Sunday, July 09, 2006

Germantown and Salemtown Groups Come Together on Morgan Park Improvements

Friday I attended a meeting between representatives of the Historic Germantown Neighborhood (HGN) and Salemtown Neighbors (SNNA), discussing the Germantown group's efforts to renovate certain aspects of Morgan Park beyond what Metro has in store. This meeting was a follow-up to our discussion/debate about the plans at the February SNNA meeting.

The meeting gave us the opportunity to chat at length about both support for and misgivings about HGN's objectives for the park. We seemed to reach a consensus that Salemtown residents should have participation in and influence on the proposed changes. Therefore, HGN plans to change the committee to a Germantown-Salemtown park committee, pending approval by HGN officers. The committee already has three sub-committees focused on general design, plants, and playground. We also heard the news that the Parks Department told community leaders that it would be working on greenway connectors to Morgan Park this summer, but that there is no evidence that those efforts have commenced at this late date.

Also, S-townWife's dream of a Friends of Morgan Park formation is being realized. HGN has already collected $25.00 to that end and their leaders are exploring the possibility of constituting the fundraising group under HGN's non-profit umbrella.

These are all signs of progress on behalf of a worthy cause. And collaboration between these two groups is very good news for the North End in general.

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