Evening star., 1934-10-05
Protest of Three Women
Against Alice Deal Mud
Prompts Decision.
APPROACHES ARE HELD
IMPOSSIBLE IN RAINS
Mrs. Leslie Wright, Mrs. Gerald
P. Nye and Mrs. Wilbur La Roe
Compose Group.

The Commissioners today agreed to
call a conference of the various Dis
trict agencies having control over
street Improvements in the vicinity of
the Alice Deal Junior High School
with view to correcting as soon as
possible the muddy conditions which
now make the approaches to the
school virtually impossible during
rainy weather.
This decision was reached immedi-
ately after a hearing given by the
Commissioners to a committee of
three women of the Forest Hills sec
ton in Commissioner Melvin C.
Hazen's office. The committee, COM
posed of Mrs. Leslie Wright, repre-
senting the school; Mrs. Gerald P.
Nye, representing the Alice Deal Home
and School Association, and Mrs. Will
bur LaRoe, representing the Forest
Hills Citizens Association. Mrs. Nye
Is the wife of Senator Nye of North
Dakota.
Women Cite Conditions.
In their protest the three women
vigorously insisted that the uncom-
pleted section of the Fort Drive
washed thick layers of mud and silt
into the temporarily paved portion Of
the highway Immediately in front Of
the school. Since this is the only
approach to the building, they said,
pupils cannot get into the building
without wading through mud, and
parents who bring their children to
school in automobiles frequently mire
their machines trying to get away
from the building. They criticized the
placement of the building on Fort
Drive as terrible judgment" and said
that the present conditions to which
they object have existed and have
been cited by themselves for three
years.
Commissioner Hazen agreed with
the committee that the Alice Deal
Junior High School never should have
been placed to front on the proposed
Fort drive and said it was done so
against the wishes of the Commits
sioners and the Board of Education
at the 1nslstence of the National Cap
ital Park and Planning Commission.
Commissioner Daniel I. Sultan said
he has wondered why the school house
was erected on a high-speed boule-
ward and Commissioner Hazen replied
Lord knows why they did it."
The committee of woman COM
plainants told the Commissioners they
had been advised that the park drive
project was not a District of Columbia
responsibility and that therefore no
District building agency could be held
responsible for the condition.
Speaks for Commission.
Speaking on behalf of the Park and
Planning Commission. John Nolen,
lr., declared that the Park and Plan
ming Commissions work was COM
pleted when it drew the plans for the
routing of the street and the general
layout of park areas proposed for the
area. He advised the Commissioners
that most of the rough grading Of the
fort drive west of the Alice Deal
School had been completed, but that
it was abandoned before completion
'at the critical stage"-before proper
drainage could be installed-when it
was AAPoSSAs4c W scI 1uoic 4dUOi
through the various emergency works
agencies last Winter.
1t was after this wide difference Of
authority and responsibility was
shown that the Commissioners de-
cided to call a conference of all
agencies concerned in any way. They
advised Mrs. Wright, Mrs. Nye and
Mrs. Laroe that in such a confer
ence when you ladies are not here"
we can knock heads together better
than We could while you are here.