august 2011 hyattsville life and times

Included: The August 10, 2011 Issue of The Hyattsville Reporter — See Center Section

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PRINCIPALS continued on page 11

Hyattsvilleaugust 2011Hyattsville’s Community NewspaperVol. 8 No. 8

Life&Times

byÊ SusieÊ CurrieÊandÊ PaulaÊ MinaertÊ

Nearly a quarter of Prince George’s County’s 198 schools are ge� ing new principals this year, due largely to budget cuts that led to slashed positions and sta� buyouts for the new � scal year.

In Hya� sville, Northwestern High School and Hya� sville Mid-dle School, as well as the private Concordia Lutheran School, will have new leadership when they open this month.

NORTHWESTERN HIGH SCHOOL

At Northwestern, Jerome � omas stepped down as principal in June following health problems ear-lier this year. He is now an assistant principal at Bowie High School (which is also ge� ing a new prin-cipal).

He’s being replaced by Edgar Batenga, a High Point High School graduate who worked his way up at that school from substitute teacher to award-winning coach to assis-tant principal, a post he held for six years.

For the last � ve years, he’s been assistant principal of Columbia’sLong Reach High School, which, he said, has similar demographics to Northwestern but “around 300”

New year, new leaders at local schools

HL&T wins national awardsbyÊ SusieÊ Currie

� e Hya� sville Life & Times was one of three Maryland publications to win awards in the National Newspaper As-sociation’s 2011 Be� er News-paper Contest.

Winners were noti� ed by e-mail on July 19, and will be recognized at a reception next month in Albuquerque, N.M. It was the � rst year HL&T had entered the contest, and it came away with two awards in its division.

Executive Editor Paula Minaert’s editorial from Oc-tober 2010, “What’s the de� -nition of ‘neighbor’?” took second place in the Best Seri-ous Column category. Judges called it “thought provoking [and] well done.”

Chris McManes, who wrote this month’s piece on vintage base ball at Magruder Park (see p. 12), earned an Honor-able Mention for Best Sports Feature Story or Series with his March 2010 piece “Stags go out with a bang as exalted coach looks on.” Judges said the article, about the last bas-ketball game played in the old DeMatha gym, combined “lots of info and history in a thorough piece.”

� e contest drew 2,042 en-tries in several divisions. Judg-ing was performed primarily by active community newspa-per editors and publishers and retired university journalism professors.

Established in 1885, the Na-tional Newspaper Association is the voice of America’s com-munity newspapers and the largest newspaper association in the country.

ByÊ PaulaÊ Minaert

Two key positions in the city sta� – assistant city administra-tor and director of parks and recreation – became open with the recent departures of Vincent Jones and Steve Yeskulsky.

The city has seen a fair amount of staff turnover lately. It has had two parks directors and two treasurers in the last two years. It has not had a direc-tor of code enforcement since October 2009; Senior Inspec-tor Chris Guinta serves as act-

ing director. Communications Manager Abby Sandel is serv-ing as acting director of recre-ation and the arts. Two other key positions were created in this year’s budget, meaning that out of a total of 11 senior staff positions in the city adminis-tration, four are currently open.

The two new positions are a chief information officer to provide information technol-ogy support to administrative staff and the police, and a hu-man resources manager.

The city council was sup-

posed to discuss engaging a recruiting firm to help with the hiring at its Aug. 1 meet-ing. But that discussion, and all council business, came to a halt when the council un-expectedly had to cancel the meeting for lack of a quorum (see “Council Absences”, p. 3).

City Administrator Gregory Rose said that the increasing size and complexity of the city organization – it now has about 100 employees – means it needs greater expertise to manage things like human resources. Council member Tim Hunt (Ward 3) pointed out that the police department in particu-lar has acquired some new pro-grams and technology, such as Safe City and the CAD system, that require more IT support.

Many vacancies among city sta�

SAVING THE DAYMore pictures of National Night Out on page 5

SISTER JOYCEPacked funeral for longtime St. Jerome principalPAGE 3

BUSBOYS &POETSCrowds � ock to the Hyattsville location of this famed restaurant for food and fun. PAGE 6

PLAY BALL!Back to the old, old ball game: The Mid-Atlantic Base Ball League plays by 1860s rules at Magruder Park.PAGE 12

STAFF continued on page 11

Hyattsville Life & Times | August 2011

A community newspaper chronicling the

life and times of Hyattsville

Mailing address: PO Box 132, Hyattsville, MD 20781

Hyattsville Life & Times is published monthly by Hyattsville Community Newspaper, Inc., a 501c(3) nonpro� t corporation. Interested reporters should

send their e-mail addresses to the editor to be reminded of deadlines and receive internal news. Articles and news submitted may be edited. The

deadline is the last week of the month for the following month’s issue. Letters to the editor and

opinions are encouraged. For all e-mail correspon-dence with HL&T: news, features, tips, advertising

and business write to [email protected]. To submit articles, letters to the editor,

etc., e-mail [email protected].

Executive Editor Paula Minaert

[email protected]

Managing EditorSusie Currie

[email protected]

ProductionAshley PerksAdvertising

[email protected]

Writers & ContributorsVictoria Hille

Bart LawrenceValerie Russell

Kimberly SchmidtHugh Turley

Board of Directors Julia Duin - President

Chris Currie - Vice PresidentJoseph Gigliotti - General Counsel

Paula Minaert - SecretaryPeggy Dee

Karen J. RileySusie Currie - Ex O� cio

Circulation: Copies are distributed monthly by U.S. Mail to every address in Hyattsville. Addi-

tional copies are distributed to libraries, selected businesses, community centers and churches in

the city. Total circulation is 8,000.

FromTheEditor

Legend andLORE

HL&T is a member of the National Newspaper Association.

ByÊ PaulaÊ Minaert

Through the painter’s brushstrokes, I am present at an outdoor market in Amsterdam, around 1675. A large woman wearing a tall black hat is seat-ed in front of a table of vegetables she is selling: carrots, cabbage, potatoes. An-other woman, a customer, argues with her, hands on her hips and her white apron askew.

Behind them a man with a clipped beard hoists a large wooden barrel on one shoulder. To one side a man in a red suit with white ruffles at his throat and wrists leans close to the shoulder of a woman carrying a metal milk bucket. He is trying to sell her something; she looks away, not interested. In the fore-ground, a hen sits on the ground and a brown-and-white dog sniffs at a rooster perched on top of an empty cage.

If we only look closely...Gabriel Metsu painted everyday life

in seventeenth-century Holland with incredible, realistic detail. I can see the raised pattern of the rich red brocades that appear in so many of his works. I can almost feel the soft fur of the many dogs – who all look like cocker spaniels – that cluster around his subjects’ feet.

I can’t remember when I’ve noticed so many things in paintings. A woman leaning out of a window, a pot lying on the ground, a glass vial of oil hanging on a nail on a wall: this was the stuff of life for people at that time. The men and women themselves may not have paid much attention to everything that

was around them, but Metsu clearly did.

I came away from that exhibit at the National Gallery of Art wondering about my attitude to the stuff of my ev-eryday life. I do notice things that are different, like a rose that’s just bloomed when I wasn’t expecting it, or a new taste, like the yellow tomato gazpacho at Busboys & Poets (which was won-derful).

But as for what’s always there – my eyes tend to skip over them. I catego-rize them (the dog lying in the door-way, my key on top of the piano) and move on. Now I do think we human

beings have to be on automatic pilot to some degree; we can’t focus on every-thing or we’d never get anything done. But I also think I – we – miss a lot in the process.

So I’ve decided that on my walks, and in my daily encounters with people at the store or the library, or wherever, I will try to focus more, to pay closer at-tention. Admittedly, we live in a small town, rather than a bustling seaport like Metsu did. And some of us may feel that real life is somewhere else, like at work.

