Jimmy Ward's Report - Sunday, April 22, 2012

Important Upcoming Events
April 28th Better Block Day: Schedule of Events
Location: Rhode Island Ave and Eastern
Citizen Paint!
12:00 pm-5:00 pm at the Funeral Home
Pop-up Gallery at Thrifty Car Rental
12:00pm-5:00 With a reception from 3:00 – 5:00
Music stage
12:00pm "Bruce Hutton" - Old Time American Folk Music
1:15 "Jacob Howley & Friends" - Traditional Irish Music
2:35 "AJQ+1"- Jazz
3:55 "MRJam Band" - Rock
Green Living workshops
12:15- 12:45 Composting 101
1:00-1:30 Yoga
1:45- 2:15 Simple Steps for Pickling and Making Kimchi
2:30– 3:00 Do it Yourself Plant Propagation
3:15 - 3:45 Artisan bread in a flash
4:00 - 4:30 Easy recipes for homemade cleaning products
Youth Events - All day! From 12:00-5:00
Including: Artworks—all day
Nature Center, 1:00pm-2:00
Hooping with Powers, 2:30-4:00
Friends of Mount Rainier Library—all day
Recycling – All day there will be bins for specialty recycling including: electronics, batteries, cork, drink pouches (Capri Sun style) and ink cartridges.
NATIONAL PRESCRIPTION DRUG TAKE BACK DAY GOT DRUGS – 10 AM to 2 PM - Turn in your unused and expired medications for Safe Disposal City of Mount Rainier Police Department 3249 Rhode Island Ave.
Plant and Seed Swap at the Mount Rainier Community Tool Shed 10 am-noon:

Bring your potted plants (veggies and flowers) and your extra seeds (in clearly dated and marked envelopes), extra plant pots, stakes, and garden experience to share with fellow gardeners. If you don't have anything to share, come anyway, there may be extras.
This workshop is sponsored by the Mount Rainier Community Tool Shed. The Tool Shed is located at 3601 Bunker Hill Road. Phone: 301-660-SHED (301-660-7433)
Tuesday – May 1st: Public Hearing on Mount Rainier Budget - We are reviewing our budget for next year and must make some serious decisions about whether to eliminate two positions (one code enforcement and one public safety), seriously cut back other programs, delay some capital improvement projects or take some additional ($100,000 - 200,000) money out of our reserves (which is about $2 million). Increasing the tax rate is not being discussed as an option. Let us know what you think by coming to our Public Hearing and speaking your mind.
Saturday May 5th Farmer’s Market Opens - 10am-2pm - City Hall Plaza - Every Saturday: May thru Oct
Saturday May 12th – 8th Annual Open Studio Tour of the Gateway Arts District - 12:00 - 5:00 PM - 17 VENUES - 70 STUDIOS // 120 ARTISTS After Party: 5:30 - 8:00 PM: For more information: go to - http://www.gatewayopenstudios.org
Saturday May 19th – Mount Rainier Day - 11am - 6pm – Come out and see the parade. We start at 10 Am at 22nd and Varnum and March through the City. Here is the route: http://www.mountrainiermd.org/documents/ParadeRoute2012.pdf
Saturday June 16th – City Wide Yard Sale – We will be having a city-wide community yard sale from 9 AM to 3 PM. There will be a central location for people to put up tables and a map for other yard sales if people would rather do them at their homes. The fee for yard sales will be waived for that day. We hope to publicize the event throughout the area. If you’re interested in participating please e-mail Merlene Vassall (mvassall@technicalassistance.com) or myself.
PS: Merlene is also the author of a new book: “The Vampire and the Vegan”. You can see an interview with her conducted by Adrienne Charles on our web-site: http://mrtv.pegcentral.com/player.php?video=f06a8053441febe0a5115760028b0ef4
Other Items of Interest:
WSSC Sewer Repair, Replacement and Rehabilitation
Over the next several weeks Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) will be conducting sewer improvements in the City of Mount Rainier. The sewer segment(s) that will be repaired and rehabilitated is/ are summarized on the City web-site: www.mountrainiermd.org
New Poles in Our Neighborhood: from Pepco – “As part of our Reliability Enhancement Plan, we are working a large project to replace some of the poles, wires, and transformers on the feeder that serves a large area to include parts of Mount Rainier..
“All customers on the feeder (to include those in Mount Rainier) should have received letters before the work started in early January. Please let me know if you have further inquiries.”
Fiber Optic Cable A number of people have asked questions about the notices being put in some houses about fiber optic cable being placed in our city. We have had
a couple of Council discussions regarding this project. Here is what is going on:

