Planning Department Budget And Ongoing Projects Review
With very little council comment on its FY 2025 budget, the city’s Department of Planning and Community Development got the opportunity to strut its stuff and showcase its activities. The city council worksession of April 3, as well as dealing with the T-Mobile temporary antenna (story to come), introduced the draft FY 2025 Department […]
City Council Thrashes Toward Some Positions on Recycling
At the March 13 council worksession, City Environmental Coordinator Kevin Carpenter-Driscoll addressed potential funding and initiatives related to the prevention of illegal dumping at three city facilities: the recycling center at Buddy Attick Park, the area next to the Northway ballfields and a lesser-known city recycling facility on Hanover Drive (see map, p.12). The request […]
City and Franklin Park Ponder Maintenance and Finances
On February 21, the Greenbelt City Council held a worksession with Franklin Park management. Part of that meeting is described in a separate article on public safety (see the February 29 issue). In the meeting, Laurie Bonner, operations manager for Fieldstone Properties (owner of Franklin Park), and Franklin Park Manager Denise Knight fielded questions from […]
Franklin Park Worksession Tackles Public Safety Issues
In a worksession with the Greenbelt City Council on Wednesday, February 21, Franklin Park Manager Denise Knight and Laurie Bonner, vice president for operations of Fieldstone Properties (owner of Franklin Park), spoke with council about its operations in Greenbelt West. This article focuses on the public safety discussion. Bonner briefed council, stating that Franklin Park, […]
News Review Ups Its Game To Greenbelters, with Love
This week’s issue of the News Review has two special things in store for its readers. First, approximately 60 fond folks celebrated their love for family, friends and Greenbelt in rhyme and schmaltz in our Valentine’s Love Notes (pages 8, 9 and 16). Tastefully decorated with hearts, flowers, cupids and so on by our artistic […]
American Graffiti ’58 Chevy Brings Back ’73 Memories
On Thursday, January 18, when the movie American Graffiti was screened as part of Greenbelt Cinema’s Classic Movie series, something striking was outside the theater in Roosevelt Center. Parked just in front of the Cinema was a 1958 Chevy Impala – just like the one used in the 1973 movie, which was set in 1963. […]
Council Reopens Applications After Prior Refusals to Do So
During a worksession on Wednesday, January 3, five out of the current six members of the Greenbelt City Council (with Councilmember Rodney Roberts in opposition) came to the consensus not to reopen applications for the vacant council seat (note: no votes can be taken at worksessions). Five days later, council returned to discussing its vacant […]
Low Attendance, Much Criticism At Council’s First Listening Session
On Thursday, December 21, Greenbelt City Council held a listening session at the Springhill Lake Recreation Center gym. Its purpose was to capture the views of Greenbelt residents living in the western segment of the city on the appointment of a councilmember to replace Councilmember Ric Gordon, who died suddenly shortly after the election this […]
Youthful Offenders Dominate Auto-related Crime Statistics
The big news of the Greenbelt City Council’s public safety briefing on Wednesday, October 11 was not unexpected. Crime is up overall by 34 percent, though violent crime has held steady compared to last year. The big driver for the increase is auto-related crime (465 percent higher than the same time last year, which was […]
Updated BEP/BARC Facility Plan Fails to Mollify Council
At its September 11 meeting, Greenbelt City Council discussed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) plan for the Department of the Treasury Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) facility and its upcoming final review by the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC). The planned facility is in the central section of the Beltsville Agricultural Research […]