2022 is an election year in Takoma Park. The Nominating Caucus is scheduled for Tuesday, September 13, 2022, at 7:30 p.m. Election day is Tuesday, November 8.

This year’s election will be conducted by mail.

Requirements for Candidacy

Consider leading and serving your community by running for office. Any resident interested in running for the position of Mayor or City Councilmember must meet certain qualifications. If you are thinking about running for city office, you must be:

• a registered Maryland voter and a resident of the City of Takoma Park, Maryland;
• at least 18 years of age by the date of the election; and
• a resident of the City of Takoma Park for at least six months immediately preceding the election. If running to represent a ward as a City Councilmember, you must be a resident of the ward for at least six month immediately preceding the election.

Before soliciting any contributions or making expenditures for your campaign, register with the City Clerk. In addition to the requirements above, you will be asked to provide your name, address, date of birth, contact information, and the name of the position you seek. Candidate registration for the 2022 election begins on June 13. There is not a requirement to register before the Nominating Caucus unless you are accepting contributions, making campaign expenditures, or otherwise actively campaigning.

On the campaign finance registration form, you will also be asked to certify that you will comply with all requirements of the Takoma Park Charter and Code applicable to the election process in Takoma Park, including Chapter 5.12 Fair Election Practices and Chapter 3.04 Ethics, and that you will file all required campaign finance reports and financial disclosure requirements for candidates.

How to Get Your Name on the November City Election Ballot

Nominating Caucus on Tuesday, September 13, 7:30 p.m.

The Nominating Caucus is a meeting of Takoma Park voters to accept nominations for the office of mayor and city councilmember. Nominations of candidates for Mayor may be made on motion by any qualified voter of the City, and if such nomination is seconded by a qualified voter of the City, the person so nominated shall be considered a candidate. Nomination of each candidate for Councilmember shall be made on motion of any qualified voter of their ward, and if such nomination is seconded by a qualified voter of their ward, the person so nominated shall be considered a candidate. A candidate may nominate themselves or second their nomination. Any nominated candidate may decline a nomination during the nomination meeting. A person may only accept nomination for one office.

The name of each person nominated will be placed on the ballot for the November 8 city election unless the nominated person files a declination with the City Clerk within three days after the nomination or fails to file a timely candidate’s financial disclosure statement as required by the City of Takoma Park Public Ethics Ordinance.

Anyone with questions or who would like additional information should contact Jessie Carpenter, at jessiec@takomaparkmd.gov or 301-891-7267.

Salary and Benefits of Mayor and Councilmembers

Beginning with the City Council elected in November 2022, the mayor will receive an annual salary of $32,000. Each city councilmember will receive a salary of $24,000 per year.

Elected officials are eligible to receive health insurance benefits equivalent to those of full-time City employees. Other current benefits include the use of a City of Takoma Park smartphone for City email and phone calls during the term in office; opportunity to attend, without cost, conferences beneficial to the City through organizations such as the National League of Cities and the Maryland Municipal League (MML); and reimbursement of certain other expenses, such as travel.

This article was featured in the June 2022 Newsletter. Visit the Takoma Park Newsletter webpage to see full list of past newsletters.

Takoma Park has implemented a new program to provide credit to property owners who take measures to mitigate the amount of stormwater runoff from their property.

Beginning this year, any property owner in Takoma Park can receive a partial credit for carrying out qualifying measures to lessen the impact of stormwater—such as tree plantings, installation of rain gardens, permeable pavements, and green roofs, to name only a few. These measures help lessen the effects of excess rainfall that is not absorbed by the ground, trees, or plants.

“These measures are based on best management practice in the field of stormwater management,” says Takoma Park Public Works Director Daryl Braithwaite. “So those measures are the ones that are most effective to stormwater management. And we always want to encourage people to plant more trees.”

Stormwater picks up sediments, oils, debris, and other contaminants from streets and lawns before eventually making its way to waterways like Sligo Creek, the Anacostia River, and the Chesapeake Bay. This can cause erosion—further increasing the pollution going into local waterways—and harm fragile ecosystems.

“The city has seen some flooding certainly on New Hampshire Avenue and the Sligo Creek area,” Braithwaite said. “Given climate change, we’ll be expecting heavier storms and larger quantities of water in the future.”

The maximum credit available to property owners is a 50% reduction of the original Stormwater Utility Fee, according to the city. The new credit program comes at the request of the city council, which last year changed the stormwater utility fee rate from a flat rate of $92 per single-family property annually to a tiered rate based on a $25 fee per 500 square feet of impervious area. Impervious surfaces—like asphalt, concrete, and rooftops—allow little to no stormwater infiltration into the ground.

