Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Serving Burleith, Foxhall, Georgetown, Georgetown Reservoir & Glover Park
Vol. XX, No. 30
THE GEORGETOWN CURRENT Pepco, PSC take heat for outages
City to seek new bids for contract at Jelleff
TEA TIME
■ Recreation: Attorneys aim
By BRADY HOLT
to fix issues raised by protest
Current Staff Writer
After a storm leaves large sections of the District without electricity, it is routine for Pepco to come before the D.C. Public Service Commission to explain how it will prevent the problem from recurring. It is also routine, Ward 3 D.C. Council member Mary Cheh said, for the utility to make the same promises while failing to improve the reliability of its system. “The recommendations that they’re offering and the promises that they made, they’re the same, and the problems recur,” Cheh said at a Friday evening roundtable held by the council’s Committee on Public Services and Consumer Affairs. The hearing was called to discuss Pepco’s performance during the Jan. 26 “thundersnow,” which left about 32,000 District customers without power, some for more than three days. During the roughly six-hour hearing, Cheh called on the Public Service Commission to set tough standards for Pepco’s service reliability and to fine the company for poor performance — and sharply criticized the commission for not See Pepco/Page 23
By CAROL BUCKLEY Current Staff Writer
The city’s lead attorney has signaled that D.C. will cancel the final four years of a five-year contract that would have paid the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington more than $2 million total to run Georgetown’s Jelleff Recreation Center. The decision, termed “corrective action” in a letter from the D.C.
Residents mull actions on Glover Park parking ■ ANC: Later end to parking
restrictions under discussion Bill Petros/The Current
Tudor Place Historic House and Garden hosted a Valentine’s Day Tea and Chocolate Tasting event on Saturday. Pat Sowers portrayed Sally Purdie, a servant for Martha Peter, who owned the 19th-century Georgetown estate.
By JESSICA GOULD
— and enrollment appears to be rising. Take Janney. According to D.C. Public Schools records, the school Ward 3 D.C. Council member was already serving 489 students in Mary Cheh worries that with grow2008. Now, Janney serves 500, with ing enrollment and limited space, nearly all of them coming from insome Northwest schools could soon boundary homes. And while Janney become victims of their own sucwill have a capacity of 550 students cess. once its $25 million modernization “Going forward, we’re going to Bill Petros/The Current is complete, Cheh said it will not be have to figure this out,” she said in long before the students cannot fit in an interview last week. Expanded in 2003, Key is above the space. So on Feb. 8, Cheh sent a letter capacity with 365 students. “It cannot have 600 students,” to interim Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson outlining her concerns. Specifically, she she said. “What do you do instead?” Meanwhile, Mann, which is scheduled for a modernsaid, the number of students at Janney, Mann and Key See Enrollment/Page 23 elementary schools is beginning to overwhelm the space Current Staff Writer
■ Council funds Janney parking garage, Takoma rebuilding. Page 3. ■ Four projects aim for Connecticut Avenue improvements. Page 5.
SPORTS ■ Gonzaga beats DeMatha to move into first place. Page 13. ■ Coolidge downs Roosevelt to snap Riders’ streak. Page 13.
By TEKE WIGGIN Current Correspondent
Cheh flags enrollment growth, boundaries
NEWS
Office of the Attorney General, comes amid ongoing legal action stemming from a protest by the Friends of Jelleff. That group that was among last year’s bidders to operate the recreation center at 3265 S St. The switch also comes after a move by the city’s contracting office late last year to yank the Boys & Girls Clubs’ contract for a Columbia Heights site and award it instead to the Latin American Youth Center. The contracting office declined to comment because the matter is in litigation. See Jelleff/Page 36
Faced with parking shortages in Glover Park, some residents and community leaders are trying to find solutions that tighten restrictions for non-residents — but also preserve some flexibility for their visitors. Striking the right balance between these two objectives is key to winning enough support to persuade the D.C. Department of Transportation to take action, community members said at a meeting last week. Residents are now mulling ideas like extending the hours for non-residential parking restrictions and limiting parking on one side of some local streets to residents-only. The biggest parking problems in Glover Park occur at night, residents said at last Thursday’s meeting of the area’s advisory neighborhood commission. They said visitors seem to flock to the area after residential permit parking (“RPP”)
PA S S A G E S ■ NHL All-Star helps out elementary school’s garden project. Page 15. ■ Local film festival spotlights ‘Our City.’ Page 15 .
Bill Petros/Current File Photo
Glover Park residents say parking is scarce at night. restrictions end, clogging the streets and often forcing residents to park far from their homes. “We have our parking problem beginning when residential permit parking restrictions end, beginning at 7 at night,” said commissioner Brian Cohen. Damon Harvey, a Transportation Department representative present for the meeting, said residents could use “the release valve” of extending permit parking restrictions to as late as 2 a.m. (which, for practical purposes, would set the deadline at See Parking/Page 12
INDEX Business/9 Calendar/27 Classifieds/37 District Digest/4 Exhibits/29 In Your Neighborhood/22 Opinion/10
Passages/15 Police Report/6 School Dispatches/16 Real Estate/21 Service Directory/33 Sports/13 Theater/29