Northwood News ♦ October 2004

President’s Message

By Charles G. Pritchard

We are about to terminate the 2003-2004 operational year of the Northwood-Four Corners Civic Association (NFCCA) and embark on a 2004-2005 cycle.  In review of the last year, I will note that I did not get the job of President of the association by election but as a matter of succession when the elected President had to resign because of personal changes when he and his family were faced with the possibility of a change of address.  During the time he served, Vince Jankoski showed considerable skill and leadership, perhaps more than I ever achieved.  My basic problem was a lot of other jobs, being newsletter editor for a pamphlet that had environmental organizations, and the Montgomery County Civic Federation.  These projects and our own civic association seemed to take most of my time.

Luckily, I was blessed with a lot of skilled assistance.  The Vice President, Jim Zepp, and wife Carole Ann Barth, helped with the administrative details and also pitched in with the issues raised by the North Four Corners Park, organized the annual clean up of the Lockridge Tributary (which feeds into the Northwest Branch), the annual Night Out community meeting that honors our Montgomery County Police Department, and did an enormous amount of work as the main leaders in the ad hoc Party Committee that endeavored to keep the often confusing actions of the Park Department of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission (MNCPPC) and Recreation Department and Mid-County Administrative District to restructure our North Four Corners Park radically and not in our best interest as a community.

Maggie Hawkins kept the IRS off our backs in her role as treasurer.  Michele Frome was an accurate and faithful secretary.  Alan Friedman took on the troublesome and frustrating task of trash collection on our little streetscape mini-park and effected at least a temporary solution.  We lost the Maurano family in midstream.  Our past presidents — Ken Hawkins, Jim Zepp, Mike Diegel, Dave Povtak, Paul Boudreaux — aided us in many ways, providing background for past issues that were never recorded formally.  Jacquie Bokow did a superlative job as our newsletter editor and publisher.  She won accolades for her work from readers both within and outside the Association.

Things did not always go smoothly during my tenure in office.  My effort at doing a public forum on the Intercounty Connector (ICC) fell by the wayside due to a loss of electric power on the scheduled meeting night and arguments by impassioned pro and con advocates.  And one of the biggest and most frustrating projects of the year was the ongoing controversy over the future of the North Four Corners Park.   ■

See NFC Park Story