DRAFT
Town of Cheverly
Meeting Minutes
March 11, 2010
Call to Order
Meeting called to order at 8:00 pm in the Cheverly Community Center.
In attendance: Mayor Mosley, CMs Callahan, Watson, Eldridge, Schachter, Tevault and CM Johnson absent.
Pledge of Allegiance
Presentation from American Legion Post 108
Mayor introduced the American Legion representatives Steve Brennan & Roy Watson.
Mr. Brennan encouraged participation by all members of the Town whether active duty, deployed families to help out the Veterans. Explained the American Legion eligibility for and referred folks to the Town website where there is a link regarding eligibility as well as a son or grandson of American Legion. If you are a gal during the established dates you can join the American Legion if not serving during those dates you can join the American Legion Auxilary. On Veterans Day the flag being presented to the Town was flown over the Pentagon. Mr. Brennan read the script that presents the flag from Post 108 to the Town of Cheverly.
Agenda/Approval/Changes
Mayor added an item Budget Adjustment – 3on3 Basketball.
Minutes – Town Meeting 2/11/10
Approved as written.
Minutes – Worksession 2/25/10
Approved as written.
Town Administrator Report
Mr. Warrington reported that mulch was being made this week from the year’s yard waste and it will be available in April. The process for getting mulch will be in the Newsletter and website. WSSC completed the pipe work and have repaved the road and after so many years of problems and patches on the street it and Laurel have been repaved. They did a nice job and Mr. Torres has been overseeing the work and it is a nice job. Many folks have had gutter damage, as has the Town, we will be issuing notices soon since the snow has stopped and it is time for repairs. Also, everyone in town will soon be receiving a bag, which is bio-degradable, that has literature about the new Recycling requirements, a magnet to help know what to recycle and a flyer from the Cheverly Police Department
regarding tips to help prevent crime. Mr. Kniepp has a group of volunteers that will be distributing them in the not too distant future.
CM Eldridge could you provide a brief synopsis regarding the house that had a fire on 63rd? Mr. Warrington Unfortunately, there have been occasions of house fires in Cheverly and people have lost use of their homes for some time. One on Lake took 18 months until the insurance company paid for repairs. The insurance process takes a long time. The house on 63rd and on Euclid had their fires very close to each other and we understand that the insurance companies have settled almost at the same time. The Euclid resident is being told the check is in the mail and the preliminary work on 63rd has begun. Any work that is considered structural will require a County and Town permit, which Mr. Torres will be monitoring.
CM Watson wanted to thank Mr. Warrington for his work on the Euclid house. When are we introducing the budget? Mr. Warrington the 8th of April. Mr. Watson will we be getting a cleaned-up CIP list for the Worksession. Mr. Warrington yes, that will allow us to plug in the selected items in the draft.
Police Department Report
Chief Robshaw I want to start out on a somber note. On February 27th Police Officer Thomas Jensen of Prince George’s County was involved in a departmental accident in route to answering a call for service. He was injured and subsequently passed away from complications from his injuries. We would like to offer the condolences from the Town of Cheverly to his family. We have had a 20% reduction of crime, but we still have a problem with breaking and enterings. We have altered our enforcement regarding staffing, review of past incidents, shifts and a potential camera system. Other deterrents have been the aid of citizens making calls to let us know what is going on in their neighborhoods and as part of that the department purchased two cell phones that the detectives have
at all times. We want citizens to call these phones for any information that may be of assistance. If you see someone in your yard that you don’t know, don’t call the non-emergency number, call 911. As far as prevention, we thank everyone who came to the CPACT meeting. We are stressing another approach to this problem by asking everyone in Cheverly to be LEWD and no I have not gone over the edge, but it is an acronym for Lock Every Window and Door. This is a huge contributing factor to our B&E Problem and by doing so, it makes it more difficult for these crimes to occur. With our typical call fore service, we are there in just 30 seconds, but it is an 8 minute lag from the time of the call until dispatch. There is no way for us to circumvent that, but we are looking for any information you may have. We do offer cash rewards for any information leading to an arrest.
CM Callahan tonight we are going to adopt a 20 mph standard speed limit. I was wondering if you could offer us a few words on that since some areas in my Ward will be going up from 15 mph? Chief Robshaw It addresses an issue of rules of the road, it makes if much easier to have a standard speed limit codified throughout the town. It makes it easier for the citizens and the police. It makes it easier for us to enforce and it makes it easier for us to adjudicate as judge’s favor this type of uniformity. It is hoped that this curbs speeding activity.
