Politics & Government

SUMMARY: North College Park Mini-Town Hall

College Park residents weighed in on road construction, public transportation, a potential community center, and more.

New traffic signals, revamped public transportation, and county crime statistics were a few of the highlights from Thursday’s mini-town hall event hosted by Prince George's County Councilwoman Mary Lehman (Dist.1.)

Nearly 50 College Park residents met with Lehman and several county and city officials for the discussion at

  • The County Department of Public Works and Transportation (DPWT) reported a new traffic light will be installed at the intersection of Rhode Island Avenue and Edgewood Road. Dwight Johnson, of DPWT, stated that the light should be operational by April, if the weather cooperates.
  • TheBus route 17, now known as the , has been repurposed to travel up and down the Route One corridor between Mt. Rainer and , Monday through Friday stopping at more than 40 stops every 30 minutes. "It was a true collaboration between the communities on this," said County Councilman Eric Olson (Dist. 3), who also attended the meeting. The county played a significant role in the change, he added.
  • The new Prince George's County Police Department District 1 commander, reported that in 2011 the county experienced its fifth consecutive year of crime reduction. Crime was similarly reduced in College Park, he said. Though there had been an increase in car thefts for the city, Brewer said that the scooters that are popular among UMd. students accounted for much of the increase.
  • Joe O'Neill, northern regional manager with M-NCPP, told residents there was $50,000 in the 2016 budget for the planning of a community center in north College Park, and $5.5 million budgeted to build the facility in 2017. Lehman said she understands that the community center is an important issue to her constituency, and she hopes to move the planning money into an upcoming fiscal year so it completed earlier. "I'm going to work hard to move that money forward in the budget," she said.

Editor's Note: This story has been corrected. A previous version of the story listed an incorrect predicted cost for the construction of the future community center. We regret the error.

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