A community meeting is expected to be held sometime in January to discuss the cleanup project, after only a handful of neighborhood residents turned out for a Nov. 30 meeting with park service officials at Kenilworth Elementary School.

"We want to make sure the community has a part in the planning. We want residents to tell us what they want there," said park service spokeswoman Janet Braxton.

Braxton said Ward 7 residents who have commented so far about the 45-acre park want less emphasis on ball fields than originally planned. She said residents expressed a preference for softball and baseball fields over soccer fields, since they believe people from outside the neighborhood would be more inclined to use soccer fields. Residents also have requested greater development of picnic areas and space for walking along the Anacostia River, she said.

A draft environmental assessment for the park project is expected to be available to the public Feb. 15. The current project timetable calls for construction to begin in June 2000, with completion of improvements to the park by the spring of 2001.

Kenilworth Park is technically a part of the 703-acre Anacostia Park. The former landfill comprises about 200 acres of Anacostia Park, adjacent to the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens at Anacostia Avenue and Douglas Street NE. The park service is focusing its development efforts on a 45-acre tract bordered by Watts Branch and its unnamed tributary, the Potomac Electric Power Co. plant on Benning Road and the Anacostia River.

Federal efforts to clean up Kenilworth Park ran afoul of city environmental laws in 1998 and were halted after the city cited the park service for allowing a contractor to dump "objectionable" fill materials at the park. Since that time, the park service has been working with the Environmental Protection Agency and private contractors to clean up the site. Handouts at the Nov. 30 community meeting said 150 truckloads of concrete, asphalt and metal debris have been removed from the park.

Kenilworth Park was an open burning dump from 1942 until 1968, when a child was burned to death there and open burning was stopped. The area continued to be used as a sanitary landfill until 1972. A 1984 plan for the park, developed with public input, was only partially carried out.

Park service officials said residents may drop off their comments about Kenilworth Park development at National Capital Parks-East Headquarters at 1900 Anacostia Drive SE or at the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens Visitor Center. Comments also may be faxed to (202) 690-0862, "Attention: Kenilworth Comments." Officials said comments received through the end of February will be considered in the planning process.

Copyright 1999, The Common Denominator