Mayor you may not have to now stay for the discussion on this item on the agenda now. Thanks. I do want you to hang around for the budget adjustment
CM Tevault we are doing a good job of lighting our front yards, but you mentioned at CPACT that backyards aren’t quite there Chief Robshaw the entry almost inevitably is being made in these burglaries in the rear. I am a proponent of lighting, but find that is not happening so much in the rear of the house. I encourage everybody to get some lighting systems. I like the newer photo-electric cells rather than the motion detector type and they now come in fluorescent
Mayor and Council Announcements
Mayor the Cheverly election for Mayor is May 3rd and the deadline to file is Friday 5pm on March 19. Dot Wilson who is spear heading the Census in this part of Maryland and we want to aid her by urging everyone to participate in the Census by filling out the forms that will be coming to homes this month. Also, it is very important to put the Town of Cheverly on your income tax filing. This is how tax dollars are earmarked for us. I want to thank Delegate Jolene Ivey for her assistance in the Town obtaining a piece of property that the County owned and after several years of trying, she took it on and shook it loose and we now have been given the property from the County. On the Worksesson agenda are: Budget, Amending the Planning Board Policy and Procedures, Technology Committee
Report, Building Use Policy, Youth Program Development, Discussion on US Postal Service,
CM Watson the Technology Committee is hoping that discussion will be among the 9 of us as to what is practical and feasible. No one at that meeting will be in a reception mode, they will be participating. I would like to consider the Boom issue and see where we need to go from here. Mayor I had a discussion with Senator Harrington on that matter and he may want to be present for this item and I think I would like to have that at a Town Meeting.
CM Tevault anyone who can attend to discuss the Postal Service is welcome, but if you can’t and have some specific complaints, please email them to me.
CM Eldridge one other item we need to add is Urban Renewal. Mayor there will be a public hearing at the April Town Meeting. We would like to receive the official report from the Planning Board prior to the Public Hearing.
CM Watson I had two announcements and wanted to remind folks that on the 15th of March will be the 4th Ward Civic Association. On April 15th the PGCMA will be holding their monthly meeting here and the Council and citizens are welcome.
CM Callahan I wanted to announce that today several bus loads of young adults removed 6 tons of trash from Lower Beaver Dam Creek, which they have done annually. These are kids from colleges across the Midwest and this is how they spend their Spring break by going around the east coast cleaning up water ways.
CM Eldridge on Wednesday afternoon there was a CAPS meeting. This meeting was focused on before and aftercare of the two elementary schools in town. You can send me an email if you are interested in these programs.
Committee Reports
Mayor Barbara Pejokovich is here from the Recreation Council. Our next meeting is Tuesday the 23rd of March at 7 pm in the Conference Room and all are welcome. April 3rd will be our annual Easter egg hunt and we will be meeting here in the gym. You can take pictures with the Easter bunny and then we will break down into age groups and we will have the Easter egg hunt. We will give service hours to teens that help. On the 10th of April will be our flea market. This helps raise funds for our $500 scholarship. Please apply by contacting Judy Delionibus. We give 2 of those per year. We only have a few tables left, give me a call it is in the Newsletter and on cable. We have lunch as well rain or shine.
Mayor we thank you for the Recreation Council’s $200 contribution to the 3on3 Basketball Tournament on Cheverly Day.
Mr. Nick D’Angelo noted Cheverly Day is May 22nd. The run is underway and planning and on line sign up will be up shortly. We are not going to have a magazine this year. We will be featuring photographers in Town in the front lobby. We are still looking for photos for display. The Police will be running the 3 on 3 tournament here in the gym in the morning. The midway will be back. David Thorpe has three bands committed already. We still need your financial support. CM Tevault the prom is Friday night and CM Tevault is the contact person. Please mark your calendars.
- Motion CM Watson to authorize a budget adjustment for up to $800 to the Police Department for the Cheverly Day 3 on 3 basketball tournament in 2010. Seconded CM Callahan. Approved 5-0. CM Johnson absent.
CM Eldridge the Green Infrastructure Committee is going to have a meeting this Saturday from 1-3 pm in the conference room to refine the recommendations of the committee. We are very excited about this report.
Citizen Input
Mayor Mosley asked if there were any resident wishing to speak on a matter not already on the agenda.