But what’s in our everyday world does affect us, even the seemingly unimport-ant. For example, this issue talks about goings-on in the city government and in our schools. It looks at our restau-rants and our writers and our history. It’s all part of our world and all grist for the mill.

byÊ KimberlyÊ Schmidt

“� e chief business of the American peo-ple is business,” President Calvin Coolidge told the American Society of Newspaper Editors in 1925.

One might take issue with Coolidge’s rather limited agenda for his constituents. But in looking back at Hya� sville’s past during this 125th year of the city’s history, it is clear that businesses, mostly small mom-and-pop stores, had a central role in Hya� sville’s early years.

� at was by design. City founder Christo-pher Clarke Hya� purchased the land that eventually became Hya� sville because of its access to transportation and trade net-works, including the Port of Bladensburg and roads that connected Washington to Baltimore and Hagerstown.

Hya� , whose frowning visage presides over Route 1 from a mural bordering Cen-tennial Park, must have been a fairly astute and clever guy.

His great-grandfather had sailed from England to the New World in 1634 and eventually owned 900 acres of land, some of which was patented from Lord Balti-more. Like his ancestor, young Hya� had precocious business skills. He purchased “Rich � icke� ,” 273 acres of land in Belts-ville, from his father in 1807 at the tender age of 8.

He was hired by a Baltimore merchant and was put in charge of the business’s Pennsylvania branch when he was still a teenager. So by the time he focused his en-ergies on this area, he had already honed his considerable business skills.

Records show that Hyatt started a trading post in 1832 and, according to Hyattsville: Our Hometown, purchased “extensive supplies for the farm and

household including tobacco, slaves, farm produce and even a bear.” (What use he had for the bear is not found in the historical record.) He was active in civic and church affairs and was also ap-pointed Hyattsville’s first postmaster.

By the 1880s, the town boasted three grocery stores, three butcher shops, a dry goods store, a “notions” shop, post o� ce, blacksmith and tinsmith. � ere were two wood dealers, two coal dealers, a livery stable, two town � re halls and a land of-� ce. � ese establishments were walking distance from Hya� sville’s core residential area.

Hyatt continued to eagerly purchase large tracts of land – so much so that by the late 1870s he was in debt, ow-ing more than $25,000 to 40 creditors. Perhaps he was a victim of the econom-ic downturn experienced in the United States at the time. Perhaps his business acumen was better suited to a pre-Civil War world. Perhaps it was a simple case of an ambitious overextension of prop-erty. Whatever the case, by 1878 he had sold all his household furnishings and much of his property in order to pay his creditors.

Christopher Clarke Hyatt did not live to see the town incorporated. He died in 1884, two years before the town be-came “official,” leaving a legacy that could serve either as inspiration or as a cautionary tale.

Kimberly Schmidt is a former president and current board member of the Hya� sville Preservation Association.

He put the Hya� in Hya� sville

SUSIE CURRIEChristopherÊ ClarkeÊ HyattÊ lookingÊ overÊHyattsville.


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Newly minted Ward 1 represen-tative Eric Wingard, who won a special city election on July 19, had expected to take his seat on the dais during the August 1 city council meeting.

But it was canceled when half of the members didn’t show up. It was the first time in at least a decade that a Hyattsville City Council meeting failed to draw a quorum of six members.

“Without a quorum, the coun-

cil cannot conduct business,” said Council President Matt McKnight (Ward 3), who had been scheduled to run the 8 p.m. meeting but instead called it off at around 8:30 p.m.

The meeting agenda – which in-cluded Wingard’s swearing in, re-ports from five city departments and the authorization of several contracts and expenditures – had to be incorporated into the one for the August 8 meeting.

“This is embarrassing,” said Councilmember Tim Hunt

Council absences delay swearing in

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(Ward 3) afterwards, one of five members in attendance.

Some absences were expected. Mayor Marc Tartaro had asked McKnight to chair the meet-ing the week before, as he had a family medical appointment that night. Shani Warner (Ward 2) just had a baby the day before. Paula Perry (Ward 4) was traveling.

“When 8 p.m. rolled around and Carlos [Lizanne, Ward 4] and Nicole [Hinds Mofor, Ward 5] did not show up, we began making phone calls,” said Mc Knight. When reached, Lizanne said he was ill; Mofor, reached by the HL&T later that week, also said she wasn’t feeling well.

“I was disappointed, but more surprised than anything,” said Wingard, who had invited fam-ily and friends to the ceremony. “Maybe the swearing in could have been done at last week’s meeting, if people knew they were going to be out, and then I could have been the sixth member for the quorum.”

Instead, he had to go to Upper Marlboro later that week to take the oath of office at the Prince George’s County clerk’s office. He was scheduled to be seated at the August 8 city council meeting.

In the July special election, Win-gard captured 65 of 128 votes cast in a race with William Jenne and Scott Matirne. The seat was previously held by Tartaro, who was elected mayor in May.

Farewell to a beloved principalbyÊ SusieÊ CurrieÊ ÊandÊ PaulaÊ Minaert

Nearly 1,000 mourners turned out to pay final tribute to Sr. Joyce Volpini, SND, who was principal of St. Jerome School for 33 years.

Known to generations of Hyattsville children as “Sister Joyce,” Volpini, who had battled cancer for years, died on July 31 at Mercy Hospital in Baltimore. She was 67.

An August 6 memorial Mass at St. Jerome was standing room only; people of all ages filled the pews and the foyer and spilled over into the choir loft. During the offertory, dozens of people lined up with flowers that they put into vases on the altar.

The celebrant, Msgr. Joseph A. Ranieri, recalled that Sr. Joyce had been principal for 14 years when he arrived as St. Jerome’s pastor in 1990.

“We had a wonderful working relationship that developed into a lasting friendship,” he said.

Deacon Bert L’Homme, su-perintendent of schools for the

Archdiocese of Washington, gave one of the eulogies. “It was never a decision – our girls would go to St. Jerome’s,” he told the congre-gation. “Last weekend, we moved back here so our grandsons could attend St. Jerome’s.”

The throngs of family, friends and former students crowded into the church’s Gold Room for a reception. Set up around the room were photo collages that showed her at weddings, graduations, parties – even playing pinball and doing the “chicken dance.” A bulletin board displayed commenda-tions from the city of Hyatts-ville, the Archdiocese of Wash-ington, the governor and the Maryland General Assembly.

“Sr. Joyce was the heart of the school,” said Jen Sanderson, who graduated in 1991 and after-wards visited frequently. Her two sons also attended St. Jerome’s. “No matter how many years it had been, you could come back and she’d always remember your name and had time to talk. I felt like I never left.”

Her classmate, Michael Dice, said, “She had a soft spot for trou-blemakers.” Sanderson agreed. “She’d put on that face, and she’d say, ‘That wasn’t the smartest thing you’ll do today, was it?’

Hyattsville resident Sue Lopresti,

who went to St. Jerome and sent her six children there, too, said, “She [was] like an angel. She was so inspirational and always made everyone feel welcome, with open arms.”

The day before the funeral, a tribute page to her on Facebook had 781 “likes” and dozens of postings from family members and former students, shar-ing memories of how she had touched their lives.

Joyce Volpini entered the Sis-ters of Notre Dame de Namur in 1964. Her student teaching assignment, in 1968, was at St. Je-rome’s. She later taught in Ridge-wood, N.Y. and at St. Martin’s in Washington, D.C. In 1976, she became principal of St. Jerome.

A graduate of Trinity College, she also had a master’s degree in counseling from Loyola Col-lege in Baltimore and a doc-torate of education from Nova University in Florida.

Volpini is survived by her mother, Trudy; a sister, former St. Jerome teacher Janice Volpini; three brothers and sisters-in-law; and a large extended family. The family has asked that in lieu of flowers, contributions be sent to the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur Development Fund, 1531 Greenspring Valley Road, Steven-son, Md., 21153.


