Hyattsville Life & Times November 2008 Issue

by Sharmina Manandhar

T he murder of a 20-year-old Hyattsville man, found shot to death last month outside

his home near the corner of Galla-tin Street and 42nd Avenue, remains unsolved.

A Prince George’s County police officer on a routine patrol near the area found Pedro Luis Hernandez lying in the roadway with a gunshot wound. He was pronounced dead on scene, police said.

This was the fifth homicide case in Hyattsville this year, Hyattsville Police Chief Douglas Holland said at a public meeting held the week after Hernandez’s death.

“This is highly unusual for Hyattsville,” Holland said at a com-

Vol. 5 No. 11 Hyattsville’s Community Newspaper November 2008

Hyattsville Life &

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Box 132

Hyattsville, M

D 20781

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Included: The November 12, 2008 Issue of The Hyattsville Reporter—See Center Section

CIDER continued on page 5

GALLATIN STREET MURDER continued on page 7

Gallatin Street resident shot, killed near homeCase remains unsolved

by Paula Minaert

T he housing market in Hyattsville has been affect-ed by the current financial

downturn, according to some lo-cal realtors and developers, as well as some residents.

Keren Kuo, a realtor who works in Hyattsville, provided figures—which also include Edmonston, Rogers Heights, University Park, College Park Estates and Avon-dale—that show a slowdown in housing sales in these areas. He said that as of Oct. 15 there were 291 homes for sale and from the beginning of 2008 to Oct. 15, 131 homes sold, with an average price of $320,000. In all of 2007, 272 homes sold with a median price of $351,000, he said.

“There is no way for me to know how many active homes were on the market on Dec. 31, 2007, but I know that number was quite a bit less than the cur-rent 291,” he said.

This year, a house is on the market for an average of 210 days,

which is almost double the fig-ure for 2007, Kuo said, adding that the number of bank-owned homes—foreclosures—has gone up quite a bit from 2007. How-ever, he said that Hyattsville itself is doing better than the southern part of the county.

The most recent information available shows that there were 35 houses in Hyattsville in some level of default in the first quar-ter of 2008, said Mayor William Gardiner. He also said there were five bank foreclosures in the city in the third quarter of the year.

EYA, a Bethesda-based devel-opment company, is building retail space and housing on U.S. Route One. Aakash Thakkar, vice president for development, said that overall the Hyattsville market is good.

“People love Hyattsville,” he said.

But while EYA is still selling homes, it is averaging about two to three sales a month, rather than the five to six it would prefer.

Housing in HyattsvilleThis is the first article in a four-part series about how the national economic crisis is affecting Hyattsville.

HOUSING continued on page 10

A memorial set up at King Memorial Park on Gallatin Street, where 20-year-old Pedro Hernandez was found shot to death last month. Photo: Sharmina Mandahar

by Stephanie Ostroff

P umpkin pie, corn mazes, scarecrows and hayrides - au-tumn is associated with tra-

ditions and festivities of all kinds. It’s finally time to put away the sun block and oversized sunglasses in fa-vor of a light jacket and scarf. It is also the best time of year to enjoy

cider made from Maryland’s native apple species, which is just what a group of more than 60 parents and children did last month at Locust Grove Nature Center in Bethesda.

This was the third year the Mont-gomery County nature center host-ed its apple cider-making program,

Cider-making program seasonal treat at Locust Grove Nature Center

Snapshot of Hyattsville, days after electionby Paula Minaert

Editors Note: Last names of voters have been omitted to protect their anonymity.

The experience of one Hyattsville business owner mirrored the

general reaction of people in this area to the Nov. 4 elec-tion of Senator Barack Obama as president. Unofficial tallies show Obama sweeping to vic-tory with 349 electoral votes to John McCain’s 163. People in parts of Washington, DC thronged the streets, shouting with joy. Steve saw it and said he too was ecstatic.

“I was stuck in traffic election night at 14th and U (streets) … It was stunning, seeing all the people in the street. I was crying. After all this city and this country have been through, there’s hope.”

In a limited survey of peo-ple in Hyattsville—residents, business owners and shop-pers— taken on Nov. 5, the overwhelming reaction to the election was a sense of hope

ELECTION continued on page 11

Local author publishes

see pg.10

Lynn Etheridge, a naturalist at Locust Grove Nature Center in Bethesda, demonstrates the art of cider making. Photo: Stephanie Ostroff

Hyattsville Life&Times | November 2008Page 2

by Sarah Nemeth

A s the chilly w e a t h e r seeped into

my house this sea-son, I could think of only one thing:

break out the logs, newspapers and matches.There’s nothing as sooth-ing as the crackling coming from a lit fireplace.

But as my roommate, my dog and I sat on our futon watching TV one day last month, the unlit fireplace began making noises on its own. And it wasn’t even Christmas Eve!

After a day of hearing “chirps” and “cheeps” we decided to check it out. No, there wasn’t a bird stuck up there (despite the flurry of gray and yellow feathers that billowed out as my roommate tried to assess the situation). It was a baby squirrel.

Let me tell you, baby squirrels who are scared out of their minds have really creepy eyes in the dark.

Clearly, this little guy wasn’t going

to get out of the shaft on his own. We tried to free him with a broom handle, tried to coax him down with peanut butter on the end of a stick. He just wasn’t coming — he was wedged between the brick chimney side and an inner casement.

After being attacked by what looked like a toupee (it was actually a different, dead squirrel that fell on my hand) my roommate, Toby (dog) and I were done.

I called animal control. It took them hours to reach us, and by then, the baby squirrel wasn’t groaning, growling, chirping or even moving, the animal control officer told us.

It was a sad evening in the house-hold. Even the dog was in mourning.

But the kind officer closed the fireplace flue incase the squirrel had buddies up there nesting with him. Our fireplace doesn’t have a cover-ing inside the house. (May I suggest those to you? Especially if you don’t use your fireplace, animals nest inside it and can get caught up in debris

and decay. If you’re not using your fireplace, cap your chimney, or get a cage that prevents animals and even insects from roosting inside it.)

Anyhow, the next day two of my roommates were sitting in the living room and the squeaking and squawk-ing began again. They opened the flue and saw the little guy scrambling around in the chimney. Before animal control could be called back, down came the squirrel, into the fireplace and out into the living room.

Chased by dog, ogled by cat, guf-fawed at by two humans, the squir-rel finally dove into the recliner, not to be seen by anyone. Finally, my roommates had to carry the recliner out the front door and onto the front lawn until the little guy popped out of the chair and ran up the tree that branches over our chimney.

Whatever. At least our chimney is now rid of feathers, one dead squir-rel and one live squirrel — and a ton of other unidentifiable debris.

Enjoy the adventures of autumn!

