Greenbelt News Review

09/29/2025

Council Reviews Armory Concepts

On September 15, the Greenbelt City Council met with Taylora Imes-Thomas, project manager for the AMAR Group, who presented her company’s recommendations for the city’s Armory building in response to a request for proposals from the city.

The consensus of the meeting was that the current structure should be demolished, with Imes-Thomas stating that to remediate the structure and remove hazardous materials would cost from $13-$18M. AMAR Group was asked to focus on retaining as much of the site’s current footprint as possible. She said that few trees will be removed, with there being an opportunity to plant more.

Read more here: https://www.greenbeltnewsreview.com/news-stories/council-reviews-armory-concepts-for-redevelopment-or-demolition/

09/26/2025

Some Goddard Employees to Vacate Buildings Beginning This Week

On Monday, September 22 at 2:12 p.m. a memo from Associate Center Director Raymond J. Rubilotta was sent to all Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) employees advising them that the center had been working for months on areas of transformation and now had the green light from agency leadership to move ahead in one of the areas – “building occupancy and utilization at the Greenbelt and Wallops campuses.” Moves would be initiated beginning two days from the announcement, on Wednesday, September 24, said the memo. The “transformation efforts” would “leverage” the 20-year Master Plan approved in 2019, it said. However, “unlike previous large-scale Center reconfigurations, which occurred over a number of years, all planned moves will take place over the next several months and will be completed by March 2026,” announced Rubilotta in the memo.

A civil servant who works at GSFC told the News Review they believe management at GSFC is seeking to vacate all buildings west of Goddard Road, though he says plans have intentionally not been put in writing.
Read more here: https://www.greenbeltnewsreview.com/news-stories/some-goddard-employees-to-vacate-buildings-beginning-this-week/.

09/25/2025

We loved having Ellie and Will interning with us through the summer.

We have another intern to spotlight! ⭐

Today, we are featuring Ellie Jornlin, who interned at the Greenbelt News Review over the summer!

Ellie wrote two stories a week about education, politics, community and more! Interning at a small, local paper so close to Washington, D.C., allowed her to also report on national stories. She learned some great interview techniques and how to work on tight deadlines!

09/24/2025

Ashna Balroop is a UMD journalism student writing for the Greenbelt News Review. She would appreciate your response to the question below for an article she is writing:

Greenbelt residents will decide in November whether to implement ranked choice voting — which is the process of ranking candidates in an election based on preference — in future city elections. How do you feel about ranked choice as a way of selecting candidates in Greenbelt's elections, as opposed to the current system?

Send a message to learn more

09/22/2025

Council Approves Ballot Questions, Waste Pilot, Composting, Equipment

The Greenbelt City Council met on September 8 for its first meeting following its August hiatus. During the meeting council decided to implement a Save-As-You-Throw (SAYT) pilot program and approved funds to support household food scrap collection and to purchase new equipment at the Greenbelt Aquatic & Fitness Center (GAFC). They also discussed questions that will appear on the November ballot and changes to the biennial Community Questionnaire.

Read more here: https://www.greenbeltnewsreview.com/news-stories/council-approves-ballot-questions-waste-pilot-composting-equipment/

09/19/2025

ERHS Graduate Tramell Tillman Wins Emmy Award for Severance

Eleanor Roosevelt High School (ERHS) graduate Tramell Tillman has won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his performance as Seth Milchick in the Apple TV+ series Severance (for more on Tillman and that role see our May 8 issue). Tillman makes history as the first Black man to win the award. He’s also the first openly gay man to be nominated for an Emmy in that category.

Read more here: https://www.greenbeltnewsreview.com/news-stories/erhs-graduate-tramell-tillman-wins-emmy-award-for-severance/

Photo: Tramel Tillman poses during a photocall for Mission: Impossible The Final Reckoning at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival

Credit: Gabriel Hutchinson Photography
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0

09/15/2025

Food Scrap Collection Again Extended, Open for Signups

The City of Greenbelt’s curbside food scrap collection program has been extended and new signups are now being accepted. Greenbelt households may register to participate in the program for a monthly fee of $10.

Read more here: https://www.greenbeltnewsreview.com/news-stories/food-scrap-collection-again-extended-open-for-signups/

09/14/2025

Do you love Greenbelt's "world famous" utility pole? If you have photos of stickers, signs, gatherings or other fun memories, please share them with the News Review. We like to know who is in the photo (left to right) and the photographer and approximate date. If you've spotted signs further afield, please share and tell us where. You can post on this thread or email [email protected]. Thank you!

09/13/2025

PGCPS Report Flags Payments To Absent Board Member, More

Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) Office of Integrity and Compliance (OIC) has released its first report, flagging a handful of significant findings. They include “wasteful” compensation of close to $10,000 to former school board member David Murray, who stepped down after it was discovered he was living out of state and working full-time for another school district, and the “improper” payment of over $36,000 in legal fees for former school board member and now County Councilmember Shayla Adams-Stafford.

Read more here:

Published continuously since the New Deal City of Greenbelt was founded in 1937, the News Review is delivered free to most Greenbelt residents. In 1970 we won a landmark First Amendment case in the Supreme Court.

09/11/2025

Public Works Employees Seek Charter Change for Unionization

At the start of the Monday, September 8 meeting of the Greenbelt City Council, during petitions and requests, Michael Canavan, a 39-year resident of Greenbelt and an employee of Public Works for five-and-a-half years, read a letter from Public Works employees. The letter requests a change to the city charter (section 3, paragraph 22) and city code (Chapter 13 “Labor Code”) to allow Public Works employees to collectively bargain, as city police officers are able to do.

Read more here: https://www.greenbeltnewsreview.com/news-stories/public-works-employees-seek-charter-change-for-unionization/

09/09/2025

Trump Nullifies NASA Unions; GESTA Says Its Union is Strong

Just ahead of Labor Day, President Trump took aim at NASA and a handful of other federal agencies’ unions, seeking to nullify them through Executive Order (EO). It comes at a time of mass layoffs and deferred resignations. The EO, signed August 28, represents “the largest rollback of labor protections for NASA’s employees in history,” according to the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) advocacy group NASA Needs Help. The latest move comes as the Trump administration seeks to make deep cuts to NASA, particularly the science budget, which is the primary funding source for GSFC (see the July 17 issue).

Read more here: https://www.greenbeltnewsreview.com/news-stories/trump-nullifies-nasa-unions-gesta-says-its-union-is-strong/

09/08/2025

Robert Goldberg-Strassler Named Greenbelt’s 2025 Outstanding Citizen

Outstanding Citizen Committee Chair Robert Zugby drew out the suspense as long as possible before he introduced this year’s Outstanding Citizen.

“One of the important characteristics of all our outstanding citizens is their role as exemplars for the rest of us ..."

“Welcome to my worst nightmare,” the introverted Goldberg-Strassler said when he got up to speak.

Read more here: https://www.greenbeltnewsreview.com/news-stories/robert-goldberg-strassler-named-greenbelts-2025-outstanding-citizen/