key intersections on 6.3 miles of road between the City of Alexandria and George Washington’s estate Mount Vernon. The study identifies context sensitive solutions that make the road safer and protect the scenic and historic values that justify the parkway’s inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. This project would advance the goals of the study by implementing new lane markings and pilot access management options. This project would advance the goals of the study to identify context sensitive solutions that make the road safer for drivers and vulnerable road users and protect the scenic and historic values that justify the parkway’s inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. This funding proposal focuses on drainage repairs, striping, and sealing along the parkway from the City of Alexandria to Belle Haven Park. The project will improve safety for motorists as well as vulnerable road users utilizing and crossing the Parkway by ensuring that lane markings are clearly distinguishable and degraded drainage surfaces and grates are stabilized.
Recipient: Fairfax County Government Amount Requested: $1,000,000 The project will construct missing links of the sidewalk on the roadway between I-95 and Richmond Highway (US Route 1). By building the missing sidewalks, this project will improve multimodal mobility along this roadway. The project connects high density residential neighborhoods to Richmond Highway and significant public transit service that runs along Richmond Highway, improving mobility and access to jobs for the community.
Recipient: Fairfax County Government Amount Requested: $800,000 Funding will be used to establish a Regional Projects Data Warehouse. This initiative would allow for greater interoperability and client continuity of care. The Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board Regional Projects office is the fiscal agent for projects supporting clients in Region 2, which includes Community Services Boards (CSBs) in Fairfax, Prince William, Loudoun, Alexandria, and Arlington. The management and reporting from these projects to the state requires pulling data from multiple sources throughout the region including CSBs, private and state hospitals, the Northern Virginia Mental Health Institute (NVMHI), and other relevant providers. |