Welcome Parkwood Neighbor!

The next meeting of the Parkwood Residents Association will be held in March or April, 2012.

Please pay your dues for 2012! Click on the image to see it full size → And see below for additional information. And join the community listserv (free!).

PRA Beautification Committee garden at Wildwood & Saul:

Click on the year to see previously posted photos
I was warned not to take or to post photos of any kids without prior permission of their parents.
I have therefore removed all previous photos that contain kids or recognizable adults.
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008-2009 2010-2011
Parkwood photos from the fifties!

Redistricting - County Council districts have been changed as a result of the 2010 census. We are now in District 1, represented by Roger Berliner (email: Councilmember.berliner@montgomerycountymd.gov). Our state and congressional districts have not changed.

PHED Meeting on Kensington Sector Plan - The Planning Housing and Economic Development (PHED) Committee of the Montgomery County Council will meet on Monday, Feb. 6th at 2 PM to discuss the Kensington Sector Plan and make final recommendations. Meetings are held at the Montgomery County Council Building at 100 Maryland Ave., Rockville. Residents are not allowed to speak at these meetings.

Email from Gail Dalferes on the Sector Plan may be viewed here. She also included a letter from a Chevy Chase View resident to other residents, expressing a cautionary point of view and including a drawing and map. Details on the sector plan can be found at: http://www.montgomeryplanning.org/community/kensington/documents/KensingtonSectorPlanPBdraftFINAL6-14-11.pdf

KPES Expansion - A feasibility study is underway to consider expansion of Kensington-Parkwood Elementary School. Details are available from a PTA presentation here.

Cedar Lane Proposed Traffic Calming - Kyle Liang, MC Dept. of Transportation Engineering, spoke at the PRA meeting Jan 17. Five intersections would have changes, according to the proposals. The links below go to photos with superimposed lines. These are pdf files, mostly about 1 MB in size.

• Cedar & Delmont
• Cedar & Glenridge
• Cedar & Franklin
• Cedar & Dresden
• Cedar & Summit

Report from the CKC - Liz Brennan, PRA's representative to the Coalition of Kensington Communities (CKC), reported on recent developments at the Jan 17 PRA meeting and on the listserv. Her email is reproduced here. It includes links to the Kensington, Wheaton, and Chevy Chase Lake sector plans.

Bylaws Amendments - The Executive Committee proposed the following amendments to the PRA Bylaws. They were approved at the meeting Jan 17, 2012. The newly amended bylaws can be viewed here, or downloaded as an MSWord document here.

1. At the end of Article V, Section 14 ("Treasurer"), add the sentence:
The Treasurer shall file all reports required by the IRS and the State of Maryland to maintain the status of the Association as a nonprofit corporation.
(The need for this addition was pointed out by attendees at the last meeting.)

2. Article III, Section 3: Append the following sentence to define references to ‘Parkwood’ made throughout the Bylaws:
Hereinafter references to ‘Parkwood’ refer to the subdivision defined by these boundaries.

3. Article IV, Section 8: Modify the third sentence to remove the version of Robert’s Rules of Order:
However, if there are disagreements, or if requested by a member, any disagreements are to be settled in accordance with the most current version of Robert’s Rules of Order, which is currently the Newly Revised, 10th edition, except where otherwise specified in the Bylaws.

4. Article V, Section 13: Clarify reference to ‘webmaster’, previously not defined in the Bylaws when it is used in the fifth sentence:
The Secretary shall send copies of the minutes of all meetings to the Executive Committee, and in particular to the webmaster (as defined in Article VI, section 1), as soon as practicable but no later than one month after each meeting.

5. Appendix A, step 4, second sentence: Remove comma following the word ‘motion’:
This is another motion that takes place within the main motion’s discussion period.

