All of Bishop Ireton High School skipped classes today for a good cause.

More than 700 students, teachers and administrators participated in a cleanup of 30 sites in and around Alexandria, including along the city’s waterfront, Holmes Run and Four Mile Run Park.

Sophomore Trevor Pickard spent four hours picking up trash along the Potomac River waterfront. He said he picked up a lot of plastic bottles, tennis balls, diapers, cigarette butts and a lot of disposable vaporizers.

“Obviously not going to school is nice, but it was good to help on our community and beautify these parks for the people in Alexandria,” Pickard said.

B.I.’s Head of School Kathleen McNutt said that the school’s theme this year has been about giving back, and that the cleanup will be repeated next year. The effort meant 25 buses full of students, as well as coordination with parks and churches in the city, Fairfax County and Arlington.

“We wanted to be able to go out into the community as an entire group,” MCNutt said. “We feel like we’ve accomplished that today.”

Senior Zoe Falcone said that the effort was a fun reminder to not litter.

“I think it’s important that everybody start thinking about that, because it’s like a communal area and a shared space,” she said.

Bishop Ireton’s cleanup included:

• Holmes Run
• Ben Brenman and Booth Parks
• The Old Town Waterfront (Windmill Hill Park, Point Lumley, The Marina, Oronoco Park)
• Fort Ward Park
• Four Mile Run Park
• Chinquapin Park
• Dora Kelly Nature Center
• Gil McCutcheon Park (Fairfax County)
• Franconia Recreation Center (Fairfax County)
• Rising Hope Mission Church
• St. Martin de Porres Senior Center
• Sunrise of Springfield (Fairfax County)
• Good Shepherd Parish (Fairfax County)
• Community Lodgings
• Alternative Paths Training School (Fairfax County)
• Arlington Cemetery Kitchen Gardens (Arlington County)

Incidentally, Alexandria’s Earth Day celebration is this Sunday.

There’s a basic underlying principle behind an event this weekend that’s applicable to all ages, from children to seniors: trucks are cool.

The city is bringing its vehicle fleet out to Chinquapin Park (3210 King Street) for Tons of Trucks 2023 on Saturday, Sept. 9, from 10 a.m.-1 p.m.

The event will give vehicle enthusiasts a chance to get behind the wheel of a fire truck, police car, DASH bus and more. Tons of Trucks also serves as a meet and greet for the people who work with those vehicles.

Tickets to attend are $5 per person.

https://twitter.com/AlexandriaVAGov/status/1698400487958098267

Taylor Run stream in pretty bad shape, but the City of Alexandria wants to revitalize it into a healthy stream rich with native vegetation.

“It’s in the design phase right now,” said Jesse Maines, division chief for Stormwater Management. Maines estimated the design was about halfway completed, but the department is still reaching out to local stakeholders and continuing internal discussions about the eventual design.

The stream starts near T.C. Williams High School and the Chinquapin Recreation Center, then runs parallel to King Street, eventually emptying into Cameron Run.

Maines said the stream has seen severe erosion over the years as new development has funneled ever-increasing amounts of stormwater through the ravine. There are places where the stream’s banks are a nearly 90-degree drop-off. Restoration of the stream will also help improve water quality to meet the Chesapeake Bay cleanup mandates, the city said on its website.

“We’re considering different kinds of techniques,” Maines said. “This isn’t your grandfather’s stream restoration. The main focus back in the day was just stabilizing everything, but now we [use] natural channel techniques. We want to use those techniques that allow vegetation to be established and hold the banks in.”

The new stream restoration efforts aim to make those banks gradual with native vegetation that slows the water and creates ecological stability. As a bonus, a slower stream with native vegetation could also help return more wildlife to the stream, starting with local macroinvertebrates — bugs, for the less scientifically inclined among us — that dwell in calmer pools of water.

Maines said the design for the project is estimated to be completed sometime around spring or summer this year, followed by a few months of paperwork and procurement, with construction activity starting late this year or the beginning of 2021. Once construction starts, Maines says it’s estimated to take about a year to complete.

After the work gets underway, Maines says the biggest impact the community is likely to see is more truck traffic along King Street near the high school. Construction hours are currently scheduled to be 7 a.m.-5 p.m. during the week, though that could change to 9 a.m. to minimize the impact of truck traffic on buses and other school traffic.

The total cost of the project is currently projected at $4.5 million, though this doesn’t include other features that could be incorporated during the design process. That funding is evenly split between a grant from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and matching funding from the city.

The City of Alexandria is scheduled to host a meeting discussing the Taylor Run Stream Restoration project next Thursday (Jan. 16) from 7:30-8:30 p.m. at Douglas MacArthur Elementary School. The meeting will include presentations from the Dept. of Project Implementation and Dept. Transportation and Environmental Services, the city said in a press release, with both departments available to field questions from the public.

Photos via City of Alexandria

Temporary Parking Change for Rec Center — “Due to the closure of Chinquapin Road, parking for Chinquapin Park Recreation Center and Aquatics Facility and Chinquapin Park is being redirected to the parking garage at T. C. Williams High School (3330 King St.) on Thursday, December 26. Chinquapin Park Recreation Center and Aquatics Facility is open until 9 p.m. on Thursday, December 26 and all programs will take place as scheduled.” [City of Alexandria]

Assault Investigation in Landmark Area — “The Alexandria Police Department is investigating a felonious assault in the unit block of South Reynolds Street. The victim was transported to a local hospital. Expect police activity in the area.” [Twitter]

Local Real Estate ‘Hits Pause’ in Nov. — “The number of sales in Alexandria dropped significantly from year-ago levels, down 25.8%, with the median selling price down 2.5% to $539,000.” [WTOP]

Alexandria Drug Dealer Sentenced — “An Alexandria man was sentenced in federal court to 20 years in prison for drug dealing that caused at least one overdose death. George Addae, 26, was sentenced for conspiring to distribute more than a kilogram of heroin related to heroin trafficking from 2016 to September 2018. Addae was also ordered to forfeit $100,000.” [Patch]