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MissFloribundaDear Miss Floribunda,

In last month’s column you mentioned that coleus is easy to root in water. I tried it and it worked. What else is so easy? I am looking to expand my garden at no expense, so cu� ings do seem the way to go. How hard would it be to take cu� ings � om shrubs already in my garden? Right now – thanks to the previous owner of this house – I have hydrangeas and crepe myrtle in bloom. In addition I have a forsythia, some azaleas and boxwood. Would it be di� cult to root pieces of these in water? I’m trying to avoid anything that re-quires great skill, so just tell me “don’t try this at home” if I’m likely to end up with a discouraging mess of rot-ting wood.

Inept on Ingraham Street

Dear Inept,

I am very glad that you are inspired to take on new propagation projects. Impatiens and � brous bego-nias can be rooted in water or just as easily directly in po� ing soil. Geraniums are also easily rooted in po� ing soil, or even ordinary garden soil. I discov-ered this many years ago, when I clumsily stepped on a geranium I’d just planted. I was with a more experienced gardener who told me to stick the bro-ken parts back in the soil, water them, and “wait for a surprise.” � ey were blooming a month later.

Of your shrubs, forsythia is easiest to root in gar-den soil. I started with one bush, and for a few years tried unsuccessfully to get my spring bouquets of them to root in water. One year I decided to stick the twigs in some problem places along my back al-ley way just to see what they might do. � ey rooted and bloomed the next year.

Most people have success rooting hydrangea, with varying degrees of preparation. Both Mr. Minnow-haven and Dr. Agronomosky recommend using a rooting medium. � ey say to take a 4- to 6-inch cu� ing of this year’s wood, stripping o� the lower leaves and leaving only a few tip leaves, apply the rooting medium to the end of the stem, and put it in a pot in a combination of vermiculite and per-lite. � e pot is then covered with a plastic bag to create a mini greenhouse. (Dr. Agronomosky uses this technique in June for rooting boxwood and azaleas as well.) � is method will also work for crepe myrtle, and summer is the time to take long

cu� ings of new wood. Aunt Sioux, however, prefers to layer her hydran-

geas, as well as her � gs. I myself have used layer-ing to propagate azaleas and lilacs. You just take a branch, bend it down, put soil over it, anchor it with a brick and forget it. When you notice the new plant the next year, you clip o� the “umbilical branch” and replant it.

I know of only one person who has successfully rooted a hydrangea in water and that is Capabil-ity Green. She takes cu� ings in August, always in the morning, and places them in individual jars of water. She chooses her cu� ings from branches that happened not to have � owered. She changes the water every other day and � nds roots developing within a month. She waits till fall to put the young plants outdoors in well-prepared soil, and places large glass jars over top of them that she waits till spring to remove. Capability has also divided hy-drangeas in fall, and she has grown new crepe myr-tle plants from shoots that burgeon from the base of established trees in spring.

To speak with our experts, please come to the next meeting of the Hya� sville Horticultural Society on Sat-urday, August 20, at 10 a.m. at the home of Jean and Millard Smith at 3600 Longfellow Street.

ForsythiaÊ isÊ anÊ easyÊ shrubÊ toÊ rootÊ inÊ gardenÊ soil.


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Busboys & Poets has been open less than a month here, but al-ready has a full schedule of events ranging from Senior Open-Mic Nights to private wedding recep-tions lined up at its newest loca-tion on Route 1.

Since its July 18 opening, owner Andy Shallal has often been seen strolling among the restaurant tables in his straw fedora.

“We tend to be picky about where we locate,” he said. “And this is one of the nicest commu-nities we could have come to. Ev-eryone’s been so welcoming.”

When asked how the newest venue would differ from the first three, Shallal said, “I see us as be-coming more of a cultural center [since] there’s not a lot here.”

Another difference is that in-stead of a bookstore, as in the flagship location on Washington, D.C.’s U Street corridor, the retail area will feature art supplies.

It will be a branch of Art Under Pressure, which opened about five months ago in the Petworth area of Washington, D.C. and was described by one blogger as “a local shop serving the graff[iti

artist] and skate[boarding] com-munity.”

Like D.C., Hyattsville has an ordinance prohibiting the sale of spray paint to customers younger than 18. Store co-owner Cory Stowers, who grew up here, said

Writers and artists find a niche at Busboys & Poets

they understand and adhere to that policy.

“But you have to understand that most people who start out being graffiti writers end up be-ing celebrated street artists,” he added.

Stowers said the new loca-tion will stock “acrylic and oil paint, brushes, wash, colored pencil, paper, spray paint, big markers, spray paint, and tat-

too flash.” Also, he said, “we’ll work with Busboys to stock the authors that they have in for readings.”

So far, those authors have been locals. Todd Kliman kicked off a series of readings on July 21 with a sample of his historical novel, The Wild Vine. On July 28, neigh-borhood writers Andra Damron, Julia Duin, David Levy, William Loizeaux and Richard Morris

each read from their books and then took questions as a group.

Afterwards, seats started fill-ing up for the weekly open-mic night, held from 9 to 11 p.m. on Thursdays; by 8:20, they were gone. First up was a 10-year-old Cheverly boy who read a poem he had written about taking a standardized test. (He was ush-ered out by his mother directly; maybe she guessed at the more adult themes to come.)

Performances are held in the Howard Zinn Room, a 150-seat space at the back of the restau-rant. As its focal point, Shallal created a wall-length mural based on Langston Hughes’ 1920 poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” with Zinn at the center and sev-eral other 20th-century figures, from Bob Marley to Mother Tere-sa, at various points along the four rivers mentioned in the poem.

Of the artwork adorning the res-taurant, much is local. “Rammed Earth Drawing,” which hangs to the left of the main bar, was made by Mt. Rainier artist Margaret Boozer from clay that came from the construction site. Nearby, plaster-and-metal ceiling medal-lions form an installment called “Clouds,” by Cottage City artist Joanna Blake.

Other Gateway Arts District artists on permanent display here include Matthew Gifford, Sonia Keiner, J.J. McCracken, Alfredo Ratinoff and Cynthia Sands.

The restaurant began by serv-ing dinner only; now, breakfast and lunch are served Monday through Friday and lunch on Saturday and Sunday beginning at noon. By August 14, earlier weekend openings will mean brunch both days from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

bill jenneSignageÊ atÊ HyattsvilleÊ locationÊ ofÊ BusboysÊ &Ê PoetsÊ onÊ AugustÊ 2.


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BUSBOYS AND POETS

photos by bill jenneFromÊ left:Ê InÊ August,Ê lunchtimeÊpatioÊ seatingÊ atÊ BusboysÊ &Ê PoetsÊgetsÊ fewÊ takers.Ê ManagerÊ AlexÊTomicÊ findsÊ aÊ differentÊ storyÊ in-side,Ê asÊ tablesÊ fillÊ withÊ dinersÊ andÊlaptopÊ users.Ê Above:Ê MatthewÊMaffettÊ ofÊ Alexandria,Ê Va.,Ê andÊSarahÊ HartÊ ofÊ HyattsvilleÊ areÊamongÊ theÊ lunchÊ crowd,Ê while,Ê atÊleft,Ê JosephÊ GibbsÊ ofÊ NortheastÊWashingtonÊ takesÊ advantageÊ ofÊtheÊ freeÊ WiFi.

GOING GREEN IN 2011:

Need a tree?This is the seventh in a series of stories about how City residents can make small changes to have a positive impact on our environment. We’ve covered alternative transit, rain barrels, and more. This month’s installment recognizes a green and leafy way to help the planet.

The City of Hyattsville is celebrating our twentieth year as a Tree City. Tree Cities, designated by the Arbor Day Foundation, demonstrate their commitment to urban forestry in several ways. Perhaps the most visible is that Tree Cities designate a mini-mum of $2 per capita towards forestry.

