This issue of the News Review is the first February 29 issue since 1996, 28 years ago. Back then Greenbelters were preparing to vote in the March 5 Maryland presidential primary election (then-President Bill Clinton and Lyndon LaRouche were the Democratic candidates and Bob Dole, Lamar Alexander and Patrick Buchanan were the leading Republican contenders). The Greenbelt Community Center had recently opened, although the planned January 13, 1996, grand opening was delayed by a blizzard that dropped two feet of snow on Greenbelt (the Greenbelt City Council, led then by mayor Antoinette Bram, rescheduled the event for March 16, 1996).
By then city recreation programs were up and running in the Community Center, community groups were meeting there and the New Deal Café, which had opened in the Community Center in late December, was regularly open on Friday and Saturday evenings. The February 29 issue of the paper was among the first issues put together in the Community Center following the News Review’s mid-January move to its spacious new (and current) quarters after many years in a crowded basement office at 15 Parkway.
The next time February 29 will fall on a Thursday is in 2052, 28 years from now. What will be happening in Greenbelt then? And will the News Review still be in business? The paper has reported on news and events in Greenbelt each week since November 1937, shortly after the first residents moved into the new town. Many of the current staff are past retirement age, so over the coming years younger Greenbelters will be needed to continue this coverage into the future. Consider taking a role ‒ as writer-reporter, copy editor or on some other task ‒ in documenting Greenbelt’s history as it’s lived, and become part of the dedicated crew that puts out Greenbelt’s news each week.