Tag Archives: Maret School

May 6, 2010 · 10:00 am

The Plans For the Jelleff Sports Fields

As discussed at length here at the Georgetown Metropolitan, over the winter the District entered into an agreement with the private Maret School for the school to renovate the dilapidated Jelleff sports fields in exchange for an easement granting the school exclusive rights to use the field during prime hours for a decade. Today, the Old Georgetown Board will be considering several design elements of the plan, including the proposed lighting and the fences.

GM expressed strong misgivings about the manner in which the District Department of Parks and Recreation entered into an agreement with Maret. It appeared to be, essentially, a sole source contract without a genuine public request for proposal and GM argued that the deal should be scrapped and reopened for bids. The ANC agreed.

DPR didn’t.

While GM still is disappointed in all the parties involved in the crafting of this agreement, it’s a done deal and, frankly, it’s time to move on. The sooner the field is built, the sooner children can benefits from it and the new pool (and, not for nothing, the sooner Maret’s ten year easement extinguishes). In the meantime, GM is pleased to report that since the confrontational ANC meeting, Maret has reportedly been a good partner with the neighbors and the primary stakeholders in the field, including Stoddert Soccer, Hardy Middle School and the British School. And in defense of Maret, GM should say that he learned that while the agreement was being formed Maret reached out to CAG to include them but was essentially ignored. (If only it had somehow related to drunk Georgetown students maybe CAG could have been bothered to care). Continue reading →

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January 27, 2010 · 10:01 am

ANC February Preview: The Hangover Edition

Last month the Old Georgetown Board did not meet. This had the fortunate by-product of making January’s ANC meeting short and sweet. Unfortunately, as the bender is followed by the hangover, so is the short ANC meeting followed by the tedious marathon.

The February ANC meeting must address all the Old Georgetown Board applications that have been queuing up for the last two months. As a result, we’ve got 15 different projects to trudge through next week. But nestled in that morass are several interesting items.

The first item that jumped out at GM as soon as he saw it is Brooks Brothers’ application to redo the Pottery Barn storefront. At the meeting we’ll find out whether Brooks Brothers is going to occupy the entire building or just one of the sections (the building has the Pottery Barn and the old Smith and Hawken spaces). Also, we ought to get a decent idea on when the store will open up.

The second item that ought to cause some interest is the presentation of the plan to renovate the Jelleff sports fields. GM has weighed in on his opinions, but at the meeting the Department of Parks and Recreation and the Maret School will be present to explain/defend the proposal. Continue reading →

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January 21, 2010 · 10:01 am

City Turns Over Jelleff Fields to Maret

As you may have read from the Current, the city recently entered into an agreement with the Maret School concerning the Jelleff sports fields. Much is unclear right now about the merit of the deal, however, what is clear is that the manner in which it was entered into is very alarming.

For those of you who don’t read the Current (which is the only newspaper covering this issue, and seriously, you really ought to read the Current) two weeks ago the city held a press conference at the Jelleff Branch of the Boys and Girls Club to announce the finalization of the $20 million agreement for the city to buy the club’s Georgetown property along with two other properties in the city. In a passing mention the Mayor disclosed that the city entered into a deal with the Maret School to fix up the Jelleff fields in exchange for giving the school semi-exclusive rights to use the fields. Carol Buckley of the Current diligently followed up on that point. Nikita Stewart of the Post, on the other hand, thought the most newsworthy element of the press conference was the Mayor’s opinion on Gilbert Arenas.

Here are the details of the plan as GM understands them:

  • The Maret School will make improvements to the fields. These improvements will likely involve converting the entire field to artificial turf. This would allow maximum flexibility for the field’s use.
  • Maret will spend up to $2.5 million although the memorandum of understanding between it and the city does not require any specific amount. The only requirements are that Maret construct an artificial turf field that accommodates baseball, soccer and lacrosse. The designs must be shared with, but not necessarily approved by, the Department of Parks and Recreation.
  • Maret shall provide maintenance of the field.
  • Maret will get semi-exclusive use of the fields.
  • This exclusive use will last for ten years.

The Current has described the semi-exclusive hours generally, but the actual hours contained in the MOU are even more than the Current discussed. They are:

  • All day (8:00AM – 4:00PM), seven days a week for the last two weeks of August.
  • 3:30 – 5:30 every weekday during the fall and spring (that’s September through mid-November, and March through mid-May respectively).
  • On Wednesdays they get the fields starting at 2:00 over that same time period.
  • Five full Saturdays each fall and spring (the MOU doesn’t give hours for the Saturdays) Continue reading →

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