City Briefs
Community Shred Day
Gather all those sensitive documents you no longer need, but don't want to fall into the wrong hands, and come to Bowie High School Saturday, May 17, between 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. to have them shredded. But there's a limit - you can only bring 550 pounds of material to be shredded. That computes to about five tall kitchen bags or five archive boxes full of papers. For information, call the city's Public Works Department, 301-809-2344. The city and PNC Bank are sponsoring it.
Digital TV workshop
The city's Information Technology Committee sponsored a digital TV workshop Tuesday to help residents understand changes coming to TV during the transition from analog to digital TV scheduled to occur in February 2009. Approximately 60 people attended the workshop. Speakers at the IT workshop included Tom Scanlon from the Federal Communications Commission, Karmen Bailey-Walker from Comcast Cable, Al Carr and Tara Potter from Verizon Cable, and Rob Turner from Dish Network.
Old Bowie trail
Planning Director Joe Meinert held a meeting at Bowie State University Tuesday evening to discuss a proposed hiker/biker trail that would run along the existing railroad tracks in Old Bowie from Zug Road to the eastern limits of the city. It's his hope that the proposed trail, called the Railroad Trail, would eventually connect to another trail leading to BSU. Meinert told a group of about 30 people that the city hired AB Consultants to do a feasibility study on the trail. Bob Patten from Toole Design Group presented an overview of the proposed trail and residents later discussed various aspects of the project. The feasibility study is available at www.cityofbowie.org.
Block grant update
The city receives funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development through the Community Development Block Grant. At Monday's council meeting Jesse Buggs, the city's grants contract administrator, said the city had used the funds, usually amounting to approximately $200,000 yearly, entirely on projects in Old Bowie, primarily street, gutter, curb and sidewalk improvements for the community. Buggs presented a staff recommendation that the funds be used for the needs of seniors because the elderly population in Bowie is growing faster than all other populations.