City residents can plant trees on their own property, of course, and there are many reasons to do so, like:

• Providing shelter and food for birds and other animals• Lowering heating and cooling bills in homes and businesses• Offering better control of storm water run-off• Cleaning the air by absorbing pollut-ant gases and filtering particulates• Absorbing carbon dioxide and re-lease oxygen back into the air

Those simple street trees are an impor-tant tool in reducing global warming. In just one year, an acre of trees will absorb the same amount of carbon dioxide generated by driving a car 26,000 miles.

It is important to plant the right tree in the right place. How quickly will the tree grow? Will the tree have enough space to continue to grow in the future? Is Hyattsville’s climate a good match for the tree you have in mind? Do we have the right soil? Enough – or too much – sun?

The City of Hyattsville routinely plants trees in the public rights-of-way along City streets. Over the past few years, we’ve planted more than 300 new trees. We are always looking for new locations, especially because we can sometimes acquire trees at little or no cost through the County or State.

If you know of a location that might ben-efit from a Street Tree, visit our website at http://www.hyattsville.org/trees or call 301/985-5032 to suggest a location.

For more about the Tree City USA pro-gram, visit www.arborday.org.

Hyattsville Reporterthe

No. 222• August 10, 2011www.hyattsville.org • 301-985-5000

Page HR1 Hyattsville Life & Times | August 2011 Hyattsville Life & Times | August 2011 Page HR2

FINAL SUMMER MOVIE TAKES PLACE ON AUGUST 19

Join us at Magruder Park for a special screening of The Princess and the Frog on Friday, August 19. Fun begins at 7:30 PM; the movie screens at dark. Don’t know the story? Set in New Orleans’ French Quarter, this return to hand-drawn anima-tion is a modern twist on a classic tale. A beautiful girl named Tina finds a frog prince who desperately wants to be human again and with a fateful kiss, leads them on a hilarious adventure through the mystical bayous of Louisiana.Refreshments are available for sale. Bring your

own blanket or lawn chairs!

HCPD RE-ACCREDITATION UNDERWAY

The Hyattsville Police Department is scheduled for an on-site assessment as part of a program to obtain re-accreditation by verifying that it meets professional standards administered by the Commis-sion of Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc. (CALEA). The program re-quires agencies to comply with established standards in four basic areas including the following: Policy and Procedures; Administration; Operations; and Sup-port Services.Anyone wishing to submit written comments con-

cerning the ability of the Hyattsville Police Depart-ment to comply with CALEA standards may send those comments to The Commission for Accredita-tion for Law Enforcement Agencies. The address is as follows: CALEA, Attn: Karen Shepard, 13575 Heath-cote Boulevard, Suite 320, Gainesville, VA 20155.Questions? Please contact Cpl. Christine Fekete,

Accreditation Manager, at 301-985-5064 or [email protected].

LABOR DAY TRASH REMINDERS

Please remember that the City does not collect Yard Waste on any holiday Monday. There will be no Yard Waste collection on Monday, September 5. The next Yard Waste collection will be Monday, September 12. All regular household trash collec-tions will take place as scheduled. Questions? Call the Department of Public Works at 301/985-5032.

THANKS TO OUR SUMMER STAFF

Our fifth and final Summer Camp session takes place from Monday, August 15 through Friday, August 19. A few spots remain in Camp Tiny Tots (ages 3 – 4) and Camp Discovery (ages 10 – 13) and a waiting list is being maintained for Camp Jambo-ree (ages 5 – 9). We’d like to take this opportunity to offer a very special thank you to our camp coun-selors for their hard work making summer fun for our campers. For more information on our Sum-

mer Camp program, contact the Department of Recreation and the Arts at 301/985-5020 or http://www.hyattsville.org/recreation.

GLOBAL CAREER LAUNCH INTERNS FINISH WORK IN HYATTSVILLE

By foot, bike, and Segway, the City’s five interns from China, via the Global Career Launch pro-gram, completed almost 1,000 hours of work col-lecting data for the City’s Geographic Information System. Their efforts helped the City catalog assets like trash cans, crosswalks, and utility poles. After a summer working with the Offices of Commu-nity Development and Volunteer Services, Elden Chan, Scarlett Chen, Emma Wang, Aaron Lei, and Ivy Wang will return to complete their studies in China. We thank them for their efforts!

INTRODUCING NEW WARD 1 COUNCIL MEMBER, ERIC

WINGARD

Council Member Eric Wingard was elect-ed on July 19, 2011 to take the seat va-cated by new mayor Marc Tartaro. His first meeting was Monday, August 8. Find his contact information at http://www.hyattsville.org/council or con-

tact the Office of the City Clerk at 301/985-5009.

ROAD WORK NEARING COMPLETION ON JEFFERSON STREET

The City has completed milling on Jef-ferson Street and expects to complete paving during the month of August, just in time for back-to-school. Some temporary detours will be in place during this time. We apologize for any inconvenience. Ques-tions? Call the Department of Public Works at 301/985-5032.

FARMERS MARKET OPEN FOR THE SEASON

Harris Orchards and other Maryland produc-ers returned for the 2011 season on Tuesday, June 14. Farm fresh produce and artisanal products are available every Tuesday afternoon, from 2 to 6 p.m., at the West Hyattsville Farmers Market. The mar-ket is located behind Queens Chapel Town Center, at the intersection of Queens Chapel Road and Hamilton Street. (Parking is available.) WIC and Senior FMNP checks are accepted.

I AM HYATTSVILLE

Show your civic pride with an I Am Hyattsville tee. Available at all Outback Steakhouse Summer Jams for just $10, or stop by the City Administrative of-fices during business hours, Monday through Fri-

Concert

IN OTHER NEWS...

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2011

CALENDAR

Aug 11, 7:00 PMFall Field Permitting Meeting

Aug 12, 6:30 to 8:30 PMOutback Steakhouse Summer Jam featuring JP McDermott and Western Bop

Aug 15Day Camps - Session III begins

Aug 19, 7:30 PM (movie at dusk)Family Movie Night featuring The Princess and the FrogMagruder Park, 40th Avenue & Hamilton Street

Aug 22, 8:00 PMCity Council Meeting

Sep 5Labor Day – City Administrative Offices closed; No Yard Waste pick-up

Sep 6, 8:00 PMCity Council Meeting (Note: This meeting takes place on a Tuesday)

Sep 9, 6:30 to 8:30 PMOutback Steakhouse Summer Jam featuring N2N and the Police Department Open House

Unless otherwise noted, all events take place at the City Municipal Building, 4310 Gallatin Street.

day, 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM. Sizes Youth XS to Adult 2XL. Questions? Call Abby Sandel at 301/985-5031. Traveling to a distant land – or even Ocean City? Snap a pic of you in your tee and send it to us at [email protected]! So far shirts have gone to Afghanistan, China, Croatia, Ecuador, Greece, Ireland, and Japan.

FALL EVENTS

Three major events return to the City this Fall! On Saturday, Sep-tember 24, the Downtown Hyattsville Arts Festival will take place on Jefferson Street at Route One. Hyattsville Cyclocross returns to

Magruder Park on Sunday, October 9. And the Hyattsville Vol-unteer Fire Department’s 5-Mile Run will take place throughout

the City on Saturday, October 22. Look for more informa-tion about all of these events in the next edition of the Hyattsville Reporter.

PEPCO INSTALLATION NEWS

Pepco plans to install new digital electric meters in residential homes and businesses this month. You should receive a letter before installation takes place. If you have any questions, please visit www.pepco.com or call their Customer Care Center at 301/833-7500.

FIND US ON FACEBOOK

Are you on Facebook? You can now keep up with City events and happenings at www.facebook.com/cityofhyattsville. When you see Vainglorious, the silver metal bird sculpture at Centennial Park, you’ll know you’re in the right place. He is kind enough to serve as the City’s wall photo.

