MAY 2014 MESSAGE

The Message

Issue 318 MAY 2014

IN THIS ISSUE…

Mayor’s Message: City Budget 2

Community Happenings 3

Youth and Recreation 4

Public Works Schedule 8

C ome out and join your neighbors and

friends on Saturday, May 17th, 11 a.m.

to 6 p.m. It is an all-day fun event for

families, friends and relatives!

The festivities will take place along Rhode Island

Avenue at the Municipal Plaza. The parade begins

at 10 a.m. and will begin at the Mount Rainier Na-

ture Center.

The parade will line up at 9:00am. The parade route

will begin at the Mount Rainier Nature and Recrea-

tion Center turn right onto Arundel Road; left on 30th

Street; left on Upshur, down Rainier Avenue, right

on 34th, around the circle, down Perry, and finally left on

36 street, and will fall out on Rhode Island Avenue.

The Largo High School Marching Band, Will partici-

pate again this year. The “Kid’s Corner” on Perry Street

will include the moon bounce, cotton candy, popcorn,

and a lot more. Chubzzy the Clown will be in his usual

spot painting faces and making animals out of the bal-

loons.

There are free souvenir cups for the first 1,000 partici-

pants, so stop by the Mount Rainier Day Festival Com-

mittee table for your stadium cup. To raise fund to sup-

port this year’s activities, the Mount Rainier Day Festival

Committee will also be holding raffles. A $1 raffle for

ten (10) $25 gift cards, and a $5 50/50 raffle. Drawings

for the gift cards will be announced and held every hour

or so. The final raffle (1 ticket for $5 or 2 tickets for $8)

will be for a 32 inch color television. You must be pre-

sent to win for all of the raffles.

In addition to the raffles, the City will be providing

transportation all day long. For your convenience and to

reduce the need for parking, the City will have the Call-a

-Bus and the Police Van circling the City. Both vehicles

will make stops at Kaywood Garden Apartments, Queens

Manor, Rainier Manor, Queenstown and 34th and Bunker

Hill Road. The rides are FREE, so please use them all

Mount Rainier Day 2014

day long. The route for the transportation

service will be shared through a flyer, and

will be available on cable channels 21

(Verizon), and 71 (Comcast). Please also

check out the City’s website

www.mountrainiermd.org for additional

information.

The transportation is made possible by

event sponsors, Kaywood Garden Apart-

ments through the Kay Management Team;

Rainier Manor through the Humphrey Man-

agement, Queens Manor, and Queenstown

Apartments. Each of these management

teams contributed generously to this event,

and we are forever grateful. Pepsi Cola Com-

pany also made a generous contribution of

fifty (50) cases of mixed sodas and ten (10)

cases of water. So, stop by and join the Pepsi

By Malinda Miles, Mayor

Mount Rainier Day continued on page 5

MAY 2014 MESSAGE 2

Questions, comments and submissions to the Mount Rainier MESSAGE should be sent to Jeanelle

Wallace City Manager, via mail at One Municipal Place, Mount Rainier, MD 20712 or via e-mail

at jwallace@mountrainiermd.org. All submissions for the June 2014 MESSAGE must be received by

close of business on Wednesday, May 21, 2014. Submissions received after that time will be consid-

ered on a space available basis. The Mount Rainier Message is published monthly except for the com-

bined July-August and December-January issues. An electronic version of The Message is available at

the city webpage: http://www.mountrainiermd.org/category/newsletters/

CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS AND SPECIAL DATES

Unless noted, all City Council meetings occur at 7 pm

at City Hall, One Municipal Place

DATE

EVENT

Tuesday,

May 6,

2014

Regular Meeting of the

Mayor and Council ; Sec-

ond Reading and Vote on

FY 2015 Budget and Con-

stant Yield Tax Rate

Tuesday,

May 20,

2014

Work Session of the

Mayor and Council

Tuesday,

June 3,

2013

Regular Meeting of the

Mayor and Council

MRTV Programs appear on Comcast 71, Verizon

21, and “On Demand” daily.