Cynthia Fenton 3006 Lake Avenue I want to express concern over a distressing issue in the neighborhood. I was surprised to see the Stop signs appear at the intersection of Belleview Avenue and Kilmer Street. As a professional planner for the past 20 years, I was surprised to see them appear without having noticed a problem at this intersection. Stop signs are only to be installed through the Maryland Uniform Traffic Control criteria. Speed and traffic counts were taken and in a memo from Juan Torres to David Warrington, there was no data to indicate that there were warrants for speed or volume and there were no accident reports. In spite of this, the Council decided to install the signs anyway. In a supplemental memo Mr. Torres noted that the stop signs were installed for
pedestrian safety and that the pedestrians, bicycles and traffic is increased for access to the swim club. There are a number of problems with his justification. There is no crosswalk as reference there. Second, no study was performed to determine the volume of pedestrian and bike traffic with conflicts at this intersection. Finally, no study was done to indicate that anyone would take this route to get to the swim club. It is absurd to take this route. Cheverly Avenue is clearly faster to arrive there. Also, the swim club is only open a few months per year. Mr. Torres memo mentions three other reasons from the manual, but they may be considered in an engineering study, which was not done. Neither Lake nor Belleview are traffic collectors and no substantial evidence has been submitted to justify the stop signs. The justifications are erroneous and other attorneys in other jurisdictions have concluded that there is a liability
for the jurisdiction and councilmembers for unwarranted signs. I obtained 16 signatures from residents in less than an hour who want to have the signs removed. If there is a speeding problem on these streets, I would hope that this could be addressed by the Cheverly Police. I want to submit my petition. Mayor could you leave your statement. Ms. Fenton I can get you a clean copy for the record.
Jennifer Porcari 6015 Kilmer Street I was the primary mover of the stop sign. We have lived on that corner since 2002. There are 10 children that live on that corner and we originally looked at speed bumps and then switched to wanting a stop sign. There is an extraordinary amount of pedestrian traffic at this intersection. The new 2009 manual does mention certain safety practices at intersection and I believe we are in compliance with this stop sign. Thank you for approving it.
Laila Riazi resident of Ward 1. I am one of those people that automatically stopped at that intersection because of visibility issues. People reach ridiculous speeds at that intersection. It becomes a high speed game of chicken. We all know that when people come to a stop it does slow them down. There is a bus stop for Oakcrest and Goddard for their bus routes. We have children and elderly residents that want to freely walk around the town. I too took a petition around to keep the stop sign, which I will submit. In 3 hours I got 78 signatures.
Abe Bonowitz 3122 Lake Avenue I have seen a number of speeding events. I believe we need a stop sign there. If there is a liability, take the risk and leave the stop sign.
Deborah Yates 3118 Lake Avenue. I agree with the stop sign and disagree with the stop sign. It does not mean people are going to stop. There used to be 30 kids in that neighborhood in the past. It is a concern, but the stop sign does not do any good. As far as I am concerned that area is not a heavily foot trafficked as Forest. Cheverly is a nice place to walk and there needs to be a sidewalk on the opposite side so the children will have a place to walk and not have to cross over and over to get to a sidewalk. I think that might slow down the traffic as cars see people walking. I don’t agree with the stop sign.
Dan Ryan 5726 Lockwood and I have noticed that the dance you have with pedestrians and cars has been eliminated. I can not imagine that people can not stop for 5 seconds. The traffic flows a lot better with the stop signs.
Denise Ryan 5726 Lockwood and I am in support of keeping the stop sign in place. I do feel more secure with the stop sign in place. People will develop a habit of stopping. As the President of CPAT we need to keep our children safe.
Andre Sekowsi Belleview Avenue it is much easier to cross to get to the bus stop on Cheverly Avenue with the stop sign. It doesn’t gain much by removing the stop sign, about 10 seconds.
Mayor we appreciate everyone’s input on this issue. We will look at all the information submitted. On another note it has been too cold to paint a cross walk, but it is coming.
CM Callahan I have some emails that I want to submit into the record. I have 16 in favor and 1 against for people who could not be here tonight.
Abe Bonowitz 3122 Lake Avenue wanted to than all the municipal workers for their efforts for the storm and Truck Touch is May 1st and it is a great event for the Cheverly Weekday Nursery.
Fred Price 1709 62nd Avenue. I am glad to see citizen participation. The illegal towing and crushing operation is still operating even though their request is denied. I would hope that the Mayor and Council would ask the proper folks to get that to end. My main purpose is to promote the Envision Prince George’s County project. On March 20th at the Sports and Learning Complex there will be a Town Meeting and I invite you to attend. www.envisionprincegeorgescounty.org is the website. Please go to it and sign-up.
Adoption – O-2-10 Amending Speed Limits in Town
Mayor This item has been on the website, newsletters and on many agendas. Some folks thought we would not come up with a plan, but we have. We have too many different rates on the same street and it was a hodge podge system. It was difficult to know what the speed limit was. It was 25 mph unless otherwise posted. This plan make Belleview Avenue and any street near a park or school 25 mph. Cheverly Avenue and the two streets in the industrial park will remain 25 mph.