RECREATION NEWS IN YOUR INBOX

The City’s Department of Recreation and the Arts offers a year-long calendar of programs for the whole family. To stay up-to-date, residents can now subscribe to the Department’s monthly eNews. Packed with details on upcoming events, it is a must-read if you’re looking for affordable family fun in Hyattsville. Visit http://www.hyattsville.org/eNews to subscribe.

Looking for more music? Starting last month, University Town Center’s concert series returned to their plaza, most Fridays through October 28. Concerts run from 5:00 to 8:00 PM and admission is free. Weather permitting, the UTC fountain will be on during the performance. Some of their upcoming headliners include:

Friday, August 19R&B from Blu Neffu

Friday, August 26Alternative rock with Lovebettie

Friday, September 2The hip hop stylings of AG

Friday, September 16Powerplay’s mix of dance and pop

Friday, September 30Funk and R&B sounds from Higher Hands

UTC’s Plaza is located on America Boulevard, off of East-West Highway. One-hour metered parking is available on their surface lot. Staying longer? The parking garage can be accessed from America Boulevard, too.There are two remaining concerts in the Outback Steak-

house Summer Jam series. On Friday, August 12 JP Mc-Dermott brings red-hot rockabilly and vintage honky tonk to Gallatin Street.Friday, September 9 is the final Outback Steakhouse Sum-

mer Jam of the series. Perennial favorites N2N will return with classic R&B, soul and funk. It is also the Police De-partment Open House, making it the biggest and the best of the Jams! Mandy the Clown will be back, you can get your kids’ mug shots taken in the police station, and don’t forget, September 9 will be your last chance to use your 2011 refillable mug!

Alternative rock band Lovebettie plays on Friday, August 26.

seriesreturns toUniversity Town Center


COMMUNITY CALENDAR

SummerJam 2011

presents

Admission is free; delicious food for sale

The second Friday of every month, May through September, 6:30 to 8:30 PMCity Municipal Building, 4310 Gallatin StreetRain or Shine!

August 12 - JP McDermott & Western BopSeptember 9 - N2N, Police Dept. Open HouseTour the station, get your mug shot taken, and more!

THIS SUMMER, THE CITY OF HYATTSVILLE DEPARTMENT OF RECREATION & THE ARTS PRESENTS

MOVIES AT MAGRUDER PARKThe Princess and the FrogFriday, August 19 at 7:30 PMMagruder Park, 40th Avenue & Hamilton Street

All events are free and open to the public. Refreshments are available for sale. Bring your own blanket or lawn chairs! Questions? Call 301/985-5020.

August 12 The Outback Steakhouse Summer Jam series continues this evening, with a moon bounce for the kids and a beer garden for adults. This month, JP McDermott & Western Bop will bring their rockabilly and honky-tonk tunes to the stage. Burg-ers, chicken and hot dogs will be prepared by Outback Steakhouse. 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Free. Hyattsville Municipal Building, 4310 Gallatin Street. 301.985.5020.

August 13 This is your last chance to see Artistic Reflections, a show of works by (and inspired by) nationally acclaimed Hyatts-ville artist David C. Driskell; it closes to-day. Free. Weekdays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Brentwood Arts Exchange, 3901 Rhode Island Av-enue, Brentwood. 301.277.2863.

During the 16th Annual Battle of Blad-ensburg Encampment, re-enactors por-tray camp life on the eve of what would be one of the worst American defeats in the War of 1812. Events include cannon fir-ing, gunnery drills, dress-up stations and more. Free; admission charge for house tours. Noon to 4 p.m. Riversdale House Museum, 4811 Riverdale Road, Riverdale Park. 301.864.0420.

August 14As part of the Sunday-evening Arts on The Waterfront series, Oasis Island Sounds breaks out the steel drums for a performance of reggae, calypso and Afri-can music. Free. 6 to 7:30 p.m. Bladens-burg Waterfront Park, 4601 Annapolis Road, Bladensburg. 301.779.0371.

August 18The season finale of Jazz on the Lawn at Riversdale, a sunset concert series, fea-tures the local group Cheek to Cheek. Free; dinner from the Calvert House avail-able for purchase. 7 to 8 p.m. Riversdale House Museum, 4811 Riverdale Road, Riverdale Park. 301.864.0420.

August 19Disney’s take on the fairytale classic The Princess & the Frog is the last in the city’s outdoor summer movie series. Begins at 7:30 p.m. in Magruder Park, 40th Avenue and Hamilton Street. Free; refreshments available for sale. Bring your own blanket or lawn chairs. 301.985.5020.

August 20At 6 a.m., Hyattsville Police Chief Doug Holland, and members of other local po-

lice forces, will climb up on the roof of Dunkin Donuts on Queens Chapel Road – and stay there for a while! Come for your coffee and support this fundraiser for the Maryland Special Olympics. 3030 Queens Chapel Road, 240.696.7363.

Join the book discussion of Kathryn Stock-ett’s The Help, set in 1960s Jackson, Missis-sippi. (Or you could cheat and see the movie; it opens August 10.) Free. 3 p.m. Hyattsville Library, 6530 Adelphi Road. 301.985.4690.

August 21Among the many events lined up at Bus-boys & Poets is its first-ever Senior Open Mic Night; to take the stage, you must be at least 65. It’s from 9 to 11 p.m., and seating is limited. A 6 p.m. concert by the Foggy Bottom Guitar Orchestra kicks off the evening. Howard Zinn Room, Bus-boys & Poets, 5331 Baltimore Avenue. 301.779.2787 or busboysandpoets.com/events.

August 27Windy afternoons are coming, and you can be ready for them after attending the College Park Aviation Museum’s kite workshop. $8 workshop fee includes mu-seum admission. 1 p.m. 1985 Cpl. Frank Scott Drive, College Park. 301.864.6029.

September 3Bring your wheels for a guided Bicycle Nature Tour of park trails, for ages 10 and up. $2. 9 a.m. to noon. Bladensburg Wa-terfront Park, 4601 Annapolis Road, Blad-ensburg. 301.779.0371.

September 7Join the Hyattsville Coalition for Ag-ing in Place monthly meeting to learn what residents and city staff are doing to create an intergenerational community volunteer network just for seniors. 7 p.m. Hyattsville Municipal Building, 4310 Gallatin Street. Contact Lisa Walker at [email protected].

September 10Put on some old clothes and come to the Anacostia River Clean-Up at Bladens-burg Waterfront Park to help clean our local waterways. All ages welcome; adults must accompany children 16 and under. Free. 9:30 a.m. to noon. 4601 Annapolis Road, Bladensburg. 301.779.0371.

Ongoing On Friday evenings in August, one price buys unlimited train trips, carousel rides and mini-golf rounds during Fabulous

Hyattsville Life & Times | August 2011 Page 9

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Dr. Mark H. Sugar, Dr. John R. Hawkins, IV and the Belcrest Surgery Center

practicing podiatry in Hyattsville since 1975are happy to announce a new treatment for foot and ankle pain. We now have a new infra-red therapy laser which is a painless method of treatment for pain associated with arthritis, tendonitis, fasciitis, nerve disorders and sports injuries. We treat any and all foot problems both conservatively and surgically. Our hours are flexible and we accept most insurance plans. Feel free to contact us for any questions or information. The Belcrest Surgery Center is fully accredited and certi-fied and offers convenient and comfortable treatment for out-patient foot surgery.

6505 Belcrest Road, Suite One Hyattsville, 301-699-5900

Visit Hyattsville’s most unusual restaurant and enjoy our own microbrews on tap, fine wine and good food.

Franklins5123 Baltimore AveHyattsville, MD 20781301-927-2740

“Franklins is awesome!”–Pubcrawler.com

Fridays at Watkins Regional Park. $5 per person. 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. 301 Watkins Park Drive, Upper Marlboro 301.218.6700.

