KabirCares.org

Emergency Broadband Benefit Program

Job and Career Assistance

See Something? Say Something!

This slogan has become so commonplace that many of us ignore it, but the most effective thing a resident can do to help prevent crime and assist police is to report suspicious and criminal activity to 9-1-1.

Tomorrow: FREE Kids’ Dinner

Stop by Al Huda School Friday to pick up free dinner for your child/children.

County Tax Credit Programs

Delta Variant – What You Need to Know

As many of you are already aware, Prince George’s County has reinstated the indoor mask mandate due to the spread of the Delta variant. All residents and visitors over the age of 5 are required to wear masks, even if they are vaccinated. If you like to review the press release, click here.

Additionally, it is critically important that residents of Prince George’s County get vaccinated. If you have not been vaccinated yet, please do so to protect yourself and others from COVID-19. The Delta variant is more contagious and is incredibly dangerous to unvaccinated people. The best way to protect yourself and others from the Delta variant is to get vaccinated.

In order for our students to safely resume in-person learning, vaccination clinics are set up at schools throughout the County. You can find a location by clicking here.

[Source: CM Dernoga’s Office]

Vaccinated, But Don’t Have the Card? Here is What You Can Do

The Health Department will process the request and produce a vaccination card. It may take the Health Department several days to process the request, but once your vaccination card is ready, staff will follow up via email.

COVID-19 Vaccine: Do You Need a 3rd Dose

Tomorrow: Community Meeting on Climate Action Plan

The next virtual community meeting for the Climate Action Plan will take place tomorrow, on August 19th from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM. This is a great opportunity to provide your input to the Department of Environment to influence the focus on the County’s Climate Action Plan. Click the link here to watch recordings from the first two public meetings. To RSVP for the next meeting, click here. Hope to see you in attendance!

WSSC Offers Assisstance to Residents with Water Bills

WSSC Water is urging customers who are behind on their water and sewer bills to establish convenient payment plans before water service turnoffs resume. Turnoffs for delinquent commercial and government accounts resumed on August 1, and residential accounts will resume on September 13.

City Plans Fall Street Tree Plantings

Trees in a College Park neighborhood park

Summer Reading Program to Continue this Week

The 2021 Summer Reading Program was originally planned as a day camp that would provide in-person reading instruction to elementary school children from College Park. Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the regular program is unable to operate this summer. In lieu of the day camp, the 2021 Summer Reading Program will continue to support children’s summer reading skills virtually instead by providing access to books in print and online.

To participate, you will need to register your child(ren) here. Participation is limited to students who reside within the City of College Park. Materials will be provided while supplies last between July 19 and August 6, 2021 and are on a first come, first serve basis. Proof of residency may be required. Support to participating students will be provided by Dr. Ayanna Baccus, Reading Specialist from the University of Maryland.

Each child will receive a Scholastic Summer Book Packet that includes 5-6 books, a journal, an activity sheet, a summer reading postcard, and colored pencils. Packets are packaged individually and organized by grade level, language (English or Spanish), and theme (fiction, informational, STEM, etc.). Additionally, individual EPIC book subscriptions for the remainder of the summer will be provided for each child. The EPIC books website is an online digital library of children’s picture books, trade books, and novels.

This program is made possible through partnership with Maryland National Capital Park and Planning (M-NCPPC). For more information, email families@collegeparkmd.gov.

Update (8/17/2021)  The Summer Reading Program Packets are still available at this time and the City will continue promoting the program past the original time frame because we had additional reading packets left. On a first come first serve basis, elementary school residents may receive an online book library subscription and a packet of books and material for their grade level. We anticipate keeping the link open until this Friday.

If residents have questions they may contact families@collegeparkmd.gov or call the YFS office at 240-487-3550.

Free School Supplies, Backpacks Giveaway

Please Let us know How we may Preserve and Enhance City’s Tree Canopy

We need your help – with ideas on how we can preserve and enhance College Park’s tree canopy.

Tonight, the City Council will hold a public hearing on the proposed tree ordinance. The ordinance is being proposed to address the City’s declining number of tree stock that happened over recent years.

From 2009 to 2018, City’s tree canopy has gone down from 44% to 38%. Based on the declining rate, it’s estimated that the current canopy level is at 37%. This means the City has potentially lost about 43,000 trees between 2009 and now. A small fraction of this loss, unfortunately, was caused by developments (around 2% of total loss). The utility company Pepco also contributed to this loss (around 0.5%) due to their PSC-mandated tree clearance work.

Unfortunately, a vast majority of these losses occurred in the residential neighborhood as can be seen by the tree loss map presented in the 2019 Tree Canopy Assessment report.

Inaction to address the declining loss means the loss will continue and the City may potentially lose another 24,000 trees by 2025.

As part of the City’s 2021-2025 strategic plan, the City Council has set a goal to turn this declining rate of tree stock and add instead 18,000 trees (40% canopy) by 2025. With this goal in mind, the City Council has changed City’s Tree and Landscaping Board (TLB) to come up with a proposal to preserve and enhance City’s tree canopy in the future.

Among several recommendations, the TLB has asked the City to increase the funds for the existing Tree Canopy Enhancement Program (TCEP), and create a new fund called Tree Maintenance Fund (TMF), to help residents with costs associated with tree maintenance and assessment of trees on their properties. TLB also asked to run an intensive educational campaign among residents about the importance of tree preservation and planting and to create a tree registry.

The TLB has also recommended working with the County government to change the tree canopy-related development laws so that the developers must replant trees lost during developments and asked the City to lobby the County so that the residents can take rain check rebates for planting trees on their properties.

Additionally, the TLB studied tree ordinances in other local towns that faced similar issues with declining loss of trees and recommended a tree ordinance. This ordinance includes a proposal to include enforcement and penalties for removing trees greater than 36” in circumference (12” in diameter) or pruning more than 20% of a tree canopy without a permit. The permit program also asks to implement a tree replacement requirement for tree canopy protection policy.

The Council will hold a public hearing on this ordinance at tonight’s meeting, starting at 7:30 pm. If you cannot attend the meeting, please send your comments to the Mayor and Council at cpmc@collegeparkmd.gov before 5 pm today. The City Council will, however, will not vote on this topic tonight. Instead, we’ll have a brief discussion about the next step in the proposed ordinance.

Prince George’s County to Reinstitute Indoor Public Mask Mandate

Due to a continued rise in COVID-19 metrics, Prince George’s County will reinstitute an indoor public mask mandate beginning Sunday, August 8 at 5:00 PM. All residents and visitors over the age of 5 will be required to wear masks in all indoor public venues and businesses in Prince George’s County, even if they are fully vaccinated. If you have not been vaccinated, please do so as soon as possible to protect yourself and those around you: mypgc.us/COVIDVaccine