Happy New Year and Happy Holidays!

This will be a short newsletter, as I only have a few announcements for you (no upcoming Council meetings). Read on for information on the next Ward 7 Town Hall meeting (discussing and ranking Ward 7 priorities for 2019), a Community Meeting about the Village at Providence Point (aka Crystal Spring) project, and New Years events.

Previous Council meeting

We had a lot of business at the last Council meeting, but the most notable thing is that we postponed Ordinance O-8-18 (dealing with school capacity). The Mayor and a few other Aldermen requested that they be given some time to talk about this with our new County elected officials, and the sponsors reluctantly agreed to a delay until February.

Updates

Next Town Hall Meeting

I will hold my next Ward 7 Town Hall meeting on Wednesday, January 23rd, from 6-8 PM at the Eastport-Annapolis Neck Library. Rather than have the meetings just be me giving you updates, I am going to try to have more special guests and other discussions. So for our first meeting of the new year, I’m going to have it be a discussion and ranking of Ward 7 priorities for 2019, to help give me an idea of what you would like me to work on for you. I am hoping to have various topic areas where you can list and then rank ideas. I’ll still try to have an open format either before or after this exercise (probably after) to address any lingering concerns or questions folks may have. Please let me know if you would be willing to help distribute flyers or help with the event itself.

Crystal Spring Community Meeting

The Village at Providence Point (aka Crystal Spring) will be holding a Community Meeting on January 3rd at 7pm at St. Martin’s Lutheran Church (1120 Spa Rd), on their proposed special mixed use planned development for seniors. If you have thoughts on their design, they proposed 40 acres of forest impacts, their impacts on traffic, or other concerns, please stop by and speak up. Originally the developers tried to schedule this meeting the week between Christmas and New Years, but our Planning & Zoning Department managed to get them to move the meeting. I tried to get the developers to push it back again but they rejected my request. Please spread the word on this event.  

Annapolis area Holiday events

Monday, December 31

11th Annual Military Bowl

The Military Bowl presented by Northrop Grumman, benefitting the USO of Metropolitan Washington-Baltimore (USO-Metro) will match a team from the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) against an opponent from the American Athletic Conference (AAC) in its 11th Anniversary game. Noon. U.S. Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, 550 Taylor Avenue, Annapolis 21401. Tickets: 888-841-2787, https://militarybowl.org/.   

Monday, December 31

City of Annapolis New Year’s Eve Celebration

Family activities fill the day and music and dancing fill the night at this annual celebration welcoming the New Year. For the third year, kids’ activities will take place on Weems Whelan fields behind Maryland Hall and Bates Middle School. Participants are invited to park at Park Place garage and take City of Annapolis-provided shuttles to and from Maryland Hall. Activities will include kids’ crafts, obstacle courses, moon bounces and music performed by kids’ rock bands. The afternoon festivities wrap up with on-site fireworks at approximately 5:15 p.m. Then it’s off to area restaurants for dinner with the kids. The second round of festivities includes live music and dancing at Susan Campbell Park at City Dock beginning at 8:00 p.m. and ending with midnight fireworks. Sponsored by City of Annapolis. 3:00 p.m. to 5:15 p.m., kid-friendly activities at Weems Whelan Fields behind Maryland Hall, 801 Chase Street, Annapolis 21401. 8:00 p.m. to midnight, Susan Campbell Park, City Dock, Annapolis 21401. 410-263-7997, http://www.annapolis.gov/.  

For a more complete list of holiday events, visit the VAAAC website. For high resolution images, contact Susan Seifried.

Climate Rally

January 9, 10:30am: Climate Wave Rally (Annapolis). On the first day of the 2019 Maryland legislative session, advocates are riding the climate wave to Annapolis for a fun rally for the Clean Energy Jobs Act, complete with inflatable surfboards.

Main Street Green Infrastructure Conceptual Plan

The City of Annapolis Office of Environmental Policy received a $15,000 grant award through the Chesapeake Bay Trust to produce a conceptual plan that incorporates green infrastructure practices into historic downtown Annapolis.  This area of the City lacks sufficient treatment of stormwater that flows directly into Spa Creek, and suffers from the urban heat island effect in the summer due to the lack of green space and trees. The City has hired local landscape architecture firm Campion Hruby to produce a conceptual plan.  Public input will be incorporated into the plan through three public meetings. The first meeting will provide information about green infrastructure, how it is used and details of the problem this project seeks to resolve. It is scheduled for January 10th, 2019 from 6 pm to 8 pm and will include a Q&A session following the presentation.