CM Callahan I have three streets going from 15 to 20 mph in my ward. We believe that by going to 20 mph we will create a culture of going 20 mph.
CM Eldridge as I have said many times before I think changing speed limits are fine, but there are driver behavior issues and design of our town accommodates speed. I think this is one piece of the puzzle.
CM Schachter I continue to have reservations of raising some speed limits, but I will vote for this because it is better than nothing.
- Motion CM Tevault to adopt O-2-10 changing the maximum speed on residential streets from 25 mph to 20mph unless otherwise posted. Seconded CM Callahan. Approved 5-0. CM Johnson absent.
Authorizing the Request to send a letter for a Precinct Change
Mayor we have a letter to request a Precinct change. Cheverly used to be divided in two legislative districts (22 & 24). We then got a change to consolidate all of Cheverly in the 47th Legislative District. The folks in old ward 4 however don’t vote at the same places as the rest of Cheverly.
Mr. Colaresi Cheverly is entirely in the 47th Legislative District, but old ward 4 is in a different precinct and they would like an extension to get them to vote with the rest of town at Hoyer. The only people who can do that is the Board of Elections and we would like to send a letter making this request.
Mayor the Board of Elections are adamant that they can not do this until the next Census.
- Motion CM Watson that the Mayor and Council under the Mayor’s signature send a letter to the Prince George’s County Board of Elections requesting a precinct change for the 2010 Gubernatorial election to affect those residents of Cheverly south of Route 50. Seconded CM Schachter. Approved 5-0. CM Johnson absent.
Introduction O-3-10 Amending the Personnel Section
Mr. Warrington this is a housekeeping ordinance that addresses the accumulation of leave while an employee is on Workers Compensation. What it does is stop the accumulation of leave.
Employees would come back to work and have a lot of leave to take.
Mayor this is an introduction and will be before us two more times.
CM Watson could you share the standard and we are conforming to the industry standard.
Mr. Warrington we are odd that our code allows that. We are conforming to the standard of other municipalities.
Authorizing the Award of Contract – Ticket Processing Area
Mr. Warrington noted that the Town sought Requests for Proposals for demolition/renovation of the former police are in the Community Center. We need to get this area ready to establish the Ticket Processing area for speed, red light and all other ticket processing in this area. We received 3 proposals/bids and we are recommending Pioneer Builders, which was the low bidder and interestingly was the same company that built our new police building two years ago. One company did show up late and we did not accept their bid.
Mr. Colaresi when you award this contract make sure this is a cost of implementation of the speed program and mention in the award that this is a need for the facility for the expense of administering the program. Mr. Warrington in the motion after the words processing center we can add for the speed camera program.
- Motion CM Callahan to authorize the Town Administrator to award the bid for the demolition and rehabilitation of office space to create the ticket processing center to support the speed camera operation to Pioneer Builders. Seconded CM Eldridge. Approved 5-0. CM Johnson absent.
Resolution R-5-10 Appointing Board of Election Supervisors
Mayor we will be having an election in May and this is the re-appointment of two of the Election Supervisors. This is reappointing Alan Dwyer and Robin Llewellan for the term of 2010-2011.
- Motion CM Eldridge to adopt R-5-10 re-appointing election supervisors. Seconded CM Watson. Approved 5-0. CM Johnson absent.
Meeting adjourned.
Town of Cheverly
Summary of Action
March 11, 2010
- Motion CM Watson to authorize a budget adjustment for up to $800 to the Police Department for the Cheverly Day 3 on 3 basketball tournament in 2010. Seconded CM Callahan. Approved 5-0. CM Johnson absent.
- Motion CM Tevault to adopt O-2-10 changing the maximum speed on residential streets from 25 mph to 20mph unless otherwise posted. Seconded CM Callahan. Approved 5-0. CM Johnson absent.
- Motion CM Watson that the Mayor and Council under the Mayor’s signature send a letter to the Prince George’s County Board of Elections requesting a precinct change for the 2010 Gubernatorial election to affect those residents of Cheverly south of Route 50. Seconded CM Schachter. Approved 5-0. CM Johnson absent.
- Motion CM Callahan to authorize the Town Administrator to award the bid for the demolition and rehabilitation of office space to create the ticket processing center to support the speed camera operation to Pioneer Builders. Seconded CM Eldridge. Approved 5-0. CM Johnson absent.
- Motion CM Eldridge to adopt R-5-10 re-appointing election supervisors. Seconded CM Watson. Approved 5-0. CM Johnson absent.
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