Week in Review: Flower Avenue, Pepco and Moms

Another week down here in Takoma Park. Here's the news in case you missed it.

In road news, it looks like the . Residents don't have much faith in the State Highway Administration when it comes to Flower Avenue. The city will take care of Flower Avenue better than the state, many of them said at Monday night's Takoma Park City Council meeting.

"It's clear that SHA will never be a good steward for the community," Flower Avenue resident Maura Parker said.

The council was gauging interest to see whether the  from the state and take over the road's maintenance. Several residents wanted to make sure the city would fix the right of way on the east side of the street, which has fallen into disrepair. Others wanted safer sidewalks for those exiting and waiting for busses along the road.

, U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen called for a change in leadership at Pepco in a recent letter to the utility.

The letter, sent Feb. 1 to Joseph Rigby, president and CEO of Pepco Holdings, Inc., comes as criticism of Pepco’s reliability heightens. Thousands of residents were left without power after the Jan. 26 snowstorm, many for days. And Thursday, legislators  in Annapolis that would create reliability standards for utilities including Pepco and impose fines for failing to meet the standards.

“'Enough is enough’ — that is the collective sentiment of my constituents in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties regarding Pepco’s abysmal handling of the recent storm and power outages,” Van Hollen wrote.

, Diane Bartz wrote her first parenting column for Takoma Park Patch. The column addressed how kids don't dress appropriately for the weather.

"I am the mother of the 10-year-old boy you may have seen recently, when the temperature was about 30 degrees in a stiff wind, walking by himself from our house in North Takoma to downtown Takoma to get his haircut. In shorts. And a sweatshirt," Bartz wrote.