MRTV now provides a 24/7 programming schedule.

Watch for the daily Program Guide for a list shows

and times. LIVE Programs – City Council Meet-

ings and Work sessions, 7 pm on the 1st and 3rd

Tuesday of each month. For MRTV comments,

suggestions and show ideas contact staff at

mrtvchannel71@yahoo.com or call 301-

985-6585.

The Mayor and Council are hard at work on

the FY2015 budget. As always there are lots of

needs and limited funds. The Mayor and Coun-

cil are struggling to keep and/or increase the

level of services to the community while not

raising taxes. This is a very hard task to accom-

plish when the needs are so great.

Some of the proposals on the table include,

not hiring an assistant City manager, hiring an

Assistant City Manager with 60% economic

responsibilities and 40% management respon-

sibilities; hiring an assistant City manager with

responsibilities for managing code enforcement

(certification in code enforcement desired);

hiring an economic development specialist to

concentrate on development of the downtown

area, and raising taxes to fund that position.

There is also discussion on the table about

raising taxes to generate much needed revenue,

and to limit the amount of money that might be used

out of the contingency fund to balance the budget and

come up with the funds to cover some of the stated

needs. No final decisions have been reached, and fur-

ther discussion is scheduled for the next work session,

May 6, 2014.

The Constant Yield Tax Rate (CYTR) for FY 2015

is $0.8522. The constant yield tax rate is the tax rate

that a jurisdiction would have to impose in order to

obtain the same amount of property tax revenue in fis-

cal year 2015 as it received in fiscal year 2014. If a

jurisdiction plans to set a tax rate higher than the Con-

stant Yield Tax rate, the jurisdiction must advertise the

tax increase and hold a public hearing before setting

the tax rate for Fiscal Year 2015. The Constant Yield

Tax Rate hearing was held on Tuesday, April 22, 2014.

The City is facing the same crisis that our residents

are facing with the rising cost of oil, gasoline, electric,

Message from the Mayor: City Budget

BUDGET, continued on page 6

MAY 2014 MESSAGE 3

Community Happenings Annual Month of Peace Observed

"There is no way to Peace,

Peace is the way " Gandhi

Peace is not for a day, or a

season, it is a way of life. Peace

building needs to be taught, ex-

perienced, and modeled. How-

ever, we established the month

of May in Mount Rainier as a

time to focus, concentrate, expe-

rience, learn and practice peace.

Mount Rainier is loaded with peaceful people, peaceful

projects and peaceful activities. Each day we can do one

thing for Peace. Mount Rainier has many peaceful pro-

jects, events and happenings:

Mount Rainier Day Community Gardening

Peace Camp Art

Yoga, Dance and Movement Music groups

Walking, Biking, Jogging Spiritual services

Peace Garden at 30th and Arundel Road

Take some time do think about, learn about and prac-

tice Peace this month and may it become part of your

everyday life. May Peace prevail on Earth, here in

Mount Rainier and all around the world. Enjoy, partici-

pate and help in building Peace right in our neighbor-

hood. For a calendar of events visit www.lffp.org or

contact MJ at 240-838-4549.—MJ Park, LFFP

Streetcorner Supper

Comedor Comunitario

Sunday, May 17th

5 PM to 7 PM

Bunker Hill Road between 34th & 33rd Streets

Bring yourself & your family, friends

and neighbors or just come and join us!

Share your favorite potluck dish

Everyone welcome! ¡ Todos son bienvenidos!

For more information or to volunteer contact

Sandy at 301-779-1659

Food Resource groups will table. This event is

alcohol-free. Neighbors feeding neighbors to

confront hunger.

MAY 2014 MESSAGE 4

Youth & Recreation The Mount Rainier Mayor & Council Have Proclaimed

Saturday, May 17th, Kids to Parks Day in

Mount Rainier! Join us outdoors at Mount Rainier Day or visit one of

our many local green spaces.

This is the third year that Mount Rainier will be

participating in the National Kids in the Park Day. In

addition to supporting Mount Rainier Day, parents

are encouraged to take their kids to the park for an

hour of recreation and fun.

