WASHINGTON — A recent WTOP story on D.C.’s 40 boundary stones — which showed that many are in various states of disrepair — inspired some Prince George’s County firefighters to clean up the area around one stone.
Known as NE3, the stone sat amid broken beer bottles and other trash on the Maryland side of Eastern Avenue. At nearby Chillum Fire/EMS Station 844, firefighters went to see those dreary conditions for themselves after seeing Will Vitka’s report on Facebook.
“You have a worn-out path. There are tree roots. There was a couple smaller trees and weeds that were growing next to the stone,” said fire Capt. Danon Ushinski of the Prince George’s County Fire Department.
“So we were able to do the best that we could just to take all that out, all the trash and even around the tree that is next to it.”
The crew then enlisted the Hyattsville Home Depot, which donated soil and mulch for the spot.
It was only an hour’s work, but “it looks a lot better,” Ushinski said. (Check out the gallery above to see the site’s makeover.)
Moving forward, firefighters will maintain the site, Ushinski vowed, and they may reach out to the Daughters of the American Revolution to coordinate care.
“We’ll go by every so often and make sure that it’s clean, because it’s an interesting piece of history,” he said.
WTOP’s Michelle Basch contributed to this report.
