FANCY FOOTWORK
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Workshops help Bowie residents learn to cut a rug. B-1
The Gazette SERVING NORTHERN AND CENTRAL PRINCE GEORGE’S COUNTY COMMUNITIES
DAILY UPDATES ONLINE www.gazette.net
Thursday, June 12, 2014
25 cents
Laurel prepares early-warning flood system
Relaxing fun in the sun
City officials seek to better alert residents
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BY
ALICE POPOVICI STAFF WRITER
TOM FEDOR/THE GAZETTE
Jonathan Cueva, 13, of Hyattsville relaxes with his dog Roxy, a Rottweiler mix, during the Dogs for the Arts community event Saturday morning at Magruder Park in Hyattsville. Roxy was judged to have created the best paw print painting.
Brentwood kicks off farmers market, bazaar Event created to reclaim underused space, organizers say n
BY
ALICE POPOVICI STAFF WRITER
A vacant lot once overrun with trash in Brentwood’s Gateway Arts District on Rhode Island Avenue opened Friday as a lively market and art space, as musicians played into the evening and passersby strolled among the vendors selling jewelry, baked goods and fresh vegetables. The Route 1 Farmers Market & Bazaar, which drew more than 200 people, marked the opening of a summer-long initiative sponsored by the Gateway Community Development
BILL RYAN/THE GAZETTE
Brentwood residents Laura Schandelmeier and Melissa Glasser talk Friday about Glasser’s paintings of dancers that are on display at the Gateway Community Development Corp’s “Art Lives Here” market in Brentwood. Corp., which aims to transform neighborhoods by reclaiming underused urban spaces, said
Carole Bernard, executive director of the organization. The program is part of the
Art Lives Here initiative, a campaign to promote the Prince George’s County arts district made up of Brentwood, Hyattsville, Mount Rainier and North Brentwood. “It’s really taking a space that’s been underutilized and doing something with it that adds value to the community,” Bernard said. “The goal was to give people an experience.” Open weekends through Sept. 27, the bazaar, located at 4100 Rhode Island Ave., combines about five art installations with crafts and food. One of the artists, J.J. McCracken of Brentwood transformed a hitch trailer into a site used to collect rainwater, titled “Gleaning the Rains.” The rainwater will be used to water 50
See MARKET, Page A-8
When the Patuxent River flooded parts of Laurel on May 1, Woodland Grove Apartments resident Camille Cokley said she woke up to find the parking lot filled with water and ducklings swimming above the submerged playground. She said people were stranded at the apartment complex all day and many of her neighbors’ cars were totaled because of water damage. “People were mad because they couldn’t go to work,” Cokley said. “I think there are some things that could have been done to be proactive, to avoid this.” While the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, or WSSC, notifies municipalities when it anticipates a flood, Laurel city staff is working on a program to monitor river levels and notify residents of possible flooding ahead of time. The
College student performing at Metro stations for name recognition, funds for album
BY JAMIE
ANFENSON-COMEAU STAFF WRITER
Hyattsville resident Mishael Washington’s path to a music career is taking her to the Metro. Washington, 18, is singing live at Metro stations in Prince George’s County and at other stations in the Washington metro-
politan area to raise publicity for her goal of becoming an R&B singer, as well as donations for a studio rental. “I started looking into studio time, but it was really expensive. So I was trying to think of a way to do that, and I thought, the perfect way to do that was to sing in the subway to raise money, where people will notice me,” Washington said. While “busking”, the practice of performing in public for donations, is not uncommon in New York subway stations, her mother Carman Washington said it is unusual in the District.
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Rate hike to go to new positions, staff raises BY JAMIE ANFENSON-COMEAU STAFF WRITER
Greenbelt residents will be seeing a new recreation supervisor and information technology specialist, but it will come with an increase in their tax bills in the next fiscal year as the City
Learn more about the candidates running in the June 24 primary. Check out our online voters guide at www. gazette.net/voters guide2014.
See STARDOM, Page A-8
SHOOTING STAR
2014 MUNICIPAL SCENE
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Rising senior at Flowers spends summer helping Team USA’s Under-17 basketball team.
A-10 Volume 17, No. 24, Two sections, 24 Pages, Copyright © 2014 The Gazette
See INCREASE, Page A-8
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RECYCLE
June 19, 2014 1910271
Council voted to increase property tax rates. On June 4, the City Council voted 5-1 to increase the city’s tax rate prior to adopting a $25.3 million budget for the 2014-15 fiscal year, which begins July 1. The tax rate was increased three-quarters of a cent per $100 of assessed value, to 81.25 cents for real property and to $1.7225 for personal property. Also in-
Hyattsville resident Mishael Washington, who performs as Mishael Justice, has been singing at Metro stations around the region to gain exposure and to raise money for her singing career. Here, she sings June 6 for afternoon commuters at the New Carrollton Metro Station.
“I’ve been told by many people that she’s the first,” Carman Washington said. Mishael Washington, who performs under her middle name as Mishael Justice, said she encourages people who enjoy her music to keep in touch through social media, and she is on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter. Mishael Washington said she was nervous at first, singing in front of strangers. “At first it was nerve-wracking, but then I get into the mood as I perform. It’s
SPORTS
ELECTION
See FLOOD, Page A-7
Greenbelt residents to see tax increase
Hyattsville teen sings for a ticket to stardom n
project was approved as part of the city’s fiscal 2015 Capital Improvement Program. “There’s the potential that WSSC might fail to notify the city, so we’re looking for redundancies in our notification system,” said Marty Flemion, the city’s deputy administrator and director of emergency operations. “It’s going to help us to provide more advance notice.” Flemion said the river monitoring project was prompted in part by the death of a homeless woman who drowned during a flood in January 2013. Flemion said Laurel floods a couple of times per year, but the May 1 flood was the worst he had seen since 1972. Laurel plans to install between four and six gauges to monitor the elevation of the Patuxent River, which will send an electronic alarm to the city’s police dispatch center to signal possible flooding. The city will then alert residents via social media, email, text messaging as well as an automated dialing message system.