Letter to Alexandria Gazette
September 28, 2012
The September 6, 2012 Alexandria Gazette story City Officials Clash with Descendants of Long-Neglected Graves at Fort Ward noted problems with the City of Alexandria completing an interim project to manage park runoff which has been damaging Oakland Baptist Church Cemetery graves. The article included comments by Transportation Director Rich Baier's comments about the pipeline that was removed. I removed the pipeline from my property because: 1) it wasn’t designed as we agreed it would be
What Rich didn't explain was that when the city engineered the sort-term alternative for dealing with water runoff problems they couldn't complete the scheme due to a difference in elevation. The idea was to channel water coming from the park and some of the adjacent homeowners into a pipe, away from the cemetery, and down-slope into a storm sewer within Fort Ward Park. The 800' of plastic pipe was proposed to go from the park, across our property, and back through the park. Although the pipe was put in place above ground the city wasn't able, or willing, to connect it. After numerous e-mails, meetings, etc. and no action I removed the pipe from our property and returned it to the city. We were agreeable to being part of the solution but the city didn't carry out the plan we agreed to.
Frankly the pipe wasn't functional and wasn't going to be redesigned until after the city approves a management plan for the park. A good bit of the work the city did to reduce water runoff was well done. The pipe was a bit of a joke and Mr. Baier's decision to throw stones at adjacent homeowners--and taxpayers, is a bad reflection on city services.
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