$13-Billion Budget Treats Georgetown: Hyde-Addison, Canal Fix, New Barge, Bridge Lighting — and Gondola Study

The 2016 D.C. budget, totaling $12.96 billion, has “something for everyone,” as Mayor Muriel Bowser and Councilman Jack Evans said during the annual meeting of the Citizens Association of Georgetown.

Just hours after the District Council approved the biggest budget ever for D.C., Bowser, Evans and CAG officials and awardee gathered May 27 at Sea Catch Restaurant, which is next to the C&O Canal on 31st Street. In fact, the canal did well by the budget: $3 million is slated from D.C. for a general reconstruction and a new cannel barge with matching funds from private sources.

Included in the budget was $35,000 to the District Department of Transportation for a study looking at running an aerial gondola over the Potomac River from Georgetown to Roslyn, Va. This popular favorite of an alternative mode of transportation grabbed headlines immediately with local news outlets. Additional money for the gondola option is required from Arlington County.

More importantly for Georgetown, however, the Hyde-Addison Elementary School construction is now scheduled for June 2016 — $9 million, to start, for a cafeteria and gymnasium. More money will be available in the next budget, as the school project will take two years. This change from a later start time of 2017, which was lamented by Hyde parents, was largely due to persuasion from Councilmembers Evans and David Grosso.

Also, in the budget is funding for lighting projects which will illuminate the undersides of Key Bridge and the Whitehurst Freeway, both of part of beatification programs advocated by the Georgetown Business Improvement District as is the concept of an aerial gondola.

Meanwhile, the council did turn down Bowser’s budget proposal to raise sales taxes and parking garage taxes, but tickets for an expired parking meter will increase from $25 to $30.