What's the latest in waste and mismanagement by the Arlington Public School System? It's not what you might suspect, the multi-million dollar interior makeover of recently-constructed Yorktown High School, approved by the School Board last Thursday.
No, latest APS Taj Mahal project is the crosswalk under construction on South Abingdon Street near Abingdon elementary School, which is on-track to cost between $100,000 and $200,000 when completed sometime this Spring. Work has yet to commence on the raised portion of the crosswalk across South Abingdon Street, which may cost another $50,000, or more.
Neighborhood residents, who are still fuming over the number of use permit condition violations that were allowed to occur during Abingdon School's renovation and expansion, never wanted a Taj Mahal crosswalk, which will only be used an hour in the morning and in the afternoon, but wanted a crossing guard on Abingdon Street at 29th at the vehicle entrance to the school. Fairlington's NannyCrat civic association and Abingdon PTA didn't want parents to be slowed down dropping their kids off and picking them up at the school, so they decided to go with an extravagant crosswalk down the street instead.
Neither of Arlington's two news bloggers, Nanny Scott McCaffrey and Scott-the-Bro Brodbeck (both live close to Abingdon School) is going to write a word about this huge waste of money, so thanks in advance for running a feature and publishing a photo.
L.D. South 29th Street
