WNA EXPRESS UPDATE
Summary of Feb. 27, 2018 Meeting
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Spring Clean-up
We will hold our Spring Clean-up on Saturday, April 21, 2018, from 9:00 am to noon. We all start with cleaning up the streets, sidewalks, and alleys abutting our properties. Then we move to the common areas and collectively clean or improve them.
We shoot for 100% participation (rain or shine). It is a great way to get to know your neighbors. There is no sign-up for this. Just meet your neighbors on your street the morning of April 21. If you have time to help with a community task, contact the WNA President for open tasks.
We will likely have a dumpster again this year. It is being provided by one of the developers working in the French Street neighborhood. We need to get the City to waive the dumping fee and we are hopeful this will occur. If not, we may ask for donations at the dumpsite (as the total cost is about $800).
We are also hopeful that we will be able to hire some brick masons to repair some of our tree boxes. If you would like the tree box in front of your house to get priority, please send WNA $50 (the estimated cost) and we will put you at the front of the list. We will not be able to get all of them done this year but hopefully we can continue with this repair during our future semi-annual clean-ups.
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Funk Parade Planning
We have a chance for the City to place one of the music venues for the Funk Parade in our Playground on Westminster Street. It will be held on Saturday, May 12. It was decided at our meeting that this would overall be a plus for our community. Member Nikolas Schiller will try to pull this off (dc@nikolasschiller.com).
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Controlling Rats
Like most of DC this year, we’re doing all we can to control the rat population in our community. We’ve held several community-wide rat-baiting events this year where DC Vector Control ((202) 442-5955) has come and treated all accessible yards for rats. Many of you are also attempting to eradicate the rats by your own methods. Some of them include:
- Simple spring-loaded rat traps – available at most hardware stores.
- Electric rat traps – works where you have elec. current.
- Black boxes that hold rat cube poison – While you can’t purchase bait especially for rates in DC, Pres. Lynn Johnson has some available from Amazon.com (Lynn@Johnsonandpavuk.com).
- Finding active holes and putting rat bait cubes in them – If you want to do this, get some rat cubes (purchased by WNA) from Lynn Johnson.
- Purchasing cans of CO2 – Available at some hardware stores. Need to find an open active hole.
- Purchasing dry ice – same as above. It will kill all rats in the treated hole.
- Putting a half pail of water w/peanut butter rubbed around the top edges of pail.
So what else can we, as a community, do to control the ever-increasing rat population? The most important action we can take is not to feed or water the rats. They will die if we all stopped. Neighbors are encouraged to follow these ten tips.
- Do not put your trash can out until either the night before it is to be dumped or the same morning if you are an early riser. (Also, PLEASE take it back into your yard on the day it is dumped).
- Do NOT overfill your trash can. You should be able to fully close the lid when you put it out. If you can’t, you need to purchase another can.
- Use a plastic bag for your non-recyclable trash.
- Put any cooking oil or other liquid in metal or glass containers with tight lids before putting them in the trash.
- Tie the top of the bag before you put it out. This will keep your trash can clean and the rats from smelling it.
- If you see rats crawling around/over your trash can, pour a little bleach concentration (1 part bleach to 10 parts water works well) in/on/around your trash can.
- Sweep up food remains, litter, and trash that the trash truck spills in the alley or street directly outside your house.
- Remove weeds and debris near buildings and in yards; don’t give rats a place to hide.
- Don’t leave extra pet food out.
- Inspect your basement and house for cracks and holes; seal them with mortar.
- Don’t provide hiding places for rodents; store materials such as lumber and boxes on a rack with a clean, open area underneath. Get rid of unused materials and junk.
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Membership – As you know, your dues are $15/calendar year per household ($5 if senior status) plus 1 hour/month doing volunteer work. A WNA lifetime membership is $100 (that’s right, you only pay onceâ€â€good for as long as you own or live in the area. [It does not waive your 1 hour/month requirement to do volunteer work.]
Regardless of which option you choose, you can either mail or just drop your check off to 914 Westminster (payable to “WNAâ€Â). Your dues are tax deductible as a charitable contribution so it’s a win-win for all of us.
Next Monthly Meeting – We are now meeting every other month instead of every month. The meetings are held on the 4th Tues. of the month. Our next meeting will be April 24, 2018, at 7:00 pm sharp. It will be held in the Westminster Playground if the weather is good; otherwise at 922 Westminster Street, NW (basement).
Enjoy the coming Spring weather and don’t for-get about regularly completing your volunteer tasks on the WNA 2018 Task List.