Message from the President
Taylor Run Neighbors,
I have been honored to serve as President of the Taylor Run Citizens’ Association for the past year. It has been a busy yet productive year in our neighborhood. I plan to continue our progress on increasing TRCA’s visibility and developing a great working relationship with our neighbors, city officials and other associations. I would like to use this opportunity to highlight some of our key events and accomplishments since our Fall Newsletter, as well as new plans for the upcoming year. Please do not hesitate to let me or any of TRCA Executive Committee members know if you have ideas as to how we can improve our neighborhood.
- At the 2012 Fall Meeting, TRCA hosted a forum featuring the Alexandria City District B School Board Candidates. The forum gave residents an opportunity to get to know each candidate and pose questions concerning pressing education issues. TRCA’s Spring Meeting will feature our local elected representatives to the Virginia State Legislature, including Senator Adam Ebbin and Delegate Charniele Herring. In addition, we will hear from Judy Lo, from the city of Alexandria’s Department of Recreation concerning forthcoming improvements at Angel Park and plans for improvements at other neighborhood parks. Lastly, we will receive a neighborhood update from the Alexandria Sherriff’s office.
- TRCA Executive Committee Member John Taylor Chapman was elected to serve on the Alexandria City Council. Congratulations, Councilman Chapman!
- TRCA continued to work with Girl Scout Troop #4143 to maintain a “native species” pollinator garden at Upland Park.
- TRCA’s largest event of the year was the Annual Fall Halloween Party. This year’s party had a great turn out, fabulous weather, catering by local restaurants and other delicious food donated by our neighbors (including an amazing funnel cake booth). In addition, the event featured a band, arts and crafts, moon bounces, face painting, and our annual costume parade.
- TRCA continues to work with the city of Alexandria’s Department of Recreation, Parks and Cultural Activities to obtain improvements at Angel Park, including a renovated picnic shelter, a new grill, additional playground equipment, and better handicap accessibility and sidewalks. We have been informed that we can expect many of these improvements early this summer.
- TRCA continues to advocate for several traffic calming improvements in our neighborhood as well as the completion of our sidewalks to make our neighborhood safer and more accessible for pedestrians, including requests for repairs to existing sidewalks and the installation of accessibility ramps on many corners for wheelchairs and strollers. In addition, we have requested the installation of Rapid Flash Beacons (such as those on Braddock Road next to Metro) on King Street at the intersection with Upland Drive. TRCA intends to continue these discussions with the new Complete Streets Coordinator, hired recently to work on these issues for the City of Alexandria Department of Transportation & Environmental Services.
- TRCA will host a community Earth Day clean-up of Angel Park and the Taylor Run waterway this year on May 4, 2013 at 10:00 a.m.
- In June, TRCA will present two $1000 scholarships to two meritorious T.C. Williams students from the TRCA area and present the “Good Citizen” Award (a $50 U.S. Savings Bond) to a Fifth grade Douglas MacArthur student who displays characteristics of a “Good Citizen.”
- We are encouraging neighbors to utilize the city’s “free tree” program to plant trees throughout the neighborhood.
- A significant portion of TRCA’s annual budget is earned by our generous neighbors who work with us to clean Angel, Chinquapin and Upland parks on a weekly basis. By adopting these parks and completing this work ourselves, the city rewards us with an annual check. The amount of the compensation is determined by the quality of our work, so PLEASE sign up to help us clean a park.
Feel free to contact me at jesi3@hotmail.com if you have any comments or concerns, or simply want to assist us with efforts to improve our neighborhood.
-- Jesi Carlson, President