Hugh’sNews CommeNTAry ANd oPiNioN oN hiSTory & PoLiTiCS

disappearing children

Opinion: Squirrel squatting

|THE PUBLICATION DEADLINE for articles and letters in the December issue is Friday, November 28th. |

A community newspaper chronicling the life and times

of Hyattsville

Mailing address: PO Box 132, Hyattsville, MD 20781

Hyattsville Life & Times is pub-lished monthly by Hyattsville Community Newspaper, Inc., a 501c(3) nonprofit corporation. In-terested reporters should send their e-mail addresses to the editor to be reminded of deadlines and re-ceive internal news. Articles and news submitted may be edited. The dead-line is the last week of the month for the following month’s issue. Letters to the editor and opinions are encour-aged. For all e-mail correspondence with HL&T: news, features, tips, adver-tising and business write to [email protected]. To submit articles, letters to the editor, etc. , e-mail [email protected]. For inquiries re advertising rates or to submit ad copy please email to [email protected].

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Keith BlackburnSteve Clements

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Sarah Nemeth

Circulation: Copies are distributed monthly by U.S. Mail to every address in Hyattsville. Additional copies are dis-tributed to libraries, selected business-es, community centers and churches in the city. Total circulation is 7,500.

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FromTheHillsby Tim Hunt

University Hills residents cele-brated the retirement of their mailman in a ceremony dur-

ing the University Hills Area Civic Association meeting held at St. Mark’s Church on Oct. 22.

Bob Kraft retired after 35 years working with the post office, 12 of which were as the mail carrier for University Hills.

Kraft walked the entire neighbor-hood in all kinds of weather each day at work and provided residents with a level of service that will be difficult to replicate. In apprecia-tion, the civic association gave him a plaque and a gift certificate from REI. UHACA Secretary Tom Eich-man presented the gift to Kraft in a brown paper bag to symbolize Kraft’s routine of having his lunch at the Duck Pond each day. In a let-ter printed in the October UHACA newsletter, Kraft thanked residents for their kindness and friendships over the years.

“You all should be proud of your neighborhood and its welcoming feel, speaking as someone who’s delivered mail in almost every zip code from Landover to old Hyatts-ville and everywhere in between,” Kraft stated.

Kraft also wrote the officers of the civic association a letter of thanks.

“It was great to see everyone again last night, it reminded me that I missed the neighborhood but not the job,” he wrote. “I was also again reminded of and humbled by the generosity of the people who are University Hills. My plaque holds more sentiment than any award that the post office could ever give and

the ‘brown bag’ really hit the mark, too.

“Over the years, I had several op-portunities to bid on other routes but it usually came back to the same question: Would I rather eat lunch watching the seasons change in the park or watch the traffic lights change on U.S. [Route] 1 or Kenil-worth Avenue? I think that I made the right move.”

University Hills residents will miss the dedication and service pro-vided to them over the last 12 years and wish Bob well in retirement.

In other neighborhood news, Lee Henry, Hyattsville’s director of public works, was at the Oct. 22 meeting to answer questions from residents and to discuss plans for neighborhood street improvements and repaving.

A construction plan will be de-veloped by the DPW for work to begin in 2010. Until then, measures will be taken to maintain the road-ways as needed.

Perhaps the most pressing issue is the poor condition of Wells Park-way, one of the main arteries of the neighborhood.

“This is not a pothole problem,” Henry said. “This is the alligator effect of water deteriorating Wells Parkway.”

Alligator cracking is caused by the degradation of the road’s sub-base. Until that issue can be properly addressed during construction year 2010, the DPW will resurface Wells Parkway in order to hold the road together. Any improvements will be greatly anticipated and appreciated by University Hills residents.

in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 sus-pense thriller, “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” assassins kid-

napped Jimmy Stewart’s son to pres-sure Stewart not to talk to the au-thorities. Imagine something more heinous, like government authori-ties kidnapping children in order to pressure their father to confess to crimes.

On March 9, 2003, a story in the respected London Sunday Telegraph was titled, “CIA holds young sons of captured al-Qa’eda chief.” The sto-ry by Olga Craig said, “Two young sons of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the September 11 attacks, are being held by the CIA to force their father to talk. Yousef al-Khalid, nine, and his brother Abed al-Khalid, seven, were taken into custody in Pakistan … but this weekend they were flown to America where they will be questioned about their father. CIA interrogators confirmed … that the boys were being encouraged to talk about their father’s activities.

The story said their father, Mo-hammed, 37, was being held at the Bagram military base in Afghanistan where he had been told his sons were being held, to encourage him to divulge future attacks and the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden.

In the years since the children were kidnapped, little more has been revealed. Only some retrospective information about them appeared when the Center for Constitutional Rights published an affidavit of Ali Khan. Khan quoted his son, saying, "The Pakistani guards told my son

that the boys were kept in a sepa-rate area upstairs, and were denied food and water by other guards. They were also mentally tortured by having ants or other creatures put on their legs to scare them and get them to say where their father was hiding."

In summer The New York Times said Mohammed had been taken to a CIA black site in Poland where, “various harsh techniques, includ-ing waterboarding, used about 100 times over a period of two weeks — prompted worries that officers might have crossed the boundary into illegal torture.”

“Let’s just say we are not averse to a little smacky face,” an informed CIA official told the Telegraph. “Af-ter all, if you don’t violate a prison-er’s human rights some of the time then you aren’t doing your job.”

Not surprisingly, Mohammed confessed to nearly every terrorist plot during the past 15 years. Mo-hammed is currently at Guantana-mo awaiting a military tribunal.

The U.S. media have not publi-cized the fate of the children. We know that a state-controlled press would likely conceal such things, but does our own press meet that description?

The methods used to convict Mohammed go against every stan-dard of human decency. Are there any limits to what we will do in this the war against an abstract noun, the so-called “War on Terror?” Might we even justify, say, gouging out the eyes of a suspected terrorist’s child to “forestall an imminent threat?”

T he Hyattsville Life & Times hon-ors one of its two founders and former publisher. Steve Cle-

ments and his wife Marlise, are say-ing so long to Hyattsville and mov-ing into a home in Reisterstown, just northwest of Baltimore. The Cle-ments’s, who lived in Hyattsville for 47 years, will now live next door to their daughter and her family.

CORRECTIONAn article in the October issue of the Hyattsville Life & Times incor-

rectly represented the opinion of a resident regarding the city’s code.Herb Hille supported the final version of the code on grass/weed

height. An article in the October issue incorrectly stated that mobile vend-

ing trucks located on Ager Road received city permits in the past. The City of Hyattsville has not extended permits to these vendors.

Instead, in the past, they have been required to receive permits from Prince George’s County.

Hyattsville Life&Times | November 2008 Page 3

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by Bobby McMahon

in the center of Nikki Thomp-son's garden, two blue and white wooden boxes provide homes for

unlikely tenants—honey bees.Thompson said that the bees are

crucial to the vitality of her gar-den, and she is just one of several Hyattsville residents who are creat-ing wildlife habitats, choosing native plants and generally turning their gardens into eco-friendly swaths.

