LOCAL MUSIC Hyattsville group brings performers to coffee shop. A-5
NEWS: Rehabilitation continues on Bladensburg’s Bostwick House. A-3
The Gazette
NORTHERN AND CENTRAL PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNT Y
SPORTS: Roosevelt’s star girls basketball player says she’s transferring. B-1
DA I LY U P DAT E S AT G A Z E T T E . N E T
Thursday, May 14, 2015
25 cents
No tax increase for Laurel residents Proposed budget benefits from Towne Centre revenues, red light camera tickets n
BY
KIRSTEN PETERSEN STAFF WRITER
TOM FEDOR/THE GAZETTE
West Laurel Ragtag Band leader Bill Stevick of Laurel leads his group of merrymakers in the Main Street Festival parade on Saturday.
New marchers join Main Street Festival n
Annual celebration attracts 100,000 BY
KIRSTEN PETERSEN STAFF WRITER
Despite a light drizzle in the morning, an estimated 100,000 Laurel residents and visitors descended on Main Street for the 35th annual Main Street Festival on Saturday. Festival chairwoman Maureen Rogers said
stormy weather on the afternoon of the event last year may have scared some visitors away, but sunny skies Saturday afternoon brought out people in droves. See Main Street Festival Although the turnout was conwith previous years, video online at sistent Rogers said more vendors and Gazette.net. musicians came out this year — 324 vendors participated in the festival, and several bands performed on three different stages along Main Street.
High school effort emphasizes employment skills BY JAMIE ANFENSON-COMEAU STAFF WRITER
Good grades and job experience are both on the menu for Lovie Simmons, 18, a high school senior working full time at a restaurant as part of a new program to provide work training for nontraditional students. “I told Ms. Martin I needed a job,” Simmons, a Capitol Heights resident who attends the Evening High School at Crossland High School in Temple Hills, said referring to Cindy Martin, instructional
INDEX Automotive Calendar Classified Entertainment Opinion Sports
coordinator for the school. “She told me if I could keep up my grades, she could help me get a job at TGI Friday.” The School-to-Work Training Program is a new program to provide work related skills and job-finding assistance to students at the alternative high school, which operates at two campuses. The program began last school year as a pilot, and this year includes a total of 27 Evening High School students at the two campuses, Martin said. Martin said students must maintain at least a 2.0 gradepoint average to participate in the program. Evening High School, which is held after regular hours at Crossland and at
See STUDENTS, Page A-8
See FESTIVAL, Page A-8
Pyramid Atlantic to take up residence in vacant Arcade building n
JAMIE ANFENSON-COMEAU/THE GAZETTE
Patrons visit the Old Greenbelt Theatre’s newly remodeled lobby and concession stand Saturday.
Renovations put spotlight on Old Greenbelt Theatre n
Official grand reopening scheduled for May 29
BY JAMIE
ANFENSON-COMEAU STAFF WRITER
The curtains have risen for the newly renovated Old Greenbelt Theatre, but the main attraction is yet to come.
GREEN MEN — AND WOMEN Two-day festival welcomes spring to Greenbelt.
A-7
JAMIE ANFENSON-COMEAU/THE GAZETTE
The Arcade building on Gallatin Street is being leased to Pyramid Atlantic Arts Center of Silver Spring, which will relocate to Hyattsville.
Arts studio to move to Hyattsville
RECYCLE
ANFENSON-COMEAU STAFF WRITER
The theater, owned by the city of Greenbelt and now operated by the nonprofit Friends of the Greenbelt Theatre, held a “soft launch” reopening May 1. A grand reopening event is scheduled May 29, said Caitlin McGrath, executive director of the theater and a board member of the nonprofit.
See THEATRE, Page A-8
See STUDIO, Page A-8
Volume 18, No. 20, Two sections, 20 Pages Copyright © 2015 The Gazette Please
BY JAMIE
After sitting vacant for almost two decades, the Arcade building in Hyattsville will finally have a new tenant. On May 5, the Hyattsville City Council approved a 25-year lease for the cityowned building, located at 4318 Gallatin St., next to the municipal building, with Silver Spring-based art studio Pyramid Atlantic Art Center. “The city of Hyattsville is really booming right now, with the development of its Arts District, and we’re really looking forward to being a part of that,” said Jose Dominguez, executive director
NEWS B-8 A-2 B-7 B-4 A-9 B-1
See TAX, Page A-8
“I think it’s bigger this year. We’ve had a lot more vendors and more variety,” Rogers said. “We’ve had children’s games and rides we haven’t had before, a wider variety of food, just some different vendors and their arts and crafts.” Parade coordinator Jim Cross said 1,300 people, including representatives from 22 groups new to the event, marched in the parade this year. For best in parade, the judges chose Laurel church Iglesia
Program serves up success for evening students n
Laurel officials say a proposed budget for Fiscal 2016 will maintain city services at current levels and bring on two new police officers, all without raising taxes for residents. The proposed budget, totaling $28,748,566, is an increase of $135,639 from the approved Fiscal 2015 budget. The increase is attributed to a balance of revenues and expenditures associated with red light camera tickets as well as real estate taxes from new businesses at the Towne Centre at Laurel, said Michele Saylor, director of the city’s Department of Budget and Personnel Services. The introduction and first public hearing for the budget was held May 11. The next public hearing will be held May 27.
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