Police Report. Lt. Johnson reported that only six crimes were recorded in the past 30 days. Three were thefts and three were thefts from auto. Of the three thefts from auto, one was an unlocked vehicle. Lt. Johnson urged people to lock their vehicles and not keep anything valuable in them. Commissioner Howie asked about the reopening of Glover Park Tobacco. Lt. Johnson was under the impression that ABCA permanently closed it. Commissioner Lane said that they had paid a $5k fine and re-opened a couple of weeks ago.
Review and Vote on Grant Request for Glover Park Day 2026. Alexandria Trager, co-chair for Glover Park Day 2026, gave an overview of Glover Park Day and it’s history. She said that the grant request for $5k was to cover part of the cost of the chairs, tables and chairs (total cost is just over $8,200). Commissioner Lane recused from the vote as she is also a co-chair of GPD 2026. Commissioner Turmail made a motion to approve the grants. It was seconded and passed 4-0.
Discussion and Resolution on Request for Installation of a Public “Throne” Restroom on the Grounds of Guy Mason Recreation Center. Jeff Russell, President of the Friends of Guy Mason, said that DC’s Public Restroom Pilot program has successfully installed public restrooms in several DC neighborhoods. The program has proven to be successful in reducing health and sanitation challenges by increasing accessibility for families, seniors and others to clean and safe public restrooms. Guy Mason Recreation Center is a popular public facility with programming for children, adults and senior adults, a well-used playground, a regulation baseball field and a popular dog park. The facility is not open in the morning, on weekends, or after 8 pm on weekdays so there are no public restrooms available during those times. When the center is open, access to restrooms for those with mobility challenges is via an external elevator that must be unlocked by Center staff to use it. Installing a Public “Throne” Restroom on the GMRC grounds would always give accessibility to bathroom facilities. Commissioner Lane introduced a resolution supporting installing a public restroom at Guy Mason. It was seconded and passed unanimously.
Briefing on Potomac Spill from Hedrick Belin, President of Potomac Conservancy. Mr. Belin said that his organization is the region’s leading clean water advocate and they work with many local, state and national partners to deliver meaningful clean water results. His organization is closely monitoring the aftermath of the catastrophic failure of a six-foot wide sewage pipe in the Potomac near the American Legion Bridge on January 19th. While DC Water did an amazing job of designing an emergency bypass and the crews worked tirelessly to implement the bypass and contain the sewage by diverting it to the C&O Canal, hundreds of millions of gallons of raw sewage ran downhill into the Potomac for 5 days. By mid-March, all the sewage was contained back in the pipe but there was still major ecological harm and significant ramifications that need to be resolved and mitigated. The Conservancy is calling on DC Water to continue water quality testing and monitoring downstream from the spill to National Harbor, setting up an independent, third-party investigation into the root causes of the collapse and developing and implementing a long-term plan for mitigation and repair. Mr. Belin did say that we were fortunate in one regard in that the collapse was downstream of the drinking water intakes which supply DC and parts of Virginia and Maryland.
Updates and Information
- Che Demczuk, the new Ward 3 representative from the Mayor’s Office of Community Relations and Services (MOCRS) reminded everyone to sign up for the Mayor’s Annual Spring Clean-Up Hosted at Guy Mason Recreation Center on Saturday, April 25th at 10 am and to bring equipment if possible. He also reminded everyone of the Mayor’s Bi-Annual Roll Off Day at Guy Mason Recreation Center on Saturday, May 9.
- Laura Gonzalez and Rose Carrillo from the Office of Human Rights Language Access Program gave a brief overview of their programs. April is Language Access Awareness month. On April 22nd, they will be hosting language access office hours at the Cleveland Park library from 10 am to 12 pm and on April 23rd, they will hold an information session at CentroNia Resource Resource Tabling Fair at 1420 Columbia Road from 4 pm-6 pm. Ms. Gonzalez said that if an ANC requires translation services in Amharic, French, Spanish, Korean Vietnamese or Chinese, that those services are available through OHR and can be reimbursed. Their e-mails laura.gonzalez@dc.gov and rose.carrillo3@dc.gov for anyone with questions. The OHR website is https://ohr.dc.gov/page/resources-advisory-neighborhood-commissions-ancs.