A big thank you to Jan and Jack Buresh, who spent Friday afternoon clearing a path through the vegetation nearly blocking the new sidewalk on Brandywine Street from the Forest Hills park to 31st Street.
Jan and Jack Buresh.
Some areas had become so overgrown you almost needed a machete to make your way through. By the time I joined them at 3 p.m. last Friday, they had done the bulk of the work.
The results of Jack and Jan’s hard work on the Brandywine sidewalk.
Now the challenge will be to get the District Department of Parks and Recreation to come and pick up the 14 bags of trash. That’s my job. –Marlene Berlin
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Jeremy says
Thanks to both of you for doing this!
Doesn’t seem like it’s something that volunteers should have to do though. Shouldn’t DPR cull the vegetation themselves on a periodic basis?
Sally Gresham says
Jan and Jack, you are the best! You are true ‘angels’! Awesome job and thanks a million from this area’s ANC Commissioner.
It goes to show you that good neighbors cannot wait for DC involvement which is a good thing. I put in a 311 work order request with DPW on 9/9/13 and again on 9/24/13. On 9/30 I called DPW for a status report and learned from Lisa Duval, DPW Field Inspector on 10/2/13 that the sloped area is federal park land (NPS) and will not be maintained by DC agencies – DPW, DPR nor DGS. Technically speaking, it is a ‘no man’s land’ (noted as ‘vacant land’ on DC Tax records). To make matters worse, there will probably be little to no maintenance by NPS with the current lack of funding for this type of designated land. Therefore, it seems that community neighborhood clean ups are in the future for this stretch of newly installed Brandywine St sidewalk. Hopefully assistance will be forthcoming from a DC agency or private landscape company but if all fails, an SOS will go out to the community for a fall and spring clean. I hope there will be wonderful ‘angels’ like Jan and Jack Buresh to assist. Thanks so much again, Jan and Jack!
David Bardin says
Has DPW’s Field Inspector concluded too quickly that DC has no responsibilty for managing overgrown trees or bushes along the Brandywine Street NW border of DC’s Forest Hills Playground — bucking that duty to the federal government?
According to DC’s Office of Tax and Revenue Real Property Assessment Data Base, all of the Forest Hills Playground belongs to the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA — the tennis courts, equipped playground, and baseball field as well as the groves along Brandywine Street. Look up Square 2038, Lots 806 and 807. If the federal government owns the land but lets DC’s Department of Parks & Recreation use it, does the lease say it’s up to DC to pick and choose which parts of the property it will maintain? Maybe. But it sounds fishy.