Unfinished renovations say: don’t get too comfy

Ward 6 D.C. Councilmember Tommy Wells visited the Federal City Shelter to have dinner with female residents of the Community for Creative Non Violence (CCNV), the largest of several service providers for the homeless in the building, located at 2nd and D streets NW. Wells chairs the council’s Human Services committee, which oversees operations at shelters. A press release for the Oct. 22 dinner announced that “CCNV has recently completed construction of new units and capacity for homeless women.”

But on a tour of the building before mixed greens and beef stew, Wells, along with Human Services committee director Adam Maier and Department of Human Services (DHS) director Clarence Carter, discovered some unfinished work — and they weren’t happy. Aside from delays (construction had been expected to end in May), pipes were leaking, kitchens were without electricity or hot water, and in two locations exterior walls are largely unfinished, allowing outside air to breeze into the building.

“I’m raising Cain about it because the guys are going to freeze,” said men’s floor director David Mincey, anticipating winter. (Mincey faces constant harassment because of his Dallas Cowboys hat — “I’m the sheriff on an Indian reservation,” he said.)

In one hallway, water dripped on Carter moments before Maier noticed a pigeon cooing in the ceiling.

“A 7-year-old child would know this is not acceptable,” said an angry Carter. He said he wanted a list of all the facility’s problems and would assign somebody to hound the general contractor, Keystone Plus Construction.

Reached by telephone, Keystone President Carlos Perdomo said he was surprised to hear that D.C. government officials were grousing about the renovation because representatives from both DHS and the Office of Property Management, Perdomo said, have been closely overseeing the work all along. Carter was on his first visit to the shelter since his appointment as head of DHS earlier this year.

“I suppose it’s just politics,” said Perdomo. He said that when his team uncovered rotted metal studs and mold in the exterior walls, they had to alert the District, initiating a lengthy process between designers and bureaucrats during which shelter residents have had to relocate from one floor to another. “It’s frustrating when you’re in the trenches and people come in and complain,” he said. “This is my life. This is my baby.”

Wells called the renovation “spotty,” but beyond that, he said he is more concerned about non-facilities issues. He said some elderly people in the shelter should be in nursing homes, and he was disappointed to meet people who have been living at CCNV for over five years.

“I don’t expect apartment-living here,” he said.

Preschool library extreme makeover

The coalition of parents, school employees and neighborhood activists calling itself the School Libraries Project announced on Oct. 24 that it had nearly reached its goal: The complete remodeling of eight libraries at middle and elementary schools around Capitol Hill. The Peabody preschool by Stanton Park hosted a ceremony in its brand-new library, which boasted new computers and a colorful paint job.

“We have exceeded all rational expectations for success of this project,” said Todd Cymrot, co-chairman of the project. He seemed exhausted and relieved.

Vince Morris, who has two kids at Peabody, said he had been at the library assembling some of its new Ikea furniture with other parents the previous Friday. Morris, a former New York Post reporter, recently announced his departure from Sen. John Kerry’s (D-Mass.) office to work for Blue Engine Message & Media.

He said that this particular library had been grungy and without a working bathroom for years, and that the turnaround should serve as a model for the rest of the school system.

“A library should be a special place,” he said.

The project’s sponsors and volunteers include an array of architects, developers, businesses and nonprofits, chief among them the Capitol Hill Community Foundation.

Brandon Eatman, principal of the Capitol Hill Cluster School, which includes Peabody, Watkins and Stuart Hobson, said the new library at Stuart Hobson has made a dramatic difference at the school. “Over the course of the year students have turned their backs on recess,” he said. (Perhaps that helps explain why the school’s fledgling football team didn’t have enough players for the last several games of its season.)

The ceremony’s centerpiece was a big green ribbon, which Project co-chairwoman Suzanne Wells said is used to unveil each new library. Cymrot, Wells and Mayor Adrian Fenty had the help of a kindergarten class in attempting to untie it.

“As the person on top of the food chain running the school system these days, it really is heartening,” said Fenty. It must also be a relief to know that some schools have a community rallying around them. Hopefully the District can keep the ball rolling.

You may now kiss the bride — that is, unless you have syphilis

Hillscape attended a wedding this weekend and learned that the bride and groom had to undergo blood tests for syphilis before getting a marriage license in D.C.

The requirement is a relic of the World War II era, when syphilis was incurable and young men were hurriedly getting hitched before heading off to war.

The newlyweds thought it was totally ridiculous — another errand to clog up an already-hectic pre-wedding schedule.

Across the country, these test requirements are coming off the books. Massachusetts dropped the blood-test requirement in 2005. Oklahoma and Georgia eradicated it in 2004, having been preceded by West Virginia in 1999, Pennsylvania in 1997, Virginia in 1984 and Kansas in 1981. Only a meager handful of states aside from D.C. still have the requirement.

And what does the District have to show for sticking to its guns? Lots of syphilis! According to a 2005 syphilis report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The District outranked every state and territory for syphilis, with a rate of 20.6 cases per 100,000 people, versus a national rate of 3 for every 100,000. A 2003 report by the D.C. Department of Health warned that “Syphilis is back!”

But of all people, why target vow-makers in the battle against an STD?

The requirement has recently attracted the indignation of a few local blogs. A Washington Post story in 2002 noted that experts consider it an “irrelevant vestige,” and a senior physician in the D.C. Department of Health said the city should reconsider the law. Contacted by Hillscape, Art Spitzer, director of the American Civil Liberties Union of the National Capital Area, said, “I suppose a lunacy test might be even more important.”

The D.C. Department of Health did not comment for this article.