Bees have long been of interest to Thompson, who has been living and gardening in the same Hyattsville home for almost 30 years. A few years ago, she saw a posting about a bee-keeping course and started tak-ing classes. She built her first hive, followed soon by another, and now has hundreds of bees pollinating her garden.

The benefits of bees and other pollinators like butterflies, beetles and even bats are numerous, said Esther Mitchell, Master Gardener Coordinator at the Prince George’s County Extension, part of the uni-versity’s College of Agricultural and Natural Resources. About one-third of human food crops need pollina-tors, and by limiting the use of pesti-cides, gardeners can avoid accidently ridding their yard of these and other good bugs that improve yard health, she said.

“If our world was without pol-linators, we would not have apples, peaches, and pears,” Mitchell said. “They are why we have food and beautiful flowers.”

While beneficial to plants, Thompson admits that bees can sometimes startle the neighbors. Sit-ting on her back porch one week-end morning, she saw her bees swarm around her backyard. While this may cause some people to be alarmed, Thompson knew that the bees were simply looking for a new home.

“There’s a lot of notions about bees—people don’t understand them,” Thompson said.

While her yard boasts no bee hives, resident M.A. Sheehan has taken a more laissez-faire approach to natural gardening. A few years ago, she decided to stop trying to grow grass in her woody backyard, and in time began to see many of the same plants she would see while hiking. As it turns out, many of these were native plants.

After the native plants came the insects, followed by the animals that eat them, and now Sheehan’s yard is teeming with life. The National Wildlife Federation has certified her yard as a Backyard Wildlife Habitat, and she has counted more than 60 different species of birds, including the warbler, which Sheehan enjoys

watching from her trusty lawn chair in the summertime.

“It’s so much easier than having a lawn,” Sheehan said.

She allows a variety of ground cover plants to spread through her backyard, including the partridge-berry with its delicate white flowers. She said that native ground cover is cheaper, easier and more envi-ronmentally friendly than growing grass.

“There are so many other options that I wish people were aware of,” Sheehan said. “You don’t see the same diversity in lawns.”

With more residents becoming aware of native plants, Mitchell said that many have begun to plant na-tives like the purple cone flower more frequently. Often, when inva-sive, non-native plants enter an area, insects may not feed on those plants, and damage to the food cycle be-gins, she said.

“Once the native plants go, the animals have to go elsewhere for good,” Mitchell said. For those in-terested in building a “green” yard, both Thompson and Sheehan rec-ommended starting small, being pa-tient, and learning as much as you can in the process.

“If you just let it go, it’s so much fun to watch what comes,” Sheehan said. She’s thinking of putting up bat boxes next.

Keeping up with the buzzResident knows her own beeswax

Hyattsville resident Nikki Thompson adjusts the top of one of the bee hives in her 42nd Avenue yard. Photo: Bobby McMahon



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which is geared toward youth ages three to 12. The program ran twice in October and on Nov. 7.

“Some of the other local nature centers have been conducting this program longer than Locust Grove has and it is a very popular pro-gram,” said Lynn Etheridge, a natu-ralist at Locust Grove who led the demonstration. “We decided to buy a cider press and provide our patrons with the same opportunity.”

Before participants could try their hand at the cider press, Etheridge taught them about various types of apples and how they are grown.

Maryland’s claim to fame is its very own apple species — the Spencer-ville Red — named after the town in Maryland in which they were first grown. These firm, tart apples came about serendipitously and are a cousin of the Jonathon variety, Etheridge said.

She brought the Spencerville Red apples to the nature center from Heyser Orchards in nearby Colesville.

“Out of the 7,500 species grown in the world, we have our own apple,” Etheridge told the group of chattering kids and parents huddled around her in the nature center. “And we’re very proud of it.”

Participants were also given the chance to taste four different mystery apple species before voting on their favorite kind. The sweetest variety, called the Nittany — a cross between Golden Delicious and York apples — was the most popular by a long shot.

The runner-up was the Golden Delicious. In a tie for third and fourth place were the two snappiest flavors — Spencerville Red and Jonathan.

Etheridge explained that at least

three kinds of apples must be used to make cider — one tart, one slightly bitter and one sweet. In this case, the participants added all four varieties to their very own batch of apple cider.

Outdoors, children and parents gathered around a cider press to par-take in the cider-making process. The children loaded apples into the hopper — a crate attached to the top of the press in which the apples are crushed. They took turns twisting the handle, allowing juice to seep from the apples and straining out pomace — the re-sidual seeds, stems and pulp.

Nathan Zimmerberg, 10, said his favorite part of the program was “crunching the apples” in the press.

Katherine Morrison brought her three-year old son Joshua to the dem-onstration and said he particularly en-joyed learning how the cider was made.

“He likes anything mechanical,” she said. “The fact that they showed the press and how it worked was very exciting.”

Once the kids finished churning the press, the cider was ready to enjoy. Youngsters and adults sipped their con-coction and quickly requested more.

The nature center also provided apple juice and pre-packaged cider from Heyser Orchards. Back in-doors, the participants finished off their afternoon with a sampling of apple butter.

“It’s very seasonal and fun,” said Lily Dwyer, who brought along her five-year old daughter Katheryne and three-year old daughter Caro-line. “It’s one of those simple enter-tainments that are great for kids.”

Locust Grove Nature Center, 7777 Democracy Blvd., is a short drive down the Beltway from Hyattsville. For more information, call 301.299.1990.

CIDER continued from page 1

by Bobby McMahon

B lood-spattered walls, mag-got-covered body parts and a gang of flesh-hungry zom-

bies are all part of the fun at Goat-man Hollow haunted house in Riv-erdale. But for the volunteers who work and act in this elaborate Hal-loween attraction, the legend of the Goatman means much more.

Not just a “jump-out-at-you” type of haunt, Goatman Hollow is billed as a “haunted theatrical experience” with good reason. The 200 to 300 guests per night spend 45 minutes inside the converted John C. Dorsey building as the often unwilling ac-tors in a moving play. Rather than just screaming—although they do plenty of that—guests are required to interact and improvise with the twisted characters inside.

“We wanted to do something that we would want to see,” said Jenny Wright, one of the founders of Goat-man Hollow, who started the haunt in 2002 with her husband and two neighbors. They decided to base their haunt around the local urban legend of the “Goatman,” a half-man, half-goat believed to live in the woods of Prince George’s County and feast on unsuspecting teenagers. “We wanted to do something that no one else was

doing,” she said.After entering the attraction,

groups are told that they are doctors who are looking for the Goatman. As they move from room to room, they encounter deranged physicians, evil clowns and gallons of blood, which seems to cover every inch of every room inside. It’s spattered on the walls, dripping from an armless body, and causing your shoes stick to the floor in some rooms.

