Bowiegaz 082913

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HIGH SCHOOL

FOOTBALL PREVIEW

A breakdown of all 28 Prince George’s County teams, preseason rankings and features. B-1

Gazette-Star SERVING SOUTHERN AND CENTRAL PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY COMMUNITIES

DAILY UPDATES ONLINE www.gazette.net

Thursday, August 29, 2013

PurpleLine IN THE PATH OF THE

SOUNDING OFF

A2020Vision

RIVERDALE: “I don’t want to move, but that’s the way life is. But I love it here. It’s just a great spot,” said J. Brian Tansey, whose law office is on Riverdale Road under the site of a proposed raised platform for the Purple Line’s Riverdale Park station, adding that he doesn’t know where his business will go.

DAN GROSS/THE GAZETTE

Campus Drive just east of Adelphi Road in College Park is the site of the proposed Adelphi Road/West Campus Purple Line station.

16-MILE LIGHT RAIL LINE WILL LINK BETHESDA WITH NEW CARROLLTON

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BY JAMIE

T

ANFENSON-COMEAU AND KARA ROSE to be divided among federal, state and local governments. The U.S. and Maryland governments each are expected to contribute about $900 million, and Montgomery and Prince George’s counties are expected to provide the remainder, said Leif Dormsjo, Maryland’s deputy secretary for transportation. State officials recently announced that $680 million was earmarked from the recently raised fuel tax for the project. The state also is pursuing a public-private partnership to help defray its costs. Besides being responsible for designing, constructing, operating and

BY JAMIE ANFENSON-COMEAU STAFF WRITER

MTA RENDERING

A Purple Line light rail car pulls into the Bethesda station, as envisioned by the Maryland Transit Administration.

ONLINE

n Light rail puts Prince George’s on track for more growth, officials say.

‘Green’ employee plants roots in Bowie Planning department, environmental committee get new hire after years of requests BY SOPHIE PETIT STAFF WRITER

Bowie residents will start hearing even more about the importance of going green after the city hired its first-ever sustainability planner on Aug. 19 to tackle the task of getting residents to care about the environment, city officials said. Kristin Larson, 26, of Berwyn Heights will work to educate and involve residents in what the city already has been doing to save energy, like installing solar panels and planting trees, and how they can do these same things at home. “They brought me in to provide outreach and communication and really jump-start the commu-

A&E

Opening weekend of festival at Laurel Mill Playhouse highlights local playwright Mark Scharf’s work.

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nity,” she said. Larson is a former energy auditor for Elysian Energy in Silver Spring and used to go door-to-door advocating sustainable energy, she said. She’s one of the city’s only staff members with direct experience in energy sustainability and is working full time under Bowie’s Department of Planning and Economic Development’s planning division, now a four-person team, and closely with the volunteer-driven environmental advisory committee and Green Team, which organizes environmental activities. “To have a dedicated position to outreach so the residents and local businesses know what they can do to not only save money but improve the environment as much as we can ... I think it’s an amazing step for the city. It shows its commitment for the sustainability efforts,” said Green Team chair Kay Kane.

See GREEN, Page A-14

NEWS

ART OF THE MARCH

Mount Rainier gallery exhibit commemorates 50th anniversary of March on Washington.

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The Purple Line is a $2.2 billion light rail project that will cross 16 miles to connect Bethesda and New Carrollton, passing through many communities along the way. Take a virtual ride on the transit line from Riggs Road to New Carrollton to see the project’s impact on Prince George’s County.

Riggs Road station

n An interactive map of the Purple Line and more stories about the project. www.gazette.net/purpleline.

See PURPLE, Page A-13

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A virtual ride

Train’s path throws many Prince George’s residents’ lives off track n

STAFF WRITERS

he Purple Line has been on the books in Maryland for decades, but as 2020 looms, Purple Line planners and Prince George’s County residents are hammering out the nitty-gritty details of exactly what this $2.2 billion light rail line will look like. The 16-mile line, which will link Bethesda with New Carrollton, will cross parts of both Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, linking up with Metro stops and MARC train stations. The $2.2 billion price tag is

ALL FOR ONE ACT

25 cents

Boarding the line at the first stop in the county, situated on

University Boulevard East, after the intersection with 15th Avenue and just before the intersection with Riggs Road, your light rail car will share the two middle traffic lanes and what once was a median with the Purple Line rail line along University Boulevard East. The station will be roughly between Pep Boys auto parts store and H&A International Food Supermarket. The train will travel by a spot near the corner of Riggs and University Boulevard East where a gas station once stood, demolished to make way for the new line. Tiren Patel, the owner of a 7-Eleven near the intersection, said he welcomes the Purple

See RIDE, Page A-13

800 hired as teachers leave for more pay Increase attributed to attrition, as educators seek better opportunities

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BY JAMIE ANFENSON-COMEAU STAFF WRITER

Prince George’s County Public Schools has a lot of new faces this school year, with over 831 new teachers after over 600 teachers left the system for better compensation in other jurisdictions. The influx of new teachers comes because of the loss of over 600 teachers departing the system, said Deborah Sullivan, recruitment and retention officer in the Division of Human Resources. “We have experienced a higher attrition rate this year, in that we’ve lost approximately

Automotive

600-plus teachers,” said Sullivan. “It is higher than in past years.” Estimates from the school system on the typical attrition rate in previous years were not available as of press time. Sullivan said exit surveys indicated that much of the attrition was due to compensation. “It’s not that our teachers have been unhappy with Prince George’s, they’ve been very happy, but we’ve been on a salary freeze for the past four years, and those teachers sought opportunities elsewhere,” Sullivan said. “Compensation was the reason many of our staff members indicated when they exited last [school] year.” Sullivan noted a 2012 Washington Area Boards of Education report that found that

See TEACHERS, Page A-14

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