Month: February 2010 Page 2 of 3

Sorry for the late notice – Kim Lugo, the City’s Neighborhood Watch Coordinator has sent this message canceling tonight’s meeting at the City Hall.

However SATURDAY FEB 20 at CITY HALL 3 TO 5 PM will be a intro to Neighborhood Watch and BLOCK CAPTAIN TRAINING SESSION please come and bring your neighbors!!!!

See you there and thank you for supporting Neighborhood Watch of College Park. All persons interested in Neighborhood Watch are encouraged to attend.

Being an avid biker, I found this interesting.

weBike is dubbed as the “next generation bike sharing system at the University of Maryland, College Park.”

The University and the City are currently pursuing a number of possible avenues to develop bike-sharing around the City.  Last fall, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments submitted a grant proposal for a region-wide bike-sharing program that would include College Park, and look to integrate the City with the programs already in place in the District.  The WeBike program was developed by a couple of recent U-MD graduates to provide a simple way for students to engage in bike-sharing.  The owners approached me shortly after the Council of Governments grant application went in, and were interested in working with the City to expand their program throughout the City.

In tonight’s council’s session, they’ll make a presentation on the program.

Wow! Two Neighborhood Watch meetings in 3 days!

There will be a neighborhood watch block captain training on Saturday, Feb. 20, at 3 pm, at City Hall.  We tried to get it at Davis Hall, but it was unfortunately booked at that time.  This is a great opportunity to get involved with Neighborhood Watch and find out what it takes to help protect your block from crime. (courtesy of NCP listserve).

Don’t get cofused –  The one on the 17th is an information session and update about the recent criminal activity in north CP, and the one on the 20th is a regular neighborhood watch block captain training.

The Neighborhood Watch will have a meeting for all College Park residents and Business owners to update you on the current crimes. Wednesday February 17th City Hall Council Chambers beginning at 7:00 pm until 8:30 parking passes will be given inside from the front counter.

Please mark your calendar.

For further information, please contact the City’s neighborhood Watch Coordinator Kim Lugo kslugo@yahoo.com

This Winter Alert message came from the City’s public works this morning. [via NCP listserve]

Property owners, occupants and merchants are reminded of the City requirement to remove accumulated snow and ice from all walkways, driveways, parking lots and other areas used by pedestrians or automobiles. The owner or occupant of any property that abuts the sidewalk must clean public sidewalks of ice, sleet and snow for their full width.  It is required that snow and ice be removed within the first eight (8) hours of daylight after snowfall stops. These requirements are listed under City Code Sections 157-6(B)(10) and 141-5(A).

Though City code enforcement officers may not cite all such violations immediately after a storm, failure to comply with this regulation in a timely manner could be used as evidence by anyone injured in a fall on or adjacent to your property if you are sued for such injuries.

Be prepared! Keep snow shovels and salt ready for the next storm, and plan to have help available if necessary to make your walkway safe as soon as the snow stops falling.

Though most of our residents know these rules, I wonder how many of them, especially the elderly ones,  will be able to follow them when we are currently having epic proportion of snowfall in the region. Two days ago, a few of us went into the neighborhood, helping out the neighbors in clearing out the sidewalks. Unfortunately we could help only a few of them – digging through a knee-deep amount of snow took us a lot of time.

Noenetheless, if you *absolutely* need help in clearing out the sidewalks, please feel free to let me know – I’ll try my best to get volunteers to help out.

Snow on Edgewood Rd.

We’re into the third day since the big snow storm hit our area, yet the city streets are still hazardous to drive. Most of our streets are still full of snow.  There have been several incidents of car being stuck in the middle of the streets.

The City has been trying to make all the city streets at least “passable”. Yesterday I saw one plow truck cleaning the Niagara Rd. However major streets such as Edgewood Rd. still need plowing.

The same applies to the streets owned by the county, Rhode Island Ave. for example.

I checked with the Public Works yesterday and was assured that cleaning our streets is on the top priority list. They also ask residents in “moving abandoned cars from the streets which prevents the plows to get through”.