Rock Creek Palisades and surrounding neighborhoods

RCOCA January 2009 Newsletter

Feb 01, 2009

Dear Neighbors,
First, a Happy New Year to all of you and your families! I anticipate that RCPCA will be doing a lot of great things for our area throughout 2009!
Please join us for the next RCPCA meeting on Thursday February 5th at 7 pm. at Rock View Elementary School at the corner of Denfeld Ave and Connecticut. We are delighted to have as our guest speaker Councilwoman Valerie Ervin, her Chief of Staff Sonya Healy, a representative from the Police Department, and others. Ms. Ervin will be providing an overview of key initiatives faced by the Montgomery County Council this year and will highlight those that are particularly relevant to our area.
Also at the meeting we will be giving a brief update on the status of our neighborhood signs. (There is a written update about this in this newsletter.) We will also discuss other issues of interest to our members such as the Kensington Sector plan, neighborhood crime, traffic and safety concerns.
We believe the role of every community and civic association is to provide opportunities for neighbors to come together and find ways to actively improve the quality of life for ourselves and the people around us. RCPCA is currently working with Manna of Montgomery County to help provide food to needy individuals and families. We are asking everyone to help support our food drive. All you need do is bring any of the food items listed below and drop them off in the designated boxes that will be placed at Rock View Elementary School before the RCPCA meeting on February 5. Here is a list of the food items Manna most needs:
Peanut Butter Rice Shelf-Stable Milk Macaroni and Cheese
Tuna Fish Tomato Sauce Cereal and Oatmeal Canned Soup
Canned Fruit and Vegetables Pasta Canned and Dried Beans Baby Formula/Baby Food
We will continue to provide suggestions in our RCPCA newsletter for ways in which you can get involved. If nothing else, we ask that you please become a member if you are not already. Our annual membership is only $15.00.
If you have any questions or comments please contact me at 301-980-8855 or email me at fayenabavian@yahoo.com. I look forward to seeing you Februrary 5.

Best regards,

Faye Nabavian
___________________________________________

Welcome to our Neighborhood!

Many neighborhoods in the Washington DC Metropolitan area have installed handsome and well placed entry signs to distinguish the local communities in which they live. These signs are distinctive and welcoming and are often surrounded by landscaping that adds beauty and charm and helps provide a sense of local pride. RCPCA formed a Neighborhood Marker Committee to explore the possibility of placing neighborhood signs at key entry points to our Association's area. This was no easy task but the Committee successfully met the challenge. Below is the Marker Committee's update on the status of this effort.

All RCPCA members were invited to a special meeting on December 11, 2008, to review the final recommendations of the association's Neighborhood Marker Committee. This is a group of members who have been volunteering their time and effort for the past few years to bring neighborhood markers to our community. The Committee and the Association agreed to place three markers, one each in the Gateway Gardens at Beach Drive and Wexford, Veirs Mill Road and Gail Street, and Newport Mill Road at University Boulevard.
To bring these markers to our community, Committee members took on some major tasks, the most difficult of which was convincing Montgomery County officials to change the existing zoning law that required communities to pay significant fees to install neighborhood markers. Committee member Pat Price, who also serves as Co-chair of the RCPCA Beautification Committee, and Vice President Al Geske worked many months to gain exemption from these fees. President Faye Nabavian gave her support for these changes through her testimony at the hearing on this fee exemption.
Member Larry Wannemacher added his experience in bringing markers to the Hammond Wood neighborhood, where similar markers have generated an unmistakable increase in neighborhood pride among residents. As you might expect, that pride awakens residents to the importance of making the most of their individual homes and properties and raises the level at which they work together for the betterment, and value, of their neighborhoods.
The RCPCA membership voted to spend up to $4,200 for the three signs. Each sign will consist of two five foot redwood or cedar panels mounted on posts. The top panel will show the name of the neighborhood and the bottom panel will say Rock Creek Palisades Citizens Association." The lettering will be raised against a sandblasted background.
Although the County marker fees are no longer required, the tedious and extensive County application process remains, and our RCPCA Marker Committee members Larry Wannemacher, Alison Skeel, Pat Price, and Bernie Segal have each taken responsibility to see that the remaining tasks will get done. These include completing the application process, including the documentation required to get an exemption from the county fees; working with the sign fabricator on the final details of the markers; and installing the signs.
The marker committee would like to thank Mollie Buckey and Murray Gormly for their assistance in the initial phases of the committee's work. The task of installing the signs will undoubtedly require some assistance from other RCPCA members and neighbors.
Most of the Members of the Marker Committee will be available to answer any questions regarding this effort at the upcoming RCPCA member meeting on Thursday, February 5, 2008 at 7:00 p.m.