National Kids to Parks Day is a day to not just

connect today's youth to parks, but, hopefully, to in-

still in them a lifestyle healthier than sitting in front

of a computer screen. The campaign is designed to

support First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move

Outside campaign and the Interior Depart-

ment's Youth in the Great Outdoors initiative. Both

programs, "aims to promote healthy lifestyles and

foster an appreciation for America’s magnificent

national, state and local parks." This year, the featured park for activities, hot

dogs and beverages is our newly renovated park on

36th Street near Otis and Wells Avenue. This activity

is being led by Ms. Markita Bryant, and is being co-

sponsored by the Maryland National Capital Park

and Planning Commission and Mayor Malinda

Miles. Bring the children to see what the new park

has to offer and enjoy a free hot dog and a beverage.

Thomas Stone Elementary School is reviving

their Parent Teacher Organization (PTO). PTO

is a group of parents, who wants to invite the

community to join the committee, their goals is

to assist children and their families. This is an

opportunity to renew or become a member for

the new revived PTO. In order to vote, you need

to be a member. Membership drive will start on

April 28th until June 10th, 2014, membership is

$5.00 and can be sent in an envelope addressed

to the PTO in Thomas Stone Main Office, we

are also accepting monetary donation from non-

members. If you any questions please contact:

Ms. T. Martin, Ms. T. Brown, Ms. J. Day-Fitts,

Ms. K. Fuentes, or Ms. A. Herbert at school, or

email: tstonepto@gmail.com. Our first commu-

nity meeting would be held on: Thursday, May

15th 2014 @ 6pm. The contributions made to the

PTO will help us plan special and fun opportuni-

ties for students at Thomas Stone.

La escuela primaria Thomas Stone está

resucitando su Organización de Padres y

Maestros (PTO por sus siglas en inglés). PTO

es un grupo de padres que tiene el objetivo de

ayudar a los niños y sus familias. Les invitamos

a hacerse miembro del nuevamente resucitado

PTO. Para poder votar, debe ser miembro. La

campaña de membresía se lanza el 28 de abril y

termina el 10 de junio del 2014. La membresía

cuesta cinco dólares. Se puede entregar el dinero

adentro de una sobre dirigida al PTO en la ofici-

na principal de la escuela Thomas Stone. Tam-

bién se aceptan donativos de personas que no

son miembros del PTO. Para más información,

favor de ponerse en contacto con la Sra. T. Mar-

tin, Sra. T. Brown, Sra. J. Day-Fitts, Sra. K.

Fuentes, o Sra. A. Herbert de la escuela Thomas

Stone, o de mandar correo electrónico al tsto-

nepto@gmail.com. El primer reunión comuni-

taria se llevará a cabo el jueves, 15 de mayo del

2014 a las seis de la noche. Los donativos para

el PTO harán posible oportunidades divertidas y

especiales para los alumnos de Thomas Stone.

Join Thomas Stone’s PTO

MAY 2014 MESSAGE 5

Summer Camps in the City

Little Friends For

Peace offers Summer

Peace Camps. Peace

Explorers, ages 4 to 11

yrs. and Peace Build-

ers in Action, ages 8 to

12 yrs. For more infor-

mation contact the

Parks, 240 838-4549

or visit LFFP.org

ARTWORKS Studio

School, 3711 Rhode

Island Avenue, offers

Teen Camp, ages 13

and up, Camp for ages

9 to 12, Camp for Ages

5 to 8. For more infor-

mation contact staff at

301-454-0808 or visit

artworksnow.org

Joe’s Movement Empo-

rium offers summer arts

camps, from Fine Arts,

Dance, Culture & Crea-

tive Movement, for vari-

ous ages, June – August.

Financial aid available.

Contact Ms. Robinson at

301-699-1819 or visit

joesmovement.org.