The Hyattsville Farmers’ Mar-ket offers just-picked produce, herbs, plants and more. Tues-days, 2 to 6 p.m. Queens Cha-pel Road and Hamilton Street. 301.627.0977.

The producers-only Riverdale Park Farmer’s Market is open for the season, with a variety of local vegetables and fruits, honey, baked goods, meat, jams, flowers and more. Free. Thursdays, 3 to 7 p.m. 4650 Queensbury Road, Riverdale Park. 301.332.6258.

At the Mount Rainier Farmer’s Market, browse local wines,

bread, produce, flowers and more. Free. Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. City Hall Civic Plaza, Rhode Is-land Avenue and Perry Street, Mount Rainier. 301.332.6258.

Every 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month, the Peter Pan Club for preschoolers includes storytime and hands-on craft activities. Free with museum admission of $4 for adults ($2 for children). 10:30 a.m. College Park Aviation Museum, 1985 Cpl. Frank Scott Drive, Col-lege Park. 301.864.6029.

Free, 45-minute Anacostia Riv-er Boat Tours are held Tues-days through Fridays at noon and weekends at 5 p.m. All ages are welcome to join a park naturalist on a pontoon boat to search for birds and other wild-

life. Free; registration required for groups of 12 or more. Blad-ensburg Waterfront Park, 4601 Annapolis Road, Bladensburg. 301.779.0371.

Browse clothing, housewares and more at reasonable prices at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church Thrift Shop, Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., 4512 College Avenue, College Park. 301.864.8880.

This isn’t your toddler’s Sit & Spin. At A Tangled Skein yarn shop, the name refers to fourth-Friday gather-ings where drop-spindle and spin-ning-wheel users can work on indi-vidual projects, guided by spinning expert Anne O’Connor. Free. 7 to 9 p.m. And if you need more chances to unwind, come to the twice week-ly Sit & Stitch sessions: Wednes-days, 7 to 9 p.m., and Thursdays, 1 to 3 p.m. They’re open to knitters and crocheters of any experience level. Free. 5200 Baltimore Avenue, Suite 101. 301.779.3399.

The Hyattsville library offers a variety of storytimes. Space is limited; free tickets available at the Children’s Desk. Ages 9-23 months with caregiver: Mon-days, 10:15 a.m. Ages 2-3: Mon-days, 11 a.m. and Tuesdays, 10:15 a.m. Ages 3-5: Tuesdays, 11 a.m. Ages 3-6: Wednesdays, 7 p.m. Eng-lish-Spanish Storytime for ages 3-6: Saturdays, 10:30 a.m. 6530 Adelphi Road. 301.985.4690.

Community Calendar is compiled by Susie Currie. To submit an item for consideration, please e-mail [email protected] or mail to P.O. Box 132, Hyattsville, MD 20781. Dead-line for September submissions is Au-gust 20.

COMMUNITY CALENDAR

courtesy of brentwood arts centerÒ YorubaÊ Couple,Ó Ê byÊ DavidÊ Driskell,Ê isÊ onÊ viewÊ atÊ theÊ BrentwoodÊ ArtsÊCenter.


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Included: The October 6, 2010 Issue of The Hyattsville Reporter — See Center Section

HyattsvilleLife&Times

October 2010

Hyattsville’s Community Newspaper

Vol. 7 No. 10

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NEW PLAYGROUND AT MAGRUDERMagruder Park is undergoing a nearly complete playground renovation, with

four new play structures. PAGE 3

By Paula MinaertAt a September city council meet-ing, several Hyattsville residents held up yellow signs that read “No more traffi c” and “No commuter thoroughfare,” hoping to draw at-tention to what they call serious long-standing traffi c problems on their streets.They were worried about a re-

cent traffi c study done by consul-tants Sabra, Wang & Associates estimating that city streets will have more than 3,500 new morn-

ing and more than 4,500 new af-ternoon peak-hour vehicle trips, based on current traffi c and pro-jected development. Nina Faye, who lives on Queens-

bury Road, said that she ques-tioned the numbers Sabra, Wang presented to the council in July. “One day I was [at Queensbury

and 41st] for six minutes at 3:30 in the afternoon. And I saw more traffi c than they claimed in a half-hour. If I can’t trust this number, how can I trust any of them?” Other residents questioned the

recommendation to lift that road’s current traffi c restriction on west-bound traffi c between Route 1 and 43rd Avenue during peak morning traffi c hours. Cheri Fulton has lived on Queens-

bury since 1987 and was involved in the effort that led to the Do Not Enter sign being posted. She said that traffi c on the street is better now but is still bad – and drivers routinely ignore the sign. Another point of contention was

the recommendation to make Queensbury one-way westbound

during peak hours, if traffi c there continues to increase and if im-provements to state roads are de-layed. “Why facilitate traffi c into my

community from a state road?” asked resident Margaret Hayes at the Sept. 13 city council meeting. Hugh Turley, a columnist for the

Life & Times who lives on Queens-bury, said, “One-way shouldn’t be even a last resort.” He believes the goal for Queensbury should be to

Residents complain about traffi c

By Lara BeavenHyattsville police collected dozens of unused medications from resi-dents Sept. 25 as part of a fi rst-time national initiative to prevent prescription drugs from falling into the wrong hands or entering the water supply.“I thought no one would want

to go out of their way to return drugs,” said Sgt. Chris Purvis, the Hyattsville police offi cer who tal-lied the donations. But by the end, he said, residents had deposited — anonymously – a total of 8.8 pounds (approximately 60 con-tainers and a few bags of pills). Hyattsville Communications

Manager Abby Sandel said the city is open to holding a similar event in the future if there is com-munity interest.Spearheaded by the federal Drug

Enforcement Agency and backed by a number of national law en-forcement and public health or-ganizations, National Take Back Day aimed to reduce the risk of prescription drugs being con-sumed inappropriately. Prescrip-tion drug abuse, a growing prob-lem nationally, is a major focus for the DEA. An additional benefi t of the

take-back effort was preventing unused prescription drugs from being fl ushed down the toilet,

Police collect unwanted medications

by Kara RoseBeginning Oct. 16, an unusual reef will be

displayed in the Ocean Hall of the National Museum of Natural His-tory. Various knitters and crocheters,

including more than 100 from Hyattsville’s A

Tangled Skein, used yarn and fi bers of all sorts

to make the reef. The Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef exhibit runs through April 24, 2011. Curators

Margaret and Christine Wertheim,

DRUGS continued on page 10

TRAFFIC continued on page 12SPINNING AYARN

YARN continued on page 13

PHOTO BY CHRIS CURRIE

Some of the pieces handmade by Hyattsville

residents for the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral

Reef, an exhibit opening at the Smithsonian

later this month.

GLASS HOUSEDC GlassWorks is a public-access glassblowing studio that fosters a

strong sense of community. PAGE 4

GETTING YOUR KICKS ON RT. 1Legend and Lore asks: Why all the romance surrounding the famed Route 66 when its cousin

Route 1 is almost as long and just as storied? PAGE 2

Local knitters and crocheters donate

their pieces to Smithsonian exhibit

See current and archived editions of the Hyattsville Life & Times atwww.issuu.com/hyattsvillelifeandtimes

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Included: The November 10, 2010 Issue of The Hyattsville Reporter — See Center Section

HyattsvilleLife&Times

November 2010

Hyattsville’s Community Newspaper

Vol. 7 No. 11

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A STREET PAVED

WITH GREEN

Decatur Street in Edmonston is the

greenest street on the East Coast, and

maybe even the U.S. PAGE 3

DIRECTOR continued on page 12

AT THE DRIVE-IN

Postcards from the Past talks about the days

when drive-in movies and restaurants were

popular in Hyattsville. PAGE 5

by Krista Atteberry

With less than one week on the job,

Steve Yeskulsky, the city’s new Rec-

reation and the Arts Director, hit

the ground running by helping out

at the Hya� sville Volunteer Fire

Department’s 5-mile run on Octo-

ber 23. He was impressed with the

more than 60 volunteers and the

community spirit at the � rst annual

event, in which dozens of runners

ages 10 to 75 competed.

