Neighborhood Notes - Foxhall: 26 April, 2000
Thanks to At-Large Councilor Phil
Mendelson doing his homework, and the persistence of Current Staff Writer Elizabeth
Wiener, they have exposed DC Parks & Recreation's
hasty "one size fits all" approach to playgrounds.
This had been initiated prior to new DCPR Director Robert Newman arriving on the scene,
with many but not all centers with pre-school programs qualifying for "Head
Start" funding to replace equipment. Here in our corner of Northwest, we have no
programs with children who qualify for HeadStart, but were caught up in the same "rip out all
the bad equipment". To make matters worse, playgrounds, like Hardy and Forest Hills,
had parent-constructed equipment
that was demolished. True, there
were often un-maintained timbers that were dried-out and spilt that did need replacing,
but surely maintenance is cheaper than total replacement!
It now looks promising that DCPR will put new equipment in place, but any capital money
spent on this unplanned effort could impact other planned spending. For Hardy Field, we
are no longer as sure that we will see the budgeted Soccer/Softball field upgrades as
presented by DCRP to ANC2E last
October. In part this might be because Robert Newman shuffled his management team
early this year. Connie Haines has moved from Maintenance on to Capital Projects to take
the place of Mike Williams; Diane Quinn was moved from Planning into Maintenance. One
direct consequence is that the "Friends Of…"
groups effectively lost Diane as a central point of contact, and saw instead the
announcement of new coordinating groups. However, since the budget hearings, Director
Newman has written a "Directly Speaking" letter to the heads of "Friends
Of…" groups, acknowledging the need to communicate better, and to make use of
established groups as the willing partners we have always been.
© Bob Andrew, Foxhall
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