Councilmember Wells has been working with the DC Board of Elections and Ethics over the last several months to add a new voting precinct for downtown neighborhoods. Currently, residents in Penn Quarter and some other downtown neighborhoods share a voting precinct on Capitol Hill. The result creates barriers to the poll for many residents. So rather than waiting for the next census and redistricting to take place in 2011, Tommy asked the Board to look now at this problem as the number of residents in the downtown neighborhood continues to grow quickly.

You can read one of Tommy's letters to the Board here.

Now there's good news to report on this front. The Board is planning to take final action on Wednesday, May 7th, regarding the creation of Precinct 143 in Ward 6 -- the District's newest voting precinct -- essentially splitting the current Precinct 130 into two parts.

The proposed boundaries are (click here for a map of the proposed new boundaries):

Beginning at the intersection of H Street and North Capitol Street, N.W.; thence south on North Capitol Street, N.W. to the intersection of North Capitol Street N.W. and Louisiana Avenue, N.W.; thence southwesterly to Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.; thence west on Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. to 9th Street, N.W.; thence north on 9th Street, N.W. to E Street, N.W.; thence east on E Street, N.W. to 6th Street, N.W.; thence north on 6th Street, N.W. to K Street, N.W.; thence east on K Street, N.W. to 3rd Street, N.W.; thence south on 3rd Street, N.W. to H Street, N.W.; thence east on H Street, N.W. to the meeting beginning point of North Capitol Street, N.W.

Anyone can submit comments to the Board for consideration and should do so by sending a letter to the Board of Elections and Ethics, 441 4th Street, NW Suite 250N, Washington, D.C. 20001. Comments are requested to be received by the close of business on Tuesday, May 6th. If you want to attend the Board meeting in person, it will be held in room 280-North of the One Judiciary Square building at 441 Fourth Street, N.W., May 7, 2008 at 10:30 a.m. For further information, please call the Board at 202-727-2525 (TDD: 202-639-8916).

UPDATE: Want to email DCBOEE? You can email at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Thank you very much to everyone that came out on Wednesday night for our community meeting on the future of the Hine Jr. High site. When closures were announced by the Mayor earlier this year, I immediately called for a community planning process to decide the future of these sites. You responded and over 150 residents and neighbors joined us to develop a shared vision for the future of this site. The feedback, ideas, suggestions and work that you did in over 20 breakout groups was very impressive.

In case you missed the meeting, please feel free to download the handouts by Clicking Here.

My office will be compiling all of your comments and feedback into a report and we'll share that as soon as its completed.

Thanks again for all your hard work on Wednesday night.

The latest information directly from the National Park Service: 

This serves to inform you that the contractor made the last pour of concrete this morning and, other than a few small clean up items, is complete. The contractor will be cleaning the walks tomorrow and once theyare done, will open the side walk sections of chain link fence for visitor use of that section of the park, including the lawn areas. The chain link fence will be removed in its entirety Friday morning. There will be sections of snow fence that will remain for a few weeks to protect freshly seeded areas. There is a project review meeting scheduled for tomorrow afternoon, but we don't anticipate much if any changes to this update.

Please understand that with the removal of the chain link fence, we will be moving forward with the seeding and closure of the center panel, likely early next week.

If you have any questions regarding these matters, please do not hesitate to contact me and thank you so much for your patience.

thanks,

Frank Young
Facility Manager
National Capital Parks-East

This just released by the Department of Parks and Recreation on improvements being made to Rumsey Aquatic Center and closing dates:

The Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) continues to make major improvements at the William H. Rumsey Aquatic Center located at 635 North Carolina Avenue, SE.  DPR is currently performing significant work to the systems that serve both of the pools at the Rumsey Aquatic Center which will improve the overall swimming experience.  This work is in addition to the recently completed project which saw the renovation of the men’s and women’s locker rooms, interior painting, and other general repairs.

“DPR is actively working to protect our investments across the District,” said Clark E. Ray, DPR director.  “To support this goal, we have taken a much more aggressive approach in our repairs, service, and preventive maintenance work.  I look forward to the successful completion of another round of major improvements and preventive maintenance work at Rumsey Aquatic Center.”

During the months of April and May, significant work is being done to improve the systems that service both the large swimming pool and the smaller baby pool.  Work now underway includes:

- Installation of new pool pumps for both pools
- Installation of new pool filters for both pools
- Installation of new pool heaters for both pools
- Installation of new automatic chemical treatment systems for both pools
- Installation of new backwash piping for both pools
- Installation of new pool and pump piping for both pools
- Installation of new sump pump
- Installation of new pool ultraviolet (UV) sanitation system which will assist in the destruction of microorganisms and reduces the impact of chlorine smell and eye irritation
- Diagnostic tests on the HVAC and boiler systems

To accommodate the installation of the new systems for both pools, the Rumsey Aquatic Center will temporarily close on Monday, May 19, 2008, and the facility will re-open on Tuesday, May 27.

During the temporary closure of the Rumsey Aquatic Center, DPR will offer expanded hours at the Turkey Thicket Aquatic Facility, 1100 Michigan Avenue, NE, (202) 576-9236.  Expanded hours will be Monday – Friday, 6:30 am to 9 pm; Saturday and Sunday, 9 am to 5 pm.

Programs and classes that were to be held at Rumsey Aquatic Center during the temporary closure will be rescheduled at other nearby DPR aquatic centers.  Registrants that would prefer to opt out of rescheduled classes or would like additional information about the closure can contact DPR at (202) 673-7647.

For More Information: DPR Aquatics, (202) 673-7647.