Riverdale Park approves $4.2M budget

Money allocated for new police cars, police dispatcher

Archer said he proposed the increased rate as a way to provide the council with room to consider ways of bringing more revenue to the town.

‘‘We had a fairly tight budget. So I provided the council some wiggle room to discuss,” he said, adding he is not able to vote on the budget as mayor. ‘‘But I think we’re going to get by just fine at the rate [that was set].”

Councilwoman Katherine Sharpe (Ward 2) said with all of the economic hardships Riverdale Park residents are facing, the council did not want to add to their expenses.

‘‘We felt that with gas increasing and food increasing, and property assessments increasing, the residents were stretched far enough,” she said.

The town budgeted to either lease or purchase three new police cruisers, costing the town about $24,000 per year over the next five years, Sharpe said.

‘‘About half of a cent of the money that we collect in property taxes will be used to pay for the cruisers,” she said.

The new cars will replace three older cars that have been sold.

The budgets of the town’s departments increased this year with the exception of public works as the town has opted to privatize trash collection. The privatization could potentially save the town at least $200,000 and allow it to hire the new code enforcement officer and police dispatcher without raising taxes, Sharpe said.

The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission has begun a study of ways to revitalize the central part of Kenilworth Avenue, much of which lies in Riverdale Park. In order to help with the revitalization efforts, Councilwoman Alice Ewen Walker (Ward 1) said the council chose to add a code enforcement officer to the department to help keep the town clean. The code enforcement department staff will increase from two to three, Sharpe said.

Archer also suggested adding a police dispatcher to the current staff of four dispatchers.

‘‘Right now if a dispatcher calls in sick then an officer has to take their place,” Sharpe said. ‘‘Hiring a fifth dispatcher will stop that from happening and keep all of our officers on the street.”

E-mail Maya T. Prabhu at mprabhu@gazette.net.