A sWEET TREAT ON ROUTE 1
gETTINg INTO THE ACT
NO sKATERs ALLOWED
Hyattsville gets its own frozen yogurt shop, Yogi Castle, where you can add healthy – or not so healthy – toppings to your creation. PAGE 3
Hyattsville is home to many artists -- and not only the kind that paint and sculpt. Meet four local actors. PAGE 6
Think kids on their skateboards are a new nuisance? Try being a resident in 1908, when roller skates were banned. PAGE 2
New council to face tough budget questions by Karen J. Riley
Higher expenses and a flat tax rate will likely translate into leaner times for the Hyattsville city government in the next year. Preliminary briefings by staff suggest that the 2012 budget will include little room for new spending on city services. In fact, the need to address deferred capital improvements will require some budget cuts next year, predicts outgoing Mayor Bill Gardiner. Key factors in the city’s tight fiscal times include steeper debt service payments and much higher benefit costs — including an estimated 5 percent increase for health care insurance and a whopping 63 percent increase for worker’s compensation insurance, Hyattsville City Administrator Gregory Rose told the city council on April 18. At the same time, he said, a flat economy means that tax revenue is little changed, despite the expected influx of new businesses. In 2012, the city expects to collect $15.8 million in revenue compared to $15.3 million this year. Both the real property tax rate
PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID Permit # 43 Easton, MD 21601
BUDGET continued on page 12
Hyattsville Life&Times
Vol. 8 No. 5
Hyattsville’s Community Newspaper
Behind the scenes of the house tour by Paula Minaert
The annual Historic Hyattsville House Tour takes place on Sunday, May 15. It’s a venerable city tradition, now in its 32nd year, that draws both city residents and visitors from all over the region to walk through our showcase residences, businesses and other landmark buildings. One year the 1930s-era post office TOUR continued on page 13
Hyattsville’s own all-star police officer
Incoming Mayor Marc Tartaro with newly-minted city councilmembers Shani Warner (center) and Candace Hollingsworth.
GUARD
THE CHANGING OF THE
by Susie Currie
Two sons of Hyattsville’s oldest families lost their council seats to first-time candidates in the city elections on May 3, while Marc Tartaro captured 63 percent of votes cast in the mayoral race. Wards 3, 4 and 5 were uncontested, returning representatives Tim Hunt, Paula Perry and Nicole Hinds Mofor, respectively, to the dais for another four-year term.
Detective Suzie Johnson nominated for national honor by Paula Minaert
Councilmembers-elect Candace Hollingsworth (Ward 1) and Shani Warner (Ward 2), in their first civic elections, unseated incumbents whose ties to Hyattsville go back generations. In Ward 2, Bill Tierney is the great-nephew of Hyattsville’s first mayor; Doug Dudrow, whose family started some of the first businesses on Route 1, began representing Ward 1 before Hollingsworth was born.
Detective Suzie Johnson of the Hyattsville Police Department is a finalist in America’s Most Wanted All-Star Award for 2011. Sponsored by the popular television program, the award honors every year the country’s first responders – the police officers, firefighters, and paramedics who serve on the front lines in emergencies. The winner will receive $10,000 and an all-expenses-paid weekend in Charlotte, N.C. for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series AllStar Challenge. Johnson, a Hyattsville native,
ELECTION continued on page 12
ALL-STAR continued on page 10
Voters choose Tartaro for mayor, two newcomers for council Hyattsville Life & Times PO Box 132 Hyattsville, MD 20781
May 2011
Included: The May 11, 2011 Issue of The Hyattsville Reporter — See Center Section