Town of Cheverly
Meeting Minutes
July 12, 2012
Call to Order
Meeting called to order at 8:00 pm in the Cheverly Community Center.
In attendance: CMs Riazi, Coolen, Eldridge, Thorpe and Cook.
Pledge of Allegiance
Agenda/Approval/Changes
Addition to the Agenda Power Outages.
Addition of Hospital Gate and Smoking.
Minutes – Town Meeting 6/7/12
CM Coolen noted an adjustment regarding Hula Hoops.
Minutes – Worksession 6/22/12
Approved as written.
Police Department Report
Mayor read the Chief’s report. Crime has been down to the lowest in the history of the Department since collecting data since 1980. Officer Bernard Jones was named the Maryland Municipal League’s Top Cop of the 157 municipalities of Maryland. He helped break the case of a B&E which resulted in the closing of 130 crimes being resolved. Ryan Cavill was named investigator of the year by the Prince George’s Chapter. John O’Berry was named the Prince George’s Chapter’s civilian of the year. We have now added three businesses to our radio watch program. I have a statement about a crime that occurred between July 3rd and July 5th. The cash reward is now $2,000, but may be higher.
Town Administrator Report
Mr. Warrington noted the interruption of service after the crime noted by the Mayor. Our vehicles were disabled and we have over a couple of days been getting some of our vehicles out to pick-up trash, storm debris and recycling. Prince George’s County has been great by providing us with a dumpster to haul off the collected storm materials. I am extremely proud of our staff working in 106 degree heat packing the one trash truck by hand to meet the needs of the community. Mr. Torres and his two mechanics have worked tirelessly to get a lot of the vehicles back on the road themselves rather than have everything towed out of here to outside shops. We are down to one mower, so our spaces may look a little less Cheverly normal if we don’t get to the grass on our land. One
of the things we did with the storm is rent a Bobcat to pick-up the gangly branches. Normally, we keep items bundled and to four feet. Come Monday we will do an assessment and the week of the 20th we will be back to the normal collection procedures. We are getting free dumping and that will stop next Friday and you will save yourself and the Town some money. If you have a contractor to remove a tree, they should take the materials with them. The Town does notify absentee owners of storm damage and the need for repairs. Next week we will begin giving 10, 30 and 60 day notices of what needs to be done. If insurance companies are involved the resident should call me if they get a citation and we can give them an extension.
Committee Reports
Cheverly Day Emily Tevault is here to make some post Cheverly Day presentations.
Ms. Emily Tevault ChevProm 2012 was again another sell out and a great success. Thanks to a number of contributors and donators. The first donation to a Cheverly organization from the proceeds goes to Auxiliary Girls State Fund sponsored by the American Legion. The second goes to the Community Market and the third goes to the Cheverly Turkey Trot.
Mr. Glen Barton we had 75 runners in the 5K race and 135 walkers. We thank the Boy Scouts and Aldi’s for the water stations. Our donation goes to VineCorps of the proceeds this year.
Green Infrastructure Report on Saturday we will be hosting the Bio-Blitz which will be a jammed pack day of flora and fawna. There will be guided tours around the Town and a native plant walk and a children’s nature walk. There will be a discussion of Cheverly trees and lectures from environmental scientists from NASA. There will also be a black light bug blitz. This will be a fantastic day long event. If you would like more information go to the Cheverly Green Infrastructure web site.
Citizen Input
Mr. Michael Chandler Ward 3 my question is about tree trimming. Does Pepco plan to have a more aggressive maintenance plan regarding trees in our Town?
Mayor we should have your answer during our Pepco discussions later on in the agenda.
Mayor and Council Announcements
CM Coolen the Prince Georges County Animal Shelter is full and I would encourage people in Town to consider adopting or fostering an animal. They also need towels, bedding, toys and other things. I want to remind people there is a community market on Saturday morning. Thanks to all the staff for their efforts during the two storms.
CM Thorpe wanted to also thank the staff after the storms. Secondly, the first Lego League meeting will be Saturday after the market. Children under 14 are invited.