Before coming to Hya� sville,

Yeskulsky served as a program co-

ordinator for six years with Florida’s

Sarasota County Government Parks

and Recreation Department, where

he “did a thousand things . . . includ-

ing mostly overseeing larger special

events.” Originally from San Diego, he

graduated from San Diego State

University with two Bachelor of

Arts degrees in art history and cul-

tural anthropology. During his time

in San Diego, he was instrumental in

organizing an art exhibition, “Salon

de San Diego,” to help raise funds

for an AIDS charity. Yeskulsky also

enjoys writing for the Parks & Rec

Business magazine and is a certi� ed

Park and Recreation Professional

and Playground Inspector.

First on his agenda is ge� ing accli-

mated to the area and meeting more

folks in the community. Also, once

the city council approves the city’s

Parks Master Plan, which is expect-

All work and all play

by Paula Minaert

In the not-too-distant future, the

area around the Mall at Prince

Georges and Northwestern High

School could look very di� erent,

because some major development

projects are in the works there.

Some of these projects are within

the city’s borders and some fall just

outside. All will have an impact on

life in Hya� sville.

1. � e Landy Property

Landy is owned by Marvin Blum-

berg, a major developer in the Wash-

ington region. He owns a 33.94-

acre parcel of land located south

of Northwestern High School and

north of the mall. Most of this land

is wooded and lies outside the city

limits, except for a small portion at

the northeast corner.

� e District Council – which

is the arbiter for development in

Prince George’s County − recently

approved a Landy proposal for

residential construction on part of

that land: an apartment building of

about 400 units that would be on the

street line of Belcrest Road.

� e building would include the

portion of land that is within the

city. � is has led to discussion on

the city council of the city annex-

ing the unincorporated portion so

that the entire building would be

in Hya� sville, said council member

Tim Hunt (Ward 3). His ward bor-

ders the area of the proposed devel-

opment and includes the portion

within the city.

� is is Phase One of the project and

Mall at Prince

Georges area

planning fornew, major development

Where the wild things are

by Fred Seitz

Hya� sville is frequently identi� ed as an arts community,

but there is also a community of wildlife that lives both

in our parks and backyards. Some residents have actively

worked to encourage this by participating in the National

Wildlife Federation’s Certi� ed Wildlife Habitat program.

NWF started the program in 1973 to help wildlife and

“give people a way to connect with the natural world,” ac-

cording to David Mizejewski, a NWF wildlife biologist.

Since then, 135,000 homes across the country have been

certi� ed as wildlife habitats. Hya� sville has 23 of them. FRED SEITZ

Nicola Hainʼs small pond is part of a certified habitat.

SPOOKYFESTThe cityʼs annual Halloween party

drew about 200 people of all ages.

MORE PHOTOS ON PAGE 10

Local residents get their heirlooms

evaluated at Hyattsville’s version

of the Antiques Roadshow.

PAGE 2

HABITAT continued on page 12

DEVELOPMENT continued on page 13

IS THAT TRASH OR TREASURE?

COMMENTARY & OPINION ON HISTORY & POLITICS

Hugh’sNews

ByÊ HughÊ Turley

On August 6 and 9, 1945, Paul Tibbe� s and Charles W. Sweeney piloted the bombers that dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A li� le-known fact al-most stranger than � ction is that they were also the � rst Americans to go to Japan and see the devasta-tion of their bombs.

Japan o� cially surrendered aboard the USS Missouri on September 2, and the next day Tibbe� s and Sweeney � ew from their base on Tinian to Omura, about 15 miles from Nagasaki.

“We did not know the Navy was waiting o� shore to get radiation clearance,” Sweeney told Reed Ir-vine, head of the group Accuracy in Media, in 1995. “We didn’t even know about radiation.”

During World War II, Irvine was a young Marine lieutenant and a Japanese interpreter. He was sur-prised when Sweeney told him they went in with no interpreters in their group of about 20 men.

In his 1997 book War’s End: An Eyewitness Account of America’s Last Atomic Mission, Sweeney wrote that when they landed at Omura, several bewildered Japanese soldiers met them. � e Americans used pidgin English and pantomime to secure some rickety, rusted trucks

for the 15-mile drive to Nagasaki. � ey spent the night at a small

resort hotel on the outskirts of Nagasaki, which had been a popular tourist destination be-fore the war. Sweeney writes that the English-speaking innkeep-ers “took care of us as best they could,” despite the drastic food shortages at the end of the war.

At � rst Sweeney hesitated to sign his name on the hotel reg-ister, but did so a� er Tibbe� s boldly wrote “Colonel Paul W. Tibbe� s USAAF.” No one knew they were the men who had dropped the bombs.

Both Tibbe� s and Sweeney held the popular opinion that the atomic bombs were necessary to force the Japanese to surrender and that the killing of an esti-mated 200,000 Japanese civilians saved American lives.

Others have said the Japanese had already lost militarily and ef-forts to negotiate their surrender were ongoing from early 1945. President Dwight Eisenhower told Newsweek in 1963, “� e Japanese were already defeated and it wasn’t necessary to hit them with that awful thing.”

Rear Admiral Ellis Zacharias, in a Look magazine article published on June 6, 1950, wrote of dropping the atomic bombs: “I submit that

it was the wrong decision. It was wrong on strategic grounds. It was wrong on humanitarian grounds.”

During the war Zacharias was Deputy Director of Naval Intel-ligence. He said, “We knew quite de� nitely by the end of 1944…that important elements in Japan were ready to sue for peace.”

Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal supported e� orts to ne-gotiate a Japanese surrender. � e Emperor of Japan had asked the Holy See in Rome to intervene, with Pope Pius XII as a mediator. Tokyo had also asked the Rus-sians to help negotiate a peace.

According to Zacharias, delays by the State Department and the White House in negotiating peace were the result of top-secret deci-sions reached at Yalta with Sta-lin. Forrestal had opposed giving Russia the Kuril Islands and post-war in� uence over China. Russia’s declaration of war on Japan on August 8, 1945, had no e� ect on the outcome but let the Russians drive into East Asia.

If the United States had agreed, as it later did anyway, to the preserva-tion of the institution of the emper-or, the war might have ended earlier. � e bloody ba� les of Iwo Jima and Okinawa could have been avoided and there almost certainly never would have been a Korean War.

First into Nagasaki


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fewer students. “It was good to get the perspective

of being an assistant principal in both Howard and Prince George’s counties,” he said.

In an interview during his first week on the job, he said that he’s “still gathering data” from staff and parents. Incoming PTSA president Chris Hinojosa, mother of a ris-ing junior, said she hopes the new academic year will bring improved communication with parents.

“That aspect really suffered last year, when the parent-liaison positions were cut at the schools,” she said.

CONCORDIA LUTHERAN SCHOOL

Incoming Concordia head Jeff Burkee moves here from Battle Creek, Neb., with 25 years of ex-perience as a Lutheran principal. He replaces David Falkner, who retired in June after nine years.

The school, jointly run by Hyatts-ville’s Redeemer Lutheran Church and Mount Rainier’s Trinity Luther-an Church, has been at its current location on East-West Highway for

decades. But, said Redeemer pastor Eric Linthicum, many people don’t know it’s there.

“We’re at the point where we need to rebrand the school and get our name out there in the community,” said Linthicum, who started in No-vember. So he turned to a principal he’d worked with before as pastor of a church in Cincinnati. Burkee, he knew, had experience in both.

“My priority is to build enrollment and stabilize the school,” said Bur-kee, a father of six adult children.

“People are shopping for schools differently today.”

