Terawana Keys-Bowman has long been on a mission to help some of the poorest residents of Charles County.
As the former president of the Western Charles County Community Association (WCCCA), Ms. Keys-Bowman proposed and chaired a project to get portable toilets and service for them to families who needed them. Several Nanjemoy landowners have neither modern plumbing in their homes nor the financial resources to install it. Some of the toilets were provided and serviced by Sonny’s Porta Jons. Others were on loan from individuals. The community pulled together to help out these families and the project worked well – until recently.
Keys-Bowman recently learned that the portable toilets were being re-possessed because an unpaid balance of $92 remained neglected for months. The Bay Net has not yet been able to determine why the project seems to have been abandoned by the WCCCA.
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Keys-Bowman chose not run for WCCCA president last autumn. But before she left office, she helped secure two grants to ensure the continuation of the portable toilet project. As far as she knew the funds for the portable toilet project were supposed to continue being paid for by the WCCCA. She discovered the toilets were gone when the residents came home and found them gone without notice. Unable to access the WCCCA funds herself to pay for the past due amount, she began a desperate search to find a way to help these impoverished residents have a most basic necessity.
After losing a potential donation for the project because the donor thought county regulations forbade use of portable toilets for more than six months, Keys-Bowman consulted a number of people to discuss the legalities of long-term porta-john use. In the end, the outhouses made sense as a permanent solution and she began phoning shed companies to find one who could make them.
“I was calling these shed companies and some of them were laughing when I asked if they could make outhouses,” Keys-Bowman told The Bay Net.
She eventually persuaded Carvell’s Wood-Work of Bryantown who built and delivered the outhouses to Nanjemoy for $1500. The outhouses still sit on a lot where they were delivered at Taylor Neck and Port Tobacco roads. The bill is due, the outhouses can’t be returned and above all, there are residents who need them, along with lime, hand sanitizer and toilet paper. The project needs donations to pay the construction bill and a way to get the outhouses & supplies to the families who need them.
The Bay Net will keep you posted as to the progress of this situation. In the interim, you can contact Ms. Keys-Bowman at gcbbabe@aol.com or 301 743-2126 to arrange to help. Or you can send your tax deductible donation to:
WCCCA Board Member
Terawana Keys-Bowman
4875 Pisgah Marbury, Rd.
Marbury, MD. 20658
Heather Bartlett is TheBayNet.com’s Waldorf and Arts Correspondent.
In her other life, she’s an
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