Mount Pleasant DC Forum

[rothmani]

PlayStart needs your help! and, in return, we will give you a completed and improved
playground, with a cedar ramp instead of an ugly ditch, well-maintained playground equipment, and a year-end tax deduction.

Last November, we had paid all our outstanding bills, and we had enough
money left over to finish the remaining construction.

But finishing the construction has been stalled for over a year by one
bureaucratic delay after another. I have chronicled only some of the
holdups--they were mostly too boring to make good stories. Finally we got to the point where we could begin the last phase of construction --and we discovered we don't have enough money for what we want and need.

A year later, the price of the construction materials has doubled and
tripled, due we're told to hurricanes and the Chinese building boom.

In addition, we'd prefer to use cedar instead of pressurized wood for the ramp, since cedar requires no chemicals to keep it from rotting. We'd like to insure the long-term safety of the playground equipment with a maintenance contract. We had negotiated a 25 percent discount on a prepaid 10-year maintenance contract--only to find we do not have
enough money to pay for it (the playground equipment manufacturer agreed to do the first maintenance inspection at the reduced rate anyway, and they are giving us more time to come up with the rest of the money.

Finally, by the time the construction is done, we will certainly want and need to add more WoodCarpet around the equipment to keep it safe–and to keep DCPS from making good its threat to replace the Woodcarpet with poured rubber.

All this means we will need at least $5000. You know how this works. Two of you could each donate $2500, and we'll be done. If five give $1000, we'll be home free. If 50 people give $100, that will do it.

Please give. You can send checks to PlayStart/Main Street, 3138 19th St., NW, WDC 20010. Or go to our website, www. PlayStart.org, click on How You Can Help, and donate by credit card. Our neighbor Jamie Treworgy and Trewtech.com are once again covering the credit card costs, so all of your contribution will go directly to PlayStart. Contributions are tax-deductible.

If each of us gives as much as we can, our PlayStart playground project will be complete and a testimony to what neighbors working together can accomplish.