Text Box: AROUND TOWN Text Box: STREET CLEANING was scheduled to be done the first week of December. The Glen Echo Fire Department announced last month that it no longer opposes a fee for ambulance calls, according to the Potomac Almamac. The decision to reverse its former position was made contingent on its ambulances no longer being included on a list of career firefighter staff cuts. County Executive Isiah Leggett had proposed the ambulance fee to help fund the costs of fire and rescue services. The decision by the GEFD displeased other county fire departments and the county volunteer association, which have campaigned vigorously against the fee. Katchmark replaced 100 feet of rotted slats on the town hall roof at a cost of $7/per foot. The company guarantees that this will solve the leaks in the roof, so that the town can now repair the ceiling. Most of the work on the town hall is now completed… Glen Echo Baptist Church is sponsoring a free Holiday Gift-Wrapping Event at the Town Hall on Saturday, Dec. 13th, from 1 – 5 PM. Wrapping supplies will be provided. Flyers giving instructions for this event will be distributed throughout the community in early December. The people of GEBC would also like to invite the community to an Open House at the church that same day, from 1 – 3 PM. Fifty Bannockburn students made lunches for the homeless on Nov. 7 at Bannockburn Elementary School. They made sandwiches of lunchmeat and cheese, put them in baggies and then decorated brown paper bags to hold them. Close to 100 lunches were packed and ready to go to a men’s emergency shelter in Rockville run by Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless, the Gazette reported. The lunch-making was supervised by parent volunteers. Text Box: WELCOME, NEWCOMERS! Another couple who say they fell in love with Glen Echo after looking for months moved into 21 Wellesley Circle last month, together with their 11-year-old black Lab, Tango. Tango was an appropriate name, since Mariano Sturla is a native Argentinian, although he has lived in the area since teenage years and graduated from Walt Whitman High School. Lyndi Scott-Strite moved from California to attend graduate school at George Washington University, where she got an M.B.A in environmental sustainability management in 2006. They are joined often by Mariano’s two boys: Lucas, 8, and Nico, 5, who attend Bradley Hills Elementary School. Lyndi runs a consulting company, Foggy Cooper, that helps start-up businesses. Mariano is employed by the Inter-American Development Bank, and bikes to work in D.C. every day. Lyndi is also a professional dog-walker for DogCentric and also walks dogs privately (see the Classified section). She is a budding artist, planning to take classes at Glen Echo Park in painting in acrylics. Both new residents consider themselves very athletic, enjoying hiking and biking among other sports. Welcome to town! We’re happy to have you here.