June 20’s Greenbelt City Council meeting focused on the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority’s (WMATA) “visionary” Better Bus Network which had been the subject of an earlier council worksession. Assistant Director of Planning Jaime Fearer interacted with council to flesh out a letter to be sent to WMATA on the city’s position. The transit plan, as yet unfunded, proposes a significant expansion in bus provision in WMATA’s service area and can be seen at wmata.com/initiatives/plans/Better-Bus/Discover-the-Network.cfm.
Reiterating WMATA’s intentions, Fearer stated that a focus of the plan was to offer a level of coverage and frequency that would result in at least one bus per half hour on all routes on- and off-peak and to start routes earlier in the day. She emphasized that this was a proposal and not imminently to be implemented.
Changes Affecting Greenbelt
Some councilmembers had invested time in studying the maps to identify the differences between today’s bus coverage and the proposal. Councilmember Silke Pope noted that whereas there is now a bus that connects Lakeside Drive, Lakecrest Drive, University Square and Westway directly with New Carrollton Metro Station, under the new plan riders would apparently need to change buses at Roosevelt Center. Councilmember Judith Davis also noted that Edmonston Road (near Dora Kennedy French Immersion School) would also not have service as it does now, though Fearer said that the service would instead run along Springhill Lane, Springhill Drive and Breezewood so that it avoided the congestion associated with school traffic while still serving the same neighborhood.
Coordination Needed
Davis was concerned there seemed to be duplication between routes now covered by the Regional Transportation Agency of Central Maryland (RTA) and the proposed map, citing the Greenbelt to Laurel connection. Fearer, however, thought that the map covered services as a whole in the area and that the inclusion of a route on the map didn’t mean WMATA would duplicate it but was to show services comprehensively.
Both Mayor Emmett Jordan, from the dais, and Bill Orleans, from the floor, urged regional level coordination, with Orleans noting that Four Cities and Maryland Municipal League groups should be involved. According to Orleans, the state supports Montgomery County’s transit system more generously than Prince George’s.
Orleans also suggested the city approach the Washington Suburban Transit Commission as part of a coordinated approach. Jordan said he’d favor urging limited 24-hour service on all routes, more focus on connections to the University of Maryland, College Park campus, and urged further consideration of regional connections, such as to BWI Marshall Airport.
Fearer was asked to update the response letter, let council have a look at it and subsequently submit it to WMATA, copying to other interested parties, such as the RTA.
AskMeAboutARPA
Public Information Officer Chondria Andrews held something of a pep rally for the AskMeAboutARPA campaign. Scheduled for kickoff in July to run all summer, it aims to make Greenbelt residents and businesses more aware of opportunities for them funded by the $22M American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) allocation to the city – all of which must be designated for specific uses by December 31, 2024, and disbursed by December 31, 2026, with all projects completed.
With buttons, T-shirts, business cards and QR codes to bring visibility to the effort, Andrews enthusiastically requested that, in their duties, councilmembers miss no opportunity to publicize the funding source and the programs, including tree canopy grants, child care vouchers, business grants and loans, and educational grants. Additional promotional materials will go out via Greenbelt Access Television, the Old Greenbelt Theatre and social media marketing. Davis reminded her to also approach the AMC theater in Beltway Plaza to include advertising targeted to Greenbelt West.
In response to a question from Orleans about funds remaining to support those in need of rental or mortgage assistance, which he viewed as the most critical use of the money, City Treasurer Bertha Gaymon replied that in their most recent report in early June, Greenbelt CARES had spent $1.65M out of $1.8M allocated. Jordan anticipated that there would likely be a further injection of funds to this program in the near future.
Auditor Appointment
Gaymon requested that council accept the appointment of Mitchell Titus LLC as auditor at a budgeted $68K for the coming year. The three-year contract also has two option years. Gaymon described the award process, noting that one of the three contenders offered a price of almost half the others – which the evaluators thought unrealistic – and that Mitchell Titus was second in cost. She also commented that a factor in their choice was that the engagement partner for the firm (who would oversee the audits) had been associated with previous Greenbelt city audits and thus would be considerably faster getting up to speed.
On being asked about the impact of ARPA funds on the audit, Gaymon told council that the impact was significant because the ARPA funds triggered a Federal Single Audit requirement. Mitchell Titus was already familiar with the process for this requirement. The hire was approved.
MML Proposals
Each year, local jurisdictions submit legislative proposals to the Maryland Municipal League (MML), some of which the MML will promote to state legislators. Council discussed a number of alternatives and finally decided on three. Two related to single-use plastics (one about bags and the other, utensils like stirrers) because so many counties are already enacting this type of legislation.
The third, at the request of Gaymon, was for data on state property tax abatements to be delivered to municipalities at the same time it was delivered to homeowners and presented to municipalities in a form that was manipulable – like a spreadsheet – using tools like pivot tables to analyze it. Jordan noted ruefully that though he was completely in favor of the proposal, he didn’t completely understand pivot tables, a response that struck a chord with his audience.
Pollinator Week
During the presentation to city Environmental Coordinator Kevin Carpenter-Driscoll of a proclamation celebrating National Pollinator Week, Carpenter-Driscoll remarked that it had so far been a fairly good year for pollinators, though some rain would help. (This wish has since been granted.) Responding to a question from Councilmember Rodney Roberts, he said that there are now no honeybees in existence that were originally native to North America. Once there were, but they are extinct. (See box.)
Truck Parking Revisited
In a hardy-perennial, elusively-circular discussion on overnight truck parking, though some councilmembers expressed sympathy for truckers caught mid-trip and required by law to sleep, council once again struggled with the problem of parked trucks causing visibility hazards and pollution (running motors all night). They get ticketed one place, and move on, only to appear somewhere else in the city until ticketing catches up with them again. As Councilmember Kristen Weaver pointed out, the solution is to have somewhere for them to park – but nowhere was proposed.
In other city news, the Public Works Department is working on a five-year plan for conversion of equipment and vehicles to electric.
