Dueling advocates (Klingle Road)

1. (I received this second)

The Coalition to Repair and Reopen Klingle Road Need your Help!
Last week, the Committee passed a recommendation (3-2) to not open Klingle Road at all. We need to change that decision and ask that a separate and new hearing be granted. Please attend the Thursday's Roundtable Hearing—don't make this hearing our last chance to speak out:

This Thursday, May 8: 6:30 PM at the John A. Wilson Building. Please call Jonathan Kass: 202-724-8152 to sign up.

Council Member Mary Cheh wants to bypass our laws and close Klingle Road by fiat in the Mayor's Budget Support Act next Tuesday without a road closure hearing. We cannot let her do this. Please attend the hearing and testify that:

The citizens deserve a separate hearing.

This is not a simple alley closing, nor is this any simple road. Ask the Council to support a separate full blown hearing--where notice is given to the ANC's, to the abutting property owners, mailings are sent out, signs are put up, to follow the Procedures Act of 1982 DC Code 9-201 et seq. The citizens of DC must have an opportunity to be allowed to testify why Ms. Cheh's amendments are not in the best interest of the District and that the District shouldn't close the street.

District could face litigation for violating the dedicated purpose of the road

The 1885 conveyance from the private owners to the District stated that the conveyance was for use of the land for a public highway forever that failure to use Klingle Road as a public highway might result in loss of the property by the District.

The will of the people have spoken

It was quite clear that the will of the people of the District of Columbia was adopted at the last hearing when the Council voted 8-5 to support the repair and reopening of Klingle Road for motor vehicle traffic and establish a storm water management plan. Cheh, Brown and Alexander don't care and will change that all next week if we don't step forward Thursday.

Cheh said the democratic process should support her amendments.

It would be unfair and almost criminal to have a new junior council member destroy all the hard work both sides have worked and fought long and hard for many years without a fair and democratic process due us by law. Further, the residents of the District of Columbia need to know what is at stake here. Also, let the DC Council know that we deserve a separate hearing and they should vote to withdraw Cheh's amendments!

REMEMBER: The World Belongs to Those That Show Up! www.repairklingleroad.org

2. And this from the Sierra Club:

We urgently need your help in the next few days. After nearly two decades of battling to stop the reconstruction of a road through Klingle Valley, an arm of Rock Creek Park, we are very close to achieving our goal. Last week, Councilmember Mary Cheh was successful in striking $2 million in city funding from being used to begin rebuilding Klingle Road and instead redirected funding to a hiker/biker trail through the valley, as we've advocated for years. The good news is that her amendment passed by a 3-2 vote in committee (with the support of Councilmembers Kwame Brown and Yvette Alexander)!

While we are very pleased with this vote, the full D.C. Council will vote on the city budget on May 13, and we expect that Councilmember Jim Graham will try to reverse this vote and seek to restore funding to rebuild the road. As a step in that direction, Councilmember Graham has scheduled a hearing about Klingle Valley to be held this Thursday, May 8 at 6:30 pm.

We ask you to help us by taking one or more of the following actions:

(1) Sign up to testify at the hearing on "The Proposed Reversal of the Council's [2003] Decision to Repair and Reopen Klingle Road"

The hearing will be held on Thursday, May 8 at 6:30 pm in the Council Chamber at the John A. Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Ave. NW.

You must sign up to testify no later than Wed., May 7 at 5:00 pm by contacting Jonathan Kass at 202-724-8152 or jkass@dccouncil.us. Witnesses will be permitted up to three minutes for oral testimony. It is important that we show up in large numbers to ensure that the undecided councilmembers know how many citizens support saving the park and building a trail rather than a road.

(2) Send an e-mail message to all 13 Council members urging them to support Councilmember Cheh's plan for a hiker-biker trail in Klingle Valley -- not a road.

By sending a single message to membersonly@dccouncil.us your message will be distributed to all 13 councilmembers. Even if you have sent a message to oppose road funding in recent days, it is important that Council members continue to hear from us before the full Council votes on the budget on May 13.

(3) Join us at the hearing whether or not you plan to testify.

We are making plans for a rally outside the Wilson Building before the hearing, and we also need people to wear "Save It - Don't Pave it" stickers inside the hearing room to demonstrate the strong support for saving Klingle Valley.

Please do whatever you can to help us achieve this long-sought victory! We can save Klingle Valley!

To get involved or for more information, please contact Jason Broehm (jason_broehm@earthlink.net, 202-299-0745) or Jim Dougherty (jimdougherty@aol.com, 202-488-1140).

PS - For those who haven't seen it, Harry Jaffe had a great piece in the Examiner newspaper last week with some great quotes, including:

"Last month Mayor Adrian Fenty slipped $2 million into the budget to rebuild the road. He acted at the urging of Ward 1 member Jim Graham. Their plan was to bypass environmental reviews and foot the $12 million job without federal funds. D.C.'s environmental brigade manned the ramparts: Led by the Sierra Club, it bombarded the council with e-mails, it set up info tables outside the Wilson Building, it packed the hearings."

"Graham has vowed to keep the road alive, but it might be time for him and the Klingle roadies to wake up and listen to the creek talk 'It's over.'"