Friends of Francis Field

It's official! Friends of Francis Field is now a Park Partner with the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) "responsible for coordinating community support for Francis Field ... as well as assisting in the care, maintenance, and general upkeep of the Park."

The overall goal of the partnership program, as defined in District law, is "to permit private person and organizations to to improve and beautify parks, playgrounds and recreations centers ...."

DPR Director Jesús Aguirre signed the cooperative agreement on June 3, 2013, for as three-year term, which is renewable.

Aguirre is shown at at right with FFF President Anita Diliberto, in a photo taken at Deanwood Recreational Center where Diliberto and other FFF members attended the "First Annual Park Partners Summit" on June 15.

The partnership agreement will allow greater cooperation and communication between FFF and DPR, and will allow FFF to use the field for fundraising events.

FFF has been involved in field improvements since 2006, and raised more than $350,000 in private funds through the zoning process for the fence, benches, trees and other improvements made to the field in 2010 under a master landscape plan approved in 2009.

FFF's current campaign, kicked off in January 2013, is "Let's Make Francis Field Green." The effort to restore the bare dirt sections of the field to healthy green grass within two years is FFF's major goal at present. It will take cooperation between DPR, FFF, the District Council, and the contractors who currently are paid to maintain the field. FFF is also raising additional funds. (Click here to see how to contribute.)

See also the article on this website about the slide presentation given at FFF's annual membership meeting on May 9. That presentation was entitled "Why Francis Field Isn't Green."

"Play DC" Seeks Input on Parks

On June 11, the District's Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) and Office of Planning announced a city-wide study aimed at developing a 10-year "Parks and Recreation Master Plan" that will guide the development of the park system for implementation. The national consulting firm AECOM has been hired to work on the study.

Individuals are invited to comment via a new website, which uses a "social media" format called Play DC to encourage participation.

One FFF member has already made the suggestion that DPR renovate both Francis Field and the school field behind the Francis-Stevens Education Center.

FFF members are encouraged to weight in, or to comment on the post already made by the person identified as "Shand T" on the Play DC website: the link to her post is here. That link is set to expire on June 27.

"Why Francis Field Isn't Green"
Slide Show Presented at Annual Meeting, May 9, 2013

As an introduction to this year's campaign "Lets Make Francis Field Green," members were shown a 12-minute slide presentation at FFF's Annual Membership Meeting on May 9, 2013 at the luxury apartment building WestEnd25.

Titled "Why Francis Field Isn't Green," the talk and photographs tried to explain why school children and others in one of the District's most desirable neighborhoods had to use a field with a dangerous, bare-dirt surface, and particularly after $350,000 in private funds was spent on improvements designed to compliment the resurfacing promised by the Department of Parks and Recreation in 2007.

Part of the explanation, said FFF Secretary Gary Griffith, was the frequent turnover of directors at the Department of Parks and Recreation. There were four during the four-year term of former Mayor Adrian Fenty.

While a landscape plan was approved in 2009, and partially implemented in 2010, promises to complete it were never kept. Shown to the group was a letter from DPR director Ximena Hartsock stating the rest of the improvements were "scheduled to begin in late spring 2010 and completed in 2010." (See slide above.) But that never happened. Hartsock was not confirmed by the District Council to continue as DPR director.

While FFF and the elected Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC-2A) requested in February 2012 that DPR keep the promises it made to fix the field, DPR then said there was no money in the budget for field resurfacing or for construction of the dog park that was approved for the northern section of the field near the swimming pool. A slide of the newspaper report on that disappointment was also shown. (See slide at right.)

FFF board members stated that the goal of the "Lets Make Francis Field Green" campaign was to have a green grass field during term of office of the present ANC members, the present Council, and the present Mayor, since too often in the past the promises made by one administration or director are forgotten by the next.

Let's make Francis Field Green during this administration.

FFF Meeting Schedule for 2013-14
Advisory Board Nominations Open

Friends of Francis Field will expand its advisory board to permit additional representation from the two local schools in our neighborhood, the Francis-Stevens Education Campus and School Without Walls. Nominations are due by September 3, and will be voted on at the Board Meeting of September 10, 2013.

FFF President Anita Diliberto has announced the schedule for major meetings in 2013 and 2014, including the date of the Annual Membership Meeting, when members elect Directors. Locations have not yet been determined, but will be within walking distance of the field. So mark your calendars. Here are the dates:

Sept. 10, 2013:     Board of Directors and Advisory Board
Mar. 20, 2014      Board of Directors and Advisory Board
May 6, 2014         Annual Membership Meeting

Two fundraising events are also being discussed for this year and next.

Still Awaiting Word on Fire House Relocation

As this issue of the website goes on-line, we have heard no news about the plans for the relocation of the West End Fire House. As we reported in our November edition (see article) Francis Field was being considered as a possible site for the temporary fire station while a new one is being built; and there was considerable opposition to using the field for that purpose.

Our request to the spokesperson for the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, made on January 10, has so far gone unanswered. We will update the website with developments as we become informed of them.

See Fire House Relocation article from the November issue of this website.