When he started, he said, parents chose parochial schools largely because they valued the religious underpinnings. “That’s not enough anymore,” said Burkee. “Now par-ents say, ’That’s cool, but how are you preparing my child for the digi-tal world?’ ”

HYATTSVILLE MIDDLE SCHOOL

Kimberly Washington is taking over at Hyattsville Middle School. Originally from Portsmouth, Va., she taught in Norfolk for eight years before coming to Prince George’s County through a program called

New Leaders for New Schools. The program works with large ur-ban school districts to recruit and train principals. Washington was resident principal at Bowie High School and then served as principal in two schools in Baltimore before coming back to this county.

As a goal, Washington said, “I plan to build on the rich history of Hyattsville Middle School and to continue its level of excellence in academics and the arts.”

Some HMS parents talked with Washington in an informal meeting July 27 at the Hyattsville Busboys & Poets. HMS PTA president Errick King was there.

“We were all very impressed so far with some things the new principal is doing,” he said. “We noticed her inter-est in communicating with parents and she has so far been administering the school very well. She scheduled classes for this year without having to use the temporary buildings and she rearranged the lunches so they are much more organized.”

Communicating well with parents and teachers surfaced as a top pri-ority item at a June meeting where parents and teachers discussed the attributes they hoped for in a new HMS principal.

Two other positions were authorized this year: a part-time senior services coordinator and a second parking officer.

Rose said that getting a director for code enforcement would probably need to wait for an overall restructuring of the city staff, something he said the city council has been considering for some time.

“I’m working with council and staff [to determine] the best structure for this organization. We’ve started the process and will continue to move forward with it. We hope that the HR manager will be hired prior to com-pleting the restructuring.”

Sandel said that any time a long-term administrator leaves, a re-examination of the organization is inevita-ble. Former Administrator Elaine Murphy left in March after more than 11 years.

Mayor Marc Tartaro said that the city is moving in the right direction in terms of staffing.

“My perception is that in the past the city was run

more like a family-run business. Given the economy and where we are now, we want people to perform at a higher level: smart, empowered to make decisions, and if they make a mistake, they learn from it. It’s a different kind of model,” he said. “My goal is to give people that opportunity and I think all of them would succeed.”

The city council selects department heads with staff input. According to Rose, 11 recruitment firms submit-ted proposals for the job of filling one position, the CIO. The proposal on the Aug. 1 agenda was to contract with the Mercer Group for recruitment of the CIO person and other services, for a cost not to exceed $50,000.

However, some councilmembers wanted the process to focus on hiring the human resources person first. Ruth Ann Frazier (Ward 5) said, “We’ve needed a good HR person for a long time. We’ve had the appropriation in the budget for the last two years, yet we still don’t have one. It’s ridiculous, the amount of money we’ve spent in the last several years on recruiting for different positions in the city – remember the turnovers? – because we don’t have our own HR person.”

PRINCIPALS continued from page 1

STAFF continued from page 1

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T-Ball and youth baseball are regular staples at Magruder Park. But on July 31, the park hosted a contest that likely hasn’t been played in Hyattsville in more than a century.

The Potomac Nine of Washing-ton, D.C., battled the Cecil Base Ball Club of Chesapeake City, Md., in a doubleheader of vintage “base ball.” About 75 people ven-tured out on the toasty Sunday to see the game the way it was played in 1864, complete with hot dogs, peanuts and Cracker Jack for the fans. (OK, go ahead and finish singing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.”)

The competition was sponsored by the City of Hyattsville, the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission and the Anacostia Trails Heritage As-sociation as part of Hyattsville’s 125th anniversary celebration. It was played on what was once known as Wine’s Fields.

Potomac’s Howard “Ivy” Berkof – all players have nicknames – be-came interested in the sport after reading about an upcoming game

Taking off the glovesin 2007.

“I went and checked it out and immediately got hooked,” Berkof said. “I said that’s something I want to do.”

Players of that era were called “ballists.” Pitchers were “hurlers” and hitters were “strikers.” The hurlers throw underhanded at an expanded strike zone. A ball that initially lands fair but goes foul is considered fair. A ball caught “on the bound,” or a bounce, is an out. The bases are 90 feet apart, as they are now, and the barrels of the wood bats are a little thinner than today’s.

Probably the most noticeable difference is that the ballists play barehanded; gloves didn’t catch on until the mid-1880s. The ball is a little softer and a little bigger than a modern baseball.

“It hurts when hit hard and struck at you, and it can have spin and move on you, so it’s not as easy,” Berkof said. “But yet you won’t find too many people getting finger injuries or hand injuries.”

Fielders have to field anything from soft fly balls to screeching line drives. Hard throws are often directed to the first baseman.

“It’s tough to be a first base-

man, especially if you get balls in the ground,” Berkof said. “On a ground such as this, where the bounces can go ev-erywhere, it’s tough. But it’s part of the game, and that’s why we play it out.”

The Potomac Nine are part of the Chesapeake and Potomac Base Ball Club, which includes the Chesapeake Nine of Balti-more. Berkof, the club general manager, said a third team, the Northern Virginia-based Old Dominions, will begin play next season. The teams play in the Mid Atlantic Vintage Base Ball League, which stretches from Southern Maryland to New York. Their uniforms, language and mannerisms are expected to be from the 1860s.

“It’s kind of like a throwback to when baseball first started, what it was all about way back,” Potomac ballist Gene “Pop” Meacham said. “I really enjoy history, and this is the history of baseball, what it was like in the 1860s. So it’s a lot of fun.”

Berkof handed out club flyers between games and answered onlookers’ questions.

“It’s fun to share a little piece of his-

PLAY BALL!

bill jennePatriciaÊ GladdingÊ ofÊ AnacostiaÊ TrailsÊ HeritageÊ Area,Ê Inc.Ê andÊ LanceÊWhitneyÊ provideÊ refreshmentsÊ atÊ theÊ PotomacÊ Nine/Ê CecilÊ ClubÊ ofÊChesapeakeÊ Ò 19thÊ centuryÊ rulesÓ Ê baseballÊ gameÊ atÊ MagruderÊ ParkÊ onÊSunday,Ê JulyÊ 31.


SUPPORT THE COPS ON OUR ROOFTOP!Beginning at 6:00 AM on Saturday, August 20, City of Hyattsville police officers will be up on the roof to raise money for Special Olympics Maryland at:

Dunkin’ Donuts, 3030 Queens Chapel RdHyattsville, MD 20782

Questions? Contact the City of Hyattsville Police Department at 301/985-5060.

tory and be authentic about how we play and how we talk,” he said. “It’s a lot of fun and we’re honoring history, too. Baseball is such a great sport and one that is timeless.”

If you’d like to see a game, the club will be playing at Hunting-

ton South Park in Bowie on September 25 at 2 p.m. If you are interested in joining, contact Berkof at [email protected].

Chris McManes is a longtime T-Ball coach in Hyattsville.

photos by bill jenneAbove:Ê JeffÊ Ò PipesÓ Ê HornbergerÊ ofÊ AnnapolisÊ batsÊ forÊ theÊ PotomacÊNineÊ ofÊ GaithersburgÊ againstÊ theÊ CecilÊ ClubÊ ofÊ ChesapeakeÊ CityÊ atÊMagruderÊ ParkÊ onÊ JulyÊ 31.Ê TheÊ teams,Ê Ê partÊ ofÊ theÊ MidÊ AtlanticÊVintageÊ BaseÊ BallÊ League,Ê haveÊ 1860sÊ uniforms,Ê languageÊ andÊ man-nerisms.Ê AtÊ right:Ê MarkÊ Ò ZagÓ Ê KubacikÊ andÊ GeneÊ Ò PopsÓ Ê MeachamÊ ofÊtheÊ PotomacÊ NineÊ ofÊ GaithersburgÊ watchÊ theirÊ sideÊ bat.


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august 2011 hyattsville life and times

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