The village

Dear Friends & Neighbors of Evermay

By Harry Lammot Belin

August 2008

The following letter was mailed to the community last week by Harry Belin, president and CEO of the Evermay Society. In case you missed it, we reprint it in its entirety:

Words are simply inadequate to express my heartfelt appreciation for your ceaseless support and encouragement involving my Dec. 10, 2007 Special Exception filing with the Board of Zoning Adjustment (BZA) on behalf of the Evermay Society to continue our philanthropic outreach to the nation and the world as America’s Living Room headquartered here at Evermay. I continue to be deeply moved by your willingness to arrange your lives to take time to sit through the very long Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) and BZA hearings with us.

I want to take a moment to give an update to those of you who were unable to attend our most recent BZA hearing on July 22, 2008. The bottom line is devastating.

What we got after midnight, after almost 12 hours in the meeting room, was yet another postponement. We are now scheduled for a continuation of the BZA hearing on Sept. 9, 2008, with no guarantee of closure as we are the last case to be heard in the afternoon, and we are not yet halfway through our hearing proceedings.

This means a decision might be made mid-October at the earliest, after which additional permits and licenses must be obtained. As a result, the Evermay Society, which was forced to shut down all of our non-profit fundraising and event scheduling in December of last year, will not be able to resume full operations until the end of this year at the earliest.

It is disappointing that just a few R Street residents between 28th & 29th Street have so far been able to thwart the will of not only the Georgetown community, but also many of our FANS from across our national capital region and from around the world who have taken the time to write well over 50 inspirational letters of encouragement, not to mention the 150 signatures on a petition in support.

Yet since our first ANC hearing on April 29, the R Street opposition has adeptly maneuvered proceedings into postponement after postponement – 3 in total thus far. The tragic fact is that, given what will now be at least one year of lost revenue opportunities, the Evermay Society cannot continue in its present lockdown status; the financial burden is just too great. Had the proceedings gone the way they were first scheduled, with our BZA hearing of May 15 concluding with a decision in our favor, we were counting upon a start up just after Labor Day which would have allowed us to negotiate a fall season of activities. Clearly that hope has now been dashed.

Be assured that the Evermay Society will continue to campaign to gain a favorable decision from the BZA for our zoning exception. However, in the interim, the Evermay Society must begin to explore every necessary alternative which might provide a solution to our survival and the impasse we face with the opposition. Sadly, as the first order of business, the Society’s present-day operations must cease effective Sept. 1, 2008; and a major portion of our valued staff complement must be terminated effective immediately. I will keep you posted. Enjoy the remaining days of your summer and please know how much your friendship and support has meant to those of us here at Evermay who have had to endure these past months of trial and tribulation.

– Appreciatively,
Harry Lammot Belin
President and CEO