Text Box: WELCOME, NEWCOMER! A recent addition to the extended families living in Glen Echo is Phyllis Daen, mother of Meris Steele and grandmother of Spenser, 13, Kellan, 10, and Bryna, 7. She moved to 6000 Harvard Ave. in December, just a short distance from the Steele’s residence at 6103 Bryn Mawr. With her is her 10-year-old Brindle boxer, Sky. Ms. Daen and her husband Jerome long ago planned to move to Glen Echo to be closer to their daughter. For several years they owned the Harvard Ave. house next to the post office, which backs on the Steele’s house, renting it out while they remained in their home in Chevy Chase, where Meris grew up. The Glen Echo place was never the house of Ms. Daen’s dreams, however, because as an early Chautauqua building, it had small rooms and she owns a 1903 Steinway grand piano. After her husband died last year, she decided to move here and, by luck, 6000 Harvard was on the market. Although it, too, was originally a Chautauqua bungalow, it had been enormously enlarged many years ago. With a living room measuring some 33’x20’, it offered plenty of piano space and then some. She bought the house in the lower block of Harvard and sold the one in the upper block. Like her daughter, Ms. Daen is a psychologist, with a Ph.D from Adelphi University, N.Y., while Meris’s is from Oxford University in England. Ms. Daen is in private practice, with an office in Bethesda. As a pianist, Ms. Daen performs frequently as a soloist for the teas at Strathmore Hall, often with music by Chopin and Debussy, and also with various chamber music groups that are part of the Friday Morning Music Club. She will be appearing at the Potomac Library on Saturday afternoon, Mar. 4, with Al Veccione, clarinet, and Beth Lawrence, soprano. Some four or five groups practice weekly in her living room, which she says has marvelous acoustics. Ms. Daen also has two sons, who live in Massachusetts and South Carolina, and a total of nine grandchildren. She is very happy in her new home with its beautiful view to the west and looks forward to gardening in spring. Text Box: MACARTHUR BIKE PATH PLANS SLOWLY AMBLING ALONG Plans for an improved bicycle path along MacArthur Blvd., which have been underway for nearly three years, may be moving barely perceptively forward. The Montgomery County Department of Public Works and Transportation is hoping to present a preliminary plan of the path at a public meeting in late spring or early summer, according to Yasamin Esmaili, Facility Planner for the bike path plan. The county held a preliminary meeting at the Glen Echo Town Hall on June 3, 2003, at which all but one of those in attendance indicated preference for Alternative #2, which called for one eight-foot shared use path on the south side of the roadway, separated from the roadway by a five-foot open space and some barriers. The town subsequently notified the county that it supports that alternative At that time, a county official said that local communities would be notified before the project goes into the design stage. After the preliminary plan is presented to the public at several public meetings, it will go to the county council for funding approval. If that is obtained, the final design will be made, with fall, 2006 as a target date. At that point plans will begin for construction, Ms. Esmaili said. Bike riders, runners, and strollers: Don’t hold your breaths. --Carlotta Anderson