Metro’s efforts to rebuild the Green Line will continue over the weekend of May 4-6.
The work will begin at 10 p.m. Friday, May 4 and continue through system closing on Sunday, May 6.
Buses will replace trains between Greenbelt and Fort Totten to allow for NTSB-recommended switch replacement. The following 4 stations will be closed:
Greenbelt
College Park
Prince George’s Plaza
West Hyattsville
Green Line trains will operate normally between Fort Totten and Branch Avenue.
Metro is advising that customers using shuttle bus service should add up to 50 minutes to their travel time. Customers who normally drive and park at Greenbelt should consider using New Carrollton Station on the Orange Line as an alternate.
It’s been a while residents in north College Park have been discussing the issue of pedestrian safety at the Rhode Island Avenue (between Edgewood and MD 193).
The NCPCA also discussed this issue in the past several times.
The City and the County will soon have another opportunity to discuss this matter further. Based on my research, I’ve compiled a list of possible ways to make safe crosswalks that may be suitable for Rhode Island. Please see these options below and let me know your thoughts on them.
1. Raised, textured crosswalk.
2. Brick crosswalk.
3. HAWK signal When not activated, the signal is blanked out. The HAWK signal is activated by a pedestrian push button or passive pedestrian sensor. The overhead signal begins flashing yellow and then solid yellow, advising drivers to prepare to stop. The signal then displays a solid red and shows the pedestrian a “Walk” indication. Finally, an alternating flashing red signal indicates that motorists may proceed when safe, after coming to a full stop. The pedestrian is shown a flashing “Don’t Walk” with a countdown indicating the time left to cross
4. In-Street Signs
In-street crosswalk signs can be installed at un-signalized pedestrian crossings to make the crosswalk more visible and increase driver yielding. They are placed at the crosswalk on a median, but should not obstruct the pedestrian path of travel.
5. Flashing yellow beacon: Cheaper than hawk lights but somewhat debatable. The County put in a pedestrian activity flashing yellow beacon at the Trolley Trail where it crosses Paint Branch Parkway. That introduced a relatively unfamiliar traffic feature which made pedestrians feel a false sense of security. That was because motorists view a yellow light as a signal to yield not stop. At least 3 people were hit.
At tonight’s Council worksession, the City Council will discuss the latest status of economic development in the city. Typically, this includes a report on the businesses that have come to the City over the past year, the existing vacancy rates and market rate rents in various commercial areas, and recent efforts to attract quality commercial and residential development to the City.
City’s economic development coordinator Michael Stiefvater will be on hand to discuss the report with the council. This has been a tradition that the City’s Economic Development staff provides an annual report on development within the City.
The report will summarize much of the same information that is included in the quarterly economic development reports sent out by staff.
The City has also been working on a tax incentive program to attract businesses to the City. ow. The City currently has a small business sign matching grant program.
Also, the County and the State have a number of business incentive programs that our City’s economic development team help prospective businesses with. You can find more about those programs here.
At tonight’s meeting, the Council will likely receive a written report from staff that we will send around, but if you would like past copies of the quarterly economic reports, you can find them here at the City’s economic development site.
Early this month, the City received a letter from the University of Maryland Department of Transportation Services (DOTS) asking the City to complete a short questionnaire about the impact of UM-Shuttle services on the City as well as the future needs of our community from DOTS.
The City pays several thousands dollars every year to UMD DOTS, so that residents can ride these shuttles free. Residents must register with the City before they ride UM-Shuttles.
The questionnaire serves as an opportunity for the City to give input to DOTS as part of their ten year strategic plan update.
The questions include:
(1) How the City sees DOT’s current impact?
(2) does it have concerns with Current Shuttle-UM service areas and/or bus stop locations, current hours of Shuttle-UM service and current volume (amount) of Shuttle-UM bus traffic
(3) What does the City envision for DOT’s future role, Is the City interested in more, less, or roughly the same amount of Shuttle-UM commuter transit service in the future?
The request for City input about DOTS services aligns well with timing of the City’s FY 2013 Action Plan and the City’s desire to improve public transportation. Council has the opportunity to discuss larger public transportation goals while determining answers to the DOTS questionnaire.
In tomorrow’s worksession, the Council will discuss to generate answers to the these DOTS questionnaire. It will also talk about of the City’s future transportation-related needs, how the City can obtain them, and who else needs to partner in the effort to accomplish the goals.