“The credit is brand new and it was a component the council required when we changed the fee structure last year,” Braithwaite said. “Because the change increased the costs for some property owners the council was sensitive to that.”

Commercial and institutional properties have been charged based on the amount of impervious surface on their property since the implementation of the stormwater fee decades ago.

According to Takoma Park officials, the Montgomery County Parcel Database, which has the most up-to-date impervious area analysis data available, is used to determine the impervious area square footage. The database uses information from a tri-annual LIDAR evaluation that takes aerial images of the impervious area. Residents also have the option of requesting corrections to their assessed impervious surface calculation, if they believe there is an error.

The stormwater credit application can be completed online or printed and returned via email to publicworks@takomaparkmd.gov or by mail to Public Works at 31 Oswego Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20910. The application does require submission of documentation to verify the details of the facility and the amount of impervious area treated. For the first year of the program, applications can be submitted at any time from now through the billing cycle (July 1, 2022, through June 30, 2023). The credit will be paid as a refund directly to the property owner for the eligible portion of the stormwater fee. In future years, the application must be received by April 30 in order to be considered for the following year’s billing cycle and the credit will be included as a reduction to the stormwater fee charged. The stormwater utility fee is included in the County property tax bill, listed as Takoma Special.

The credit for tree planting is a one-year credit and the credit for all other measures covers a three-year period. There is a process for recertification of previously approved credit after the three-year period that includes verification that the measure is still in good working order.

There are plenty of ways for Takoma Park residents to help lessen the damage done by stormwater, including sweeping up yard debris; using non-toxic, biodegradable, and recyclable products whenever possible; reducing the amount of paved and impervious areas; and using native ground cover, grasses, and vegetation on your property. For more information on local stormwater management, or to access the program guidance documents and application, visit takomaparkmd.gov/government/public-works/stormwater-management-program.

This article was featured in the June 2022 Newsletter. Visit the Takoma Park Newsletter webpage to see full list of past newsletters.

Flight Behavior, a novel by BarbaraKingsolver, will be discussed by the Friends Book Group on Thursday, May 19 from 7:30 to 9 p.m. in the Hydrangea Room of the Community Center.

Kingsolver’s 2012 novel about the effect of climate change in a rural Tennessee community is the second of a series of Cli-Fi books the group is reading this year. CliFi, or Climate Fiction, has been defined as “fiction… that features a changed or changing climate.” Like Sci-Fi, Cli-Fi explores realistic scenarios taken from contemporary sources and may make use of fantasy or the supernatural. Each Cli-Fi discussion includes a poem about nature or how human activity irrevocably affects the environment. Flight Behavior is paired with “The Darkling Thrush” by Thomas Hardy.

In Flight Behavior, the accidental discovery of a new winter home for the Monarch Butterfly alarms investigating scientists by indicating how much climate change impacts the existing model of Monarch migration. Kingsolver weaves this story with the impact the discovery has on Dellarobia Turnbow and her family and their small Appalachian town.

In his Guardian review of the novel, science and environment editor Robin McVie wrote it, “is an impressive work. It is complex, elliptical, and wellobserved. Dellarobia and her kin come over as solid but believable individuals, outlined with respect and balance.”

Kingsolver has won numerous honors and awards as well as being shortlisted for several literary prizes. She is perhaps best known for her novel, The Poisonwood Bible. In 2000, Kingsolver established the Bellwether Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, which is now administered by PEN America. If you are interested in joining the discussion and you do not receive Friends Book Group announcements, write to ftpmlbookgroup@gmail.com for details on joining.

Copies of Flight Behavior can be borrowed from the library. It is available as an e-book on both Hoopla and Freading, and as an audio book on Hoopla and on CD in the library. “The Darkling Thrush” is available online at www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44325/the-darklingthrush, or you may request a copy from ftpmlbookgroup@gmail.com.

This article was featured in the May 2022 Newsletter. Visit the Takoma Park Newsletter webpage to see full list of past newsletters.

The Recreation Department would like to highlight one of our amazing instructors, Tyronda Boone! Tyronda, lovingly known as “Ms. Ty,” is a financial literacy and money management instructor for our recreation programs. She is originally from Georgia and has a master’s degree in education and finance. She has more than 20 years of teaching experience under her belt, making her abundantly qualified to lead our finance-centered programs. In Ms. Ty’s free time, she enjoys traveling, reading, and learning more about history. She loves her community and has a goal to empower everyone with financial information that will uplift the next generation. Take a few moments to get to know Tyronda Boone.