“You can’t have a haunt without blood,” said Bill Livingston, another founder, who sat backstage and or-ganized volunteers as they arrived.

Goatman Hollow is an all-volun-teer effort, and this dedicated group - planning starts in the Spring - puts on the entire production, from act-ing in the haunt, to building sets, to using makeup, to turning joyful ad-olescents into frightening zombies.

“The bulk of our volunteers were once customers,” Wright said, add-ing that a vast majority of them come from the surrounding neigh-borhoods. “They love it and they want to come back.”

Many volunteers see it as an op-portunity to spend time with their families, including Tracy Day, a Belts-ville resident who helped with the event. She said that many kids get in-

volved through their parents and vice versa, and friendships are formed in the hours that go into production.

“A lot of these kids grew up with the haunt,” Day said.

Goatman Hollow also gives a chance for volunteers to give back to the community. Livingston said that the money raised through ad-missions and concessions is divided

between covering expenses and im-provements for next year—this year featured a bigger, scarier, profession-ally made Goatman suit—and dona-tions to the Riverdale Fire Depart-ment. Last year they were able to raise $6,000, and they’re hoping for more by the end of this run.

For 12-year-old Jasper Rain, though, the appeal of working at

Goatman Hollow is simple: scar-ing the pants off people. Jasper per-formed as a zombie one night, and enjoyed frightening one group in particular.

“I like seeing the big college frat guys get scared and hide behind their girlfriends. Then they come out and say they weren’t scared,” Rain said.

Tracy Day (L) applies makeup to the face of Goatman Hollow actress Sarah Dice at the Haunted House in Riverdale Park last month. Photo: Bobby McMahon

Scare tactics


What’s happeningin your neck of the woods? Tell us what you’d like to see in future issues of HL&T. Contact Sarah at 240.354.4832.

by Anke Bettina Irgang

T he City of Hyattsville is has ap-proved a proposal for enhanced sports facilities at Melrose Park,

situated at the intersection of Rhode Island Avenue and 41st Place. The proposal includes the construction of a small skate park. Its features have yet to be determined, but will be based on input by local skaters.

The proposed skate park would cater to skaters from beginner to advanced level, and would comprise an area of about 4,700 square feet.

“We will talk to kids in the com-munity and get their input on what has worked and what hasn’t worked in other skate parks in the area,” said Jim Chandler, Hyattsville’s commu-nity development manager.

“Based on that, we’ll decide what features will be included in ours.”

One skater, Julian Blein Villacres, thinks the park should not include a half basketball court, which is sug-gested in the proposal.

“There are lots of other basketball

courts in the area,” the Riverdale Park resident told the City Council at a Nov. 3 meeting.

In addition to creating areas des-ignated for skating, the city plans to build a new half-size basketball court, as well as create an expanded parking lot and a pedestrian walkway con-necting the park’s existing soccer field with the skate park. The city does not anticipate a rise in criminal incidents or fights after the construction of the skating area. According to Chandler, the city will, however, require users of the park to sign a waiver for insur-ance purposes.

The proposal was put on hold for some years following its initial introduction. Work on the project resumed when the Maryland-Na-tional Capital Park and Planning Commission, which is responsible for developing and operating pub-lic parks in the county, approved a budget of $275,000 in fiscal years 2004 and 2005, according to Eileen Nivera, planner-coordinator for

the commission’s Prince George’s County division.

Nivera introduced the plan to Hyattsville residents at a public meeting on Oct. 23.

“We wanted to give people who are currently using the park and its basketball court a chance to give some input,” she said. “All partici-pants seemed very welcoming to-wards our proposal.”

Chandler added that 25 to 30 residents, officials and city staff at-tended the meeting.

“We sort of walked everyone through the plan and got a very fa-vorable response from the commu-nity,” he said.

The City Council will forward its recommendations, and those of the residents who commented on the park, to M-NCPPC. The commis-sion will then decide whether the project can move forward. If the re-view process is completed according to plan, construction is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2010.

hyattsville may get skate park

by Sarah Nemeth

i showed up an hour early, which was probably indicative of my uber-preparedness, or maybe

just a good sign that I was in the right place at training for Hyatts-ville’s Community Emergency Re-sponse Team.

About 47 people showed up to the Hyattsville Municipal Building Oct. 11-12 for the free course, offered through Prince George’s County’s Office of Homeland Security. They came from all over the county, in-cluding the cities of Bowie, Hyatts-ville and Laurel, from Lanham, Fort Washington and Lewisdale.

Our trainers, Michael Hansen, Matt Dipietro and Miranda Raggio, from Delmarva Search and Rescue, doled out training manuals and set us up with backpacks full of emergency equipment (including what looks like the Swiss army’s version of a hatchet).

I learned way more in two days than I learned in an entire semester of college math theory.

We began with disasters – natu-ral, technological and manmade. We learned fire safety (including hands-on training with fire extinguishers and “cribbing,” a means of leveraging heavy items), disaster medical training, light search and rescue operations, di-saster psychology, how CERT works after an event of terrorism and how the organization mobilizes.

The Hyattsville CERT team has already been put into action.

“We have been mobilized to help direct traffic around down trees and wires,” said Bill Auchter, leader of Hyattsville’s CERT team. “We have assisted in traffic control for the Hyattsville Parade, assisted the po-lice on Halloween night by walk-ing assigned neighborhoods, been part of the National Night Out program for the last four years, and provided information to citizens at

the last Summer Jam of the summer … as part of the National Prepared-ness Program.”

Auchter got involved after hear-ing about the program from locals and from Hyattsville Police Chief Douglas Holland, who is supportive of the program.

Right now there are four officers and one dispatcher from the HPD who have attended CERT training and two of them are active members of the group, Auchter said.

The CERT concept was developed by the Los Angeles City Fire Depart-ment in 1985. The Whittier Narrows earthquake in 1987 highlighted the concern of an area-wide threat of a major disaster in California. It also confirmed the need for training civil-ians to meet immediate needs.

The CERT program is adminis-tered by FEMA's Community Pre-paredness Division. It prepares people to help themselves, their families and others in the event of a disaster in

their community. With this training, volunteers can provide immediate assistance to victims before emergen-cy first responders arrive on scene. CERT volunteers also participate in community preparedness activities.

Prince George’s County funds its CERT training programs through grant money from the Citizens Corp program of the Department of Homeland Security.

Auchter said the Hyattsville team has budgeted money for its program through the city’s police depart-ment. These funds are used to pur-chase additional tools that might be needed in an emergency.

For more iNFormATioN E-mail Calvin Hawkins, of the Prince George’s County Office of Homeland Security, at: [email protected].

CerT-ifiedHLT editor attends free FEMA disaster preparedness course

by Karen Anderson

i n a unanimous voice vote on Oct. 20, the Hyattsville City Council agreed to direct the

city administrator to enter into a contract with NZI Construction, Inc. of Beltsville, to complete the city’s street infrastructure rehabil-itation plan, which is currently in its fourth of five years.