As a result of money from the stimulus package (American Recovery Act) there is now a multi-county consortium that is building a high-speed fiber network to connect the schools, libraries, and government facilities in Maryland. This will enable our students to employ the fastest technology in their school rooms.
The consortium (ICBN) will be laying fiber to connect Thomas Stone School, Mount Rainier Elementary School, the Mount Ranier Library and the Bunker Hill fire station. This will result in some digging up of the sidewalks between these facilities. They are supposed to use new technology in which they will be able to lay the fiber by digging holes and pushing the fiber through and not have to dig up the whole sidewalk along the way. Hand holes will be spaced about every 500’ from beginning to end. The job starts on 32nd behind Thomas Stone and goes south to Mt Rainer then along Taylor back to 32nd street then left on Bunker Hill to the Bunker Hill FD. From Bunker Hill south on 35th to Rhode Island Av to the Library (map attached) . The Hand Hole appears as small rectangles in the dashed line on the plans we sent. The Tree Commission is approving the locations and the consortium has agreed to adjust the holes based on their recommendations

The contractors started the project prematurely a couple of weeks ago and unfortunately were digging holes (looking for utility lines) in people's front yards. We put a stop to the work as soon as we heard what was going on. They have now agreed to dig in the area between the sidewalk and the curb and if it is necessary to dig a hole in a person’s front yard they will talk to the occupant to get permission and repair whatever damage is done. They are also supposed to notify all the residents along the route where there will be digging.
Crime Statistics in Mount Rainier Show Decline: The Chief reported that number of crimes was done significantly (34%) in the first three months of this year. Here are some numbers for the last few years:
2006 - 124; 2007 – 147; 2008 – 112; 2009 -93; 2010 -74; 2011 – 97; 2012 - 64
Corporal Ortiz is recovering from injuries he sustained when he was hit by a violator’s car on a traffic stop on February 7th.
Gateway CDC Needs Your Help – The Gateway Community Development Corporation has lost funding that is critical to its operations. They are asking people to sign an on-line petition to the Department of Housing and Community Development to restore the funding. Please use this link to sign on to the on-line petition:
http://www.change.org/petitions/prince-george-s-county-elected-officials-and-the-dhcd-continue-dhcd-s-longstanding-commitment-to-gateway-cdc-2
City Gets Money for Business Facades: The City finally received a contract agreement for $125,000 to improve facades for some of the city businesses. The City has been working with the Mount Rainier Business Association and the local business owners on a procedure to improve the facades of business that have been waiting a long time for these improvements

City Receives Ward for Electronic Recycling: The Public Works Department received a certificate as an Electronic Recyclable City for its electronic recycling program.

