DC Government

Photo by PoPville flickr user Eric P.

“The DC Jail will be having an Open House on Saturday April 23rd from 10a-4pm. This includes tours of the facility. You can find details here. Not sure if they’ve had one previously but seems like a unique opportunity.”

You can see all forum topics and add your own here. If you are having trouble uploading your question please email me at princeofpetworth(at)gmail Please Note this is NOT an events calendar.

On Tuesday (one day after ATVs were spotted all over town) we heard about an appalling incident where ATVs and dirt bikes cornered an ambulance with a NICU patient on the way to Children’s Hospital. Thankfully the patient was OK but it really highlighted just how bad the ATV situation has become from time to time. Even if it’s not super common and even if it’s a “few bad apples”, the lawlessness can no longer be ignored. Yesterday the Metropolitan Police Department issued a press release about:

“Chief of Police, Cathy L. Lanier and agency officials will host a joint press conference at MPD Headquarters to address operations of off-road vehicles on public roadways.

ATTENDEES: Metropolitan Police Department
Prince George’s County Police Department
Maryland State Police
Maryland National-Capital Park and Planning
Arlington County Police Department
Alexandria County Police Department
Virginia State Police
United States Park Police
District of Columbia Office of the Attorney General
United States Attorney’s Office”

Updates when their plan/approach is released.

Photo by PoPville flickr user quemac

From a press release:

“The District of Columbia (DC) Department of Health (DOH) announces the 2016 Enhanced Mosquito Surveillance and Control Plan for trapping and testing adult mosquitoes in all eight wards in the District. Trapping will begin on April 4, 2016, and continue through the summer and fall through the first frost; this expands the surveillance period to start two months earlier than previous years. Trapped mosquitoes will be tested by the Department of Forensic Sciences (DFS) for the following viruses that can be transmitted by mosquitos: Zika, West Nile, Dengue, and Chikungunya. Currently, there have been three confirmed cases in the District related to international travel. There have been no confirmed locally acquired cases.

“These program enhancements are critical to ensure that we are protecting the public health and safety of District residents. The increased surveillance time will also allow us to readily identify when local transmission of the Zika virus could occur in the District and to get a more comprehensive picture of how the Zika virus could impact our jurisdiction,” said DOH Director, Dr. LaQuandra S. Nesbitt. “As always, we are strongly encouraging residents to eliminate water filled spaces in which mosquitoes breed, such as old car tires, lawn figurines, poorly draining rain gutters, discarded cans and saucers under plant pots.”

To reduce mosquito populations throughout the District, DOH will place insecticides that target the juvenile larval-stage of mosquitoes (larvicides) in areas of standing water and catch basins. Targeting larvae in these areas will kill mosquitoes before they develop into adults and can bite humans. (more…)

From the Mayor’s Office:

“Potholepalooza is the District’s spring campaign to repair damaged roadways across the city.  This year, the city is committed to making repairs under the standard 72 hour response time.”

From DDOT:

“Residents and commuters are encouraged to call, go online, tweet, or e-mail to submit requests for pothole repairs (see details below).

Residents can also Track Pothole Repairs.

How to Report a Pothole

Residents and Commuters can notify DDOT in a variety of ways:

1. Call the Mayor’s Call Center at 311,
2. Use the Online Service Request Center at 311.dc.gov,
3. Visit DDOT’s service request website http://ddot.dc.gov/potholes
4. Tweet to twitter.com/DDOTDC, Use the hashtag #potholepalooza
5. Email to Potholepalooza 2016.
6. Use the District’s DC311 smartphone application.
7. Visit, like and post a comment on Potholepalooza on Facebook.com“

Photo by PoPville flickr user Phil

“Dear PoPville,

As you know it’s the time of the year when the DC government mails new property assessments. Not unexpectedly, my tax is increasing by the maximum allowable this year, like last year and the year before that. I understand prices are rising in the city, but what incenses me is the lack of services I actually get for my property tax. I’m not sure how many people know this, but if you live in a building that has 4 housing units or more, the city doesn’t pick up your trash. Your building has to arrange for private trash pickup, paid for by a portion of your condo or coop fee.

Our 4 unit building pays about $140 a month for trash and recycling pickup, $1680 a year. If we have bulk trash, we have to pay extra to the private trash company for each instance and the price depends on the size and weight of the item(s). Periodic bulk trash collection is a service owners of rowhouses receive. (more…)

Photo by PoPville flickr user hellomarkers!

“Dear PoPville,

So we got a “Notice of Correction” on our DC Income Taxes that eliminated all of our legitimate exemptions (me, spouse, and kids); as a result, DC OTR is now saying we owe almost double than we were supposed to get back.

We called our accountant who said that DC OTR had an error — which apparently hit quite a few people — and OTR +++should+++ be issuing correction (to their initial (erroneous) “correction”) notices soon, but still it is troubling to have a tax bill hanging out there even if it is wrong.

Anyone else get an erroneous notice like this? It seems wild that they could sent a letter like that without any real explanation (you have to do the numbers yourself to see where the “correction” is), and only give you a phone number and an address, but no real instructions on how to correct.

Any other ideas on how to address? Calls to the number listed on the OTR site were not helpful.”