SPECIALTY PROGRAMS COMING TO LOCAL SCHOOLS
A CELEBRATION OF PERMEABLE PAVERS
THE GLORY OF GLUTEN-FREE DINING
New elementary school to open with performing arts theme, Spanish immersion school likely. PAGE 9
Hyattsville resident keeps money and stormwater from going down the drain. PAGE 5
Local restaurants offer wealth of dining options for sensitive stomachs. PAGE 3
City weighs Humvee acquisition City can get one for free, but some on council wonder: At what cost? by Susie Currie
Humvee or no humvee? That is the question facing the Hyattsville City Council as it decides whether the police department should accept a free military-surplus High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV), commonly known as a Humvee. Councilmembers discussed the issue at their January 6 meeting, following a December 24 memo from Hyattsville City Police Chief Douglas Holland that advocated getting one “to improve the City’s ability to adequately respond to both natural and manmade disasters.” The council is expected to vote on it on January 21. Under a 1997 federal law, the Department of Defense can transfer its excess property to federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. The inventory of available hand-me-downs changes constantly and ranges from file cabinets, treadmills and microwaves to M16s, helicopters and Humvees. Since the program
Hyattsville Life&Times
Vol. 11 No. 1
Hyattsville’s Community Newspaper
Sale of WSSC site could be watershed moment for city by Susie Currie and Gray OʼDwyer
After years of inaction, the former headquarters of the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission has garnered a lot of attention in recent weeks. In early January, a sign posted by Ideal Realty Group in front of 4017 Hamilton Street was the first public notice that current owner Douglas Development intends to sell it. The property includes not only the WSSC building, as it is commonly known, but also the even larger parking lot across Hamilton
Street — a total of more than seven sprawling acres next to Magruder Park. The building itself, which sits on a 3.19-acre lot, was constructed in three stages. The earliest section, dating to 1939, is also the smallest. Four-story additions enlarged the structure in 1953 and 1964 to accommodate the expanding utility, which supplies water to most of Prince George’s and Montgomery counties. WSSC abandoned its historic headquarters in 2001 to move into a new skyscraper in Laurel, and the building has been empty ever
since. The property was sold in 2005 to major D.C.-area developer Douglas Jemal, who outbid a city-backed plan for it that would have put single-family homes on the site and deeded the parking-lot parcel to Hyattsville. Douglas Development completed major asbestos remediation that gutted the building’s interior, leaving it with little or no interior historical integrity. The exteriors, however, remain significantly intact, including the 1939 Art Deco façade and the two-story WSSC continued on page 12
Art Works loses decision, but not hope by Danielle Probst
NONPROFIT ORG U.S. POSTAGE PAID EASTON MD PERMIT NO. 43
HUMVEE continued on page 11
Hyattsville Life & Times PO Box 132 Hyattsville, MD 20781
January 2014
COURTESY OF ART WORKS An artistʼs rendering of the exterior of the proposed Art Works renovation project at 4800 Rhode Island Avenue.
While a December decision by the Historic Preservation Commission seemed likely to derail the planned Art Works/Pizza Paradiso project at the former Marche building, it now appears that the project will go forward, though details are yet to be determined. On January 8, Art Works issued a statement announcing that they will be appearing a second time in front of the Commissioners on January 21 “as part of a public Historic Area Work Permit meeting where we will be discussing our design plans for the property.” While public, this meeting is not expected to draw the level of participation and testimony as the earlier one on December ART WORKS continued on page 13
Included: The January 15, 2014 Issue of The Hyattsville Reporter — See Center Section