Jimmy's Ward Report - Sunday, April 1, 2012

Primary Day: Tuesday April 3rd – Remember primary day is this Tuesday. If you don’t know where your polling location is, visit the website here www.mdelections.umd.edu to find out. Polls are open from 7 AM to 8 PM. There are a couple of important important decisions for voters to make. US Senator Ben Cardin is being challenged by State Senator Anthony Muse (as well as seven other candidates) and this will be our first election in our new 4th Congressional District. Congresswoman Donna Edwards has two opponents on the ballot (neither of whom have I heard of). Please remember to vote!
Budget Deliberations – The City has begun discussions on a budget for Fiscal Year 2013 (beginning July 1, 2012). We will be facing some difficult decisions. While we are not considering raising the tax rate, we are looking at eliminating two positions and also transferring over $330,000 from our reserves. As of July 1 2011 (audited) there was close to $3 million in the reserve fund. We expect because of revenue cut-backs and some unanticipated expenses to have about $2 million in the reserve at the end of this year (6/30/12). The proposed budget would leave us with about $1.6 million in the reserve at the end of next year. We need about $500,000 for working capital so it would leave a reserve of over $1 million. It is in this context that we will be discussing the City’s priorities and reviewing which programs should be funded next year. We will be reviewing the budget at a Work Session on Tuesday April 10th. There will be a public hearing on the budget and tax rate on April 17th and the Council will be voting on the proposed budget on May 1st. Please come to the public hearing if you have a view on what the Council should or should not be doing.
Repairs on Levees – The Mayor went to a meeting with the US Corps of Engineers about planned repairs of the levees on the Northwest Branch of the Anacostia River (at Arundel Road). The planned repairs are part of a national review of all of the levees resulting from the breaks in the levees in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. One of the ramifications of this will be the replacement of the 34th Street Bridge. This will obviously result in a lot of detours and we will be meeting with the Corps to discuss when and how the replacement will be done. They also want to take down a number of trees near the river and we want them to look for other flood control measures that include green solutions (such as having more trees not getting rid of them). We will let the community know when we hear more details about what and when the repairs will be done.
Campaign Finance Resolution - As a result of the Supreme Court’s decision on Citizens United, we are now seeing an unlimited amount of money now being spent by special interest groups on elections. There is a growing movement in this country to support campaign finance reform. The City went on record in support of this movement by passing a resolution to instruct our state and federal representatives to pass legislation to support campaign finance reform.
New Supermarket Opens In Hyattsville on Hamilton Avenue: The Safeway on Hamilton Avenue closed a couple of months ago but a new supermarket, Bestway, opened just last week. Also, check out the new sidewalk on 38th Street which makes walking to Hamilton Avenue a much less dangerous proposition.
Important Upcoming Dates
Better Block Project: Saturday April 28th
Farmers Market – Saturday May 5th
Mount Rainier Art Studio Tour – Saturday May 12th
Mount Rainier Day - Saturday May 19th
More Mount Rainier History Interviews: I did two more interviews in my series: Mount Rainier - Then and Now. This time I interviewed State Senator Victor Ramirez and the Executive Director of Joe’s Movement Emporium, Brooke Kidd. I think you’ll find the interviews very interesting. Here are the links:
http://mrtv.pegcentral.com/player.php?video=e9b7ea580e7d8c8f7933828666a0513a
http://mrtv.pegcentral.com/player.php?video=1abb78bd10095b14d28448657ed7c31e
Council Meets with Congresswoman Donna Edwards – On Tuesday March 13th the Mayor and Council met with our new Congressional Representative, Donna Edwards. While we are not officially in her district until next January, the Council wanted to introduce her to our city and talk to her about our big priorities and ask her advice on securing federal grants. She told us that Congress had eliminated earmarks so it was going to be more difficult for cities such as ours to receive specific grants. She encouraged our city to work more closely with other cities and submit collaborative grants for joint projects. It was a good first meeting with our new Congresswoman.
Inter-County Broadband Network – As a result of money from the stimulus package (American Recovery Act) there is now a multi-county consortium that is building a high-speed fiber network to connect the schools, libraries, and government facilities in Maryland. This will enable our students to employ the fastest technology in their school rooms. The consortium will be laying fiber to connect Thomas Stone School, Mount Rainier Elementary School, the Mount Ranier Library and the Bunker Hill fire station. This will result in some digging up of the sidewalks between these facilities. The digging is supposed to be on 34th Street, Shepherd Street, Bunker Hill Road and Rhode Island Ave. They are supposed to use new technology in which they will be able to lay the fiber by digging holes and pushing the fiber through and not have to dig up the whole sidewalk along the way. We will be monitoring the construction to make sure there is minimal disruption.
Requests for Proposals on 3200 Block of Rhode Island Avenue - The city held a meeting with developers interested in submitting proposals for the 3200 Block of Rhode Island Avenue. Eight developers expressed interest but also said they needed more time to submit proposals to the city. We extended the deadline until May 31, 2012.
Development All Around Us: While it has been frustrating for me that we have not been able to have more development in our downtown (Rhode Island Avenue) area, I am impressed by the development that has gone on around us. This has been a quality of life improvement for residents of our City. Since I have moved here we’ve seen the expansion of Prince George Plaza with a new multiplex of movie theatres and a bunch of new restaurants. Last year we saw the opening up of Busboys and Poets and the other shops in Hyattsville. I frequently pass the Rhode Island Metro and see the development at that site and now the beginning of construction at the site of New York and South Dakota Avenues which will bring in our a Costco and numerous other stores. I am really glad I live in Mount Rainier. Our City still has the feel of a small town community and now we have many more opportunities to shop and eat within a five minute ride. As I tell my friends and neighbors, we should seek to improve our City in every way but we should also enjoy what we have as we work toward making our City a better community.