Elected Officials Honor Longtime Civic Activists Fromm and Slack

Longtime Del Ray Citizens Association members David Fromm and Amy Slack received a proclamation from Alexandria Mayor Bill Euille last week honoring their service to the community.

The husband-and-wife team is stepping down from their respective leadership positions with the DRCA at the end of the year to focus on issues important to them.

“It’s going to be very different not having their faces on a DRCA board,” DRCA President Bill Hendrickson said.

Fromm has served on the DRCA Executive Board since 1999, including a stretch as president. Slack has chaired the DRCA’s Land Use Committee for all but one year since 2000.

Euille praised the pair for their efforts to market and expand the neighborhood’s 22301 area code, which has grown to be one of the hottest zip codes in the country in terms of real estate. He also thanked them for their volunteer service and their attention to detail in analyzing things like special use permits applications.

“The truth is, the neighborhood has changed a lot over the last 20 years,” said Del. Rob Krupicka (D-45th), a former DRCA president. “It’s been a massive transformation in a lot of ways. And with everything that has happed, these two have been involved. … It takes an incredible amount of work and time to go over a special use permit. I know the work is not always appreciated, but we wouldn’t have the place we have today without them. … There are literally hundreds of things they can be proud of.”

Councilman-elect Justin Wilson, also a former DRCA president, said Fromm and Slack were a big help when he took the top spot with the citizens association by running him through somewhat of a boot camp on the neighborhood’s ins and outs.

In an attempt to quantify their service, Wilson searched the city’s website for mentions of the pair at public hearings. Slack appeared 109 times and Fromm 89 times. As a comparison, Wilson, who previously served on city council for two years, appeared 37 times.

“I think it gives you an idea of the impact of the service these two have been responsible for,” Wilson said.

Slack said the reason she got involved in the DRCA was because of .

Fromm said that while they were stepping down from leadership positions, he had Slack weren’t going away.

“One of the good things about not being in a leadership position is that you don’t have to be diplomatic,” he said.

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