Q: Where does your passion for financial planning and literacy come from?

A: My ancestors have been my inspiration. My parents inspired me to raise awareness about financial literacy. When I was growing up, my parents described difficult financial situations they faced in their lives due to their lack of wealth and educational opportunities. I remember my father describing how the system of tenant farming (sharecropping) was the cause for his family’s poverty.

Additionally, he did not have the luxury of being left an inheritance by his parents upon their demise. Conversely, land was passed down to Boone’s mother and siblings. These events and conversations motivated me to introduce the concept of building generational wealth to my daughter when she was four years old. I wanted her to be aware of how to use money to grow her wealth. From that desire to help my daughter, I reached out to the community and discovered more families eager to teach their children the same fiscal information. Zoey and Zander’s Guide to Success was born.

Q: Why do you think it’s important for young people to have an early understanding of how to manage their money?

A: Imagine if we did not call a person by one name until they were adults. There would be mass confusion. However, children know their names as infants. They recognize hearing their names. As they become older, they recognize their name in written form, and then they learn to write it themselves. Provided the opportunity, they typically thrived. Early exposure to any concept is vital, so teaching children about finances as early as possible is important. We do not want our young people to learn about money as adults. Learning financial literacy as children can help them avoid many fiscal mistakes.

Q: What do you hope participants will take away from your class?

A: I hope that families start talking about money. Families are a wealth of knowledge. When class is over, students ask parents if what they are purchasing is a need or a want, develop savings goals as a family, discuss ways to avoid student loans, and look for ways to use credit to build wealth. When my class is over, I hope students will look for ways to grow their wealth using the toolkit given to them in class.

Q: How do you know when you’ve had a successful class?

A: We have students who have enrolled in every class made available to them. When students tell me this class is great and parents tell me about how their spending habits have changed, I know class has been a success. Additionally, the engagement of the students lets me know they are actively learning. The challenge is to make virtual learning as fun as possible. After putting together lessons, students are typing questions in the chat and debating various fiscal schools of thought with one another. The banter that takes place in the class lets me know it was successful.

Q: What have you enjoyed the most about working with the young people of Takoma Park?

A: I love working with the students. The young people are eager to learn about how to make use of their money as adults. There are so many moments where I see their eyes light up after understanding a concept. Working with them has been a pleasure. They are committed to their future, and their enthusiasm regarding wealth gets me excited. An organization that places so much value on the financial literacy of a community is a wonderful place. I want to say thank you to Takoma Park for hosting me. You are helping me reach the masses, so many thanks to you.

This article was featured in the May 2022 Newsletter. Visit the Takoma Park Newsletter webpage to see full list of past newsletters.

Spring is here and so are our yard care activities. Noise producing activities, such as mowing and leaf blowing, can disturb neighbors. Please keep in mind that no such noise producing activity should begin before 7 a.m. on weekdays or 9 a.m. on weekends.

Also, please consider replacing your gasoline powered lawn care equipment with electric or battery powered; they produce far less noise and air pollution. Each of us can play a part in reducing noise levels and being a good neighbor:

• Monitor the volume of televisions, radios, and other sound-producing equipment, especially during nighttime. Pay particular attention to bass controls.
• Use manual tools, such as brooms and rakes, for cleaning porches, patios, and driveways. Reserve power tools like leaf blowers for large jobs that cannot be done manually.
• Consider the impact of noise from power tools in your home, garage, or outdoors.
• Check central and window air conditioning units periodically to ensure that they are operating as quietly as possible.
• Do not let dogs bark constantly.

This article was featured in the May 2022 Newsletter. Visit the Takoma Park Newsletter webpage to see full list of past newsletters.

The City’s Arts and Humanities Division has partnered with the Takoma ARTery to promote the work of local artists through a new online artist directory at takomaartery.com. The volunteer-led artist collective was organized during the COVID-19 pandemic to connect local artists and help them share their work with the public.

Artwork displays have filled storefront windows in downtown Takoma Park and at the Historic Takoma building at the Takoma Junction. The City’s Arts and Humanities Coordinator Brendan Smith also helped organize a previous grant to support the group’s start-up costs and its first art fair last summer outside the Takoma Park Community Center.

