Jimmy's Ward Report - Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Crime Update from Chief of Police Michael Scott: Over the summer there was a rash of burglaries in our City that got our us all quite upset. Chief Scott reported some good news to the Council:


"During the months of July and August we have seen a significant increase in the number of residential burglaries in our single family neighborhoods; and the number of vehicle thefts has also risen above those reported during the same period in 2007. Beginning on Monday August 25th the department implemented an "all hands on deck" operation in response to this recent rash of burglaries. Our officers have been working with officers from the Hyattsville Police Department, Takoma Park Police Department and detectives from PGPD to identify and arrest the persons responsible for these crimes.

“I am pleased to report that our efforts have resulted in the identification and arrest of two individuals who have been positively identified in several burglaries across Mount Rainier, Brentwood and Hyattsville. We also believe that these individuals may be responsible for as many as thirty or more burglaries in the District I area over the past few months. We have also identified a third suspect who is believed to have worked with the other two to fence, pawn or otherwise dispose of items stolen in the various burglaries. A fourth individual has been arrested and charged with the theft of a motor vehicle from Takoma Park that was used in at least one burglary in Mount Rainier and
two home invasion robberies in Hyattsville.

“At my request, State's Attorney Glenn Ivey has assigned a special prosecutor to coordinate the prosecution of these individuals.”



Mayor and Chief Hold Meeting About Crime in Mt. Rainier: In response to the increase in burglaries in the area the Mayor and Chief organized a community meeting in City Hall on Thursday September 6th. About fifteen residents attended as well as County Councilman Campos, Delegates Ramirez and Niemann, and Brentwood Councilman Roger Rudder. The Chief gave a report on the police department’s response to the increased number of burglaries and reported on the arrest noted in the previous section.



A couple of residents felt the police should go back and visit the victim of a crime to let them know how the investigation is progressing. People want to know the progress in capturing the culprits or finding the stolen property. The Chief said he would review the police policy so victims are kept better informed of the on-going investigations.



Another issue that came up was finger printing. It is now the police practice (after a number residents complained that it was not being done) to dust for finger prints after a break-in after asking the owner/tenant for permission. (I gather the powder creates quite a mess so not everyone might want the procedure done in their home.) The other piece of information that I found shocking its that it takes over one year for the finger prints to be evaluated at the County laboratory. So even if the police find a good set of prints in your home, they will not be able to use the prints to help identify the criminals for a year. That’s just crazy to me. I encouraged the County and State officials to see if there was more money that could be found to increase the capacity at the laboratories.



Electronic Recycling Drop Off – Sat. Sept 20 9:00 am to 1:00 - Drop Off @ Mt. Rainier Public Works Department, 3715 Wells Avenue



You must show proof of Mount Rainier Residency


Only six (6) items per household with a maximum of 4 TVs and or computers. Please note that Computer MONITORS are OK for drop-off but note the limit of TV/Computer Monitors is still 4 with a total of 6 items from the accompanying list per household. So as an example for a household: two (2) "complete" computers (with monitor, CPU, mouse, keyboard and computer speakers) and two (2) TV's plus two (2) stereos (NOT including stereo speakers) would count as six items.

ACCEPTABLE Items include: CPUs, Computer mice & keyboards, laptop computers, fax machines, telephone systems, printers, computer speakers, main frames, copiers, scanners, surge protectors, pagers, cell phones, cable, wire, circuit boards, cd players, radios/stereos, VCRs. any individual PC CPU component parts, ink jet and toner cartridges (from printers and fax machines)



UNACCEPTABLE Items: Software, Stereo speakers, Boxes, Appliances such as toasters and microwave ovens

Now There Are More Things You Can Recycle!! - The list of new recyclable items include: Aerosol cans, frozen food packaging, plastic and metal coat hangers, aseptic/gable-top milk and juice cartons (commonly known as the "drink box"), peanut butter and mayonnaise jars, margarine/butter tubs, yogurt/cottage cheese/sour cream/whipped topping containers, prescription bottles, plastic flower pots and plastic drinking cups/glasses. Bags-in-a-bag will also be accepted (plastic film and bags stuffed into a plastic bag). For example; multiple grocery bags contained within 1-bag or stretch-film and/or shrink wrap contained within 1-bag. Corrugated boxes will be collected along with their contents.

Residents may begin placing these new items in their recycling container
immediately.



Council Decides to Borrow Money to Purchase Bass Property – The Council decided on Tuesday September 2nd to borrow up to $1.25 million to purchase the Bass property, demolish the property, and make it into a parking lot. (Plans are to make it a metered lot so there is revenue from the parking.) The Council followed the recommendation of City Treasurer Vijay Manjani. Mr. Manjani felt that because the borrowing rate is only 4.75% and it would make more sense to borrow money than use reserves that are also earning interest. The projected interest payments will be about $100,000 a year. The City does not plan on holding on to the property for very long but hope to sell it to a developer who will combine all the lots on the north side of Rhode Island Avenue between Eastern and 33rd St for one major project.

Voter Registration Deadline is October 14th – Have you recently moved? Let me know and I will bring by a voter registration form for you to sign so you can vote in our City. Would you like to help register others? Let me know if you can help. There is a team of people working on voter registration in Mt. Rainier. This may be the most important election in over 75 years so it is important that every single person be eligible to vote this November.

If you’re interested in doing election work in VA (obviously a critical state), please let me know and I’ll hook you up with people who are working in that state.

Skate Board Park Update – I met with Councilman Will Campos and representatives from Park and Recreation on September 2 to obtain a status report on the skate board park that is planned for the park at Wells and Otis Avenues. It has been over a year and a half since the Mt. Rainier Council decided to move ahead with this park and the County has budgeted $175,000 for the park.

Park and Recreation reported that they are currently finishing an RFP (request for proposal) for a design/build contract for the park which will be on the site of the old basketball court at the park. Because of the limited size, this kind of skate board areas is often called a Skate Spot.

The plans are for the skating area to be concrete (which is less noisy than other options) and there is on-going discussion on whether it will be poured concrete or a combination of poured concrete and modular items. (Modular items are less expensive but may not be of high quality.)

We all want to make sure that it is a quality park that works for the users and for the rest of the community. Part of the specification in the RFP is for the project to have two different forums where there will be community input onto the plans before they are finalized. The County has a goal of completing the park by the Fall of 2009.



DC GlassWorks Open House – Sat. Sept. 13 - 3:30 – 8:30 PM - If you have never been to an open house sponsored by the DC GlassWorks, you are really missing something!

Their next open house is this Saturday from 3:30 to 8:30 at 5346 46th Ave in Hyattsville (a little behind Franklin's). You can get directions from their web-site: www.dcglassworks.com.

They serve light refreshments and you can see the glass blowers perform their magic as they create beautiful vases and other glass objects while you watch.

Need Some Wood? Contact Public Works: The City is planning on cutting down some trees in the upcoming few weeks. If you want some of the word (cheaper for us than to have it shipped away), please contact Public Works at 301-985-6583.