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Last night, I attended the ANC 5B monthly meeting at the Washington Center for Aging Services, located at 2601 18th Street NE. The big news was an announcement regarding a sewage line break at the Arboretum. I’ll go into that further down.
(This was the first 5B meeting I have attended, after years of 5C meetings while I lived in Bloomingdale. The meeting moved very quickly (perhaps due to the fact that there was very little on the agenda), but it just felt like it was run better than the 5C meetings are.)
Anyway, the meeting was scheduled to begin at 7:30. It was gaveled to order at 7:45, with a few seconds for silent meditation immediately following.
It was determined that there was a quorum, with the following members in attendance:
- 5B01—William C. Shelton
- 5B04—Rayseen Woodland
- 5B05—Rosetta B. Davis
- 5B07—David L. Hooper
- 5B08—Tina Laskaris
- 5B09—Jacqueline Manning
- 5B12—Maude Ababio
(5B03 commissioner Regina James arrived 25 minutes later, near the end of the meeting)
The following commissioners were absent:
- 5B02—Patricia Brown-Daniels
- 5B06—Wilhelmina P. Lawson
- 5B10—India Henderson
- 5B11—William Myers
Approximately 9 people were in attendance in the audience, as well as Gottlieb Simon, the executive director of the city’s ANC office.
The agenda was approved unanimously.
Chair Shelton announced that the next ANC meeting (on December 3rd) will be held at Love nightclub in Ivy City. It will be brief, with a community awards ceremony followed by a holiday get-together. All the community is invited.
There was a presentation by Dr. Jerome Paulson (the medical director of national and global affairs) and Tessa Chubbs-White (from the advocacy and community affairs department) of Children’s National Medical Center. The discussed the benefits that the hospital provides to the neighborhood, the city, and the country. There is a report outlining this available on the hospital’s website (www.childrensnational.org, click on ‘advocacy’). They would love to receive feedback (email to communitybenefit@cnmc.org).
The big news of the night came next: commissioners Manning and Shelton discussed a broken sewer line in the National Arboretum. It turns out that this line broke 6 months ago, but there was no public notice, and it was leaking raw sewage directly into a tributary of the Anacostia River. WASA repaired the break, but another break occurred recently. Again, there was no public notice of this sewer line break.
The ANC will be calling a special meeting, asking members of the EPA, Department of the Environment, and the Department of Health to attend. The ANC wants soil sampling to be done to determine if the E. coli commonly associated with untreated sewage has posed a threat to the people and animals living in the surrounding community, specifically those living in the Arboretum neighborhood. Chair Shelton noted that the ANC learned about this from the feds, and not any city agency, and he’d like to know why the city agencies don’t seem to be sharing information about what’s happening here in the city with the citizens.
There was a brief discussion about turning the block of Evarts between 18th and 20th Streets to one-way operation in front of Langdon Elementary School. The commission will likely put their full support behind a petition to have this done. Speed humps might also be requested.
There was no public safety report from the Fifth Police District, since there was no 5D representative at the meeting.
The chair gave the treasurer’s report, since the treasurer was not in attendance. There are issues with unnecessary service charges on the ANC’s bank account, which is currently at Wachovia bank. The commission moved to study other banks to move the account to, since Wachovia isn’t considered trustworthy anymore. PNC, TD, SunTrust, and Bank of America were all brought up as possible places to move the account to.
The 4th quarter financial report was briefly discussed, and since there was no old or new business, the meeting was adjourned shortly before 8:30 pm.
12 comments:
"The meeting moved very quickly (perhaps due to the fact that there was very little on the agenda), but it just felt like it was run better than the 5C meetings are.)"
Or perhaps to the fact that nearly half the members weren't present or on time... but I guess that might give someone the "feeling" that it was run better.
I personally think it's interesting that the FIRST item seemingly on the agenda was to discuss having the NEXT meeting at a nightclub - holiday get together, the "community" is welcome - of course.
Maybe the city agencies aren't sharing info because they can't pay the cover charges (not to absolve the DC government from it's consistent lack of transparency and communication with the people - of course it's not ultimately responsible to us, just the 535 people who AREN'T residents of the District).
This could be why it seemed efficient:
The following commissioners were absent: ...5B10—India Henderson
Were she and Gepetto (http://bit.ly/4gweV7) both absent?
neither india nor kathy henderson were in attendance at this meeting.
Hey, "Raw Sewage" signs were posted on the bridges crossing the affected creek in the arboretum since the first break.
anon: yes, that was pointed out at the meeting, but there have been no notices given to those who live nearby. they would have to go into the arboretum and actively look for the signs. chances are, most residents don't check the streams every few days to see if they have warning signs on them or not.
It's quite reminiscent of the situation where the replacement of the gas lines along Neal Street included replacement of the connections to the houses - which in turn required digging in yards. None of which was communicated to residents.
Or the sudden decision to issue parking tickets to residents parking behind their homes in alleys.
While I would certainly advocate for full disclosure if there is a public health risk, I'm not sure that the Hickey Run sewer break counts as one. The break occurred on the Arboretum grounds. Signage warning of raw sewage contamination were placed at all access points on the Arboretum property. There are no residential properties between the Arboretum and the Anacostia River. As far as the Anacostia River is concerned, this type of shock is par for the course. DC's combined sewer system dumps millions of gallons of raw sewage into the river every time it rains.
I guess I don't understand why someone is mad for getting ticketed "in the alley" behind their house. I'm sorry, but if you're parking in the alley, and NOT on your property, you should be ticketed. The alley is not your property...it's DC's. You would be happy if someone you didn't know was parking in the alley behind your house, right? Are you upset because you live there?
yeah, the ticketing thing...
if you park in the alley, you should be ticketed. i can't tell you how many maryland and VA people park in our alley.
i hate those suburbanites.
i hope they get their cars stolen.
The issue is that people have been ticketed for parking non-DC tags on PRIVATE PROPERTY. That is not legal for DC to do.
oh. the poster just said parking in the alley. parking on private property is something else. however, parking non-DC tag cars on private property is another issue....that this DC resident is not registering their car in the district...the poster stated that it was his/her car, and behind their house....so shouldn't it have dc tags? it may seem small, but you're still cheating the city by not registering your car.
I've heard of cases where the VA/MD boyfriend/girlfriend gets tickets during overnight visits (the car stays parked there the next day). If you live in DC you should register your car here. If you live in MD/VA, not so much. If the car is parked on private property, the cops shouldn't be ticketing it.
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