City Council Begins Markup Of Proposed 2018 Budget
City Manager Nicole Ard’s first proposed budget is set in a somewhat improving fiscal environment but with more uncertainties than usual: will federal grants be cut given the Trump administration’s desire to severely trim domestic agencies’ budgets? Will the General Services Administration choose Greenbelt as the new site of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s headquarters? […]
Hold the Line Budget Projected For Police Department in 2018
Public Safety expenditures comprise 37 percent of the Greenbelt City Proposed Budget for Fiscal Year 2017-2018 and nearly all of that goes to funding the Police Department. The proposed police budget at $10,197,900 is essentially a “hold the line” budget, proposing an increase of only $8,900 over the current year’s budget. Rather than growing in […]
SafeTrack Surge #14 Closes Greenbelt Station for a Month
Metro announced that it has altered its plan for the next SafeTrack surge at the northern end of the Green Line, including the Greenbelt station. Originally planned as a longer period of continuous single tracking, Metro will instead conduct Surge #14 as a shutdown to reduce the duration of the project and mitigate the impact […]
State Compliance Board Finds Errors In City’s Handling of Open Meetings
Judging by crowd size, the two hot topics of the March 27 meeting of the Greenbelt City Council were the swearing in of four new police officers and the opinion from the Maryland Open Meetings Compliance Board regarding the complaint submitted by Brian Almquist charging council with violating the provisions of the Maryland Open Meetings […]
Council Receives Food Truck Hub Request; Plus Many Petitions
Could a food truck hub be coming to Greenbelt? At its March 27 regular meeting, the Greenbelt City Council agreed to support a proposed hub in Capital Office Park. Council also received another bushel basket full of petitions from citizens regarding topics such as the location of a possible second dog park, cell phone antennas […]
City to Change Cherrywood Lane To a Green and Complete Street
The first half of the March 13 meeting of the Greenbelt City Council was given over to the previously reported recognition of the winners of the ACE Educator Awards and of Camille and Brian Butler in providing community education on health issues associated with carrying the sickle cell trait. During the second half, council moved […]
Early Women in Architecture Featured in Exhibit, Lecture
During April, the exhibit Early Women of Architecture in Maryland will be on display in the Community Center. As part of the Greenbelt Museum’s quarterly lecture series, a free talk will be presented on Victorine Du Pont Homsey (1900-1998), one of the women featured in the exhibit. The talk is scheduled for Thursday, April 20 […]
Two Greenbelters Join a New County Council Commission
On March 21, the Prince George’s County Council unanimously swore in the inaugural commissioners for the newly formed County Commission on Common Ownership Communities. The formation of this new commission is unique. There is only one other such commission in the nation, in Montgomery County. The commission was created by the passage of legislation in […]
Franklin Park Welcomes City Manager Nicole Ard
Residents and community leaders of Franklin Park at Greenbelt Station welcomed new Greenbelt City Manager Nicole Ard at a meet-and-greet reception on Tuesday, March 21 at the Leasing Center. Ard described her visits to a number of Greenbelt communities and her interest in understanding the priorities of those neighborhoods. Those priorities find expression in the […]
SHLES Essay Contest Winners Receive DARE Recognition
Four Springhill Hill Lake Elementary School 5th graders received books, including some autographed by the author, during the 2017 DARE culmination assembly that took place March 9 in the school’s auditorium. The culmination marks the end of the students’ 10-lesson DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) instruction. The assembly began with a music video showing the […]