Dial 311 to request mowing of common areas - Help keep Parkwood beautiful! Dial 311 to request County mowing in common areas in hope that volumes of calls will sway the County to send mowers to our community sooner rather than later. Thanks for your help in making our voices and needs heard. The PRA Beautification Committee

New Bylaws - In accordance with the OLD bylaws, the board has revised and approved NEW bylaws. These were needed to bring them into agreement with current practice. Reasons for this are summarized here. They were discussed further and voted on at the PRA meeting, Sept 27, 2011.

Search the entire Parkwood web site This includes old newsletters, meeting minutes, letters sent by the PRA, bylaws, etc.

LOCK YOUR CAR - There have been a number of thefts from cars, mostly from unlocked cars.

Reporting Vandalism - EVERY vandalism incident should be reported to the Police non-emergency number, 301-279-8000, or via the online form at http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/poltmpl.asp?url=/content/pol/coplogic/cologic.asp. Making a report is necessary so that it gets into the police's crime database, so that it gets tracked by time/region/nature, and so that it ultimately affects resource allocation. If you call, you give them your name, address, and phone number, and they typically have someone call you back to take the report over the phone within 24 hours.

Incidents of Interest to Police - Officer Gill, our police department community liason, reinforced the necessity of calling the police non-emergency number (301 279-8000) when neighbors believe their doors are being tried, homes are being cased, etc. She said this number should be called when the incident occurs. Or fill out the online form (next paragraph).

Montgomery County Maryland Police Department On-line Citizen Reporting System (CRS) - CRS is designed to make it easier and more convenient to file a police report without leaving home. Not every crime can be reported this way, but you may report theft, vandalism, identity theft, and lost property using the CRS online form. Here is the Web site: http://www.montgomerycountymd.gov/poltmpl.asp?url=/content/pol/coplogic/cologic.asp.

BRAC (Base Realignment And Closure) - This is in reference to the expansion of the National Naval Medical Center on Rockville Pike due to addition of functions now at Walter Reed Medical Center.

July 2011 report of the BIC (BRAC Implementation Committee) reports current status (MS Word doc). BIC Infrastructure Presentation (MS Power Point) has some additional information.

The federal budget negotiated Apr 8, 2011, under threat of shutdown, included $300 million in new funding for BRAC-related traffic improvements. This includes money for Ft Belvoir as well as Bethesda.

A presentation by the Navy to Bethesda homeowner's associations, dated March 24, 2011, can be viewed here, along with a cover letter dated Apr 8.

Proposed intersections improvements and schedule - summary and detail, as of Nov, 2009.

The Maryland State Highway Administration held an Informational Workshop on April 2nd, 2009, at which they discussed transportation improvements to four intersections impacted by BRAC. These intersections and other, future improvements with time estimates are shown in this PDF document. A chart summarizing various levels of service definitions for traffic can be seen here.

A letter from Phil Alperson, Montgomery County BRAC Coordinator, can be viewed here. It contains a number of links to other documents of interest. The county's BRAC web site can be viewed at www.montgomerycountymd.gov/BRAC.

The PRA is supporting the Coalition of Military Medical Center Neighbors (CMMCN). You can join their listserv at www.groups.yahoo.com/group/CMMCN. If you do, you will also be able to view their slide show "Presentation to Interested Communities and Organizations". Here is a list of people to contact with your opinions, supplied by CMMCN. There are also several web sites of interest at the bottom. Sample letters are available here, one general, one specifically to Gov O'Malley.

The Navy's Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) was released on April 4, 2008. The FEIS is available at the Kensington Library (warning--it is 400 pages) or you can access it at http://www.bethesda.med.navy.mil/Professional/Public_Affairs/BRAC.

The Record of Decision marks the end of the statutory BRAC environmental impact analysis process. It was released on May 6, and officially allows construction to begin. It can be viewed at http://www.bethesda.med.navy.mil/Professional/Public%5FAffairs/BRAC/Record_of_Decision_May08.pdf.

White Flint Sector Plan - http://www.montgomeryplanning.org/community/whiteflint/ is a county web page containing a summary, and links to the plan itself and to other information. A brief discussion of some of the issues was printed in the PRA fall newsletter.

