DC Council’s Budget Delivers
Important Wins for Ward 5
For Immediate Release:
Washington, DC - Today, the Council of the District of
Columbia took its first vote on the Fiscal Year 2017 Budget. Importantly,
the Council’s budget delivers significant investment in Ward 5 and
maintains Councilmember McDuffie's pledge to return funds to several
public safety programs such as restoring the more than $5 million in cuts
to social and legal services for victims of crime, including domestic
violence, sexual assault victims and abused and neglected children.
Moreover, the Council’s budget provides the capital necessary to
implement the plan to close DC General but does so by using District
owned facilities, ensuring that the sites are located in safe areas
conducive to housing children and families, and saving the District
millions of dollars.
W Street Trash Transfer Station
One of the most noteworthy investments made in Ward 5 is
the Council’s proposal to locate the District’s Archives facility at the
current location of the W Street Trash Transfer Station. A decades
old nuisance and blighted property, the W Street Trash Transfer Station
has caused Brentwood and Ward 5 residents as a whole to suffer from
noxious fumes, vermin, dust and trash. The Council’s budget invests
a total of $77.5 million in the Archives project and similar to
Councilmember’s previous efforts once again authorizes the Mayor to
acquire the property by eminent domain.
“I want to thank my colleagues on the Council for
supporting my efforts to shutter the W Street Trash Transfer Station,”
said McDuffie. The District’s Archives is sorely in need of a new
facility, and the site of the W. Street Trash Transfer Station is ideal
for its relocation. Ward 5 residents deserve investments in
government facilities such as the Archives which can attract visitors and
spur economic investment along Brentwood Road.”
Today’s legislative action authorizing the use of eminent
domain for the acquisition of the W Street Trash Transfer station does
not guarantee that property will be acquired. The Executive must
either negotiate a price with the current owners or initiate a civil
action in Superior Court to acquire the property. “I urge the Executive
to move forward with the Council’s plan to locate the DC Archives on the
site of the W Street Trash Transfer Station,” stated McDuffie.
New G9 Bus Route
Another important investment made by the Council is the
$1.04 million in funding for a new G9 Bus Route. Travelling from
downtown to the neighborhoods and businesses along Rhode Island Avenue
has long been a challenge. As residents, WMATA and the District
Department of Transportation (DDOT) have noted, there exists a “gap in
bus service between the entrance to the Rhode Island Avenue Metrorail
station and 4th Street NE. This gap means current riders east of the
Rhode Island Avenue station are not able to take a single-seat transit
ride into downtown Washington.”[i]
“The proposed G9 bus line will service Rhode Island Avenue
from 14th Street, NW to just beyond the District’s border at Eastern Ave,
NE, thereby filling that gap and alleviating congestion on the G8 and
other bus lines that offer partial service to the Rhode Island Avenue, NE
corridor,” stated McDuffie. “Additionally, a G9 line will allow
public transit users easy access to the many retail businesses and
restaurants that are opening along Rhode Island Avenue, one of the
District’s Main Streets. Finally, there is the potential that a G9
line may alleviate some of the traffic on Rhode Island Avenue by
providing residents with a new direct option to reach downtown.”
Edgewood Recreation Center Expansion
Edgewood Recreation Center, another project championed by
Councilmember McDuffie also saw increased funding. In 2014 the
Council advanced the Edgewood Recreation Center project from Fiscal Year
2019 to Fiscal Year 2015. At the initial community meetings the
Department of General Services presented proposals for the new facility,
but indicated that additional funding would be needed if the residents
wanted a gymnasium. Today, the Council approved the proposal to add
an additional $4 million to the project to ensure that the facility will
also include a gymnasium, ensuring that the District will finally deliver
on the more than a 10-year-old promise to build a suitable recreation
center for the residents in and around Edgewood.
North Capitol Street and Florida Avenue Triangle Park
The Council’s budget also sustains the proposal by
Councilmember McDuffie and the Committee on Transportation and the
Environment to create a new capital project at the North Capitol Street
and Florida Avenue Triangle Park. As residents know the park is often a
mixed scene of alcohol consumption, drug use and litter. This new project
provides DDOT with funds that can be used to creatively enhance the park,
and allow for DDOT to enter into a memorandum of understanding with a
community serving group to program the space.
Committee on the Judiciary
As it relates to our judiciary and public safety agencies,
the Council’s budget makes critical investments by supporting victims of
crime, taking a public health approach to crime prevention, intervention,
and response, and enacting groundbreaking fire and emergency medical
services reforms.
To address crime, the Council’s budget adds more than 70
new sworn officers and civilians to the Metropolitan Police Department;
and, restores more than $5 million in cuts to social and legal services
for victims of crime, including domestic violence and sexual assault
victims and abused and neglected children. Moreover the Council’s
budget funds several provisions of the “Neighborhood Engagement Achieves
Results Amendment Act of 2016”, including:
- Felony crime data
collection;
- Stop and frisk and
use of force data collection and the Comprehensive Homicide
Elimination Strategy Task Force at the Metropolitan Police
Department;
- Analysis of
officers’ use of force and body-worn camera operations by the Office
of Police Complaints; and
- A public health
information campaign on the impacts of violent crime at the
Department of Health’s new Office of Violence Prevention and Health
Equity.
The budget additionally supports the Department of
Corrections’ efforts to assume control of the Central Treatment Facility
and provide transitional services to returning citizens.
In supporting this budget today, the Council will also be
taking significant strides toward fire and emergency medical services
reform by:
- Funding a
significant portion of the District’s presumptive disability law for
our fire and emergency medical services personnel, including cancer
treatment costs;
- Creating a new
task force to analyze gaps in EMS delivery, 911-call volume and
diversion, and community-based paramedicine strategies;
- Requiring regular
certification of all fire and EMS apparatus according to national
standards and training for all 911 and 311 call takers and
dispatchers; and
- Requiring
stringent reporting on the privatization of ambulance transports by
the Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department for basic life
support.
The budget will go for its next vote before the entire
Council on Tuesday, May 31, 2016.
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