<b>Woman Killed By Garbage Truck</b>
Police say an Arlington woman was killed Monday, June 17, when she was accidentally struck by a garbage truck in a parking lot in the 2000 block of South Eads Street.
Eleonore Dmitrieff, 95, was struck while the truck was backing up after collecting trash from an apartment complex, police reported.
The driver was apparently unaware that he had hit Dmitrieff, and continued on his route. When he was contacted by his employer, however, police said he returned to the scene and cooperated with their investigation.
Police did not release the identity of the driver. No charges have been filed at this time, and the investigation is continuing.
<b>Police Arrest Abduction Suspect</b>
On Tuesday, June 18, Arlington police released the identity of a Washington man arrested and charged with abduction and attempted robbery, stemming from an incident last weekend. Antonio L. Perry-el, 26, was arrested after the victim escaped her attacker and telephoned police.
Police were contacted on Friday, June 14, by the victim, a 13-year-old girl. She said that afternoon a strange man had approached her in a park near the 2300 block of 11th Street North. The girl told police that the man dragged her to another part of the park and demanded money from her. She struggled free and ran to a nearby home, where she called police, the girl said.
Officers responding to the call found Perry-el about two minutes after the girl’s call, and took him into custody after a short pursuit on foot. Police said that when they arrested him, Perry-el was also carrying a knife. He has been charged with abduction and attempted robbery; additional charges are being investigated and may be filed at a later date.
<b>Board Won’t Cut CIP</b>
Arlington’s County Board is set to vote this Saturday on a proposed capital spending plan covering the next six years, and board members say they will make next to no cuts to County Manager Ron Carlee’s proposal.
Instead, board members said, they would probably pass most of Carlee’s Capital Improvement Plan as they got it, including a proposed $156.2 million bond referendum for this November’s ballot.
That sets the county government apart from Arlington’s School Board members, who trimmed $5.3 million from Superintendent Robert Smith’s proposed school CIP before approving it at the beginning of June.
But there is little need for such trimming at the county level. "This is not a zero sum game," said Chris Zimmerman, County Board Chair.
School board members had to consider a CIP that put the brunt of expenses on the first of six years, he said, and then fell off steeply in projections for the 2004 and 2006 bonds.
"In our case, the manager’s proposal is not as large, and not shifted toward the current biennium," he said.
Still, Zimmerman said, the board had to consider how to maintain Arlington’s triple-triple-A bond rating when looking at the CIP. Critics have said that the amount of debt included in CIP projections will endanger the county’s high rating.
But it made more sense to spend bond money in order to maintain those ratings, said County Board member Barbara Favola. "I know some people are saying the numbers are large," she said. "But the bond raters say they look at two numbers: the community’s need, and the community’s ability to pay."
Therefore it makes sense, she said, to pay for renovations to county infrastructure earlier than later. "If we put it off, it can impede the quality of education, and the quality of community life," she said, endangering bond ratings and possibly increasing construction costs through delays.