Jimmy's Ward Report - Sunday, February 21, 2010

Snow Removal Review Task Force: The Council at last Tuesday’s session reviewed our snow removal work during the historic snow storm(s) and throughout the last few months. Our public works employees and city staff worked very hard and we spent a lot of money on overtime and contractors. While our City is only 1 square mile, it has over 15 miles of public streets in the City. We know that there were a lot of problems with how we did the snow removal work. (e.g: not prioritizing removing snow and ice on streets with hills, removing snow from streets by pushing it back onto sidewalks that had been cleared, etc.) There were similar problems in other municipalities throughout the area but that does not mean that we , in Mt. Rainier, should not try and greatly improve our snow removal plan and implementation. The Council decided to set up a Task Force to review our work and see how we can do it better. Some of the issues the Task Force will review are: the city’s snow removal (and salt spreader) equipment; how other jurisdictions did their removal work; how much money was spent on contractors and overtime; if we can supplement our public works forces with volunteers who are trained to run snow equipment; how do we prioritize which streets (beyond the emergency roads) are cleaned.. These are only some of the questions to look into. We hope the Task Force will report its findings sometime in the spring while this winter’s events are still fresh on our minds. There were a lot of good suggestions e-mailed to me and posted on the community list-serve. We need people now to step up to the plate and help us improve our work If you are interested on joining the Task Force, please send me a note. If you have suggestions as to what the task force should look into or on how to improve our work, please send me a note. It was great to see a lot of residents in our community working together. I believe that our City’s employees did their best but we should be able to improve our work and that constructive criticisms are welcome.



Really Speeding!! Chief Scott reported that on February 1st at about 4:30 p.m. the speed camera on Arundel Road recorded a vehicle driving at 80 mph. That’s 55 mph over the 25 mph speed limit! The previous record was 72 mph.



Presentation of Development Plan – Tuesday February 23rd at Bunker Hill Fire Station at 7 PM – Park and Planning and their consultant team will be presenting a draft of the Mixed Use Town Center Development Plan this Tuesday at the Bunker Hill Fire Station. The consultant team met with the Council on Wednesday to get some feedback on their draft plan. I was impressed with some of their ideas about how our downtown area could be vastly improved but am waiting to see specific ideas about how to implement these plans. Our City and its tax paying residents do not have a lot of resources and we have to figure out how to improve our community knowing that we have limited resources. I recently came across a Mount Rainier Downtown Plan that Park and Planning prepared in 1990. Some of the suggestions in the 1990 plan included off-street parking lots screened by plant material, landscaping on the median strip on Rhode Island Avenue to make the downtown area feel and look like a boulevard; large street trees in the downtown area as a way to restore “the image of downtown as an inviting place to shop and visit”. Hmmm. Some of these ideas sound similar to what is being presented twenty years later. This is not a criticism of the vision and the suggested improvements. We just need a plan on how to get there from here.



Need for New Plans for Library/Eastern Star/City Hall Complex: Now that the City has purchased the Eastern Star building, we have to re-think our plans for the library building (3409 Rhode Island Avenue). Earlier plans had envisioned a four story building which would house the library on the main floor, a community room on the second floor, and rental space on the third and fourth plans. But now that the City owns the former Eastern Star building, we are now discussing ways to limit the library building to two floors (and save some money) and connect that building with the Eastern Star building and possibly to City Hall. The upstairs of the Eastern Star building has a large room that could be used for meetings larger than can now fit in the current City hall. On Tuesday we met with the architectural team and asked them to come up with some new concept drawings about how all three structures might be linked together to make for a physically integrated civic complex that also presents an impressive visual statement at our City’s center.



New Coffee House To Open At Rhode Island Ave and 34th St. – Brian Rhoene, who with his cousin Derek Lowery, operates the Delectable Cakery on Rhode Island Avenue has decided to open up a coffee house in the space formerly occupied by the Artmosphere Cafe. The have named it: “SPOTLIGHT COFFEE HOUSE : Where local talent meets the public” You can find more information about Brian and Derek by clicking on the following link:

http://www.hillrag.com/CCN_Website09/publicationhtml/papers/DCN/1109/ConnectRootsCake.html


We are excited that they are opening the store and we hope everybody in the community helps to make the coffee house a success.



City Is Moving Ahead On Plans for former Bass Liquor and Funeral Home Sites: The City is working to hire a consultant to develop a process to get developers to submit bids on the former Funeral Home and Bass Liquor properties that are owned by the City. We are also interested in hearing from people who might want to develop the whole north section of Rhode Island Avenue from Eastern Avenue to 34th St. which includes Thrifty Rental, the Singer Building, the former pawn shop and the ‘circle cafe’ building. The Council felt that it was important to get a consultant to prepare the Requests for Qualifications and Proposals so we could get as many people as possible to submit proposals.



