Weekly Status Report

Again, a caveat that the neighborhood listing may not be complete, and a feeder may only serve a portion of the listed neighborhood. BGE is using their experience at last year's open house on the enhanced tree trimming project to predict participation. Last year, they invited 1,000 people and had 20 come out, which represents a two percent turnout. If five percent of customers show up at the above open house, this would represent about 300-400 customers over two, two-hour sessions. There will be about 20-25 BGE staff in the room at any given time.

BGE will provide the City with a schedule that will give the stop/start dates for infrastructure and tree work on each feeder. They are also working on customer-friendly feeder maps that they will use at the open house to help explain to customers where the work will occur in their neighborhoods. As soon as they are ready, they will be provided to the City as well. BGE is reluctant to pass along its feeder diagrams as public documents because of the confidential aspect of these diagrams. However, summaries of work to be done on each feeder will also be provided.

Mike Fowler has offered to meet with City Councilmembers on a one-on-one basis to review specific feeder diagrams that show more detailed improvements as requested previously by City Council. Mr. Fowler is willing to meet either during the day or at night to accommodate Council schedules. Please let John Fitzwater know if you would like to set up a one-on-one meeting with Mr. Fowler to have a more in-depth briefing on the extent of the work proposed.

2. Old Town Bowie Shopping and Dining Survey

On January 30, 2008, the Economic Development Office mailed 2,106 copies of a shopping and dining survey to the residents in the neighborhoods around Old Town Bowie to gather information for future use in marketing the Old Town Bowie commercial district. The survey was open throughout February and is now closed for response. The survey results are in and staff's analysis is in your package.

3. Hall Station Appeal to Circuit Court

The City received a notice from the Principal Counsel of the Prince George's County Council indicating that the developer of Hall Station, Cenhall, LLC, appealed the District Council's November 2007 decision in A-9838-C, specifically relating to reworded Condition #5, by filing a Petition for Judicial Review in the Circuit Court on January 11, 2008. The developer's Petition simply asks for review, but does not include any specific legal arguments. Once the Clerk of the Council transmits the record to the Circuit Court, Cenhall, LLC will have 30 days to file a Memorandum of Law detailing their arguments, and the County will have 30 days to file a response. Reworded Condition #5 limits the permits for the project to the credit union building and library and, further, prohibits other permits from being pulled until construction of the library has begun. According to Attorney Dan Lynch, the essence of the appeal is that reworded Condition #5 leaves Cenhall, LLC's no ability to get financing to do the infrastructure for the entire site and, consequently, neither the credit union nor library permits can go forward. To preserve the City’s ability to appear in the Circuit Court case, the City Attorney recommends that we take appropriate steps to intervene in the appeal to protect the City’s position. If our participation becomes unnecessary, we can withdraw, with Council approval. In the meantime, the Preliminary Plan of subdivision for Hall Station has been filed and City hearings will be scheduled within the next several months. Later this month, the County Planning Board will conduct a hearing on the Comprehensive Design Plan approved by City Council on February 4th.

4. Parks and Grounds Furniture Acquisition

The Community Services Department’s new Parks and Grounds facility will be opening later this year. Requests were made of three vendors to provide pricing for required interior furnishings. The quotes are as follows:

The pricing for these items was provided through Government Services Administration Contract #28F-0025J.

Five hundred thirty-five thousand dollars was appropriated in the FY08 Budget under account # 10191-57010 for this project. Of that figure, $135,000 was designated for interior furnishings, security and communication equipment and vehicle maintenance equipment. Total expenditures for these items will be well within budget.

As provided in Section 62 of the City Charter, this will serve as the required seven-day notice of intent to purchase these furnishings from Charles County Office Furniture. If Council has no objection, we will issue a purchase order on March 13, 2008, with delivery scheduled as soon thereafter as possible.

5. Hospital Authority

Attached is a fact sheet regarding the Hospital Authority. It was made available today as part of a joint press conference with Governor O’Malley and County Executive Johnson and the Prince George’s County Council.

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