Takoma ARTery artists have reported not only sales but also a broadened sense of connection and support from other artists and residents, according to ARTery co-founder Eleanor Landstreet. “The financial and staff support from the City have helped transform the ARTery from an innovative pandemic-related arts project into a vibrant artist community, which is boosting the creative economy and small businesses run by artists,” Landstreet said.

The $1,100 grant will help pay for the creation of the artist directory that will feature artwork images, artist bios, and contact information. Artists will pay an annual fee to support the ARTery’s work and offset future expenses. Artists don’t have to be Takoma Park residents to be included in the directory and can email takomaartery@gmail.com for more information.

This article was featured in the May 2022 Newsletter. Visit the Takoma Park Newsletter webpage to see full list of past newsletters.

By Kathleen O’Toole

This will be my last column as Takoma Park Poet Laureate. I’m coming to the end of my term, and my husband John Ruthrauff and I are preparing for a move to a retirement community this spring. So, here’s a potpourri of parting reflections.

On Poetry and Solidarity 

It’s April again − National Poetry Month, and hard to believe that only one of my four as Poet Laureate was pre-pandemic. We’ve weathered a lot, and I’ve been asked to offer poetry as consolation and have encouraged writing poems as a daily practice for wrestling with it all − finding beauty and hope in a world of loss. And now, just as we seemed to be emerging cicada-like from our COVID hibernation, the onslaught of war in Ukraine.

In my 20 years here, I’ve known Takoma Park as a community in solidarity with those suffering from conflicts around the world, one that rallies in hope for a better world. I wrote a poem “Storm” in 2004, a year after the start of the Iraq War, inspired in part by the Buddhist peace flags I passed on Westmoreland and Walnut each day walking to the Metro. An excerpt seems timely: “Afternoon of March winds −//surprise cloudbursts drench the fat squirrels // in my yard. Sunshine, blowback // disheveled branches:// litter of a year of war. // …. On the corner // rows of Buddhist peace flags//raveling with each new storm.”

A Return to In-Person Poetry Readings!

Our Takoma Park Arts team kept poetry programming alive during COVID lockdowns with online readings and our sidewalk poetry contest (look for more poems under your feet soon!) Finally, after omicron-related delays, we’re looking forward to the first in-person poetry readings since February 2020 at the Community Center. Mark your calendars!

The Free Minds Book Club will be returning at 7:30 p.m. on May 12 in the auditorium. Their first reading here in 2020 of poetry created by those incarcerated in the D.C. jail and the federal prison system and presented by formerly incarcerated poet-mentors drew a large crowd and was riveting.

Then on June 2 at 7:30 p.m., we’ll host a themed reading: Poetry of Migration with Indran Amirtanayagam, Luz Stella Mejía, and Sofía Estévez, again in the Community Center auditorium.

Poetry and “Mixed Emotions”

W. H. Auden reportedly said: “Poetry might be defined as the clear expression of mixed feelings.” So, my own feelings – about leaving my post (with many plans upended by COVID), not to mention leaving this community − a mix of gratitude and sadness: delighted that on April 29, I’ll do the poetry workshop for the residents of Victory Towers that was set for March 2020, and regretful that a reading of local Ethiopian poets will have to wait for the next Poet Laureate.

As for leaving this community − our neighbors and our home here, I’m reminded of lines from poet-friend Rob Soley’s “Moving Day”: “It’s time to walk through your home//with the eyes of one who will no longer be there…no longer look at the sun as it comes in a room at a certain angle//and plays like newborn light across the kitchen floor.” Still, I’m comforted by what we’ll take with us: friendships, the spirit of Takoma Park, and spring days we continue to savor.

This article was featured in the April 2022 Newsletter. Visit the Takoma Park Newsletter webpage to see full list of past newsletters.

By Sean Gossard

On Monday, March 14, 2022 Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich signed Bill 2-22, which will reimburse incorporated cities and towns—including Takoma Park—for duplicate taxes for services like local police enforcement, crossing guards, and park and road upkeep according to agreed upon formulas.

“The codification of municipal tax duplication formulas is a long overdue request from our municipalities,” Elrich said in a statement. “This reimbursement program addresses the issue of property tax duplication since both the County and the municipality levy a property tax, but only the municipality provides that service within its jurisdiction.”

Municipalities and the County’s Chapter of the Maryland Municipal League have pushed for revisions to the tax duplication legislation going back to the 1970s and the changes in Bill 2-22 come as a major relief for city leaders. “It’s been a really longtime coming,” said Deputy City Manager Jessica Clarke, who helped negotiate with County and other municipal leaders for over six months to ensure feedback from municipalities was fairly incorporated into the bill. “It’s nice to reach an agreement with the county knowing that it’s a stable revenue source for the foreseeable future.”

