Text Box: April 2007 Text Box: TOWN MAY PURCHASE STREET LIGHTS FROM PEPCO By Dave Chitwood The State of Maryland is enacting legislation ordering Pepco to sell streetlights to local municipalities at a fair market value. Participation by the towns would be purely voluntary. The Maryland Chapter of the Sierra Club supports this bill because of a belief that local communities are more likely to use energy-efficient lighting than utility companies. In anticipation of the passage of the bill, Pepco recently proposed an increase in the fees it charges for street lighting by as much as 40%, according to Councilmember Eve Arber. (The current monthly bill assessed by Pepco for street light power and maintenance in Glen Echo exceeds $1,000.) Alternatively, the Town could purchase the lights from Pepco and pay only the electricity charges. Mayor Beers stated that the cost would be at least $2,000 per light. With the town Text Box: —continued on page 3 Text Box: TRESTLE NEAR GLEN ECHO FENCED TO BLOCK ACCESS By Carlotta Anderson Both ends of the old trolley trestle which crosses Whisky Creek just down the hill from the rear of several Wellesley Circle homes had long, high chain link fences built around them last month by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, which owns the land. The purpose was to block access to the rickety old wooden streetcar track trestles, which were abandoned 47 years ago and are in decrepit condition. The problem with this otherwise commendable safety measure is that the steel fencing with barbed wire atop it, all gleaming in the sun, makes that area looks like a prison. As five of the affected residents wrote to a WMATA official, the view from their backyards is now “something that relates more to a prison yard than woodlands.” They requested some measure that would reduce the “visual and environmental impact” and suggested the possibility of painting the fencing black Mayor Beers also wrote to WMATA calling the trestles “unsightly (and perhaps unnecessary) and noting that “they are visible from the MacArthur Blvd. bike path, which should offer more scenic vistas than are afforded by these metal cages.” She asked if they could be scaled back in size or camouflaged with a dark paint. Similar fences have also been installed at the trestles that crosses Minnehaha Creek by the park, near Walhonding Rd. and near Georgetown Univeristy. A WMATA official has said that the possibility of demolishing the old trestles had to be abandoned because of the high cost involved. Text Box: TWO RESIDENTS ANNOUNCE THEIR CANDIDACY FOR COUNCIL Robin Kogelnik and Dan Macy, an incumbent, have announced their candidacy for the post of town councilmember for the May 7 election. There are two vacancies for the position.