The rocks are being removed from Roundtree
The rocks on the soccer field at Roundtree Park were put there by the Park Authority by “mistake,” says Rick Healy, the Mason District representative on the Park Authority Board.
At least 100 rocks were placed throughout the field on Dec. 30 and 31.
“FCPA staff has informed me that this action was a mistake and should not have happened,” Healy said. “The rocks will be removed as soon as possible. This was an unfortunate incident, and I am glad it is being quickly corrected.” He hadn’t known about the rocks until he was contacted by several residents.
Park Authority spokesperson Andrew Grabel confirmed in an email that the rocks weren’t supposed to be there.
Related story: Rocks appear on field at Roundtree Park
“The fields at Roundtree Park were taken out of service in 2018 due to low or unpermitted use and their proximity to the Resource Protection Area,” Grabel said. “In recent years, however, the area has been increasingly used by community members for informal social and recreational gatherings.”
“Recently, an FCPA staff member chose to place boulders in the field to discourage unpermitted mowing,” he said. “After a supervisor and agency leaders learned of this change, they decided to remove the boulders. The boulders are being taken out today.”
He said the employee responsible for having the rocks dumped on the field acted alone and that the Park Authority is reinforcing its policies to prevent something like this from happening again.
When the field was taken out of service eight years ago, the Park Authority stopped maintaining it, Grabel explained. People began privately mowing the field so they could play informal soccer games. The FCPA wants the field to become a meadow.
It’s an honest mistake coming from Queen Bee Cole to have workers put hundreds of rocks on a soccer field. That lady needs to go and needs accountability for her stupidity. Talk about a box of rocks!
I’m glad that the rocks are being taken out, not thrilled at the waste of time and taxpayer money (who do we bill / garnish pay?). More troubling is the park authority mentality, in the story, said they want the field to be a meadow. This is environmentalism run amok instead of thoughtful use for land and needs which is more like stewardship/ conservation. Any indication that our Mason Supervisor did anything to fix, or did Ricky belatedly figure it out and act?
Maybe the idiot in charge of FCPA can add some more trash cans and actually help solve the trash problems. Although it seems the head of FCPA is the real trash that needs to be taken out. Is she going to put back the backstop and benches, or does that promote healthy outdoor activity, which is discouraged by FCPA and the moron in charge? The trash needs to go. Who do we write to find out who makes these absolutely idiotic decisions?
The real mistake was giving Jai Cole any kind of power.
I’m glad that this wrong was righted immediately. How do you accidentally put 100 boulders on a soccer field? Poor leadership, idiotic decisions. At least this one didn’t hurt the community like Cole’s last big run-in with our community. How do we get rid of her, or at least limit her power and her ability to waste taxpayer funds?
What needlessly nasty commentsfrom “100 boulders” and others. Read the article. Obviously Cole had nothing to do with the decision which was quickly reversed.
Is the same person posting all of these stupid comments?
The trashcan on that field routinely generates hundreds of empty beer bottles per week by the way. So we can identify at least one of the most popular uses of Roundtree Park.
“Obviously Cole had nothing to do with the decision.” Haha good one.
If there are beer bottles, how about the police do some enforcement??
Oh that’s right, the same people who hired Jai Cole, hired Kevin Davis, so our policing is about as useless as our park authority.
Where is this trash can? I walk my dog almost every day and see no trash can, let alone a trash can with hundreds of empty beer bottles. There is definitely not a trash can on the field in question.
Are you telling stories?
Quoting from the article:
“Recently, an FCPA staff member chose to place boulders in the field to discourage unpermitted mowing,” he said. “After a supervisor and agency leaders learned of this change, they decided to remove the boulders. The boulders are being taken out today.”
This seems incredibly suspicious. This unnamed staffer was worried about unpermitted mowing? Really? The same mowing that costs companies money to perform? I highly, highly doubt that was the actual reason.
We need an investigation into the real reason and an appropriate review of:
1. how this was allowed to happen, 2. why a clearly ridiculous explanation was deemed acceptable by the people placing the rocks, 3. what, if any, disciplinary action has been taken against the person who decided this, and 4. what has been done to prevent something like this from happening in the future.
I think a lot of people are very angry about the parks department right now and are not inclined to trust them after they’ve now closed two separate public spaces for extremely farcical reasons. This kind of review would help restore public trust.
Hey, I misplaced about 100 large boulders has anyone seen them?
This was truckloads of big rocks, and it took adult men a few days to place them in the field. How was this an accident? Or is it someone trying to save face after making the dumbest decision possible?
Incompetency at its finest! There are so many strange news stories going around that it’s hard to know what is fact or fiction. I wish this were made up, but I am afraid it is just more waste and incompetent people in charge of things they shouldn’t be.
A mistake my heinie. It was done on purpose to prevent people playing soccer there. The previous article clearly states “A worker told the dogwalker it’s a Park Authority project to prevent people from using the soccer field. He said the reason is because the players were leaving too much trash behind.”