Helping to Make Where We Live More Beautiful
Beautification Committee Update - by Patricia Price

The three gardens that RCPCA has planted and maintained are still in their long winter?’s nap. The shrubs and perennials have escaped any winter damage so far. At Newport Mill and University Boulevard, the flower heads that were left on the sedum plants and the red berries of the Nandina plants add winter interest. The two smaller gardens at Gail Drive and Veirs Mill Road and at Pendleton Drive and Veirs Mill Road also have dwarf Nandina plants for winter interest. A small perennial garden that an RCPCA member has planted on the Wexford Drive median about a block from Beach drive also looks like it has escaped winter damage. It is not the cold weather itself that usually damages the plants, but rather, a warm spell where the leaf or flower buds begin to open followed by a cold blast that injures the buds.
There are six half-barrels planted with perennials that RCPCA maintains and at least four other half-barrels that RCPCA has given to neighborhoods for residents to plant and maintain. According to Bill Moore, who has worked for many years maintaining the gardens, only the six half-barrels at Newport Mill Road and Denfeld Avenue are maintained by the RCPCA beautification committee. The four other half-barrels are tended to by neighborhood residents. One is located at Woodson Avenue and Wexford Drive, two at the intersection of College View Drive and Newport Mill Road and one at the intersection of Veirs Mill Road and Pendleton drive.
What you can do to help: In the spring and summer, volunteers will spend about 80 hours trimming, weeding, and cleaning up the gardens. We can always use more help. If you would spare a few hours, please call Pat Price on 301-933-8733 or Bill Moore on 301-949-1513. If you live near one of the half-barrels, check the plants in July and August, and if the soil is very dry, give them a good watering. You may have to haul some buckets of water, but the plants will appreciate it. Also, check the street trees in your neighborhood (as well as in your own yard) and remove any ivy growing up the trunk. There are many street trees in the medians along Wexford Drive and Denfeld Avenue. Ivy infestation is a major cause of decline or death in trees.
_______________________________________________
RCPCA MEMBERSHIP MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT
Date: Thursday, February 5, 2009, 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.
Place: Rock View Elementary School
3901 Denfeld Avenue
Kensington, MD

Guests: Councilwoman Valerie Ervin, her Chief of Staff Sonya Healy, and others

Please invite your neighbors to attend this important meeting.
-------------------------------------------------
Other Ways You Can Get Involved!

Working with the RCPCA Beautification Committee is one of many ways to help beautify where we live. RCPCA members are also actively involved in picking up trash thrown onto our streets and medians as well as in our neighborhood parks and throughout Rock Creek Park. On Martin Luther King Day, RCPCA members spent a ?“Day of Service?” picking up trash throughout Rock Creek Park and found there was much much more work needed to be done. We found mounds of trash throughout the beautiful woods of our Rock Creek Park. We were alarmed by the amount of plastic bags hanging from trees and branches and the endless amount of bottles and debris floating and clogging the Creek. As citizens of this community, we ask that everyone please lend a hand and simply do your part to pick up trash that you see and encourage others to do the same. We live in a wonderful location near a beautiful park offering rare green space and a respite from the noise and development that has come to overshadow this wonderful place where we live. Take the time to enjoy our Rock Creek Park by walking its lovely trails and bring a bag along on your walk to help clean it up and sustain its beauty. In the coming months, RCPCA will be making an effort to discuss the litter problem with our neighborhood schools to help raise awareness among teenagers. We also ask that you please help raise awareness about the problem of excess litter in our area of the Park.

----------------------------------------------

District 5 Councilwoman Valerie Ervin We are proud to announce the attendance of County Councilwoman Valerie Ervin at our upcoming RCPCA meeting on Thursday, February 5, 2009, 7-9 p.m. at Rock View Elementary School. Ms. Ervin is the first African American woman to serve on the Montgomery County Council and has a history of service to the County, including serving as member of the Board of Education and as Chair of the Board?’s Research and Evaluation Committee. She is a long term resident of Montgomery County and as our Council representative is serving on the Education and Transportation and Environment Committee. Councilwoman Ervin is an advocate for the Purple Line and other alternative transportation, more green space, safe walkable trails, and for protecting our environment. Ms. Ervin was recently appointed by Governor O?’Malley to the Chesapeake Bay Trust.
Please join us in welcoming Councilwoman Valerie Ervin on February 5 and invite your neighbors!!!
_________________________________________________
Agenda
7:00 -7:15 Social period
7:15-7:30 Treasurer and Committee Reports
7:30-8:30 Councilwoman Ervin and others
8:30-9:00 Next Steps, Other Announcements
9:00 Adjourn







How to Join!


__________________________________________________________________


Rock Creek Palisades Citizen?’s Association
Membership Enrollment Form

Name____________________________________________________Title_________________


Address____________________________________________________ZIP________________

Phone number________________________Email____________________________________

Annual dues are $15.00 and checks are payable to ?“RCPCA?”. Please mail the membership form and your dues to RCPCA Treasurer: Joan Browne: 11123 Woodson Ave. Kensington, MD 20895
You can also sign up at the membership meeting.

_________________________________________________

Send your comments and ideas for the newsletter to:
Rock Creek Palisades Citizens Association
11328 Mitscher Street
Kensington, MD 20895