Maryland Day – the University of Maryland’s popular – and free – open house – will celebrate its fourteenth anniversary April 28 from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. in College Park.
Now one of the top annual events in the state of Maryland, the university welcomes the entire Washington, D.C. region to have fun, learn and explore.
This year the University will be highlighted as a 21st Century Land Grant Institution that has a major impact not just in the Washington, DC region but in the state, nation and world!
All over Maryland’s 1250 acre campus, visitors can “Explore Our World” with tours, exhibits and demonstrations. The university is broken up into six specific areas of exploration, learning and fun: Science and Tech Way, Ag Day Avenue, Arts Alley, Sports and Rec Row, Biz and Society Hill, Terp Town Center.
Maryland sports fans can head over to Comcast Center for autographs with their favorite Terp men and women’s basketball players. Terp gear will also be on sale. The men’s football team — including coach Randy Edsall – will be signing autographs at Byrd Stadium. There will be no red-white football scrimmage on Maryland Day this year.
The National Archives, NASA, NIST and Smithsonian Institution will all be at Maryland Day with exhibits, information and fun.
Visitors can pet animals at the campus farm, instruments at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center and insects in the Plant Sciences Building. Explore majors and college financing, talk to our deans, be part of an archeological dig or get blown away in our famous wind tunnel. Alumni find Maryland Day is a great way to reconnect with campus.
Maryland Day is family friendly with many fun events for young children on McKeldin Mall. Don’t miss a scoop of Maryland ice cream at the Dairy — the express line means quicker service! Admission and parking are free, and there will be free shuttle buses to and from the College Park Metro and on campus. Visitors are encouraged to take Metro. Navigation is easy with the help of complementary activity maps that include descriptions of all events. Plan your day online at http://www.marylandday.umd.edu/ or email questions to: mddayhelp@umd.edu.
Our FY2013 budget book is a very large 415 page document. While some will (thankfully) take the time and pain to go over this huge book, I assume most of us will not have the time to do the same. This led me to think of a shorter version of our budget book that is easy for our residents to understand instead of going through this big complex document.
With the help of my colleagues on the Council and our City staff, I’ve prepared a short preview document that highlights the most important information about our budget. It does not include all the details, thus please feel free to ask any question you may have.
Also, please attend our Budget Town Hall meeting tonight at 7pm at Davis Hall. Five College Park Council members (Wojahn, Kabir, Afzali, Catlin and Mitchell) will be there to answer your questions. Seee you all there.
Letter showing City Attorney's opinion on PGPOA petitions
At last night’s City Council meeting, City Attorney Ms. Suellen Ferguson reported that the recently submitted petitions by the Prince George’s Property Owners’ Association are “Legally insufficient”.
City received two charter referendum petitions on March 22, 2012 meeting, when the Council referred the petitions to the attorney for a legal opinion whether he subject matter of each petition is appropriate for a proposed charter amendment placed on the ballot.
Ms. Ferguson said her opinion was based on a number of reasons.
She said the form of petition does not comply with the requirements of the City Charter, as they do not include each signer’s City district. Board of Election Supervisor Jack Robson also spoke later to the Council on this ballot format issue.
She also said, according to the City Charter, the amendment must embrace only one subject, whereas the PGPOA petitions were based on two subject.
Finally, she said the amendment has the effect of transferring the Council’s ability to set tax rate to voters ans this is an unreasonable limit on the Council’s legislative power. The tax revenues would eventually hamper the City government that it would be unable to perform teh duties required by state law, she added.
You can see the reports from Ms. Ferguson and the Board of Elections Supervisor here and here respectively.
At tonight’s regular meeting, the Council will introduce an ordinance to amend FY 2012 budget to fund public works modular building replacement and City Hall expansion.
In FY2011, the City had an undesignated surplus of $1,405,053. We have previously identified the need for capital project funding for the Public Works Facility modular building replacement and the proposed City Hall expansion.
In order to reduce the need for borrowing for these projects, staff is proposing that we transfer $1,400,000 from the unassigned (formerly known as “undesignated”) reserve to the C.I.P. $1,000,000 should cover the estimated cost of the modular building replacement, including removal of the existing modular building and site preparation.
The remaining $400,000 is a deposit toward the City Hall expansion. The FYI3 requested budget provides an additional $500,000 for the City Hall expansion project.
This budget amendment reduces the unassigned reserve as a percentage of the FYI3 requested expenditure budget from 38.84% to 29.18%.
A public hearing will be held on the proposed Ordinance at 7:20 p.m. on the 8th day of May, 2012.