Hyattsville Mayor William Gardiner said of the $11.8 mil-lion in the City’s Operating Bud-get, Hyattsville has spent about $2.1 million on the project this year and $7.9 million so far in its 4 years for what he described as “long over-due” repairs.

The five-year plan seeks to rehabilitate all streets, sidewalks, curbs and gutters through con-struction, street milling—a pro-cess that prepares a road for paving—and paving, according to Gardiner and council documents.

“It’s essential to maintaining quality neighborhoods, essential to ensuring that we don’t add to our costs by neglecting an ongo-ing investment,” he said.

More specifically, Gardiner said the project will focus on repaving roads as necessary and reinstalling traffic calming devices to meet the city’s current standards. This

City continues contract with NZI

NZI continued on page 9

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munity meeting held the week after the murder. “Last year, we had one. Before this, in the last 10 years, the most we had in a year were three.”

Hernandez was the only child of Pedro and Josepha Hernandez, of the 5200 block of 42nd Avenue. The family moved to Hyattsville four years ago after living in Washington, D.C. for 28 years.

At the meeting, Hernandez said that he had spoken to his son at around 10 p.m. on Tuesday before Pedro Hernandez went to his friend’s house to do some paperwork. Her-nandez also said that his son had told him that he would be home soon.

“He was a sweet boy,” Hernandez said. “He didn’t have any problem with anyone.”

A memorial of flowers, teddy bears, and other mementos were placed at the spot at King Memorial Park where he was found at 12:33 that Wednesday morning.

The Prince George’s County Po-lice Homicide Unit, which investi-gates all homicides in Hyattsville, is investigating the murder.

A white Dodge Magnum was seen leaving the scene as the police officer pulled up to the scene, ac-cording to an e-mail sent at 6:06 a.m. the same day by the Hyattsville Police Department to the members

of the Hyattsville Safe City Alert System listserv.

Holland said it appears that this year’s murder cases are not related and that there is no pattern to them. The first case was drug related, the second and third cases took place during a robbery while the fourth happened as a result of a dispute between two roommates. The first and fourth cases have been closed while the other two remain open, Holland said.

Det. Sgt. Chris Purvis of the Hyattsville Police Department, working closely with the county po-lice department’s homicide unit in the investigation, said at the meeting that no new information on the in-vestigation was available at the time.

“We are at the embryonic stage of the investigation,” Purvis said. “Right now we are trying to reach out to the community to help us. If you know anything, let us know.”

A cash reward up to $25,000 is being offered to anyone with a tip that leads to the arrest and indict-ment of those responsible for Her-nandez’s death.

The total number of crimes dropped by 0.62 percent over the last three quarters of 2008 compared to 2007, Holland said. A total of 1,448 crimes have been reported from Jan-uary to September this year, of which 1 percent were crimes against persons while 87 percent were crimes against property. Holland also said that the city is seeing an increase in crime by groups of teens.

In August, a number of stores at the Mall at Prince George’s were broken into in on the same night, which accounted for unusually high numbers of commercial burglaries that month, Holland said.

“The folks involved in the Prince George’s Mall burglary were 13 and 14-year-olds,” he said.

According to Holland, his de-partment has implemented new programs to reduce the number of crimes in the city.

“One such program is ‘Commu-nity Action Team’ which is tasked with identifying and addressing community issues before they be-come a problem,” Holland said

The police department has also instituted a crime reduction model called Statistical Management, Anal-ysis, & Response Tactics Holland said. It focuses on crime through weekly crime analysis reports. The patrol officers develop crime-fight-ing strategies in response to the weekly crime analysis reports. As a result, officers are more focused and deployment is based on the findings rather than random patrols.

Holland encouraged residents to sign up for the Safe City Alert list-serv, join Neighborhood Watch, and to visit the city Web sites to find out more on safety and crime in the city and be alert.

“Be a nosy neighbor,” Holland said. “Call us anytime you see any-thing suspicious.”

Dear Miss Floribunda,

I understand that the new city ordinance on grass and weeds permits alternative gardens now, and sanctions use of na-tive plants and tall grasses. Ecologically I admit that this sounds very good, but I have esthetic reservations. It seems to me there's no way such a garden can look anything but messy and unkempt. Please weigh in on this.

Mostly Mowed on Madison Street

Dear Mostly Mowed,

You may be as surprised as I was to find out that the mostly mowed look is no longer the mode in France, that most horticulturally elegant Eden. Our very own native plants, including tall grasses, are ev-erywhere. Just last month, while visiting my sister Polyantha and her husband, Bonhomme Boutonniere, in Picardy, I noticed tall grasses such as miscanthus even in window boxes. Then Polyantha and I went to Normandy to visit her daughter Noisette, who took us to the cel-ebrated Jardin Botanique d'Evreux, where I was astonished to see our own native plants and grasses fea-tured prominently. In the photo-graph I took you may recognize Mexican firecrackers, dahlias, mis-canthus, black-eyed Susans, marsh

marigolds and pampas grass. Then in Paris's Luxembourg Gardens I saw how our native grasses charm-ingly fluff up the almost uncomfort-ably formal look of the traditional beds. But even before now, gazons japonais (Japanese lawns) full of Old World wildflowers were seen in France. Most visitors to the British Isles find their exuberant cottage gardens en-chanting rather than "messy and unkempt." And even if you prefer the broad expanses of clipped grass that originated in England, the grass is that incomparable emerald green because the British climate permits it. Gardeners over there do not con-tend with our brutal summer sun, long dry periods and sudden ex-tremes of temperature. We do well to design our gardens using the plants that can withstand our own climate and still look fresh and perky. Going to another extreme both geographically and conceptually, the Japanese work wonders without any grass at all — they create beautiful gardens with just sand and stones and a few accent plants. If you've ever seen Joe Fox-Glover's garden you will realize that even in deep shade where grass will not grow, a judicious selection of shade-loving plants and an impeccable sense of composition will result in a harmo-

nious alternative garden. The Min-nowhavens's water garden provides another example of imaginative use of native ornamental grasses and aquatic plants. My conclusion is that any gardener with common sense about plant choice, a good eye for color and texture and a flair for landscape de-sign can make any style of garden visually inviting. If you would like to continue this discussion please come to the next meeting of the Hyattsville Horticultural Society at 10 a.m. on Nov. 15 at City Hall, 4310 Gallatin St. All visitors are free to take leftovers from last month's plant exchange.

Questions may be sent to [email protected]. Miss Floribunda is the col-lected wisdom of the Hyattsville Horti-cultural Society compiled and edited by Victoria Hille.

MissFloribunda

GALLATIN STREET MURDER continued from page 1

Gardin Botanique d'Evreux. Photo: Miss Floribunda


Walking with purpose

What do you think?We want to hear from you!