New Speed Humps Planned for 3500-3600 Blocks of Perry Street and 37th Street Between Rhode Island and Perry Streets. – After petitions were signed by residents on those three blocks (the law requires that residents from over 60% of the houses sign the petition) and a public hearing was held, the Council voted to install speed humps on those three blocks. I definitely think Perry Street needs the speed humps as a lot of people speed down Perry St trying to use a short cut from the Circle down to 38th St and on to Bladensburg.



New Business Opens On Rhode Island Avenue - Zoom Business Services has opened at 3311 Rhode Island Ave (next to Party Time Liquor). The business is concentrating now on business and individual tax preparation. But the General Manager, Ramon Roque told me that they would also offer immigration services, translations, help in preparation of wills, and rental space for meetings.



City Hires Company To Process Parking Tickets: The Council agreed to sign a contract with Complus Data Innovations to process our parking tickets and send out notices (as is now required) to remind people they have outstanding violations and that their fines will double if the fines are not paid on time The Chief told us that the processing of these notices was taking 80% of the time of one of the administrative employees of the department. Our parking enforcement officer will get a handheld ticket writer with a built-in printer. The unit will enable our parking enforcement officer to write his ticket on the handheld computer and have the ticket printed by the attached printer. The tickets will then be automatically loaded onto the system through a synchronization process at the end of the officer’s shift. The company will receive 16-18% of all paid violations but it will relieve our staff of this work and we have been told that this company gets a much higher return of paid violations than we are now getting.



Centennial Activities Continue: We had a great kick-off celebration on January 23rd with over 100 people in attendance and a bunch of our elected officials making remarks. We (actually Councilman Knedler) are now working on preparing our Centennial Celebration Program Book with an updated history of our City. We are also planning on an event on the actual granting of the charter for Mount Rainier in mid-April and a program honoring those residents who have lived here over 50 years. We hope to conclude with an old-fashioned ball in December. I have scanned a bunch of old pictures and booklets which you can see at: www.historicalmountrainier.org (I hope to add pictures and have it more organized later on.)

Listing of New Tax Assessments - Wednesday, December 30, 2009

I have not received my new assessment in the mail, but you can see your new assessment (and all the other houses in Mount Rainier) at the Marland Department of Assessment and Taxation database: http://sdatcert3.resiusa.org/rp_rewrite/searchtype.aspx?County=17&SearchType=street .

The assessment on my house seems to have gone down close to 40% !!

But do not get too excited about how much lower your taxes will be. Because of the homestead tax rebate many residents are paying city, county and state real estate taxes on an evaluation much lower than the full evaluation of their houses. (The Park and Planning, Suburban Transit, and Stormwater taxes will go down sharply because it is based on the full assessment of the property.)

I calculated that if the tax rates stay the same, my overall taxes will go down about $250 next year (mainly as a result of a decrease in $450 in my Park and Planning taxes). Unfortunately in 2011 my taxes will go up to what I am paying this year.

If you are not happy with the new assessment make sure you follow the instructions to appeal the new assessment when you receive it in the mail.

I hope everybody has a safe and enjoyable New Year's. Jimmy

Jimmy's Ward Report - Sunday, December 27, 2009

Recycling Monday Dec 28th and then Friday January 8th – Since both Christmas and New Year’s holidays are on Fridays, public works has scheduled pick-ups on 12/28 and 1/8. Try not to miss the Monday pick-up since it will be a long time until the next one.



Snow Removal – The City Can Do Better: I think we were all disappointed in the way in which the streets were cleared after the snowstorm last week. It was a big snow but as I drove around, I found that neighboring communities had clearer streets than us. We could have done a better job especially on Sunday when the streets could have been made better before the start of the workweek on Monday. We will be holding a work session to see how we can learn from our mistakes and make sure we do a better job next time. We want to make sure there is a plan in place that enables us to move quickly to clear the streets as soon as possible.



Gates Installed on Alley Ways at Traffic Circle – The City had gates installed on the alleyway on the North side of Rhode Island Avenue (right near the bus stop) and the alleyway between City Hall and the Eastern Star building. We are hoping to make the walk to the bus stops somewhat safer and do not want people having to worry about people hiding in the alley way when coming to and from the bus stop.



