TOP RANKINGS County leads state for recycling, diverting waste. A-4
NEWS: Upper Marlboro woman twists art out of balloon business. A-3
Gazette-Star SOUTHERN AND CENTRAL PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNT Y
SPORTS: Crossland’s girls basketball team sees only a bright future ahead. B-1
DA I LY U P DAT E S AT G A Z E T T E . N E T
Thursday, March 5, 2015
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Motorists: Signs point to trouble n
Bowie officials say excess signage on Collington Road confusing for drivers BY
EMILIE SHAUGHNESSY STAFF WRITER
DAN GROSS/THE GAZETTE
Parent volunteer Susie Foushee (left) helps the Samuel Ogle Middle School Green Team plan Tuesday how they will deconstruct, then rebuild, a wooden pallet to make one of several raised gardens at the school. Watching are (from left) Green Team members Chiebuka Ohams, 13; Madelyn Nazelrod, 11; principal Glenise Marshall; Chrisria Lightout-Taylor, 12; Andrea Alvarez, 12; Lelia Smith, 12; and Karissa Monfort, 11. The students will plant gardens to grow food for the homeless in Bowie.
Samuel Ogle students plot school garden n
Green group plans to grow produce for the hungry
BY
EMILIE SHAUGHNESSY STAFF WRITER
A group of Bowie middle schoolers have spent the winter months designing a school vegetable garden and hope to share the fruits of their labor with residents in need later this year. Around a dozen students from Samuel Ogle Middle school are participating in an organic garden project and have been involved in every aspect — from design to project
management to marketing for the ribbon cutting ceremony on March 31 — said Susie Foushee, an Ogle parent who received a $350 City of Bowie grant for the project. “They plan to not only take their harvest and donate it to the local food bank, but they plan on taking a power point presentation [about the project] on the road to schools in Bowie to try to encourage them to do the same,” Foushee said. “They are inviting everyone from Michelle Obama to the new governor to the ribbon cutting ceremony.” Foushee received a $1,000 grant to lead a garden project at Yorktown Elementary in 2012, and now, with
Maintenance issues at Obama Elementary leave parents perplexed Officials say problems are resolved, parents want class time made up n
BY
DANIEL LEADERMAN STAFF WRITER
School officials say the back-to-back maintenance issues that closed Barack Obama Elementary School in Upper Marlboro for two non-consecutive days late last month have now been fixed, but the closures left some parents scratching their heads. “It’s a relatively new school, so I was surprised that they were closed,” said Arletta Love of Upper Marlboro, whose daughter, Aniya, is in the fifth grade.
The $18 million school, which incorporates eco-friendly design elements that include low-flow sinks and toilets and a geothermal heat pump system, opened in the fall of 2010. Frigid temperatures led to both a power failure that left the school without heat on Feb. 18 and a burst water pipe that caused flooding in one portion of the school Feb. 20, according to Sherrie A. Johnson, a spokeswoman for Prince George’s County Public Schools. Chapel Forge Early Childhood Education Center in Bowie; Northview Elementary School in Bowie and Benjamin Fulois Creative and Performing Arts Academy in Suitland were
See MAINTENANCE, Page A-6
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around a third of that budget, she is cutting costs by repurposing shipping pallets as garden beds, she said. “We spent [the money] on pallets and plants and decided what to do with them,” said Foushee’s son, Cameron Foushee, 12, who is on the ‘budget committee’ for the project. “So far I think it’s good. We have a bunch of sponsors so we can save some of our money. We’re getting gardening stuff from stores like MOM’s and Home Depot.” Samuel Ogle students had to apply to be part of the garden project and were assigned to committees that included budget, construction
and administration, said Ogle science teacher Karen Pumphrey. “This project lends itself to project management [learning opportunities],” Pumphrey said. “The kids are learning quite a bit about the administrative aspect and budget aspect of the project. I think they were expecting the construction part, but I don’t think they had any idea about the pre-planning that goes into it.” Andrea Alvarez, 12, of Bowie is on the administration committee and said she chose that group because she feels comfortable talking with other people.
See GARDEN, Page A-5
“Sign, sign everywhere a sign” weren’t lyrics penned about Collington Road in Bowie, but according to City Councilman Dennis Brady (AtLarge), they could have been. There are 32 road signs on Collington between Benjamin Tasker Middle School and the offramp for U.S. 50 and Brady says the deluge of directions can be overwhelming and confusing for motorists. “It’s been an issue for a while,” Brady said. “Last summer I had a couple constituents point out that some of the signs they put in face each other. You almost can’t see the school for all the signs” A new speed camera and speed camera sign were added in January, but are not located next to a speed limit sign of 40 mph, which Brady fears could lend justification to the idea that speed cameras are installed as revenue generators and not for safety reasons. “It took me four trips through that intersection to finally find the sign that says ‘photo enforced’,” Brady said. “It really is hidden unfortunately and it definitely is not on the sign that has the speed limit and that’s the most appropriate place.” Brady asked Bowie Police Chief John Nesky and City Manager David Deutsch to explore options for simplifying signage on Collington near Tasker.
See SIGNS, Page A-6
EMILIE SHAUGHNESSY/THE GAZETTE
There are 30 road signs in near the intersections by Benjamin Tasker Middle School in Bowie.
Food court looks to dish out new options Town Center manager: Unique vendors needed to attract customers
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BY
DANIEL LEADERMAN STAFF WRITER
Eatery operators have had concerns about low foot traffic at the Bowie Town Center food
court for several years, but visitors may soon find a new restaurant moving in as the mall looks to offer more specialized cuisine, according to its manager. “We’ve got to take the food court and make it unique and special and different,” said Steven Andrews, the mall’s manager. Andrews said Monday he met with an entrepreneur who
wanted to bring Caribbean food to the space, and has recently had conversations with a couple of other potential food court tenants. There are currently five eateries operating in the food court amid several vacant spaces, and more than a dozen restaurants including Red Robin, Longhorn Steakhouse and Five Guys are located elsewhere in the mall.
Bowie Town Center opened in 2002. Andrews and two colleagues from the Indiana-based Simon Property Group, which operates the mall, briefed the Bowie City Council on Monday on the community events offered at the mall over the past year. They also offered a preview of their
See FOOD, Page A-6
Upper Marlboro to divvy up funds for facades Grant may be split among several businesses, commissioners say n
BY
DANIEL LEADERMAN STAFF WRITER
Upper Marlboro may soon see enhanced storefronts, but
town officials first must decide how to divide up the grant money they’ve been promised from the state. The town has been granted $35,000 from the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development to improve building facades in the town, but officials haven’t yet decided whether that money
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Volume 18, No. 6, Two sections, 16 Pages Copyright © 2015 The Gazette
should be split into a large and small grant — such as one for $30,000 one for $5,000 — or divided into a number of smaller grants, said Stephen Sonnett, president of the town’s Board of Commissioners. The commissioners want business and property owners to meet with them to discuss possible improvements, and
submit applications for grant money to the town by April 15, Sonnett said. Eligible projects include painting, new awnings or signs, masonry repair, new doors and windows and even some landscaping work, Sonnett said. A large grant to a property
See FACADES, Page A-6
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