[email protected].

by Allie Benjamin

Last year 269 students from St. Mark the Evangelist Catholic School raised over $2,000 for

the homeless and this bequest en-abled Mary House to provide instant shelter for four new families. On Nov. 7 the children walked again.

Mary House, a volunteer organi-zation, works to help provide shelter for the homeless, immigrants, refu-gee families and pregnant mothers, and for the past seven years pupils at St. Mark’s have been walking through University Park to help raise money.

“Students will attend morning mass and then spend about an hour participating in the walk,” said Prin-cipal Charles Russell.

This year Mary House has a goal of reaching $250,000.

More than 10 years ago Mary House reached out to St. Mark’s, as well as other schools in the area, and formed a relationship that was mu-tually beneficial.

“Separate from helping the whole cause, the children start to learn a positive attitude about contributing to society in general and more spe-cifically the poor in their area,” said

Bill Murphy, co-founder of Mary House.

“Especially with the Catholic schools, students are given the op-portunity to practically apply their faith to raise money and show good support,” he said.

Seven schools in the area are in-dependently participating in “mini-walks” to raise money for the home-less.

This year Mary House is re-ally depending on the help of the children to raise money to support more people.

“We received $65,000 last year from Fannie Mae, but this year do-nations are down [because of the sluggish national economy] so the only contribution we will receive from them will be if they show up at the actual walk,” said Murphy, who estimates receiving only $5,000 this year from the recently beleaguered government-sponsored initiative.

“This year really will be more about survival rather than growth,” Murphy said.

The pupils helping Mary House receive price matches for how much they walk as well as other donations from the community.

by Lauren Cohen

h yattsville residents could see improvements in park mainte-nance, city partnerships, play-

grounds and programming after changes are made to the Hyattsville Department of Recreation and the Arts.

Mayor William Gardiner said he hopes these improvements will hap-pen once those changes, including the hiring of a new director, take effect.

Due to budget constraints, the department has not always received the most money, with funds going to other areas such as roads and the police department, Gardiner said. However, in the last budget there was a proposal to provide more funding for the department.

Finding a new director for the program is one of the biggest changes being made to the depart-ment. After a new director is chosen, Gardiner said other staffing positions will soon follow.

“Once we hire a new director, we will have that director come back to the city with the recommendation regarding the requested staff positions and position descriptions,” he said.

Gardiner declined to comment on the record as to why acting director Joanne Mood’s contract was not re-newed. She has been given the oppor-tunity to continue to work with the department in some facet, he said.

Gardiner stressed how important it is for Hyattsville to offer “high-qual-ity parks and high-quality programs.” He would like to see employees looking after the parks, making sure playgrounds are safe and that users are following park rules.

City Council President William Tierney said the council would like to see such things as specialty pro-grams for three- to six-year-olds, senior programs focused on wellness and education, arts and enrichment programming for teens, and creation of an adult recreation program.

“It’s really time for us to be more creative,” he said.

Tierney also said that some of the recreation and arts programs do not see much activity from residents while others have so much interest that they need someone with more experience to take over.

Hank Irving, Greenbelt’s director of recreation and a member of the com-mittee to select the new Hyattsville director, had suggestions for how the department can make improvements.

Irving, who Gardiner said was chosen as a member of the com-mittee because of his knowledge of recreation, said it’s a good idea to make citizens from different areas of the city part of a parks and recreation advisory board. He also mentioned the importance of “getting people actively involved, and [of] help[ing] promote the programs they put on.”

Working with the mayor and City Council to make the changes they want, making sure to “off-set taxpay-ers costs,” and joining the Maryland Recreation and Parks Association are a few of Irving’s other suggestions.

The committee to select a new director is currently in the search process, said Vincent Jones, Hyatts-ville’s assistant city administrator.

“I think it would be great if we would have somebody on board by early next year,” Gardiner said.

recreation department overhaul in sight


by Allie Benjamin

W hile the infamous “Soup Nazi” repeatedly denied soup to disobliging cus-

tomers on the Seinfeld TV series, members of the Hyattsville com-munity will be able to enjoy the soups of Al Yeganeg—who inspired the ‘Soup Episode’—at the latest Original SoupMan restaurant.

The chain’s new location, at Uni-versity Town Center, will provide the same soup that was so popular in the TV episode, with owners who are a little more generous to provide victuals to hungry customers.

Athena Ware Hernandez and her father James Ware tasted Yeganeg’s soup at a franchise convention and after taking a trip to New York to try the soup again, they knew they had found the perfect venture.

“We chose this type of restaurant because of the ingredients used,” Ware said. “It’s nice to have a place that offers healthy alternatives in-stead of only fried food.”

The restaurant serves eight to 10 varieties of soup each day, and rotates among all of Yeganeg’s 50 recipes. Ev-ery day at least one soup is offered from each of the following categories: meat and poultry soups, vegetarian soups, seafood soups and specialty soups.

The most popular soup is the lobster bisque, which is offered ev-

ery other day and is alternated with crab bisque, Ware said.

When the store opened on Oct. 7, business started with a big boom, and now things are starting to even out, Ware said.

“Even in the midst of economic distress, Hernandez still sees the value in opening an Original SoupMan in Hyattsville, stating that the product fills a void in the area’s food offerings,” said Damiano DeMonte, account ex-ecutive for Bullseye Public Relations, who is representing the company.

Everything is not only healthy, but made fresh daily.

“When help is not needed in the front—mostly during the lunch-time

rush—people are in the back chopping up ingredients for the salad, or slicing meat for sandwiches,” Ware said.

In addition to the soups offered, customers receive a piece of bread, their choice of fruit and a piece of chocolate with their meal. Combos are also offered, which include either half of a sandwich or a small salad.

Since the location is close to the University of Maryland campus, the owners hope to soon set up a deal with a student meal card company.

“Our biggest customers are the lo-cal government workers, but we re-ally would like to get more students to come out as well,” Ware said.

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by Maria Zilberman

T he YMCA of Metropolitan Washington and the City of Hyattsville are discussing the

possibility of bringing a YMCA facility to Hyattsville, but the cost of the facility and a struggle to ar-range adequate parking are delay-ing the project, authorities said.

“We’re not in the stage of con-tracts yet, said YMCA spokeswoman Carol Gregory. “Where we are right now is we’re really evaluating the programs we want to offer and we’re looking into financing options.”

The proposed facility would be located at 4307 Jefferson St., adja-cent to Renaissance Square Apart-ments.

Parking options discussed for the potential facility include exist-ing parking or building a parking garage. However, building a garage could be costly, said Jim Chandler, Hyattsville’s Community Devel-opment Manager. Each individual space could cost from $500 to $1,000 to build, he said.

“If they can’t get beyond the

parking issue, there’s no sense talk-ing about [what programs the fa-cility will offer],” Chandler said.

