3c 236: Radio source, interrupted?

We present new Hubble Space Telescope Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph MAMA near-UV images and archival Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) V - and R-band images that reveal the presence of four star-forming regions in an arc along the edge of the dust lane in the giant (4 Mpc) radio galaxy 3C 236. Two of the star-forming regions are relatively young, with ages of or der similar to 10(7) yr, while the other two are older, with ages of order similar to 10(8)-10(9) yr, which is comparable to the estimated age of the giant radio source. Based on dynamical and spectral aging arguments, we sug gest that the fuel supply to the active galactic nucleus (AGN) was interrup ted for similar to 10(7) yr and has now been restored, resulting in the for mation of the inner 2 kpc-scale radio source. This timescale is similar to that of the age of the youngest of the star-forming regions. We suggest tha t the transport of gas in the disk is nonsteady and that this produces the multiple episodes of star formation in the disk, as well as the multiple ep ochs of radio source activity. If the inner radio source and the youngest s tar-forming region are related by the same event of gas transport, the gas must be transported from the hundreds of parsec scale to the subparsec scal e on a timescale of similar to 10(7) yr, which is similar to the dynamical timescale of the gas on the hundreds of parsec scale.