Tree Replanting in Parkwood - (Excerpted from an email from Bailey Condrey, PRA President)

Most of the trees being removed are maples and unfortunately we will lose many oaks. Urban foresters have learned since many of these trees were planted, many 50+ years ago, that they succumb to disease, drought and pestilence, in urban settings. The same species will not be replanted.

As with everything, this is not a perfect process, and it takes time. There is no schedule of when and where they will be on specific dates. The snowstorms we just experienced have probably placed an unbelievable work load on tree crews and the methodical process the county had developed for tree removal in Parkwood has been upset. Only certain companies are allowed to work around power lines, Asplundh in the orange trucks is one of them. They may be doing the power line tree work and leaving the remainder of the trees for other crews to finish, as a way for the county to reduce costs. All of the trees with the orange dot on the trunk are slated for removal. All of the stumps will be ground and a tree will be replanted for every one that is removed, unless a homeowner makes a specific request to forego a new tree.

Should you have questions regarding the county's tree replanting program please contact Larry Acosta at 240-777-6000.

Pets - It's the Law: Dogs must be leashed at all times when off the owner’s property (unless in a designated dog exercise area). And please pick up after your pet. That's also required by law - and it helps keep our community pleasant and our neighbors happy. Snow Plowing New county map showing which streets have been plowed: www.montgomerycountymd.gov/SnowMap You can report streets not plowed from that page also.
You can view a map of power outages on Pepco's website (if you have an internet connection...): www.pepco.com/home/emergency/maps/stormcenter/.

Have a New Neighbor? The PRA is looking for ways to reach out to newcomers in the neighborhood. A PRA welcome packet has been developed and Welcome Committee Chair Kathy Byars and PRA Block Captains have been diligently passing our packets out. If you would like to welcome a new neighbor or have Kathy or one of her volunteers drop off a packet, please contact her at (301) 530-9441 or send an email to: .

Click here for older items that were previously in this space.

Membership in the Parkwood Residents Association (PRA) is open to all residents of the Parkwood neighborhood located in Bethesda and Kensington, Maryland (Map). Annual dues are just $10 per household and are put toward community activities and expenses, including postage and copying expenses associated with the newsletter. Additional contributions to help the Beautification Committee (formerly the Gardening Committee) clean and maintain the Parkwood islands are encouraged. Thank you.

If you have not already submitted your dues for 2012 ($10), please send your check to Pippa Eibel, 10120 Cedar Lane, Kensington 20895. You can print out a membership form here. If you are not sure about your membership status, please call Pippa at (301) 530-8305 or e-mail her at .

Or, simply click on the button below to pay on the PayPal web site. You can use this even if you don't have a PayPal account, as long as you have one of the credit cards shown.

Listserv - Subscribe to the Parkwood Residents Listserv (email mailing list) by sending a blank email to: parkwoodresidents-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Do not add any subject line or message text. You will receive an automated confirmation message when you are subscribed. Be sure to send the email from the address where you want the listserv emails to go.

The list is open to residents of Parkwood. Non-resident individuals will be considered on a case-by-case basis, based on their specific association with Parkwood. Commercial solicitations are prohibited.

Or sign up here to subscribe and join Yahoo groups. This allows you to read past messages too. Members can post files and read other files posted on the Yahoo Groups site at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/parkwoodresidents/files/.

Problems? Contact our listserv administrator Chris Dewey at .

PRA Web Site - This is the official Parkwood Residents Association web site, maintained by our webmaster. From time to time individual PRA members post files to our Yahoo! Groups files, and refer to this as "the PRA website". That Yahoo! Groups site comes about as part of the listserv, rather than part of this site. Sorry for any confusion. There is another link to that page at the top of our Docs page.

Bylaws -Current bylaws of the Parkwood Residents Association can be viewed here. These are the new bylaws, recently approved.

You can get the address of a particular page on the site (for example to link to it directly) by clicking on the "[Printable Page]" link at the bottom.

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