“Recently, an FCPA staff member chose to place boulders in the field to discourage unpermitted mowing,” [Park Authority spokesperson Andrew Grabel] said. “After a supervisor and agency leaders learned of this change, they decided to remove the boulders. The boulders are being taken out today.”
That does not describe a “mistake.” That describes an intentional decision that was reversed amid public outcry.
I took ‘mistake’ to mean that it was an intentional decision by one FCPA employee to solve one problem that (obviously) caused another, bigger one. Once the higher ups got involved, they reversed the decision within 24 hours. Which you can either view as proof that the FCPA is nefarious, or confirmation that, hooray, they listened. As for what a park maintenance employee (or contractor?) and a dog walker talked about in a side conversation, that’s best handled as a question worth verifying through FCPA before printing it in a widely read and respected blog. Since there is no major trash problem on that field (trust me – I’m always picking up trash in the park as part of my volunteer work, and it’s a problem around the picnic & parking lot area and the wooded area between the parking lot and the stream, but not all the way over in the back field), there’s a good chance the worker was assuming.
Our experience with fields being left to become “Meadows,” is that they get overrun with invasives and are totally unusable, an eyesore, and an ecological disaster! Just look at the end of Valley Crest!
I think that is precisely what they want.
Also, calling the additional lie about a “meadow”. They’ve not attempted any native plantings; it’s just domestic grass. Plus, meadows need to be actively maintained with more specialized labor than mowing or they simply turn into thickets choked with invasive vines. See, for example, the meadow that used to be across the stream and they let turn into a mess of creeping porcelain berries over the past decade.
I agree with others. How do we hold someone accountable for such waste and stupidity? The answer given is insufficient. Are we supposed to believe the rocks mistakenly put in the field? Anyone who knows who is running FCPA knows this is her style, lazy, thoughtless and devoid of the best interest of the community. Where do we get honest answers and accountability? It doesn’t seem to exist within FCPA. The story should just be beginning, not swept under the rug. Our community deserves better, and FCPA should be held accountable for its actions that continue to undermine its supposed mission.
Where is the accountability? How much money was spent on placing and then removing the rocks? What a waste of resources.
This reeks of Jai Cole. I would put money on her being the mastermind behind this stupidity.
Were these rocks purchased? How much money was spent on them? What kind if equipment did it take to move and place them? This was a planned project that should have been approved by proper channels.
These are excellent questions. Who do we contact to get answers?
Keep voting for Democrats –
Everyone really ought to share this story far and wide, and for a couple of very important reasons. First, taxpayers deserve to know who made this decision. There’s a lot of speculation, but no clear accountability, and that’s simply not acceptable. Second, this decision is so unbelievably misguided that it deserves to be brought into the light. Common sense seems to have gone missing here, and the public has every right to ask how something like this was allowed to happen.
Maybe some park authority workers were in trouble and the punishment their boss came up with was having to fill a field with rocks for two days and then once the rocks had time to settle in they had to remove them and face public ridicule.
I lived next to this park for over a decade, before and after the fields were closed. The soccer players never caused any problems, aside from amplified music now and then, which is against the rules. They apparently are so eager to play soccer that they are willing to go and mow the field themselves.
There also was a small but vocal group of neighbors who complained about trash, parking, and anything else they could think of because they didn’t like seeing a lot of Latinos in “their” park.
I never heard about any process of seeking public input before they closed the fields. If they had done so, in a multilingual way, I think they would have found that there’s a huge demand for more soccer fields in Mason District, both for the youth leagues and for adults who enjoy playing the sport. Many times, my kid’s ABGC team could not find a place to practice.
It’s not too late to start over and do this right. Rather than arbitrarily deciding that the field should become a meadow (which in practice meant letting it get overgrown with non-native weeds), they should ask the community what it wants from this park.
I highly value natural spaces and have walked all over Roundtree and the adjacent parks. There is plenty of wonderful nature there, and it should be preserved, but there should also be space for people to play games they enjoy.
I like this and agree with this. How about public input on what should be done at the park!
Jai Cole made another boo boo.
Imagine the stuff we don’t hear about.
Andres Jimenez and Jai Cole are the worst local leaders I’ve ever seen. How is it possible to screw up such easy jobs?
Just fill potholes, pick up leaves and garbage, support police, and maintain parks. We give you an ample budget to do so. Quit trying to think for yourselves because you are incompetent.
No more giant art projects, signage changes, culture hubs, tennis security guards, and boulder plopping.
What a crazy place this County is!!!
I rebuilt my house after living here since 1987, and it was a Ridiculous nightmare! AND I’m a licensed Professional Engineer.
If I owned that field and wanted to purchase and install those rocks, 🪨 it would probably cost $20,000.
Forget about all the permits and fees.
Probably more than that to dispose of them … in this crazy county.
Who do we contact to discover who was behind this decision? Anyone who does something this idiotic shouldn’t be able to make decisions on how to spend taxpayer money. We need accountability.
Good to know FCPA has a collection of 100 large rocks to put in any field they don’t care for.
DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO
If I placed these rocks on property I owned, the “All-Powerful” County would surely require me to trench around the entire perimeter at least 12” deep and install silt fence first.
Silt fence installation and removal cost?
1,200 feet x $30/ foot = $36,000.
I would argue that I won’t disturb any earth, and they would surely disagree.
Silt fence would also be required for the stone removal operation. So, another $36,000.
It takes at least six months to get a Special Permit. Many people start the process, but very, very few finish it.
That’s why saying this was an accident is ridiculous! Someone didn’t accidentally put rocks/boulders in the field, which, as you pointed out, is expensive and requires forethought. This is someone trying to cover up their bad decision.
It’s great news that this rock-sabotage of a community-use field was remedied.
That should be the opening salvo of an initiative to make playing fields accessible and welcoming to groups of families, youth-only players, impromptu players and others who are today marginalized and discriminated against by Fairfax County..
I see numerous references to accountability in the comments here. A foundational problem is the governance of our park system by an Authority. Every where else in Virginia, parks and recreation are part of the local government, which means our elected officials are responsible.
We need a board of supervisors willing to improve our parks starting with reclaiming them as part of regular county government.
This is a great solution! In the meantime, Jai Cole needs to have the board approve her dumb decisions before she acts on them. This is not the first time she has tried to take something away from the community, and the board members were unaware of her actions until the community brought it to their attention. She is awful, but so is the structure of FCPA. It’s sad that Cole has been able to negatively impact our community, but I’m glad the rocks didn’t last.
You don’t close a park without the local supervisor (Jimenez) and his park commissioner (Healy) knowing about it, there were complicit. And shame on the leaders for throwing a staff member under the bus.
In most cases, this is true, but Jai Cole is known to act as a dictator. We learned this the hard way. Jimenez is useless standing up to her and her stupidity, but she can, in fact, close whatever she wants without checks and balances; it’s outrageous. (Although after her last ego-driven crusade against our community, we were told that her powers were being limited). I wouldn’t leave her in charge of watching my grass, let alone an entire park system.
This is what our property and food taxes are buying:
“Jai Cole E in 2024 was employed at Fairfax County and had an annual salary of $250,094, according to public records. This salary was 163 percent higher than the average and 180 percent higher than the median salary in Fairfax County. ”
This site has Fairfax County salary data:
https://govsalaries.com/salaries/VA/fairfax-county
Disgusting! She’s not worth a fraction of that. The fact that she is being paid an exorbitant amount of money to make Fairfax County worse than she found it is an abomination. She needs to go. The pickleball fiasco, complete with bodyguards, and the rocks should be deducted from her paycheck. I’m sure she’s done other ridiculous things; we are just a small fraction of Fairfax County, let’s have her pay for some of her stupidity and wasteful decisions!
Yall are dumb if you think Jai Cole has nothing better to do than think about ways to get people to stop using a meadow. All removing the rocks shows is that people can do whatever you want on county land if you complain to the news about it.
You must not know Ms. Cole. Talk to some of her colleagues, they’ll tell you she is one of the pettiest people on the planet. Removing the rocks show that taxpayers and communities have a voice in how public land is used. It also shows that Annandale is an engaged community who cares.
Your comment is incomprehensible.
Sounds like an employee took a creative approach to stopping people from using a field thats been closed for 8 years and then when it got on the news someone in management panicked.
Creative my biscuits! A thoughtless and wasteful response is more like it and one that was remedied when management was called out on their stupidity. If you want a creative response they are many engaged citizens who can offer up ideas. Filling a field with rocks is idiotic and dangerous.
Seems like the more appropriate response would’ve been to keep the field, that’s actively being maintained and used by the community, open, but to each their own.
Just so everyone knows the next county board meeting is at 9:30 am on Tuesday January 13th. It would probably be a good idea for someone (ANYONE) to go and ask these questions to the board.
Of course with it being at 9:30 am on a work day I’m not sure how anyone could actually be expected to go. Almost like they’re designing it to only have cranks show up so they can dismiss public comment/concern.
The park board meets at night. Why not tell the Park Board what you really think at their next meeting. https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/board/public-comment
FCPA: please advise when we should expect disclosure of the cost of this rock “incident”.
One can imagine how much of the County’s 2026 budget shortfall and forecasted 2027 shortfall is due to waste and poor decisions such as this and the unnecessary 2nd sidewalk on Peace Valley.
Don’t forget the tennis court bouncers!
Kim Eckert is the Division Director for Fairfax County Park Operations. Their policy is that no new athletic fields will be created at any park in Fairfax County. The rock placers were just doing their job in enforcing this policy.
1) The field is already there
2) Adding a garbage can is not a violation of that policy
3) Why is that a policy?
3a) How about if they remove 5 fields and create 1, thereby saving money and better serving the community… is that a policy violation?
3b) Sounds like a dumb policy
4) Instead of rocks, next time, maybe install a moat with snapping turtles 🐢
5) There are now big holes in the field, perfect for breaking an ankle
5a) Is creating unsafe conditions with boulders and holes that expose the county to liability in line with the policy?