Previously, the City would need to renegotiate the reimbursement every year with plenty of time-consuming back and forth between City and county officials. While the county would occasionally reimburse the municipalities for services, the total amounts would need to be renegotiated every year. “Every year we weren’t sure when the county would give us the money and weren’t sure what the amount would be,” Clarke said. “It felt like a political process each time. Now it’s all
in the code.”

Bill 2-22 formalizes that Montgomery County owes a certain amount every year for certain services, which is an incredibly significant step, according to former Takoma Park City Manager Suzanne Ludlow, who had been pushing the passage of the legislation since the late 1990s.

“There’s been two issues,” Ludlow said. “One is that the county never liked paying the money and wanted to spend that money somewhere else, and two, the county didn’t really see it as an amount that was owed. How much of that and how much they owed was a topic of conversation every year. There had been formulas years ago from the economic crash from 2008 to 2012 and trying to get that back has been a particular challenge.”

Over the years, the amount the county would reimburse had remained stagnant and had not kept up with inflation or the growing budget of the city’s police force. “The bill that just passed also codifies quadrennial reassessments, so the fact that we now have a formal codified process for tax duplication and a timeline for when reimbursement activities need to happen each year is a significant improvement to the ad hoc processes of the past,” Clarke said.

In all, the bill will double the County’s reimbursement for municipally delivered services from $10.1 million for Fiscal Year 2022 to $20.5 million with an 80 percent phase-in for Fiscal Year 2023, a 90 percent phase-in for Fiscal Year 2024, and a total phase-in for Fiscal Year 2025.

“The phase-in was a compromise we had to make to reach agreement with the County,” Clarke said. “After Fiscal Year 2025, reimbursements must be increased [based on] the annual Consumer Price Index percentage change for the D.C. Metro area.”

Takoma Park itself is expecting to see reimbursements of around $5.3 million for Fiscal Year 2022, with increases over the next few years. That includes a guaranteed minimum of $4,020,521 for the city’s police department. The money goes directly to the City’s General Fund.

It has truly been an effort on multiple fronts, including other municipalities in Montgomery County like Chevy Chase, Gaithersburg, and Rockville, along with plenty of Takoma Park employees and leaders. “I appreciate that over time we’ve really made progress formalizing this process with the municipalities. That’s the hugest step; it’s really phenomenal,” Ludlow said. “The pressure on the county has been consistently coming from the mayors of Takoma Park—including Bruce Williams and Kate Stewart—keeping pressure on the elected officials as something that needs to get done.”

This article was featured in the April 2022 Newsletter. Visit the Takoma Park Newsletter webpage to see full list of past newsletters.

By Tim Rahn

The Story of Lucy Gault, a novella by William Trevor, will be discussed by the Friends Book Group on Thursday, March 24 at 7:30 p.m. in the Hydrangea Room of the Community Center.

The Story of Lucy Gault begins in 1921 when the Irish revolution that led to the founding of the Irish Republic rages in the countryside. After a young man is shot by the father of an Anglo-Irish family, the parents decide they must leave Ireland to avoid more confrontation.

As they prepare to leave, Lucy, their young daughter and only child, runs away, determined to stay at the idyllic family home. When she cannot be found, she is presumed dead, and her parents leave to wander Europe. For the next seven decades, Lucy’s life plays out against feelings of remorse and guilt. Tim Adams, in his 2002 Observer review of the novel, wrote that Trevor “is the modern master of the life never quite lived, his fiction ever aware of the spaces between his characters, the silence that always threatens them.”

Trevor was a celebrated short-story writer. The Story of Lucy Gault, which was published in 2002, was short-listed for the Booker Prize. Copies of The Story of Lucy Gault are available to borrow from the library, and as an audiobook from Hoopla, the library’s digital streaming service.

This article was featured in the March 2022 Newsletter. Visit the Takoma Park Newsletter webpage to see full list of past newsletters.

Keep an eye out for new parking meters on Carroll Ave! Three new parking meters will be installed in front of 6940 Carroll Ave, across from CVS, where previously there were none. The installation will occur as soon as ordered materials arrive. The new meters will help turnover parking spots more frequently in support of nearby businesses.

This article was featured in the March 2022 Newsletter. Visit the Takoma Park Newsletter webpage to see full list of past newsletters.