Week In Review

It was a wild week in Hyattsville news-wise and we don’t want you to miss even a bit of it. So here are the highlights from our reporting.

After a weekend of fires around Prince George’s County, Monday brought a National Weather Service Winter Weather Advisory for Tuesday. A mix of precipitation types was expected overnight with 2 to 5 inches of snowfall possible. Instead, we got a dusting of the white stuff, but schools were closed.

Sonia Dasgupta, editor of the Riverdale Park-University Park Patch helped readers sort out what constitutes a weather emergency great enough to cancel school. Lynn McCawley, a spokeswoman with the county's public schools, said that the county school system monitors storms days before they are predicted to arrive and in some cases start making decisions as late as 3:30 a.m. of the day in question.

Firefighter George Flanagan’s conduct during a fire on the morning of Feb. 26, 2010 at an apartment on Toledo Place earned him the Veterans of Foreign Wars’ Emergency Technician of the Year Award at the local, state, and national levels. The association will present Flanagan this triple honor at an award ceremony in Aberdeen on March 27, making him the first ever Prince George’s County firefighter to win this award at the national level. Flanagan saved a young girl from a blazing building.

On Wednesday Patch brought news that a Kansas church known for its vehement anti-homosexual stance and for picketing the funerals of fallen soldiers is targeting for a protest next week. A small cohort from the Westboro Baptist Church is planning to demonstrate outside Northwestern on Tuesday to voice objections over what it describes as a "pervert-run" school. The church did not cite a specific issue with Northwestern but said teachers across the country have "broken the moral compass of this generation.

Traffic was a priority for the Hyattsville City Council on Monday when they unanimously voted to introduce an ordinance, which would establish school zones and authorize speed cameras. If passed, the ordinance would also lift access restrictions on Queensbury Road to relieve the traffic burden on other city roads.

Speaking of the Hyattsville City Council, Councilman Marc Tartaro (Ward 1) announced that he will run for mayor this year.  It is Tartaro's hope that under his leadership the council can move away from solutions where there are winners and losers to one with win-win solutions, where all participants feel positive about the outcome.

On Saturday, writer Tahira Lindsay told us the story of an oft forgotten garden at the intersection of Oliver Street and Jamestown Road. There lies a small plaque that pays tribute to an elusive man of local lore. Calvin “Mac” McClanahan was a councilman from Hyattsville's Ward 4 neighborhood around 1975, according to Communication Manager Abby Sandel. McClanahan served on the council for a couple of years, Sandel said.

Stay tuned to this coming week for articles about the Westboro Baptist Church protest outside , a tribute to , and more incarnations of our