June 16th Report - Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Ward 1 Report – June 16There was no Council meeting this week but I thought I would send out a report on some other items of interest.
Street Lights – All street lights on wooden poles belong to Pepco. You can/should report a light that is out or malfunctioning by writing down the pole number or the nearest street address. You can call Pepco at 1-877-737-2662 or e-mail me and I will make sure that the City Manager informs Pepco about the light. If there are tree limbs blocking the light let me know and we will either get the city or Pepco to trim the tree.
Potholes - They can’t be fixed if public works doesn’t know about them. Give public works a call at 301-985-6583 or send me an e-mail (while I’m still new and energetic) and I will make sure that public works knows about the problem.
Next Tuesday’s Council Meeting - There are a lot of agenda items on next Tuesday’s meeting. A few of the items that may be of interest are:
Extension of Memorandum Of Understanding with Landmark Atlantic – The town signed a 90 day agreement to work with Landmark Atlantic to develop the downtown area, especially the block that includes Thrifty Rental, the former Bass Liquor property and the funeral home on the corner of Eastern and 33rd St. These properties are an eye-sore and everybody would like to see something nice developed on the area. Meanwhile another developer, Robert Holland, seems to have site control on at least two of the three of the properties and is talking about building a hotel, condominiums and a restaurant at the location. The ninety-day agreement with Landmark ends on July 3rd. The question before Council is whether to continue to deal exclusively with Landmark or to end the agreement and to discuss the development issues with Mr. Holland. It should be an interesting discussion.
Citation Notification – A number of people have received notices from a collection agency stating that they owe $250 for unpaid parking tickets. People are asking whether there should have been a second notice before the fine was increased to $250. This will be discussed on Tuesday. Come to the Council meeting and make your voice heard if you have a concern about this.
Cell Tower on the Old Fire Station – Some residents have gotten a notice from T-Mobile that the cell tower will be extended another 10 feet as T-Mobile adds its equipment to Cingular and Sprint equipment. A number of people are objecting to the extension.
There are a lot of other items (21 in all) some of which I will be reporting on in my next report. Come to the Council meeting if you can.
ALSO OF INTEREST:
Route 1 Development Website – Mt. Rainier is a small community and we are affected by the projects and developments around us. There is a new web site, www.route1growth.com, that focuses on some of the development projects further to the northeast of us. The EYA development is moving ahead just North of Franklin’s, and another project on the Cafritz property (right above East-West Highway is looking into having an upscale food market, a bookstore and additional retail stores. This all will affect what happens in our city.