Current economic instability has made it even more necessary that the YMCA thoroughly re-searches the financial sustainability of programs they bring to Hyatts-ville, Gregory said.

“We want to make sure we’re not duplicating services in the area, but serving needs not readily available.” She said. “When we go into a com-munity, we’re looking for a long term investment in the community.”

The Hyattsville YMCA would offer multi-use arts spaces to en-hance the needs of Hyattsville’s arts district, Gregory said.

“The multi-use space would be rooms for artists to both create and display their works,” Gregory said. Examples include spaces for art, photography and dance studios and practice spaces for musicians.

The YMCA also hopes to of-fer local artists opportunities to teach classes to YMCA members and area residents, Gregory said.

The proposed facility would also include a family swimming pool with water slides and a youth well-ness program, she said.

The YMCA’s youth wellness program, “Physical, Healthy and Driven,” includes health and fit-ness assessments, family nutrition education and playground style physical activity.

“PHD has been at the forefront of addressing one of the region's fastest growing health crises, child-hood obesity,” Gregory said.

Additionally, the YMCA hopes to strengthen the community bonds in Hyattsville.

“The part that we want to get right in Hyattsville is making sure we ad-dress the culture of the area, like con-necting artists with each other,” she said. “The YMCA is all about making connections in the community.”

Gregory said the YMCA will likely meet with Hyattsville May-or William Gardiner this month to discuss the future of the project.

Gardiner did not return calls seeking comment on this matter.

Feasibility of ymCA uncertain

Soup for you!

means replacing existing “speed bumps,” which require drivers to slow to 5 or 10 mph, with “speed humps,” which cars can drive over at about 25 mph “so drivers can main-tain a fairly consistent speed that is still below the speed limit,” Gardiner said.

Also, the project calls for the in-stallation of pedestrian safety mea-sures, including additional sidewalks along Crittenden Street and 40th Avenue.

Gardiner said the city will likely

complete renovations in University Hills during an additional sixth year of the project, which he estimates will cost “probably another $1 to $2 [million].”

NZI has been the bidder for a number of Prince George’s County contracts and the city has renewed a piggyback on the low county bids so that NZI will repair Hyattsville’s streets at the same prices that they provided to the county, Gardiner said.

“The prices [the city of Hyatts-ville] got were far higher than the prices the county got,” he said.

Some in the community ex-pressed doubts about the fairness of the bidding process for the project.

Hyattsville resident David Mar-shall said the city “didn’t give any-one else a chance to contract” be-cause of a lack of advertising.

“Even if it’s not actually favor-itism ... it starts to look that way when one firm is given this much work without any competition,” Marshall said.

However, Gardiner said the city issued a separate request for propos-

NZI continued from page 6

NZI continued on page 10

An employee at the Soup Man restaurant at University Town Center scoops hot soup for patrons. Photo: Allie Benjamin


by Karen Anderson

T his fall, Hyattsville Preserva-tion Association historian and 10 year city resident, Andra

Damron, presents a visual history of Hyattsville in her book, Hyattsville, part of the Images of America se-ries by Arcadia Publishing. The book chronicles the city’s beginnings be-fore its official incorporation in 1886 and continues through the 1990s.

“I think that everyone in Hyatts-ville has an interesting story and be-cause of that everyone plays a part in our history,” Damron said. She went on to describe this book as a celebration of the community, an understanding she reflected in her organization of Hyattsville.

Although descriptive captions and a comprehensive introduction provide some verbal navigation, the structure of Damron’s book largely allows for the story to be told by about 200 community pictures, each of which depict everyday life in its various stag-es throughout Hyattsville’s history.

The fundamental research for the book included gathering relevant pic-tures and learning the stories behind them, a detailed process that included sifting through census information, archived newspapers and resources at the Prince George’s County Histori-cal Society and the Historical Soci-ety of Washington, D.C. Altogether, Damron said she considered about 1,000 photographs and drew from personal histories recounted from past and present community members.

Damron spent 11 months complet-ing the book with the help of HPA members, like Miriam Howe, and other community members who were willing to share their family history.

“My name is on the cover, but it’s certainly not a singular effort ...,” Damron said. “To me that’s what makes Hyattsville so great — its community spirit.”

Although other books have been written about Hyattsville’s history, HPA president Thomas Behrens de-scribed this one as “a little bit broad-er in scope,” going on to character-ize it as one that “builds on” what has been done before.

“I think this is the first time we’ve really taken a comprehensive look at Hyattsville history from its founding to current situations,” Behrens said.

The book is divided into four sec-tions that distinguish time based on the developments in transportation. It highlights the eras of the railroad, street cars, U.S. Route 1 and mod-ern development.

“This community ... has always been about transportation and its proximity to downtown,” said Behrens, who rec-ognized “an integral story” between changes in the transportation system and changes in the town.

“As the transportation grew so did the community. ”There really is a correlation there,” he said.

The book spreads its focus from the mid to late 1800s until the early 1960s, but its coverage trails off as it approach-

es Hyattsville’s most recent history. “This is meant to be a starting

point for Hyattsville history collec-tion rather than a final one,” Damron wrote in the acknowledgements.

HPA, a 26-year-old a non-profit volunteer organization that Behrens said dedicates itself to the archi-tectural history of Hyattsville, en-courages continuing such a history collection, although Behrens said a Hyattsville museum may be “a little bit farther down the road.”

Arcadia Publishing, who ap-proached the city about the project, describes itself as “the leading local history publisher in the United States” and has published more than 5,000 ti-tles, including many in Maryland, ac-cording to their company Web site.

“This is a community effort and I hope that people will see it as that way,” Damron said.

To promote the book, Damron and HPA are hosting a book launch today at 7:30 p.m. at City Hall, 4310 Gallatin St., followed by a book signing at the Book Nook at 1:30 p.m. on Nov. 15.

Prices are also 10-15 percent less than projected, Thakkar said.

Ann Barrett, a Hyattsville resident and a realtor with Long & Foster, said, “We have a bigger supply of houses on the market than we’d like, and it makes sales harder. But the city of Hyattsville is pretty solid. We have great growth coming.”

Steve Clements, a long-time Hyattsville resident, recently sold his house on Kennedy Street dur-ing what he calls a “worrisome” na-tional financial climate.

“I had two contracts on the house. That sounds good—but I still haven’t sold it, because of financing

problems,” he said. “The house sold under a government program to help first-time buyers. But Oct.1, all similar government programs except this one were frozen, and so people are turning to it, and it’s swamped with paperwork.”

Jesse Jennell, a spokesperson for Mo-saic at Metro, which has rental units near the Prince George’s Plaza Metro station, has a different perspective.

“Our units are still selling,” he said. “With the housing crisis and the credit crunch, people sometimes can’t get into a house right now, and leasing is one of the best options around.”

Mosaic’s first units—two build-ings—will open in November and the rest, including amenities like a pool and a media room, in January.