[Council member Wojahn and I will miss the public hearings tomorrow night and possibly the beginning of the meeting, because the County public hearing on the Park and Planning budget will be taking place at the same time. We will be there to testify in support of earlier funding for a feasibility study for the North College Park Community Center, as well as for a number of other projects to improve Birch Field and other College Park facilities.]
The Prince George’s Property Owner Association (PGPOA) recently submitted a series of two proposed Charter amendments, which, if legally valid and if they include the appropriate number of valid signatures, will appear on the ballot for an upcoming City special election.
At the April 10 regular meeting, the Council approved these petitions so that they can be reviewed by the Board of Elections Supervisors and the City attorney.
Accordingly, the City Attorney Ms. Ferguson is currently reviewing these petitions to determine whether they meet the legal requirements under State law for a municipal Charter amendment, including both the requirements of Article 23A of the State Code and case law interpreting these provisions.
Ms. Ferguson will report on the results of her review at tomorrow night’s council meeting. The Council will not vote on Ms. Ferguson’s report.
Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.
City has been working hard to make our budget transparent to our residents. Here are a few steps it has taken towards that goal:
After the City publishes its draft budget on its website, the City Council holds two long worksessions to go over the parts of budget allocated to different departments. These work sessions are broadcast live and are also recorded for residents to watch at a later time.
Additionally, the City holds public hearing for residents to make comments on the budget.
City Council members also often hold town hall meetings with their constituents to discuss the budget. This year we will be holding our meeting on this Thursday at 7:30pm at Davis Hall.
Internal audits on City’s financial situation are performed periodically, as needed, to ensure fiscalcompliance and safeguarding of City assets. Maryland state law and the City’s Charterrequire that an annual audit be performed by independent certified public accountants inaccordance with generally accepted auditing standards. The auditing firm is selected byand directs its report to the City Council.
Because of the transparency and excellence in City’s budget presentation, The Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA) presented its Distinguished Budget Presentation Award to City for its annual budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2011 and ending June 30, 2012 (fiscal year 2012).
This weekend, the City of College Park, Maryland-National Park and Planning Commission, College Park Arts Exchange, and donors Brita FilterForGood., Polar Bottle, LunchSkins, and ecoartware.com will be organize a City wide Earth Day festival
The Festival starts at 9 a.m. with the Volunteer Project. Volunteers will remove invasive species and trash from the Paint Branch Stream off of Cherry Hill Road in College Park, MD.
Signing up for the project guarantees your Brita FilterForGood. or Polar Bottle reusable water bottle. The Festival continues at Duvall Field, 9601 Rhode Island Avenue, College Park, MD, with performance and film in the evening.
On April 22, the Festival starts at 12 noon and continues until 8 p.m. at Duvall Field and features more performance, environmental and leadership speakers, information tables, the opportunity to speak with your representatives, and green vendors.
To sign up for the Volunteer Project and to get up-to-date details about the Festival, go to http://cpearthday.wordpress.com/ and follow us on Twitter @cpedfestival
The City currently employs 9.22 full time contract police officers in its pay roll (8 hrs a day). This means at any given time during 24 hours a day, we should be seeing nearly 3 (3.07 to be exact) contract police officers patrolling our entire city. We also have 2 full time PGPD officers who patrol the entire city in two patrols beats – Beat 7 in north and Beat 6 in south College Park. This means we have about 1.25 police officer patrolling our streets in each district, 24 hours a day.
Additionally the PGPD has some 8-10 officers who patrol in a much larger area, stretching from IKEA in the north to Eastern avenue in the south but there is no guarantee that they would be in one particular neighborhood in one given time. There is also a fairly large number of UMD police officers who patrol the concurrent jurisdiction areas in south College Park. North College park is not part of this jurisdiction,
Per the residents survey, there appears to be fairly good number of residents who have not-so-good views of the current contract police program. For example, only 52% of city residents consider the effectiveness of the contract police program is either good or excellent, the rest consider it either poor or fair. Unless we lower our bar of measuring excellence and consider the numbers in the “fair” category lie within the satisfactory range, the survey results seem alarming to me.
This leaves me to question why residents think this way. Is this because we do not see enough police patrol cars on our streets or we think they are nor efficient enough to earn good marks. I will appreciate your feedback on this. You can email me at fkabir@collegeparkmd.gov or leave a comment at the bottom of this page.
WMATA | Fazlul Kabir May 3, 2012 | 
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