Landover Hills seeks progress on center

Residents say facility could offer activities for people of all ages

The proposal is drawing interest from Dels. Jolene Ivey (D-Dist. 47) and Victor R. Ramirez (D-Dist. 47), both of Cheverly, although neither could be reached for comment.

Coalition members include Landover Hills Mayor Lee P. Walker, the Town Council and individuals representing the Bellmead Citizens Association, Glenridge Citizens Association, Radiant Valley Citizens Association and Woodlawn Citizens Association.

The Landover Hills Community and Learning Coalition earned nonprofit status in May, meaning it is authorized to ask other organizations and local businesses to donate money for a planning study or future construction.

Mamie Small, secretary of the Radiant Valley Citizens Association, said there has been talk of having a community and learning center to serve her neighborhood and others nearby such as Glenridge, Woodlawn and Bellmead for more than six years. Residents hope the center would offer activities for people of all ages.

Among the suggestions is to attach a community center to an existing school, as Columbia Park Community Center is attached to Columbia Park Elementary School in Landover. Both Small and Walker said Landover Hills’ Cooper Lane Elementary School was considered as a site but deemed too small to allow for building a new center.

‘‘We want an independent center,” Small said. ‘‘We want something not attached to anything. Something for the senior citizens, something for the children and something that everyone in the community can enjoy.”

Walker said Park and Planning officials are conducting a study to determine the need for a center. Chuck Montrie, Park and Planning supervisor with the county’s Department of Parks and Recreation, said a study should be completed by Oct. 15 and made available for public review.

‘‘It will be a report showing where the surrounding recreation facilities are,” Montrie said. ‘‘It will deal with population. It will deal with where potential facilities will be located, what land we own, what land the Board of Education owns.”

Montrie said many small communities would like centers like the ones Small and Walker dream of and said they are ‘‘great additions to the neighborhood.”

‘‘We’re constantly getting requests to put community centers in different parts of the county, and we usually build a couple every year,” Montrie said. ‘‘Obviously we can’t get to everybody as quick as they like.”

Small said she would like to see a center that offers after-school care, computer labs for children and an area for senior residents to exercise.

Small said Landover’s Sports and Learning Complex is too far away for residents in her community, and there are no other alternatives within walking distance. The closest Park and Planning community center is the Bladensburg Community Center, which is about two-and-a-half miles away.

Small added that Park and Planning had to take down basketball posts from a court on Warner Avenue because of complaints of gunshots and drug activity.

‘‘[Youth] have nothing, absolutely nothing to do,” Small said.

E-mail Natalie McGill at nmcgill@gazette.net.