Jimmy's Ward Report - Saturday, November 8, 2008

City Finances In Good Shape - The Council received the final audit for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008. It shows the City with net assets of $2.8 million of which close to $1.7 million is in unrestricted assets i.e. cash as opposed to fixed assets (buildings, cars, equipment, etc.). The City has increased its assets by over $500,000 in each of the last two years. It is actually the fourth year in a row that the City has had greater revenue than expenses. There will be cuts in grants from the County and State because of the current fiscal crisis but even though there has been a fall in the value of houses in our City, I think the property tax revenue will increase or at least stay stable for the next year or two. The City’s finances will remain tight as we move ahead with the purchase of the Bass property and the development of the library building. The auditors did not have any concerns with our financial books. We all should give thanks to the city’s Treasurer, Vijay Manjani, who is doing a fine job.



Port-a-potties Removed – The Council decided to remove the portable toilets behind City Hall and in the alleyway on the North side of Rhode Island Ave (right next to 34th St.). These toilets have been almost impossible to keep clean and have been a magnet for illegal activity. Both the public works and the police departments recommended they be removed.



While the toilets were originally placed in the City to help commuters who had to relieve themselves, they have become so disgusting that very few commuters use them. Furthermore, they cost $6,000 a year to ‘maintain’. We would like to have a public comfort station in the downtown area but for now there are no plans or money to build one.



Police Department Creates Power Squad – The Chief told the Council that he had created a special “power shift”. This shift supplements the regular police shifts. This special patrol analyzes the crimes in our city for time and location and adds personnel in those areas to deal with the specific times and locations of crime hot spots. The Chief reported that in October the power squad had made 19 arrests, recovered two illegal handguns and seized 22.5 g of marijuana.. In November the squad will be working morning hours to address some increases in citizen robberies and residential burglaries. This all makes sense to me.



Speed Hump on 3700 Block of 37th St. – The Council voted to place a speed hump on 37th St. across from the park and right before the hill that goes down to Otis St. Over 60% of the residents on the block had signed a petition requesting the speed hump because of safety concerns. A number of people have said they want speed humps on their blocks. The Council will only review the need for such a traffic calming measure if a petition from residents is brought to the Council. So if you would like a speed hump on your block, please let me know and I will forward you the applicable petition to circulate on your block.



Nov 19th Public Meeting on ‘Quality of Life’ Crimes– County Councilman Will Campos and the Mount Rainier City Council will be hosting a Town Hall meeting on how ‘quality of life’ crimes are handled by the court system. State’s Attorney Glenn Ivey and District Court Judge Thomas Love have been invited to attend. The meeting will be at City Hall on Wednesday November 19th starting at 6:30 PM.



There has been a lot of discussion in our City about how we can stop activity such as public urination, public drinking, and prostitution in our downtown area. People who commit such acts seem to be repeat offenders and many feel the penalties are not stiff enough to deter these acts in the future.



This will be a good opportunity to impress upon those who are charged with handling these matters of importance, how concerned we are about cleaning up our town center.



Nov 12th Gang Seminar at Brentwood Town Hall – The Mount Rainier Police Department is holding a gang awareness seminar on Wed Nov 12th at 7:15 at Brentwood City Hall. The guest speaker will be Mike Rudinski from the Hyattsville Police Department who is a gang expert and is currently assigned as the school resource officer for Northwestern High School.



Gateway CDC Appoints New Executive Director – The Gateway Community Development Corporation (CDC) recently hired Cheryl Derricotte as its new Executive Director. The Board of Directors interviewed more than a dozen candidates but she was by far the best candidate. Cheryl brings a great deal of experience to the position. She is a licensed city planner and has a master’s degree in regional planning from Cornell University. Gateway will be holding its annual meeting on Saturday November 15th at the new E-Z Storage Facility at 4301 Rhode Island Ave from 11 AM to 12:30 PM. I urge everybody to come, meet Cheryl, and check out the artist storefront studios in the storage facility. I think this is the first of its kind and would not have been accomplished without the work of the Gateway CDC. Also find out about some of the other new development activities in our community.



Video Streaming of Council Meetings Now Available on The Web - If you don’t have cable or don’t have a chance to see the Council meetings on your cable stations (Channel 21 on Verizon and Channel 71 on Comcast), you can now see taped sessions of Council meetings at the Mount Rainier web-site (www.mountrainiermd.org). Here is a link to the special Council session held on October 16th that discussed the proposed Architectural Conservation Overlay Zone:

http://easylink.playstream.com/mountrainiermd/Special Council Meeting 16 October 2008.wvx



Washington Redskins Harvest Fest – Tuesday Nov 25th - 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM - Free Thanksgiving Food Gift Bags - Food distributed on first come first serve basis. Special Children’s Bags (children must be present to receive) Location: FEDEX Field Gate H, Landover , MD.



December Leaf Schedule (for loose leaves)


December 2
3100-3600 block of Perry St

2900-3300 block of Bunker Hill

2800-3300 block of Shepherd

2800-3200 block of Taylor

3100-3200 block of Varnum



December 4
3100 block of Webster

2800-3200 block of Upshur

3100 block of Windom

3100-3200 block of Arundel

4100-4200 block of Rainier



December 11
40000-4500 block of 30th

3800-4500 block of 31st

3800-4500 block of 32nd

3800-4100 block of 33rd



December 16
34th St.

3800 block of 35th St

3800 block of 36th St

3800 block of 37th St



December 19
4600 block of 25th

4000-4200 block of 28th

4000-4500 block of 29th



December 23
4000 block of 35th

4000 block of 36th

4000 block of 37th