COMMUNITY UPDATE
By Commissioner J. Berry, ANC 5C
CSOSA Sponsors Fifth District CJAN Meeting on 11/29/2006:
The Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency for the District of Columbia cordially invites you to the Fifth District Community Justice Advisory Network (CJAN) meeting on Wednesday, November 29, 2006, from 7:00 p.m. until 8:30 p.m., at the CSOSA Field Office, located at 910 Rhode Island Avenue, N.E. The topic of discussion for the evening is “What CSOSA is doing to help fight crime?” Tours of this relatively new facility will take place from 7:00 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. For more information concerning the CJAN and to RSVP, please contact Alice Harper, Community Relations Specialist – 5D, at (202) 220-5320.
Mayor-Elect Fenty’s Ward Five Town Hall Meeting on 11/30/ 2006:
Mayor-Elect Adrian Fenty invites you to a Town Hall Meeting to talk about our future and the work of his Transition Team. The theme of this meeting is “From Ideas to Action.” The meeting will take place at the Joseph H. Cole Recreation Center Gymnasium, 1200 Morse Street, N.E. , this coming Thursday, November 30, 2006, commencing at 6:30 p.m. Mayor-Elect Fenty encourages you to come out to “Be Part of a Bright New Vision for a Brighter Future.” Ward Five Council Member-Elect Harry “Tommy” Thomas will also be on hand. For more information regarding this meeting and/or the Fenty Transition, please contact Joshua Lopez at (202) 478-9268. The Transition Team’s web address is www.fentytransition.org.
Daytime Residential Street Sweeping Suspended From 12/4/2006 to 3/ 31/ 2007:
Every winter, the Department of Public Works (DPW) temporarily suspends weekly, (signed) residential street cleaning. This year’s sweeper hiatus will start earlier than usual, on December 4, 2006, and will extend to March 31, 2007. This longer period will allow DPW to shift personnel sooner from street sweeping duties in order to focus on fall leaf collection, and will keep employees in place longer to cope with any late season snow removal. During this time, “no parking/street cleaning” restrictions will also be lifted. Residents and visitors who park along posted, alternate-side, daytime street sweeping routes will not be required to move their cars on street-cleaning days during the sweeper hiatus. Posted residential street cleaning resumes Monday, April 2, 2007.
Center City Action Agenda 2007 Stakeholders Meeting on 12/6/2006:
The DC Office of Planning, in conjunction with the Downtown Business Improvement District, is leading a planning process to develop a new action agenda for Washington ‘s center city. The purpose of this new agenda is to develop a list of key strategic initiatives that need to be implemented over the next 18-months in order to reach a new set of five-goals for the center city – an area stretching from Dupont Circle to the SE-SW Waterfront and from Foggy Bottom to Capitol Hill. A “Stakeholder’s Meeting” is scheduled to be held on Wednesday, December 6, 2006 at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre, Rehearsal Hall, 641 D Street, N.W. The meeting will take place between 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. As residents of the District of Columbia , we are all “stakeholders” in this important and fairly massive planning effort. For more information concerning the meeting and/or the Center City 2007 Action Agenda, please contact Kevin Brady at (202) 741-5241 or at Kevin.Brady @ dc.gov. Additional information re. the work of the planning group to date can be found on the DC Office of Planning’s web site, i.e., www.planning.dc.gov.
Last Call for Leaf Collection:
The DC Department of Public Works has been collecting leaves since November 6, 2006 and will continue to do so through January 6, 2007. Three options have been made available to us during this time. They are as follows:
1. Rake loose leaves into piles in your curbside tree box space. They will be collected with a vacuum truck;
2. Place bagged leaves in your curbside tree box space and they will be collected by a packer truck; or
3. Because we have alley trash collection, you may place bagged leaves where we put our trash and those leaves will be collected with the trash.
For our area of Ward Five (i.e., Area B), our final opportunity to get our leaves collected during the DPW’s regular scheduling of such services is rapidly approaching. Specifically, we are to rake leaves into the tree boxes closest to our homes by Sunday, December 10, 2006 and they will be collected by the either by the vacuum truck or, for bagged leaves, the trash truck, between December 11 and December 16, 2006.
The option of placing bagged leaves in the alley on trash collection day is always available as an alternative to the above two.
Tips from the DPW:
1. The DPW strongly encourages us to take advantage of the vacuuming option, as it is easiest for their trucks and it allows the leaves to be composted for reuse.
2. Rake leaves into a pile in the tree box in front of your property, not into the street. Leaves in the street create parking problems and fire hazards.
3. Rake leaves into tree box spaces by the Sunday prior to your areas scheduled collection.
4. Please — leaves only. No tree limbs, bricks, dirt, rocks, etc. They will damage the equipment and slow down collection.
5. Leaves from the rear of your property may be bagged and placed in the front tree box area or wherever your trash is normally collected.
6. DPW will vacuum leaves at least twice from each street during leaf season.
7. On the first pass, crews will focus on vacuuming tree box spaces and clearing potentially hazardous situations. A more thorough cleaning will occur on subsequent passes.
8. Keep catch basins clear of loose leaves and debris.
9. Neighborhood schedules have been developed based on past leaf falls but no two seasons are exactly the same. Please be patient.
10. If DC gets an early snowfall, scheduled service will be delayed. Leaf collection crews and trucks are also used to clear streets of snow.
Public Safety Coordinator Position Available for Northwest One Community:
The Perry School Community Services Center, Inc. is seeking a Public Safety Coordinator for the Northwest One Community, working under the supervision of the Northwest One Council to improve public safety and prevent and reduce crime in the Northwest One Community. Studies by the Urban Institute and D.C. Government in the mid-1980s revealed that the local community had high percentages of welfare dependency, unemployment, school dropouts, juvenile delinquency and single parent families and was considered clinically poor. Other poverty-related conditions exist. In response, the community created the Perry Center , the most comprehensive human services center in DC, with 10 autonomous but collaborating organizations providing a continuum of human services from prenatal care to elderly assistance. To address poverty and crime in this area and others in DC, the local government created the New Communities program and joined with the Northwest One Council — a consortium of tenant associations, churches, and community organizations — to create a mixed income community with human services. The salary of this position is $35,000 plus benefits. This position is funded by a grant from the DC Department of Housing and Community Development and, as such, continuation of the position is dependent upon the availability of continued funding. For more information about the position and/or to acquire an application, you may contact Jerry Coleman, Executive Director, Northwest One Council, at 128 M Street, N.W., Suite 15 , Washington , DC 2001 or you may email him at jerrylcoleman@aol.com. The deadline for the submission of applications for this position is Friday, December 8, 2006.