City to Renew UM-Shuttle Bus Contract
At this Tuesday’s worksession, the City Council will discuss renewing City contract with the UM Shuttle service.
Since 2008, the City of College Park and the University of Maryland Department of Transportation Services have had an MOU that allows College Park residents and City employees to use the Shuttle UM.
The City issues permits at no cost to the residents and employees. The City currently pays $6,000 annually, which allows 1,000 permits to be issued. Since the program’s inception, the City has issued 794 permits, including 71 permits since January 2015. City staff are meeting with the Transportation Services Director and will inquire about ridership data.
The availability of this service is advertised in the Municipal Scene, the Cable channel, and the City website. City staff will contact via email current permit holders to estimate how many are current Shuttle UM users, the frequency of use, and suggestions to increase the number of users.
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Sheriff’s Office Warns Against Phone Scams
I’ve received the following message from our Sheriff’s office warning our residents against phone scams impersonating Chief Assistant Sheriff Darrin Palmer.
(WARNING: DO NOT GIVE CALLERS YOUR MONEY)
Upper Marlboro, MD… The Sheriff’s Office is continuing to hear from citizens and residents that they are receiving calls from scam callers who claim to be from the Sheriff’s Office, telling them that they owe money to the IRS, they have outstanding warrants, or some other law enforcement actions, but that they can pay to resolve the matter. To get a new and secure phone line, hire now a circles phone plan.
Neither the Office of the Sheriff, nor any other law enforcement agency, asks citizens to take such an action.
In the most recent scams reported to the Sheriff, the scammer claimed to be Chief Assistant Sheriff Darrin Palmer calling to notify the citizen that they had to pay a fine to avoid further action. These calls can appear to be coming from a local number or a 1-800- number and may actually be from out of state or even out of the country.
“We will continue to notify citizens and residents each time we get these calls,” said Chief Assistant Sheriff Darrin Palmer. “There are simply no circumstances in which the Sheriff or any law enforcement agency would make calls demanding payment, period. We’re telling residents that they should never give, wire or mail funds to anyone who calls saying anything like this. These are predators, and their actions are pure and simple scams,” he said.
Previous scams have included calls saying a citizen had failed to show up in court for a red light camera ticket, or they failed to appear in court or for jury duty, or the caller was calling from the IRS on Sheriff High’s behalf. None of these is true and would simply never occur.
We continue to ask for the media’s assistance in getting this message out and we appreciate everything
they have done to report these scams. Any resident who receives such a call can contact the Prince George’s County Police at 301-772-4420 and file an incident report.
“We urge citizens who get these calls to call our office immediately, even if it is for nothing more than
reassurance,“ said Colonel Palmer.
For more information contact the Communications and Public Affairs Division at 301-780-7354.
Active Aging Week: Registration Begins Next Week on Sept. 1
In celebration of International Active Aging Week, the Department of Parks and Recreation (M-NCPPC) is offering over 30 free senior activities located throughout the County to encourage seniors to stay active and connected to our community. These events are taking place Sept. 28-Oct. 3. Registration begins next week.
Please check out this brochure to find more.
New Flashing Pedestrian Light Coming near Sunnyside Skate Park
Good News! A new flashing pedestrian light (RRFB) will be installed on Rhode Island Ave at Odessa Rd near the Sunnyside Skate Park. The equipment has been ordered and the light is expected to be constructed as early as late next month or the latest by this November. The City Council allocated money in its FY2016 budget to buy and install this additional crossing light. Our City engineer has recently got the approval from County about the location of the new light on Rhode Island Avenue, which is a County road.
Currently, we have 3 RRFBs on Rhode Island Avenue in north College Park – one near Duvall field, one at Hollywood Road and another at Muskogee st. We hope the new RRFB at Odessa Rd. will help residents and their children cross Rhode Island avenue safely to the Sunnyside Skate park.
We’ll keep you posted as we find more information about status of the new light. Thank you!
County Pledges Another $20M to Purple Line
Prince George’s County will contribute an additional $20 million toward Purple Line construction costs, while Montgomery County leaders have agreed to offer up another $40 for the rail line, College Park Patch report.
Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III said Friday leaders have agreed to increase the county’s contribution by $20 million in exchange for construction of the Purple Line starting in Prince George’s County. Also, the state has agreed that the primary command center will be located in the county, he said.
Previously, Prince George’s County had committed $100 million toward the project.
The increased county pledges come after Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan cut state spending on the proposed 16-mile light rail line extending from Bethesda to New Carrollton. Current estimates to build the line stand at $2.4 billion.
Reviving College Park’s YouthWorks Program
Recently, I came to know that the youth / teens program that used to connect College Park’s youth seeking temporary work has not been active anymore. The program was mainly run by the staff working at the Youth and Family services.
According our staff, the program an for about 15 years, but has been inactive in recent years. The program was run mainly by staff through phone calls etc. and too much staff time was involved in this process. In the mean time, the YFS staff has been assigned with other programs such as Lakeland STAR program etc. and it looks like we’ll need more staff time now to bring the program back again.
Berwyn Pedestrian Bridge Update
Staff had a call today with WMATA regarding the Berwyn pedestrian bridge. WMATA has determined that at this time it is best to only replace the span that was knocked down. If they were to replace both spans, they would also be required by ADA standards to replace the ramps on both sides. That requirement would essentially trigger designing and constructing a new bridge. WMATA may replace the bridge in 3 – 5 years, so for now they will just have the contractor replace the span that was knocked down.
They expect that the repair will occur at the end of October or in November. If there are changes to that timeline, we will let you know. Staff will put some information about the replacement span, including images on the City’s website under Engineering soon.
Please let us know if you have questions.
Getting to Know Your Neighborhood with the Prince George’s Zoning Rewrite Team!
Thursday, September 17, 2015
7:00 – 9:00 P.M.
Help College Park School Teachers with School supplies
Neighbors: Please make certain that our teachers at Hollywood and Paint Branch Elementary Schools have all the supplies they need for the new school year. Below is a list of supplies needed.
- Post-It notes,
- Sharpie flip chart markers
- Colored Sharpie markers
- Highlighters
- Red pens
- Card stock
- Crayons
- Glue sticks
- Packs of index cards (5 to 10 items)
- Pencils and Primary Pencils (large with no erasers)
- Colored Copier paper
- Safety scissors for children
- Scotch tape
- Staple remover
- Vertical chart paper
- Copier paper
- Vis-à-vis markers
- Colored construction paper (large
- and standard size)
- 3 x5 card boxes (5 to 10 items)
Donations can be dropped off at the following locations until August 29th- College Park Youth, Family, and Senior Services (Monday –Friday 9:30am -6:30pm)
Davis Hall (Monday thru Friday 7:30 am – 4pm)
College Park Community Library (MTW-7-8:30 pm., TWTh- 1-4 pm, Weds, Sat 10-1)
City Hall (Monday thru Friday from 8 am until 7 pm, and on Saturday from 1 – 5)