STATE INSPECTION Loose concrete removed from six bridges in county. A-6
Gazette-Star
SPORTS: Crossland boys basketball thrives this season under a new coach. B-1
SOUTHERN AND CENTRAL PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNT Y
NEWS: Bowie State plans vigil, forum to address police-community relations. A-6
DA I LY U P DAT E S AT G A Z E T T E . N E T
Thursday, February 19, 2015
25 cents
Bowie police prepare for body cameras
Defending the snow fort
Department chief gives update, yearly overview to City Council n
BY
EMILIE SHAUGHNESSY STAFF WRITER
TOM FEDOR/THE GAZETTE
James Keefe Jr., 8, jumps back behind his snow fort as he and sister Charity, 11, engage in a snowball fight outside their Belair Drive home on Tuesday in Bowie.
Dave & Buster’s set to come to county Restaurant part of expansion of Ritchie Station Marketplace
Lanham-based developer behind the project. The Dave & Buster’s is expected to open in about 12 months, while the other stores are projected to open in the fourth quarter of this year, said Michael Isen, senior vice-president at NAI Michael. “It’s a very big deal for the county,” said Scott Peterson, spokesman for Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III (D). “It’s long been known in Prince George’s that this was a brand residents wanted to see.” The restaurant will occupy a freestanding, 40,000-square foot structure just north of I-495, while the shoe and furniture re-
n
BY
DANIEL LEADERMAN STAFF WRITER
A Dave & Buster’s restaurant will soon come to Capitol Heights and will headline an expansion of the Ritchie Station Marketplace shopping center over the coming year. The expansion, projected to cost about $30 million, will also include shoe retailer DSW, an Ashley Furniture and several smaller retail spaces, according to NAI The Michael Cos., the
tailers will be in a new structure in the same commercial strip as the Big Lots and Bed Bath and Beyond stores, Isen said. Two additional buildings, intended to house smaller establishments such as dry cleaners or banks, are planned to be built next to the freestanding McDonald’s restaurant in the shopping center, Isen said. Stores currently located at the Marketplace also include T.J. Maxx, B.J’s Wholesale Club and Modell’s Sporting Goods. Dave & Buster’s locations are a mixture of restaurant, bar, pool hall and video arcade with dozens of restaurants across the country, but the only other Dave & Buster’s in Maryland is
located at the Arundel Mills mall in Hanover, which is also the site of Maryland Live! Casino. Isen said he hadn’t seen the final floor plans for the new location, and that the restaurant’s features vary. Dave & Buster’s has been eyeing a location at Ritchie Station Marketplace since at least 2012, and while the deal “took some time” to complete, Isen said the lease was signed and the first permits had been filed. The lure of Dave & Buster’s has already attracted interest from national restaurant chains in coming to the property, Isen said. dleaderman@gazette.net
Forestville Plaza redevelopment boosts economy n
Residents say new stores “brought life” to blighted community center BY
KIRSTEN PETERSEN STAFF WRITER
“Ground zero.” “Danger zone.” “Ghost city.” These are all words shoppers and business owners used to describe what Forestville Plaza looked like only a few years ago. But since a Roses discount store opened in 2013, Prince George’s residents and business owners agree that the shopping center has transformed for the better. Mike Amann, Jr., principal of Alexandria, Va.-based Commerce Properties, Inc., said
INDEX Automotive Calendar Classified Entertainment Opinion Sports
NEWS B-8 A-2 B-6 B-3 A-9 B-1
KIRSTEN PETERSEN/THE GAZETTE
The Roses in Forestville opened in November 2013 and has changed the community, officials say.
when they acquired the 18-acre shopping center in 2012, Forestville Plaza was occupied by squatters and filled with trash. But in a little
over a year, Commerce Properties cleaned up the shopping center and brought on Roses as the anchor store. “It really gave us an identity as a valueoriented community center,” Amann said. Since then, a Save A Lot grocery store, a furniture store, a barbershop and other specialty businesses have opened, creating more than 135 jobs at Forestville Plaza. Seventy-five of those positions are full-time jobs at Roses, said Larry Hentz, a business development specialist with the Prince George’s County Economic Development Corp. “We have been very pleased,” said Wilson Sawyer, president of Variety Stores, which includes retailers like Roses. “Our customer
POLITICS AND PROSE Bowie councilwoman supports community through rhyme.
A-4
See PLAZA, Page A-8
Volume 18, No. 5, Two sections, 20 Pages Copyright © 2015 The Gazette
Bowie police could be employing body cameras by the end of the year, but the city’s planned police department call center will be slightly delayed. Bowie Police Chief John Nesky revealed Tuesday some positive statistics from 2014 — a downward trend in nearly all crime types in Bowie except for assaults — and outlined the police department’s goals moving forward. The biggest topic of discussion was a set of police body cameras that Nesky said will be budgeted into the next fiscal year, which begins in July. “I think one thing the country has learned over the last year in some difficult situations is that maybe the body cameras may have given answers where it wasn’t obvious,” said Councilman Dennis Brady (At-Large). “I think it protects the officer in a given situation and the public. How we handle it needs to be very transparent, very open, very up front and I think we need to err on the side of recording too much rather than not recording enough.” Nesky said officers wearing the body cameras will be required to inform individuals when they are being recorded, which could change policeresident interactions.
“There are many things to consider [such as] where to place the camera for the best view without turning your ordinary encounters into something that’s uncomfortable,” he said. “If I walk up to someone in Panera and I’ve got the glasses with the camera, that’s going to alter the dynamic between us and the citizens, even if it’s just talking about the weather.” The Laurel and Edmonston police departments have already purchased body cameras for their officers, Nesky said, and Bowie council members encouraged Bowie police to look to other municipalities for best practices. In his update to the City Council, Nesky also discussed efforts to patrol and enforce truancy laws around Midwood lane, where a Bowie High School parent was shot in September, and delays to the department’s in-house call center. The 24-hour call center, which will allow Bowie police staff to directly handle calls and potentially cut down response times, was supposed to have call-takers by the end of April and be officially open by June, Nesky said. But changes to Prince George’s County’s law enforcement dispatch system and records management system could delay that opening by several months. “There really was no reason we had to move quickly to teach our employees the old system when they would have to learn the new system in a
See POLICE, Page A-7
Bowie weighs in on education priorities Requests second high school, language immersion program n
BY
EMILIE SHAUGHNESSY STAFF WRITER
Sherita Williams just filed an application for her 4-yearold to attend a Spanish immersion school — an opportunity the Bowie mother of three said is very exciting except for one aspect: the school is in Upper Marlboro. “I checked [online] and it said the school is a 20-minute drive,” Williams said. “I heard a language immersion school might be coming to Bowie and I was really hoping it would have been this upcoming school year.” Williams is not alone in
wanting to bring a language immersion program to Prince George’s County’s largest municipality. In an annual letter to the county school system submitted Feb. 3, Bowie officials and volunteer members of the Bowie education committee requested support for several city education priorities — including a Spanish immersion program. “I think it’s such a benefit for our children to be able to speak two languages,” Williams said. “I think in the U.S. we’re kind of behind the curve only being taught one language.” Additionally, officials and residents requested an expanded pre-kindergarten program, improvements to Bowie High School’s main building
See EDUCATION, Page A-7
WINTERIZE YOUR HOME
Please
RECYCLE
SEE HOME IMPROVEMENT SERVICES INSIDE ADVERTISING INSIDE A SECTION