By Carla Branch
alexandrianews.org
Congressman Jim Moran (Photo: Regan Kireilis)
Each year the Alexandria City Council meets with members of the City’s federal delegation to ask for federal funding for local efforts. Last week, Virginia Congressman Jim Moran (D-8) came to Council’s legislative meeting to respond to this year’s requests.
“We are very lucky to have a Congressman who understands our needs so well and is so supportive of them,” said Councilwoman De. Pepper. “We want you to know how much we appreciate your efforts on our behalf.”
Moran, who served as a member of Council and as Alexandria’s mayor, spent time talking about the BRAC 133 Washington Headquarters Services facility that is being built at Mark Center. “First of all, it should never have been put there. Why the Department of Defense would move 6400 people from a facility that is accessible to mass transit to one that is not near a Metro station and that will require significant infrastructure improvements is incomprehensible,” Moran said. “The 2011 opening date is artificial and should be extended until the transportation issues can be resolved and I will work hard to see if we can make that happen.
“The emergency services needs is another issue. I have gotten a one-time expenditure of $750,000 so that Alexandria can purchase some equipment and make other capital investments. I believe that the Pentagon should pay for the ongoing cost of adequate emergency response and I am willing to facilitate a meeting between Alexandria officials and appropriate high-level DOD folks to see if we can’t work something out. We need to make that happen sooner rather than later,” Moran said.
In addition to the promised $750,000 for capital expenditures, the City needs $2.2 million a year for operating costs, including staffing. The issue is that the WHS complex is located in the busiest fire-EMS zone of the City of Alexandria and northern Virginia in terms of demand for fire and emergency services. The City’s five medic units are used to their maximum capacity and are often fully utilized by noon each day.
The requested additional resources include:
• Dedicated fire suppression company staffing. The closest fire-rescue station to the WHS complex houses an engine company staffed by three personnel, a paramedic transport unit and a heavy rescue squad vehicle.
• An additional fire suppression unit with full-time staffing (13 full time employees) for the existing heavy fire-rescue squad at an estimated annual operating cost of $l.6 million.
• A peak-time paramedic transport unit. The availability of a paramedic transport unit to responsively serve the WHS complex can be enhanced by adding another unit to cover peak demand times. “Peak-times” for the City run from approximately 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. With the expected Monday-Friday daylight operating hours for the majority of the 6,400 workers at the WHS/BRAC-133 complex, the impacts of this additional demand can be met by providing a new vehicle (purchase cost: $250,000).
• Annual staffing (3 FTEs) costs for a 40-hour a week peak-time paramedic transport unit are estimated at $400K (an ongoing operating cost).
High Capacity Transportation Projects
Alexandria and Arlington are jointly requesting funding for high capacity transportation projects on Route 1, in the Van Dorn-Beauregard corridor and along Columbia Pike. Some federal funding for those projects was just announced last week. The U. S. Department of Transportation announced that grants for bus rapid transit along Route 1 and high capacity transit for Van Dorn-Beauregard were being awarded from stimulus funds.
“I am very pleased that Arlington and Alexandria are working so closely together on these projects,” Moran said. “We will never be able to solve our transportation problems without true regional cooperation. I am pleased that I can support additional funds for each of these projects.
“We are looking at extending the Columbia Pike streetcar project to the BRAC 133 site, thus connecting those new workers to Metro at Falls Church and, hopefully, one day, through other programs, to the Pentagon,” Moran said.
Moran said that funding would not be available for a pedestrian bridge over Four Mile Run and that he would not be able to assist with DASH funding. “DASH does not have a collective bargaining agreement so federal funds cannot be used to support it. Also, unfortunately, there just isn’t money available for a pedestrian bridge over Four Mile Run,” he said.
Moran will try to obtain federal support for other City efforts. “We are going to try and get some money through the Save America’s Treasures program for the Lyceum and I believe we can get some money for the waterfront planning effort. The important thing is that it must be contiguous. This has been ongoing for decades and I hope that we are going to see some real progress in the next year or so,” he said.