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Text Box: any feedback from the neighbors that Mr. Wenchel said they were two weeks behind schedule as it was. After a long explanation of all the things the Clara Barton House needs that NPS can’t afford, he said they do have $120,000 in emergency funding to switch out the tanks. “I’ll be honest with you; it’s a bandaid,’’ Mr. Wenchel said, and not the new geo-thermal system they’d like to be putting in. He said it would be too expensive to put the new tanks in a less conspicuous spot and in any case wouldn’t work

Text Box: Half a dozen National Park Service employees met with several of the closest neighbors of the Clara Barton house and Mayor Debbie Beers last week to talk about their plan to pull out the site’s underground fuel tank and install two 16-foot propane tanks on the property instead. Andrew Wenchel, of the National Park Service, explained that the fuel oil tank has been in the ground since 1984 and has to be dug up under EPA regulations to make sure it isn’t leaking. He said they also plan to switch to propane gas. The new gas tanks will be installed temporarily – for the next five years or so – or until they have the money for a new climate control system for the house. For now, the tanks will be installed near the shed where the boiler is, and surrounded by a fence. Willem Polak, who lives nearby, said the shed itself was supposed to have been temporary: “That’s what we were told when it was built 24 years ago.’’ The boiler was only moved there, Mr. Wenchel answered, because the Clara Barton House, with its muslin walls and ceilings, is “a tinder box.’’ “That open center is like a flue that goes straight up to the top,’’ added Jon James, acting superintendent of the George Washington Parkway, and the whole structure could burn to the ground in five minutes. Cathie Polak pointed to her home and said, “See that house? That’s a tinder box, too, and you moved the boiler out there’’ near it, “without even telling anybody.’’ The current project was so close to going forward without

Text Box: HOLIDAY PARTY/PANCAKE BREAKFAST Saturday, Dec. 13, 9:00-10:30 am Glen Echo Town Hall Please bring hats and gloves for donation. Volunteers would be appreciated. Please contact the Clerk-Treasurer at 301-320-4041 or townhall@glenecho.org