Text Box: STREET REPAIRS (FROM PAGE 1) receive bids by the end of March. This would allow the council to choose a contractor at that time. The council voted in May to spend $200,000 for street paving during the fiscal year that began July 1. In a phone interview, Mayor Beers said the town needs to move with more dispatch on important issues, and that there is a tendency to over-discuss and over-analyze. "My concern recently has been that the perfect has been the enemy of the good. We never seem to finalize anything and get moving on it." Text Box: Text Box: AROUND TOWN Text Box: Our resident rocker, Tom Helf, will be performing at the Takoma Park Street Festival Oct. 7 with Joe Uehlein and the U-Liners, and on Oct. 27 with The Cultevaderws at Tommy Joe’s in downtown Bethesda. He will also be drumming with his regular band Cravin’ Dogs at The Barns of Wolf Trap on Jan. 5 and 19. Other local municipalities seem to have reached the same conclusion as Glen Echo about dealing with their traffic problems—it:s necessary to hire off-duty police officers for enforcement. The town of Somerset just began having paid police enforce the speed limit of 20 mph as well as to get drivers to stop at stop signs. The town of 1200 residents and 413 houses has budgeted $25,000 for that purpose for this fiscal year. The town also has the authority to issue parking tickets itself in an arrangement with the county, according to Mayor Walter J. Behr. He issues citations with fines himself, “one of the many jobs I have,” he said. He has been mayor for 28 years. The Clara Barton National Historic Site has begun a new interactive online tour entitled the “Clara Barton Interactive Experience” at www.npr.gov/clba Users can “enter” 15 restored rooms and space with a complete 360 degree view. The new website if primarily designed for young people. After completion of the program, students can earn an online certificate and receive a Junior Ranger badge. Text Box: RESIDENT’S WATER TAXI SERVICE DELIGHTS POST COLUMNIST Princeton Ave. resident Willem Polak and his Potomac Riverboat Co. were praised by Courtland Milloy in his column in The Washington Post on Sept. 12. Mr. Milloy was enthusiastic about their new water taxi service from the Fort Washington marina in Alexandria to the new waterfront baseball stadium being built for the Nationals in Southeast Washington. Willem’s vision is to turn the Potomac and Anacostia rivers into America’s most scenic waterways, according to the article. Willem has a master’s degree in urban and regional planning and hoped to start a company to operate tour boats and water taxis as early as 1968, according to Mr. Milloy. But his love of boating began even earlier. At 16, he traveled to Africa as a cadet on the Holland-West Africa cruise line. He started Potomac Riverboat in 1982 and operates five water taxis and tour boats from Alexandria, Georgetown and Mount Vernon. He and his wife, Cathie, the town clerk-treasurer, have lived in Glen Echo 27 years. Mr Milloy calculated that if he had made his journey by car instead of boat it would have been “stop-and-go traffic most of the way, followed by a mad dash for a parking space.” Instead, he was able to sit back and relax, “cooled by a misty breeze while watching eagles and hawks soar” above the shorelines.

 

GLEN ECHO PROPERTies

 

   7326 University Ave.                                 $949,500

7311 University Ave. (rent)                            $3,600/mo.