Recap of 16th December Civic Association Meeting

, ,

Our guests at our December meeting were local USPS officials, on hand to discuss the continuing problems with mail delivery in 22204. This was our third meeting in the past year and a half. Unfortunately, neighborhood attendance consisted of the Civic Association board and a reporter for ArlNOW.

The Civic Association Executive Committee would like to remind residents that postal service delivery issues should be reported directly to the South Station manage and the Arlington Postmaster via email:

Arlington South Post Office Manager, Mr Jeff Simmons: Jeffrey.C.Simmons@usps.gov
Arlington Postmaster, Mr Walter Daniels: Walter.M.Daniels@usps.gov

/by

Civic Association Meeting Wednesday 16th December 2015

, , ,

The next Douglas Park Civic Association meeting will be held Wednesday 16 December at 7.30pm in the downstairs meeting room at Firehouse 9, S Walter Reed Dr at 19th St S. Our guest will be Arlington South Station Postal Manager Jeffrey Simmons and other postal officials.

This month’s newsletter is available here.
 

All are welcome to attend.

/by

Civic Association Meeting Tuesday 28th April 2015

, , , , ,

The next Civic Association meeting will be held Tuesday 28 April at 7.30pm in the downstairs meeting room of Firehouse No. 9 at 19th Street South and South Walter Reed Drive. On the agenda:

  1. Mail Delivery. In November, we met with regional US Post Office officials to discuss ongoing issues with mail delivery in Douglas Park. It was a lively meeting, to say the least! At April’s meeting, postal officials—including recently-appointed South Station Manager, Marcus Clinkscale—will return for more discussion and feedback. A thank-you to Douglas Park resident Carol Freysinger for coordinating with the USPS folks!
  2. Neighborhood Conservation. We will discuss and vote
    on our next project to submit to the Neighborhood
    Conservation queue. Under consideration are:

    1. Completion of curb, gutter and sidewalks along 18th St S
      from S Quincy to Walter Reed Drive.
    2. Completion of curb, gutter and sidewalks along 13th St S
      from Glebe Road to S Walter Reed Drive.
    3. Streetlights along S Oakland St between 18th and 19th
      Streets S.

Please keep in mind that any project requires both a champion to oversee the process and approval by residents controlling at least 60% of the street frontage
in the project area to move forward. So, attend and let your opinion be heard!

3. Neighborhood Volunteer Needs. We have several opportunities for residents to help their fellow DPCA members and neighbors, including

• Newsletter advertising coordinator
• Newsletter distribution coordinator’
• Newsletter Spanish translator
• Fourth of July Coordinator
• Election Day Bake Sale Assistant
• Writers for the update of our Neighborhood Conservation Plan

If you’d like more information or can help, please attend the meeting or contact Adam Henderson at president<at>douglasparkca.org.

4. Other business.

All are welcome to attend.

/by

Recap of 18th November Civic Association Meeting

, , , ,

Approximately forty-five people attended the Civic Association meeting on Tuesday evening 18 November at the Arlington Mill Community Center.

The agenda included:

We had a forum with eight representatives from the US Postal Service
The purpose of this forum, which lasted approximately seventy minutes, was to discuss numerous issues with misdirected and undelivered mail and other service issues that have sharply increased in Douglas Park over the past year. Postal service officials listed to our concerns, apologized, and relayed some of the steps that they have undertaken in attempt to bring the issues under control. These include:

  • A new Customer Service Manager at the South Glebe (Arlington South) Station
  • Increased training for mail carriers in Douglas Park
  • A review of carrier routes in Douglas Park

Postal services officials acknowledged that these are only initial steps in addressing the problems. In addition, the postal service intends to bring in a review team to track carriers in Douglas Park for a period to ascertain whether they are performing route deliveries correctly and efficiently. Most importantly in this meeting, however, was the request for real-time data so that postal officials can track problems to specific personnel. The Arlington Postmaster, Mr Walter Daniels, has requested that residents email him directly with misdelivery or other issues on the day of or the day following the incident, letting him know the date, time, nature and address of the occurrence. Mr Daniels also indicated that where feasible, it would be helpful to include a photograph attachment of the mail panel of the misdirected piece, which will allow officials to determine if there are machine-sorting issues that are contributing to our problems.  UPDATE FEBRUARY 2015. Mr Daniels has moved on at USPS. Our new contact for mail problems is the new South Arlington Station Manager, Marcus Clinkscale. He may be reached at marcus.c.clinkscale@usps.gov.

In summary, the Postal Service now seems to be very aware of the ongoing issues in Douglas Park and has expressed a firm desire to address the situation. It’s now our job to make sure they follow through by providing the ongoing data they need to find the root causes. Postal officials have agreed to attend a future meeting of the Association, likely in February 2015, to update their progress and receive more feedback from residents.

We had an update from Alison Tomlinson and Allegra Jabo; our representative and alternate to the Thomas Jefferson Middle School Working Group (TJMSWG).

The TJMSWG is charged by the County Board with evaluating the Thomas Jefferson Middle School site and making a recommendation as to the feasibility of building a new 725-seat elementary school on the campus. The TJMSWG will present a preliminary report to the County Board in December and a final report in January 2015. An overview of the group, along with supporting documents, is available here.

/by

General DPCA Meeting—Tue 18th Nov 2014

, , ,

The next Douglas Park Civic Association (DPCA) will be held on Tuesday evening 18 November 2014 at 7.30p in the Senior Room (Room 205) of the Arlington Mill Community Center, 909 S Dinwiddie St at Columbia Pike. You can park for up to four hours free of charge in the public car park under the community center (turn on Dinwiddie, then follow the signs to the back of the building).

On the agenda:

• A forum with post office officials regrading mail delivery problems in the ‘hood
• An update on the TJ Middle School site Elementary School review process from our Douglas Park reps.

/by