April 2012 Hyattsville Life & Times

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ANTS IN YOUR PLANTS? How to keep your peonies in the pink — and pests out of them. PAGE 6

Shalom School shut down by Julia Duin

Shalom School, a local afterschool program well known for its focus on the arts, was suddenly closed down at the end of February. The 16-year-old school, which was housed in the education wing of the First United Methodist Church on Queens Chapel Road at East-West Highway, had been operating for years without a license. School and church officials said they didn’t know one was required, nor had it been an issue when it opened in 1996. Shalom, which operated from 2 to 6 p.m. weekdays, had coexisted the whole time with a fulltime, church-run daycare center of about 60 children, also in the education wing. When a state inspector showed up in January for a periodic review of the daycare, she asked who the other children in the building were, said Donnalee Sanderson, the church secretary. When told they were part of another group, the inspector informed church officials that any children in a child-care program that runs five days a week without parental supervision requires a license.

PRIZE STUDENTS

IF YOU BUILD IT...

Northwestern sets sights on forensics nationals, while middle-schoolers shine at science. PAGE 4

... they will come. At least, that’s what developers are hoping as they fabricate hundreds of housing units on Route 1. PAGE 3

Hyattsville Life&Times

Vol. 9 No. 4

Hyattsville’s Community Newspaper

April 2012

New cameras expected to catch 480 speeders a day by Susie Currie

A traffic study has identified four primary spots for speed cameras in Hyattsville. During their first year, the monitoring devices are expected to issue a total of 480 citations a day to drivers on East-West Highway, Adelphi Road and Ager Road.

During the week of February 7, speedcamera vendor Affiliated Computer Services (ACS) surveyed 19 locations in designated school zones throughout the city. Maryland law defines where, when and how the cameras can operate: within a half-mile of a school, Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m., recording speeds of at least 12 miles per

hour over the posted limit. Under those conditions, four test areas logged a combined 21,898 violations during the week-long study. Those are where the portable speed cameras will be most of the time (see chart). But they will rotate among CAMERAS continued on page 7

City clerk’s departure leaves big hole in staff

SHALOM continued on page 13

Hyattsville Life & Times PO Box 132 Hyattsville, MD 20781

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by Paula Minaert

SUSIE CURRIE Three-year-old Ryan Blackerby and brother Nicholas, age 2, examine their finds from an Easter egg hunt as their mother, Christine, looks on. The annual city-sponsored event on April 7 drew hundreds of area children to Magruder Park.

Doug Barber, clerk for the city of Hyattsville, is leaving April 30 to become clerk for the city of Rockville. When he goes, a lot of history and knowledge will go with him. Barber started working for the city when he was 15 years old, in 1988. As part of the now-defunct summer youth work force, he mowed grass and worked in park programs. “That’s how it all started,” Barber says. It was right around the time he moved to Hyattsville, when he was in 9th grade. After that first summer, the city asked him to continue working on weekends. Among other things, he helped tend the SaturBARBER continued on page 11

Included: The April 11, 2012 Issue of The Hyattsville Reporter — See Center Section


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