| KHCA is a non-partisan neighborhood organization dedicated to representing the interests of all homeowners and residents of the
Kensington Heights neighborhood in maintaining and enhancing the quality of life in our community
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KHCA General Meeting – October 21, 2020 at 7:30 PM
(Zoom ID will be emailed next week)
We’ll be holding a general meeting for KHCA on October 21, 7:30-9:30 pm -- and, like everyone else it will be held on Zoom (Zoom ID to be announced). We won’t get to see each other in person, but we hope this will make it even easier for everyone to join us and catch up a bit in a virtual sense.
The general idea is talk about some current issues, and then just have a bit of an open discussion about other concerns that people have that KHCA may be able to help with. We will start with a short presentation about the various initiatives on the ballot this November. Then, we have invited Montgomery County Police Community Services Officer Katie Beard to the meeting and asked her to talk about her role, the general public safety and crime situation in this area and so forth. In addition, there are several recent local issues that she can address such as:
"someone tore down my election sign in my yard,"
“what can we do about that abandoned car parked in front of my house?”
“can’t anybody stop the loud cars and excessive speeding on Georgia and Plyers Mill?”
After that, we will just open up for general discussions. One topic might be what people plan to do for Halloween. Apparently, “Scary Peary” Street in Kensington has decided not to set up this year since it creates crowds that would be difficult to control, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we have to ignore Halloween altogether! At the least, we can think about our own streets – I’m thinking about “Terrifying Torrance” for my own street and maybe “Mystifying McComas?” We can get some sense by then on whether we can hand out candy in a socially distanced fashion on the night itself. In the meantime, how about taking pictures of the best decorations (including yours!) around you and send them to Karen Cordry and we can show them at the meeting! And, we can hear anything else that you want to talk about in this very strange year where we still want to “stay safe and stay connected.”
Election Coming up Soon – “MAKE YOUR PLAN TO VOTE”
Surprise – bet you didn’t remember there was an election! (Hah!) But, yes, as we all know there’s an election coming up and it’s about as important a one as we’ve ever had the chance to participate in. Here’s a great website to check everything about your registration, to get your absentee ballot if you want to participate by mail, and to get information on the early and regular in-person voting dates. New registrations must be submitted by October, 13; requests for mail-in ballots must be received at the Elections Board by October 20, and ballots must be postmarked or put in a designated drop box by 8 pm on November 3. Click here for more details.
By the way, when requesting your ballot, ask for a paper one, not one that is emailed to you – turns out the email version can’t be scanned in and creates a lot more work for the election staff, which isn’t something we need this year. (There is a drop-box by the Wheaton Library, so that’s probably the most convenient place for us to leave our ballots – and be sure they are properly received and collected.)
As of October 10, the County has begun submitting and tabulating ballots received by mail or drop-box so we can count on those being ready to add to the in-person totals when the polls close on November 3. So, with luck, we won’t have to wait long to find out the final totals for this very important election that we should all be participating in. Early voting will take place from Monday, October 26 through Monday, November 2 (including on Saturday and Sunday) from 7 am to 8 pm every day. Here’s a link for all of the early voting centers, state-wide. Again, the closest one for us is just up the road at the Wheaton Library. So, vote early or vote on Election Day – whichever you prefer, but remember, VOTE!
Vote Tuesday, November 3!
Early voting: October 26 - November 2, 7:00 am - 8:00 pm
See what the actual ballot will look like here and more details here.
Block Captain Project
We are working on recruiting captains for each block or two in KHCA and reaching out, through them, to put together a fully up-to-date directory for KHCA so we can get information out to everyone and, again, help make sure we all “stay connected.” We have asked some people but not everyone has been able to participate and we have some blocks with no one identified yet. The basic idea is for the captain to drop off a paper form and collect the responses so we have a complete directory now – and then just keep an eye out for new residents to welcome them to the neighborhood and update the directory information. If you’d be able to help out on this project (and you haven’t already responded), please email Karen Cordry, KHCA President, by Oct. 30, and we’ll get back to you when we’re ready to have the forms distributed. Thanks so much for helping out. This is a small project that can pay big dividends!
KHCA Membership
Next time you’re online, please don’t forget to go to the KHCA website and make sure you’re signed up as a member – and have paid your yearly membership dues. We’re a very thrifty organization, dues are only $10 per adult household member (to a maximum of $30), but for the small sum, we’re here to stay on top of issues for you. Please join up and help us keep doing that job for you.
>> Stay Safe -- Stay A Little More Closely Connected -- And Stay Civil
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| KHCA Summer Picnic – September 19
With the year of COVID, we had to revise our standard annual picnic format – we couldn’t do the bounce house this year, but instead we had an incredibly generous offer from our fabulous resident band, the Nighthawks, to do a concert for us. And, with the also-generous offer of power cords from the nearest neighbor, they were able to rock the neighborhood. KHCA provided the burgers and dogs, attendees provided some additional fixings so we all ate well, and then set up our (socially distanced) chairs and blankets and settled in for a great hour plus of music. The County has a 50-person limit on gatherings, and, by our count, between the audience and the band, we think we ended up scraping right up against the limit, which is a great result! Thanks to all who attended and, for those of you, who couldn’t be there, we will have links to more photos and even to a short video or two so you can get a flavor of the afternoon. Maybe next year we can do both!
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Wheaton Decorations
In lieu of the usual fall Wheaton parade, this year we had a different event – the Path of Pyramids. Hopefully, you got a chance to see some or all of these colorful additions to the scenery while they were up in the last few weeks. Thank you to everyone who helped make the Path of Pyramids a reality! Wheaton's Path of Pyramids displays were wonderful! One resident took the tour and made a virtual YouTube video tour. The video includes one of the artists who provides a brief talk about her creation. The event is now over, but you can still see it here: https://youtu.be/eJC-yX0AeSQ
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COMMUNITY NEWS & CALENDAR
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| >> Other Montgomery County News
Montgomery County Civic Federation Meeting – Oct. 12, 7:30 pm
The County is in the middle of a major review of its policy on its overall planning, both for general growth and development, and of its specific policy on correlating subdivision growth and approval with creation of the necessary infrastructure support, including primarily educational facilities. Last month, the Civic Fed held a program on the subdivision staging policy (“SSP”) see [link to MCCF website and newsletter discussion of topic]; this month, on October 12, the Civic Fed’s program will be on the County’s General Plan. The result of these two policy reviews will guide much of the County’s growth and capital spending for the next several years so making sure County reaches the right results will be critical. We urge you to sign on to this meeting and we will be able to make comments on the proposal to our Council member at our KCHA General Meeting on October 21, see above.
Access to the current newsletter and information about logging in to the Zoom meeting available here.
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History Chair: open
Safety Chair: open
**Elections were held in November 2019.
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