Last year a billiard parlor at George Mason Drive and Columbia Pike began aggressively pursuing a liquor license. The establishment has been a constant source of problems over several years. There have been three murders there and the police have records of 47 incidents since 1995 involving their customers. Neighboring civic associations had been unable have it closed. It seemed that adding alcohol to the already volatile mix there was a prescription for disaster. But the surrounding neighborhoods were discouraged by recent cases where the Virginia ABC Board had been unresponsive to neighborhood protests, and they were slow to react to the threat.

Enter our honoree, Rebecca Krafft of Douglas Park, the Arlingtonian who made a difference. She rousted out the three civic associations bordering Hi Cue, organized meetings to get the protest effort off the ground and enlisted an exceptionally talented lawyer from Douglas Park, Mr. Lane Nemirow, whose thorough legal research built a strong case. Joining in the effort were Chris Zimmerman of the Arlington County Board, Delegates Al Eisenberg and Adam Ebbin, and the Arlington County Police Department, who testified convincingly to the problems at the establishment. And in a unique and unprecedented appearance the Arlington County Attorney, Mr. Stephen MacIsaac, joined in with Mr. Nemirow at the hearing last July to assist in representing the citizens' case. The ABC Board turned down the application for a liquor license.

In a sense this award recognizes the contribution of all of those I have named, many of whom are here tonight, but we wanted to give special recognition to the sparkplug who got the process moving, that essential first step, and for that tonight the Civic Federation is presenting this certificate to Ms. Rebecca Krafft of Douglas Park.

This page was last revised on: March 2, 2006.