Mount Rainier Nature/

Recreation Center, of-

fers Specialty Day Camps

and is a Summer Play-

ground location. Summer

activities serve pre-school

ages to teens. Contact the

Nature Center staff for

more information, 301-

445-4500, or visit

pgparks.com

Mount Rainier Day continued from page 1

Generation while picking up your stadium cup.

The Mount Rainier Day Festival Committee is

happy to have these sponsors for this year’s

event, and we hope that they will be our sponsors

and partners for years to come.

This year the Mount Rainier Day Festival will

support the Mount Rainier Food Pantry, a newly

created entity led by Rev. Brian Adam of the

Mount Rainier Christian Church. If you are com-

ing to the Festival, PLEASE bring one or two can

goods to share with those most in need in our

City. There will be a collection station in front of

City Hall.

Interested in driving the Call A Bus and/or the

Police Van? Got a valid Maryland driver’s li-

cense, no points, no criminal record, personal car

insurance, know the City and City limits? Con-

tact Mayor Malinda Miles via e-mail at

mayormiles@gmail.com.

Finally, Mount Rainier’s downtown business

community has been invited to put some of their

wares and merchandise out on the street. That’s

right, they will be street vending to showcase

what they have in their stores. PLEASE stop by,

introduce yourself, and make a purchase. They

will be glad to see you.

This year’s Mount Rainier Day Committee in-

cludes Janis Lomax, Officer Eddie Murphy, and

Mayor Malinda Miles. Volunteers are needed.

Each volunteer selected will be given a Mount

Rainier Day Festival T-shirt. Please contact Ms.

Lomax, if you would like to volunteer. Ms. Lo-

max can be reached at 301-985-6585, Monday

through Friday from 9:00a until 5:00pm.

Prince George’s County Public Schools

(PGCPS) is accepting enrollment applications for

entry into summer programs. This year's summer

programs include 16 new offerings that focus on

strengthening core skills in reading, mathematics,

and science. Some applications are due May 12,

2014. Start times vary by program; meals and trans-

portation will be provided at some program sites.

For more information on summer programs, visit

the Summer School webpage at www1.pgcps.org/

summerschool/ or call 301-808-1124.

MAY 2014 MESSAGE 6

Chief’s Blog

There are two active Neighborhood

Watch groups in the City. Local resident

Rick Ruggles organizes monthly walks

throughout the City. Tyrese Robin-

son organizes activities on the south side

of Rhode Island Avenue. Contact Rick

Ruggles at rick@rickruggles.com and

Tyrese Robinson at tjkrobin-

son@yahoo.com for more information

about how to participate.

You can also directly report road dam-

age, power outages, or any other issues

encountered to Public Works as you see

them at www.publicstuff.com/iframe or

via phone at 1-888-491-3119 and SMS

Text Message: 617-500-3111. Report

crime to Mount Rainier Police Department

directly by calling 301-985-6565. Report-

ing issues and crime improves how we all

live in Mount Rainier.

Help Us Help You—Be Active Neighbors

health care, retirement, and general maintenance and up-

keep. The City is striving to become more energy efficient,

going green when we can, and encouraging composing and

recycling as major goals that residents can help the City

achieve. (NOTE: If you need a composting bin, please con-

tact Public Works.) These rising costs are also going to

impact the budget, and the ability to respond quickly and

efficiently to the needs of the City.

I invite you to take a moment to get a copy of our cur-

rent budget, to really see what your mayor and council is

working with to efficiently and effectively run the City.

Let your Ward representative hear from you and your con-

cerns regarding this year’s budget, tax cuts, tax raises or

whatever else you have on your mind. The window of op-

portunity will soon be gone, and the new budget will be

implemented on July 1, 2014. At this juncture, the Mayor is

opposed to raising taxes to create an economic develop-

ment specialist or to delete the assistant manager position

that has functioned as assistant manager, economic devel-

opment and overseer for code enforcement and other activi-

ties in the City, including road construction, emergencies

and other duties as required to meet the needs of the City.

On that note, I am taking this opportunity to thank Mr.

Michael Jackson for all of the work that he provided to the

City as Assistant Manager for the past six or more years.