Kick-off for Centennial Celebration – Saturday January 23rd - We are having our kick-off celebration for our 100th birthday celebration on Saturday January 23rd at 11 AM. We plan to have the unveiling of 100th year banners and flags throughout the city. We hope to have other items (such as bumper stickers and small flags) for sale to residents so everyone can participate in our 100th birthday. When we get the list of dignitaries who will be coming to the celebration kick-off we will let everyone know. This is only the first of the activities scheduled for our birthday year.



City Decides on How To Finance Recent Property Purchases - The City decided to pay $400,000 cash for its purchase of the Eastern Star Building (next to City Hall) and to borrow $650,000 for the purchase of the former Funeral Home and adjacent house (on Eastern and Rhode Island Avenue). After considerable discussion at the last work session, the consensus was that while it might be less expensive to pay cash rather than use reserves for the purchases, the City also wants to keep a considerable reserve fund in case of emergency. The reserve fund after the purchase will be down to $1.5 million. It will continue to decrease over the next few years with reduced revenue and added interest payments for the city’s newly purchased properties. The city plans to issue a request for proposals (RFP) very soon to see if we can find a developer who will build on the 33,000 square foot lot (Bass Property and Funeral Home combined). We will be discussing what to do with the properties in the interim at the next Council work session.



Next Electronics Recycling Event – Saturday January 9th – 9 AM to 1 PM - Drop off location is Mt. Rainier Dept of Public Works (3715 Wells Ave.).



Fig Co-op Starts in Mt. Rainier – (From Gorav Seth) The Mount Rainier Fig Cooperative is working on planting thousands of fig trees in the Mount Rainier and Hyattsville area, in order to produce a marketable fruit crop. Figs are easily propagated and grow well in this area with little maintenance.

For a suggested donation of $5, we will plant 3 fig trees (via in-situ cuttings) at your house. These trees will begin to bear fruit the following year. After 2 years, there will be enough fruit for collection and sale, and the coop will purchase the fruit from you and will sell it at local farmers markets and stores, or you are free to do whatever you like with your harvest! For more information, or to sign up, please go to figs.20712.org.



Possible Improvements on Northwest Branch Crossing at Queens Chapel Road – The State Highway Administration has written that they plan to make some improvements at the Queens Chapel crossing that is used by many people who go to the West Hyattsville Metro.



First, they state they have “approved the installation of a pedestrian-activated intersection control beacon at the crossing, with advanced warning signs and overhead lighting at the crosswalk. When activated by a person wishing to cross MD 500 [Queens Chapel Rd.] the ICB will flash, warning motorists to watch for pedestrians. The work is expected to start construction by summer 2010.”



Second, they have committed to upgrading the sidewalks (which don’t exist) along Queens Chapel Road but did not give a time schedule for that project.



New Tax Assessments Should Be Delivered This Week – Remember to read the instructions very carefully and appeal the assessment if you believe the assessment amount is not correct. This will have a direct relation to how much property tax you pay next year.



Speed Humps – A couple of the speed humps were torn up by the snow plows during last week’s storm. In one case (on 37th Street) this is the second time that the humps have been destroyed. The city will look to see what can be done to prevent this in the future. In addition there will be a public hearing on Tuesday February 2nd on a petition by residents to place speed bumps at the 3500 Block of Perry Street and 3800 block of 37th

Next Mixed Use Town center Plan Meeting Set for Tuesday January 12th at 7 PM- The Prince George’s County Planning Department of the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission is updating the Approved Mount Rainier Mixed-Use Town Center (M-U-TC) Zone Development Plan. Residents are invited to a Feedback Session – Workshop #4 (Presentation of Draft Recommendations and Design Concepts) - Location: Bunker Hill Fire Station 3716 Rhode Island Avenue. For more information please visit the project website www.pgplanning.org/Mount-Rainier.htm

A New Year with A Lot to Do - Next year will be an exciting year for us in Mount Rainier.

· It will be our 100th year birthday and there will be a bunch of activities associated with our centennial celebration.

· The Council will be aggressively marketing the city owned properties at Rhode Island and Eastern Ave.

· We will be looking for new designs to incorporate the library building, the Eastern Star and the current city hall for a possible combination library/ community center/municipal complex.

· We will have to put together a new budget knowing that we will have less revenue coming in and new expenses related to the city’s new property purchases. I am committed to maintaining essential services, not raising taxes, and maintaining cost of living raises for our employees.

· We look forward to the results of the Mixed-Use Town Center (MUTC) Zone Development Plan.



Is The Housing Market Turning Around? - While housing prices in our city have plummeted, I am encouraged by the many new people who have bought homes in our City in the last six months. The people who I have met are enthusiastic about moving here and are excited about the cooperative spirit we have in our City. We have many problems here in Mount Rainier but I feel that people want to work together to improve our community. Happy Holidays Everybody!!