Text Box: told him they were not unhappy with the town’s arrangement. It has been observed that when the stop sign is not monitored, many vehicles do not stop, even for pedestrians. In fact, one officer said other vehicles run the stop sign even when he is writing a ticket. Hiring officers in Glen Echo began in 2005 in response to concerns about a driver who was circling through town several times an hour, mostly without stopping and without appearing to have any purpose in his trips. This practice continued for several months and alarmed residents. The town began considering enacting a “no cruising” ordinance before the activity stopped. The town spent $2470 that year in an effort to enforce the driver’s traffic violations, but the off-duty police also issued tickets for vehicles that did not stop on Oxford Rd. The town had been unsuccessful in getting the regular on-duty county police to do the enforcement. At that time, park officials said that people were complaining about the enforcement and suggested the stop sign be removed, according to Mayor Beers. They made a video of traffic at the Oxford-University intersection. The park has not taken any responsibility for this enforcement even though the violators are primarily its visitors. Oxford Rd. is town, not park, property. Thereafter Glen Echo Park officials were engaged in discussing three alternative proposals for re-routing traffic on Oxford. It appeared they might take some action to redirect traffic and/or reduce visitors’ violations at the stop sign. The town hoped one of these might solve the problem and suspended hiring officers in 2006, although $3,000 had been budgeted for that purpose. The park’s proposals were presented at a public hearing at the town hall, but “went nowhere,” the mayor said. However, according to Kym Elder, Site Manager of Glen Echo Park, park officials did conclude that the community favored changing the park’s entranceway and submitted Alternative 2 to the project planning process. This alternative provided for both park entrance and exit to be combined at the point of the current exit road onto Oxford Rd., well above the intersection with University Ave. This project was included in the NPS budget for 2008 and approved by Congress, she said. However, Congress has not yet indicated which projects have been funded or to what extent. In addition to waiting for this information, the NPS must still receive the final resolution from its legal counsel’s office regarding whether Oxford Rd. belongs to the town or the park. In addition to monitoring the traffic and stop sign, the off-duty officers in Glen Echo are available to enforce other violations in town. One contacted a resident who had lived in town longer than 30 days and not yet registered his vehicles in Maryland. Running the stop sign could actually be prosecuted under town ordinances, in which case the town would get the Text Box: revenue from the fines, but the mayor believes such tickets might be more difficult to uphold in court. They were quite effective in the early 1900s, however, when the town had a marshal equipped with a 38-caliber revolver, a blackjack, and handcuffs, plus the assistance of four deputy marshals. He enthusiastically arrested all motorists on MacArthur Blvd. who did not have licenses on both front and back of their cars or were exceeding the 12 mph speed limit. The fact that MacArthur Blvd. was not in the town’s jurisdiction did not trouble Mayor John Garrett, who collected the money at his home. The fine was $25. The town had a chief of police until the 1960s. Other municipalities also pay for their own police enforcement. Chevy Chase Village has its own police force. The Town of Chevy Chase has a non-resident constable who schedules the shifts of off-duty police officers and budgets $127,000 per year for this purpose. Garrett Park, with a population around three times that of Glen Echo, is thinking about it, although the county does ticket parking violators when they are asked to do so. They feel that if they targeted all violators for a week straight they might break the pattern of bad behavior, an official said. Text Box: POLICE TICKETING (FROM PAGE 1) Text Box: TOWN PETITION SENT; NO RESPONSE YET The petition signed by 66 town residents asking for a flashing light at the intersection of Princeton Ave. and MacArthur Blvd. was sent last month to two officials at the Montgomery County Dept. of Public Works and Transportation, the Montgomery County Police, and the office of County Councilman Roger Berliner. The town has heard only from Councilman Berliner’s office, indicating that it had contacted DPWT about the petition and asked that it be sent a copy of the Department’s response to the town.