Weekly Status Report

MEMORANDUM

TO: City Council

FROM: David J. Deutsch, City Manager

SUBJECT: Status Report/Council Poll

DATE: February 14, 2008

Status Report

1. Vehicle Acquisition

A vehicle was budgeted in FY08 for the new Animal Control/Code Compliance Supervisor in the Department of Community Services. An acceptable vehicle has been located on the State of Maryland contract #001B8900406.

The vehicle is a 2008 Ford Ranger compact pickup truck. Including all necessary safety equipment, it is priced at $12,845 and is available from Hertrich Fleet Services.

To cover these costs, $15,700 was appropriated in the FY08 Equipment Acquisition and Replacement Fund. As provided in Section 62 of the City Charter, this will serve as the required seven-day notice of intent to purchase this vehicle. If Council has no objection, we will issue a purchase order with delivery scheduled for 60-90 days.

2. Restaurant Guide

Staff has completed an update of the Bowie Restaurant Guide (attached). There are 97 eating establishments listed in this current guide. Additional copies are available from the Economic Development Office and a PDF version will be posted on the City's website.

3. Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Training

In our continuing efforts to provide emergency response to City residents, City staff organized and sponsored a two-day Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training course for volunteers. Thirty-eight volunteers including those from St. Matthew’s Church, the Bowie Volunteer Fire Department Auxiliary, the County 911 Center, Bowie State University, City government, the Bowie Community Outreach and Public Safety Committees, and the Park Police Auxiliary went through a full weekend of emergency training on February 9th and 10th. CERT teams can be activated in the event of an emergency or natural disaster by the City or the County to help local residents. CERT volunteers are trained in fire safety, disaster medical operations, the National Incident Command Framework, and light search and rescue. The training was conducted by the Prince George's County Fire Depart-ment and was organized by the Prince George's County Office of Emergency Preparedness. All participants who completed the training received a CERT kit with emergency response items. The kits were provided by the County Office of Emergency Management.

Hands-on training involved learning how to use fire extinguishers, how to extricate someone trapped by debris, and a disaster exercise. Volunteers responded to a mock incident at the Market Place shopping center. The scenario was that because of a widespread disaster, police and fire officials were unable to respond. In their absence, CERT members managed the initial phase of the disaster by searching for trapped and injured victims, performing medical triage and treating "victims". The CERT team members got a good feel for how a strong incident command structure can be used to manage a disaster and how important clear simple communications can be throughout the disaster.

Due to an overwhelming response to the offered training, staff will be scheduling more CERT classes during the upcoming months. In addition to the 38 persons trained this past weekend, we have also assisted the American Red Cross with training 35 persons in Disaster Response/Preparedness and Shelter Operations. Our Emergency Management Resources Coordinator and the Communications Coordinator planned and participated in all of these efforts.

There are over 500 individuals trained in Prince George’s County as CERT volunteers.

4. City Hall Project Outreach Meeting

The second project outreach meeting occurred at City Hall last Thursday. The program mirrored the meeting held the previous night, which had been directly focused on the neighbors of the site. Councilmembers Brady, Polangin and Trouth attended the meeting, along with a handful of residents. Another meeting is scheduled for February 21st at 7:30 p.m. at City Hall. At that time, the architect is expected to show site layouts of the building.

5. MD 197 Location/Design Public Hearing Summary

On Wednesday, February 13th, the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA) held a Location/Design Public Hearing for MD 197 improvements, between Kenhill Drive and MD 450 Relocated, at Tasker Middle School. According to SHA, 137 people attended the event, which included informational displays about the project available for one hour before the hearing. District 3 Engineer Darrell Mobley acted as hearing officer, and brief presentations were made by various SHA staff regarding the project alternatives, environmental impacts, the right-of-way acquisition process and environmental justice considerations.

A total of 30 people spoke during the public hearing. Twenty-three participants appeared to support some level of improvement while seven (7) appeared to favor the No-Build option. Although a majority appeared to support Alternative 4 (the Four Lane, Divided Alternative), many of the speakers recommended a compromise or hybrid design rather than fully endorsing either Alternative 3 or Alternative 4, as proposed. The most frequently occurring comments related to vehicular and pedestrian safety, the width of the median, the redundancy of the proposed bicycle-compatible lanes with the hiker-biker trail, the need to minimize tree clearing and property impacts, and the need for an interchange at US 50/MD 193 and other improvements to address regional traffic demands.

There were 27 distinct concerns or needs recorded by City staff during the hearing. These are paraphrased and sorted by type below:

Traffic (9)