ECA minutes - December 2018
~36 attendees
- Councilmember McDuffie’s office - Silas Grant
- Providence Hospital - DC hospital association ruled that Providence would have to stay open at least through April 2019. 10-15 beds in ER available. Low-level acute services available until that point. Between now and then, more conrete decisions about what will take place. Maybe some kind of “health campus” but no detailed plans yet.
- Councilmember lead the way with gtting rid of trash transfer station on W street. For a long time, Ward 5 has been where lots of industrial stuff takes place (60-70% of industrial buildings in whole city). Ward is dumping ground - fought to remove trash transfer station. On a temporary basis, Mayor will allow storage space for a number of agences (Dept of Gen Services, Dept of Parks & Rec, others). Won’t have waste, smell, toxic stuff in ward anymore.
- Lots of discussion about transitional housing facility on NY Ave; ANC 5C a few weeks ago - residents expressed apprehension about transitional housing coming to the ward. Our issue with aplication was that there’s a mandate for community input; this applicant has twice applied for locations in the ward w/out getting community input. We’re submitting eltter to fed bureau of prisons about lack of input, other concerns rainsed by residents.
- Question: Providence - heard that keeping it open is just an urgent care center; vital emergency services aren’t really available. What is being done to address that?
- Not sure which acute services will or won’t remain; info is there, i just don’t have it. There willl be opportunities for people to go to the emergency room. But if employees decide to leave, that raises a challenge about staffing that we can’t control. Best thing we can do is communicate there is a chance that staff will continue to leave. We can put that out, and people can choose whether they go there or to another emergency center. We’ve been in touch with the union; didn’t hear that shift issue was happening.
- Question (Comm Pinckney) - is the trash transfer station closing permanently, or is there another site?
- It’s closing permanently in Ward 5. I don’t imagine there will be another one in the city.
- Q - Comm Pinkney - has Mayor Bowser signed short term rental regulations?
- Not certain that she signed it yet.
- Q - providence - is it just emergency room, or is it also a doctors’ office?
- There is a component that remains for regular visits with doctors that are outside of the emergency process. Biggest part of closure was acute services.
- Q - people calling community to get a sense of interest in service
- Silas: 202-957-5498; email shgrant@dccouncil.us
- Katrina - congratulates new ANC Commissioners (Comm Pinckney re-elected, Comm Courtney newly elected)
- Stacie West - NoMa & Robin Eaves Jasper, folks from Forrester Construction - Tanner Park
- Selected 4 names, sent surveys to people; Tanner Park won by a landslide
- Named for Alethia Tanner
- Born in late 1780s, enslaved in PG County; have heard from descendents of Ms Tanner.
- Ran a produce stand in Lafayette Park; saved $1400 to buy her freedom, and then saved money to buy freedom for almost 20 relatives and neighbors
- Helped start first school for “colored” children in DC, also helped launch churches
- Still fairly close to early design
- More space for lawn, bigger dog park, based on feedback
- Playground, connection to MBT, cafe, storage, restroom, picnic tables, bike storage, seating
- Lots of trees for shade
- Lawn - sloped slightly - not for sports field, armature for screen for summer movie nights, stage for performances
- Fito-remediation (sp?) space - trying to clean up soil using native plants, provides color throughout the year
- Corner - softened MBT turn, dog park in corner
- Mural wall redone every year will be visible from park
- Question - what’s happening w/ big building?
- Foulger Pratt - apartment building, will have ground-level retail.
- At corner of HT Way, planning a cafe
- Along MBT, row of 2-story live-work units that will be adjacent to park, want artists in there, and for units to serve as studios that open onto park (like artwalk in Brookland)
- Construction - Ben Heath, Forrester construction
- Either project manager or assistant project manager will be on site every day
- Company based out of Rockville; been around for 30 years. Forester tries to establish connection with mission/community for project - do a lot with churches, schools, embassies; connect with mission of group while we’re building project. Park like this in community like yours is a perfect opportunity. Sometimes works with local high schools to teach them about construction.
- Regional country - past projects include Smithsonian Zoo - seal pond, World War I memorial, Shaw library
- Construction schedule
- Currently in permitting phase
- Anticipate start in January 2019
- Anticipate construction duration for 10-12 months
- Construction entrance off of Harry Thomas way, secondary entrance for R st - primarily for dog park area, also for bad weather
- During part of construction, MBT gets reroute - z-curve softened, rest of it gets new surfacing. Temporary trail will run around outside of property, reconnect on R st. That requires coordination with Washington Area Bicycle Association, will have plenty of signage, temporary lighting, temporary barriers for MBT use. Flaggers at entrances.
- Foulger Pratt will have an entrance on HT Way, both will have flaggers so users of trail are safe.
- Probably about 5 months for trail rerouting, with goal to get that part of trail finished & reconnected, probably before the rest of the park is done
- Q (from Silas - Councilmember McDuffie) - GW has project course where they teach children about construction & design, will share info
- Q (from Katrina) - is there phases, or will we have to wait until all done?
- Other than MBT, it’s not a phased project, will not be open until it’s done
- Q - Permitting phase has taken a while; what’s holding it up?
- I think the process - there’s about 10 permits for either location, type of work, different utilities, MBT, public space, etc. so coordination of those and development of design has been the biggest challenge
- Stacie - but it hasn’t seemed excessively longer than other projects
- Q - Edward Russell, DCist - other parks have had delays; how do we know that tanner Park won’t take more than 10-12 months,
- Stacie - some of the differences between this and Swampoodle - size, Forrester can work on multiple areas at once. At Swampoodle, we weren’t the only ones trying to hook into utilities at the same time (competing w/ utility companies themselves). Won’t have to be so tightly phased on this one. Can have more construction activities at once. This seems more favorable because of nature of construction.
- Not a lot that can impact other than weather and unforeseen conditions in soil (dump site for a while). Don’t anticipate extensive delays once we get going.
- Could still be unforeseen circumstances
- Q - what are you doing for environmental remediation so it’s safe?
- Tested site extensively; nothing creepy. Not a toxic dumpsite - was used for charred junk from the rail lines. Hydrocarbons - very stable, don’t go in the air. Intensively bonded to the soil; we’re pulling out 2’ of soil, testing every shovel full, plan for all of it to go. And putting 2’ deep clean soil cap on whole site. Planting some special plants that have capacity to clean soil - have been used at places like Ford plants.
- Q- explain bike lane closure -
- new paved connector from existing MBT up to Harry Thomas Way, up to R st, and back down to MBT.
- Motion to suspend bylaw of 90 day membership requirement
- In favor: 14-15
- Opposed: 3
- Abstain: 1
- President: Conor Shaw
- Vice President: Arlene Johnson
- Treasurer: Neil Shah
- Recording Secretary: Steffani Jiroux