Resident Chris Currie calls him-self an “expert amateur” because he’s spent several years helping people move to Hyattsville.

“More people I know want to move here than ever, because of the new development and improved in-frastructure,” he said. “But it’s harder for them to actually buy, due to tighter financing, concerns about further market depreciation, and dif-ficulties selling their current homes. It seems there are more people in-terested in living here but fewer people are closing on houses.”

He also said there were five bank foreclosures in the city in the third quarter of the year, based on infor-mation provided by the county.

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HOUSING continued from page 1

als, and got a number of responses that weren’t competitive.

Others in the community, such as Hyattsville resident and former city councilman Scott Wilson, do not feel that the benefit of the project

justifies its costs. “The amount of money they

throw away on this stuff is really quite large,” Wilson said of the City Council’s plans for street infrastruc-ture rehabilitation. “It’s important to do it, but it’s important to do it economically. They need to repair only those parts that need repairing.

It makes no sense to take out the good stuff and replace it.”

Gardiner expressed confidence in the city’s spending on the project, saying the city is undertaking both a “major initiative” and a “major in-vestment ... which [it] had not un-dertaken for 30 years.”

NZI continued from page 9

Hyattsville—then. A photo from Andra Damron's new book about the city. Photo: submitted photo


similar to Steve’s. The speakers were men and women, black and white, young and not so young.

“I’m ecstatic,” said Donna, headed into A Tangled Skein yarn shop on Route 1. “I’m so happy that hope has been given a chance.”

Gordon was sitting in Under the Cocoanut Tree restaurant.

“I’m pleased,” he said. “I can’t continue in this war mentality. The war’s bankrupting the U.S. What have we got out of it? A lot of dead people, higher food and fuel prices, and now lots of unemployment.”

A lifelong Hyattsville resident named James stopped to say, “It was great. I liked what [Obama] said in his acceptance speech.”

Antoine is a business owner in Hyattsville.

“I’m overjoyed,” he said. “I’m proud to be an American and I’m glad I’m black. It was very brave of white Americans to vote for Obama.”

His two friends with him agreed.David, a Hyattsville resident getting

lunch at the A&W restaurant on Ham-ilton Street, said, “It’s a joyful day—and there are great days to come.”

Judith is a Hyattsville resident who was on her way into the Ham-ilton Street Safeway.

“I’m thrilled,” she said. “I didn’t realize how relieved I was until today. Obama wasn’t shot and the election wasn’t stolen. He’s going to make a great president.”

Not everyone agreed, though. Another Safeway shopper, who declined to give her name, said, “I work in D.C. “I’ve seen everything. And as far as I’m concerned, it is what it is. I just hope it’s better than what we’ve had. Obama’s inexperi-ence worries me.”

Finally, Ann—yet another life-long city resident—said, “I think it’s wonderful. With his message of change, Obama reminds me of John Kennedy. I just hope he isn’t shot. I also hope he pulls out of Iraq.”

ELECTION continued from page 1

by Maria Zilberman

o nce complete, construc-tion on DeMatha Catholic High School’s new convoca-

tion center could bring a boom to Hyattsville’s developing restaurant district.

Dematha’s new convocation cen-ter will feature a gymnasium with seating for 1,181 people that will host eight to 10 basketball games per year, five classrooms, athletic locker rooms, athletic offices for coaches, a weight room and a batting cage. The current gymnasium holds 700.

“We like that people will be com-ing to the community. We hope that as we develop our restaurant district, people at the ball games will come and enjoy the restaurants,” said Stu-art Eisenberg, executive director of the Hyattsville Community Devel-opment Corporation.

Digging for the convocation cen-ter will begin on Nov.15 and con-struction will take until June 2010 to complete, said the DeMatha Principal, Daniel McMahon.

“We hope to have facilities that are more worthy of our people and our programs,” McMahon said. “We have had wrestling practice taking place in classrooms and award- winning mu-sic programs taking place in trailers.”

The convocation center is only one part of the construction proj-ect. Other aspects include removing utility poles and moving all utilities underground, converting the Mc-Carthy Activities Center to an ex-clusive music center, adding parking, widening Madison Street and build-ing a street wall 18 1/2 feet high along U.S. Route 1.

Because development standards for the Prince George’s County Gateway Arts District, which Hyatts-ville is part of, prohibit parking lots in front of buildings, Eisenberg said he and the CDC recommended a permeable street wall be put in place along Route 1 to make the parking in front of the school less noticeable to those passing by the area.

“You can see the parking, but it’s really mediated so that if you’re walk-ing on Route 1 there is a street pres-ence and a human scale rather than [an] emptiness and a void,” he said.

The school is also working to have fewer students driving through city neighborhoods by creating faculty only parking behind the school and continuing to offer students parking in areas that are easily accessible by Route 1, McMahon said. Madison and 44th streets will offer new drop off zones for cars and buses, both of which are acces-sible by Route 1, he said.

The school also plans to widen Madison Street by one lane with the creation of a second exit lane to Route 1 and installation of a right turn arrow at the intersection.

The county gave two hundred feet of Madison Street roadway, from the circle in front of the school forward, over to the school, said Jim Chandler, Hyattsville’s Community Development Manager.

“When you realize the property given up on Madison Street, the only people that would use that are people going to DeMatha or people living in the EYA development on the west side of Route 1,” Chandler said.

Even though the school has ac-quired this part of the roadway, which sits between the school’s property, the road will continue to be a non-gated open street, McMa-hon said. However, it will now be the responsibility of the school to maintain the area.

Renovations planned for convert-ing the McCarthy Activities Center to a music only facility will be pri-marily internal and are expected to be complete by the fall of 2009, Mc-Mahon said.

“In some way, this is an attempt to create an orchestra in the future,” McMahon said.

The McCarthy Activities Center’s three classrooms and open space used for study hall, science expos and wrestling practice will need new homes once the renovations are complete, he said.

DeMatha construction changes streetscape


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If your home is currently listed by another Realtor®, please disregard this o�er. It is not my intention to solicit the o�erings of other brokers.

2423 Gri�en Street $399,0004305 29th Street $349,0002214 Banning Place $379,5003506 Emperor Court $319,0008117 Hammond Avenue $389,0004005 Lawrence Street $299,0004725 Naples Avenue $375,0004213 Newton Street $239,995

3910 Nicholson Street $299,0004306 Oglethorpe Street $350,0004724 Quimby Avenue $369,9954102 Shepherd Street, $345,0008906 Trapper Lane $399,9956620 22nd Place $399,9954002 31st Street $369,9954411 39th Street $299,995

4924 40th Place $385,0009000 50th Place $269,000Cherry Glen Condo $179,995Md Farms Condo from $169,000Montpelier Condo from $149,900Greenbriar Condo from $199,995Hunting Ridge Condo from $225,000

Documents

Hyattsville Life & Times November 2008 Issue