Mulch at Beulah Road Park Archives | Return to Home Page
July 09, 2008
Oldie But Goodie: Beulah Road Mulching Nonsense Comments (9)
HV would like to state for the record that we are more than happy to give up curb side leaf pick up and leaf mulch deliveries. Beulah Road Park deserves to be more than a service for a few residents in the town of Vienna.
Can anyone think of another use for such a nice, convenient piece of land that the Town owns? Skate park? Amphitheater? Public pool? Such a shame that we still subject the park's neighbors to that horrible looking wall and mulching.
NE Vienna Residents: What say you all?
September 02, 2007
Sharon Baum on Mulch Paranoia Comments (3)
In order to understand the Vienna machine you have to analyze how they operate. Here is an email sent around by Sharon Baum a few years ago during the debate on mulch in Vienna:
The mayor and several council members informed me today that members of the Northeast Vienna Citizens Association (NEVCA) are orchestrating a write-in campaign for this Tuesday's Town election. They are trying to install a mayor and council members who will support their goal of having the town cease operations at the Beulah mulch facililty, which may result in ceasing curbside leaf pick-up. NEVCA has candidates for mayor and all three open council seats. Incumbent mayor Jane Seeman had been running un-opposed until NEVCA began this write-in campaign. For the three open council seats, Laurie Cole and Edythe Kelleher are running as incumbents, and Michael Polychrones (a past council member) also is running. These three also had been running as un-opposed until the write-in campaign. REMEMBER -- Past elections have generated very small turn-outs and NEVCA could have a successful write-in campaign. So please make the effort to vote this Tuesday! The elections will be held 4 May at the Vienna Community Center from 6:00am to 7:00pm. Please pass this information on to other Vienna residents so that they understand the importance of this Tuesday's election -- unless you want to bag your leaves!
That's how you rile up the over 80 Magruders set - scare them that they will bag their leaves. Baum sits on the Vienna Transportation Safety Committee today receiving daily political milk from Maud.
My name is Sharon. I love Maud. I have to say that.
July 19, 2006
Beulah Road Noise Study - Followup Comments (3)
The Beulah Road Property - Noise Mitigation Processes and Monitoring at Leaf Processing Facility can be found here (PDF).
After posting the above study, we received this feedback from a Town resident:
Just thought I would fill you in on where we are with the Beulah Road Park Issue. I had asked for all of the data that Miller, Beam had to support their report much like the included in Figure 2 of their report. Here is an example of what we have dealt with at Beulah Road Park. Information from the BZA ordered noise study was "lost". How convenient!
The Town Manager's response:
We have been in contact with Mr. Douglas P. Koehn, M.S. of Miller, Beam and Paganelli regarding the questions raised in your email to me of July 10. Mr. Koehn has advised us that in the writing and editing of the report and data tables some information was lost. After the October survey, the logistical difficulties of which are described on page 2 of the report, and with the desire to conduct measurements at more locations, the subsequent surveys consisted of making short term measurements around the property boundary. The tables show the minimum, maximum and average levels for a single 5 minute period at each location (upper and lower heights were measured simultaneously). The report is to be updated to include this information. The report does contain information relating to the noise levels of the tub grinder, trucks and other associated equipment that operates at the leaf storage and mulch site and does meet the requirements of the conditional use permit granted by the Board of Zoning Appeals. Please contact me if I can be of further assistance.
April 04, 2006
Mulch Video Missing Comments (0)
The Town of Vienna is the only locality in Fairfax County that we are aware of that does not videotape or broadcast meetings. Vienna is also the only Virginia locality that we know of to propose the banning of videotaping by citizens. However, a sign is at the entrance to the infamous Vienna mulch pile that states:
"ATTENTION: These premises are under constant TV Surveillance. Continuous recording in progress!"
We wanted to see this video so we made a Freedom of Information request and the Town responded:
"Concerning your request for copies of recordings from the surveillance cameras at the Town mulch site on Beulah Road, there are no recordings to date."
We then asked if there were actually cameras at the site and the Town responded:
"Further response beyond that required under FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) would not be appropriate since the issue involves the security of Town facilities."
It did not stop there. The Town Attorney Steve Briglia took a combative and arrogant position last night when questioned at the Town Council meeting about this issue. He once again asserted the security issue of the mulch pile (think about saying that with a straight face).
Mulch Pile Reenactment
What's the overall point here? If the Town is willing to post a sign that is an outright lie, what else will they lie about? Think about it. Someone in Vienna Town government sat down and proposed placing a fake sign up about non-existent videotaping. Who thinks this is appropriate? Who thinks this smells right? If people lie about the small things, they lie about the big things.
March 27, 2006
The Mulch Pile Lawyers Up Comments (1)
We posted a comment recently about the video taping of the Vienna mulch pile. We then asked the Town for copies of the mulch videos. Simple Freedom of Information request right? By law the Town must hand over copies of the tapes. Not so fast! The Town Information Officer just informed us, in person, that the Town Attorney needs to be consulted first. Say what? Why not just hand the tapes over? Why does the mulch pile need legal counsel?
The Mulch Deserves Better Representation than Steve Briglia
March 24, 2006
Operation Mulch Surveillance Comments (0)
Why has the Town of Vienna installed a TV surveillance system to monitor and record their infamous mulch pile? Here is a picture of the warning sign posted to the mulch pile entrance in Vienna:
The Town Council refuses to broadcast their meetings on cable like all other jurisdictions in Fairfax County, but they broadcast "compost" instead? Amazingly, the Vienna Town Council was actually naive enough to propose a banning of the videotaping of public meetings by citizens. Well, at least we can all watch the Vienna Town Council compost pile on cable!