CM Riazi. Thank you to the American Legion for opening the dug out for a great Friday evening after the storm. Anyone eligible to join the Legion is encouraged to do so.
CM Cook there was a library committee meeting last night and we kicked around some ideas. There should be another meeting next month. If you are interested please come join us.
CM Eldridge on June 16th the Town Planning Board hosted a day long event for Envision Cheverly. MNCPPC staff assisted us to facilitate discussions during the afternoon session. We discussed a number of geographic and thematic things around town. It was a fantastic event. In the Fall we will have another more formal session.
Mayor this month I have a blurb about Wal-Mart in the Newsletter since hearing your opinion helps us do our job. I want to thank LouAnne and Neil Smith who made a donation to the Town for a new infield at Hoyer. Thanks to all those residents regarding the Monroe Garden stream issues. Consider planting a tree in your yard this Fall in our Private Property Planting Program. We will be discussing our Tax Cap again because of a date error and we can’t move forward with raising the tax cap. We will re-address this issue. The Worksession agenda will be: Amending the Charter regarding the referendum process, Landover Shopping Center, Energy Proposals, Emergency Operations.
Adoption Reading CAR- 2-12 Redistricting
Mr. Warrington the Town adjusts its Wards every 10 years to address the changes in the United States Census. We can adopt this tonight. Basically we are trying to get all six wards as equal as possible and within 5% either way and maintain one man one vote. The changes are also posted on the website. As soon as passed next month we will notify the County, so they can prepare for the May 2014 election.
- CM Thorpe to adopt CAR-2-12 to redistrict for new Ward boundaries. CM Eldridge seconded. Approved unanimously.
MNCPPC Formula 2040
Mr. Alvin McNeal special assistant to the Director of Parks and Recreation. Formula 2040 is a parks and recreation Master Plan and the last one that was performed like this was 1981. As demographics shift, we need to shift to meet the recreational needs. We operate a large number of community center and manage over 28,000 acres of land in Prince George’s County. The 2040 is a major planning effort where we had public meetings in May and we are working with what opinions have been provided. With this we will be having additional citizen input, on September 12th, 19th and 30th, to gain input on what we have gathered and what we are putting forth. This is a tight timeframe and the final report will be adopted by the County Council as part of their
General Plan. We hope to engage you and the citizens in this process. Our 2040 plan website is pgparks.com.
CM Thorpe is there more of a focus on providing programs or open space.
Mr. McNeal we are assessing our facilities and programs that have aged, but it is comprehensive and we are looking at every aspect.
Mayor what point are you at?
Mr. McNeal we are assessing demand up to 2040. We will have criteria in the September for the public as to how we make decisions to go forward. The actual law requires that the Council and Planning Board have a public hearing, probably April of next year, so the citizenry can have lots of opportunities for input. We have completed an opinion survey throughout the County and I haven’t seen all the results and so I can’t tell you the open space needs.
Introduction – O-3-12 Amending the Off Street Parking Section
Mr. Colaresi this section of the Code was advised by committee and a technical aspect came up during a recent discussion and I have defined a camping trailer as not being a passenger vehicle. This will clarify this question in this part of the Code.
Pepco
CM Thorpe I have received emails from Pepco that indicated that residents were told that their power was on and it was not and there is a frustration about the number of power outages.
Mayor I think in the last two storms that Cheverly faired very well. We will have a Pepco representative next month in to talk about smart meters and this should help.
Prince George’s Hospital
CM Riazi the Hospital campus is a no smoking area, but now there is smoking outside the hospital fence, which results in cigarettes butts and litter outside the fence near people’s homes.
Mayor we will have to set a meeting up with John O’Brien and try to get him to better address this issue. The law of unintended consequences strikes again.
Mayor meeting adjourned.
Town of Cheverly
Summary of Action
July 12, 2012
- CM Thorpe to adopt CAR-2-12 to redistrict for new Ward boundaries. CM Eldridge seconded. Approved unanimously
| 