Over those years, he wrote grants, served as the City’s IT

person, website developer, provided oversight for code en-

forcement, editor of the City’s Newsletter, and a host of

other job functions that were assigned from time to time.

Michael landed a wonderful job at the Smithsonian, and

started working there last week. He will be missed, and no

matter what the budget decision is, he cannot be replaced.

We thank you Michael for your hard work and dedication

to Mount Rainier.

BUDGET, continued from page 2

MAY 2014 MESSAGE 7

Public Works RECYCLE, BULK TRASH AND

YARD WASTE

COLLECTION TIPS

All recyclables (aluminum cans, bottles, paper and

cardboard) can be put in the same yellow recycle bin

which will be picked up Friday of each week. These

items will be taken to the County recycle plant as they

now have the capability to separate the items.

All BULK TRASH appointments must be made be-

fore 12 Noon on the Friday preceding the pick up day.

All bulk trash items must be set out before 7 AM on

pick up day. Call 301-985-6558, select option 2.

Yard Waste collection will be EVERY Monday

through October .

May 2 Recycle Pick Up

May 5 Bulk Trash (call 301-985-6558 for

appointments) Yard Waste Pickup

May 7 Regular Trash Pick Up

May 9 Recycle Pick Up

May 12 Yard Waste Collection

May 14 Regular Trash Pick Up

May 16 Recycle Pick Up

May 19 Bulk Trash (call 301-985-6558 for

appointments) Yard Waste Pickup

May 21 Regular Trash Pick Up

May 23 Recycle Pick Up

May 26 MEMORIAL DAY— Public Works

and City Hall CLOSED

May 27 Yard Waste Collection

May 28 Regular Trash Pick Up

May 30 Recycle Pick Up

June 2 Bulk Trash (call 301-985-6558 for

appointments) Yard Waste Pickup

June 4 Regular Trash Pick Up

June 6 Recycle Pick Up

June 9 Yard Waste Collection

June 11 Regular Trash Pick Up

June 13 Recycle Pick Up

June 16 Bulk Trash (call 301-985-6558 for

appointments) Yard Waste Pickup

June 18 Regular Trash Pick Up

June 20 Recycle Pick Up

June 23 Yard Waste Collection

Save Local Trees,

Eradicate English Ivy English Ivy is a widespread woody vine

native to Europe and western Asia often

used in landscaping to decorate fences or

walls. Its dark green leathery leaves make it

an attractive ornamental when grown in con-

tainers, but it is invasive and escapes easily

from yards. It can kill trees and shrubs by

enveloping them completely, and it provides

shelter for rats and mosquitoes.

English Ivy can be removed by (gloved)

hand. If it is on a fence, pull the vines off,

and be sure to get the roots. You can recycle

the nutrients in the vines by letting them de-

compose in a plastic bag and then using

them as compost.

Removing English Ivy from a tree requires

more delicacy. Yanking the vines can dam-

age the bark and branches, and could even

dislodge a bird's (or bees') nest.

First, being careful to avoid damaging the

bark, use a flat-head screwdriver to detach

six to 12 inches of each vine about a foot

above the base of the tree. Cut the detached

section from each vine all the way around

the trunk so the ends can't grow back togeth-

er. Large vines may require a pruning saw.

Remove all the English Ivy in the ground

for at least six feet around the tree, including

roots. The English Ivy on the tree will die

and eventually fall off.

Check the area every six months for any

English Ivy that may have sprouted from

leftover pieces of root or seeds. Removing

regrowth will eventually exhaust any re-

maining roots. English Ivy deserts, where a

large mass of ivy has smothered most other

plant life, require more effort to remove.

For more information on removing Eng-

lish Ivy, visit http://www.ivyout.org/. If you

would like advice or assistance removing

English Ivy from your yard, please contact

the Mount Rainier Tree Commission

through City Manager Jeannelle Wallace by

phone (301) 985-6585 ext. 22, or email

jwallace@mountrainiermd.org.

MAY 2014 MESSAGE 8

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