The city of Hyattsville celebrated native son Jim Henson at Driskell Park this weekend.

After a Friday night sing-along to “The Muppet Movie,” the city hosted an event on Saturday afternoon at the Jim Henson Courtyard.

After performances by a jazz band, steel drum and dance group from Northwestern High, where Henson graduated, an all-ages youth choir sang “The Rainbow Connection.” Several tables were set up where young kids could make their own puppets.

Henson’s daughter, Heather, also spoke, saying that the Route 1 corridor — including his time in Hyattsville and University Park and meeting his wife, Jane, at the University of Maryland — shaped his life and his art.

The courtyard, which features sculptural planters by artist William C. Culbertson of some of Henson’s most famous puppets, is one of three memorials to Henson along the Route 1 corridor.

The city isn’t alone in celebrating Henson. The Maryland Center for History and Culture in Baltimore is hosting an exhibition about Henson’s work, including puppets, sketches, storyboards, costumes and film and TV clips from May 26 to Dec. 30.

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The city of Hyattsville is fighting invasive plants by renting goats to eat them.

Using a grant from Prince George’s County and the Chesapeake Bay Trust, the city hired a herd of herbivores from Browsing Green Goats to clear out invasive vines that stunt young trees and strangle mature ones as well as poison ivy.

The goats are currently in a penned-in area just off the Northwest Branch Trail on the back side of Driskell Park.

The public has been invited to come watch the goats do their job, although they are not allowed to touch the goats and the pop-up fence is electrified. The goats will be finished with their work by the weekend, though the city will bring them back in the fall.

A more environmentally friendly option than traditional herbicides, hiring goats is also cheaper than paying gardeners to manually remove vines. The Historic Congressional Cemetery in Washington uses goats to keep its grassy areas clear of invasive plants.

They have also become popular among transportation departments that need to maintain grassy medians and land management agencies looking to cut down on invasive plants like cheatgrass that can lead to more wildfires.

As an added bonus, the goats leave behind fertilizer that helps the native plants grow.

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A new neighborhood grocery store has opened along Rhode Island Avenue in the Woodridge area just south of Mount Rainier giving residents along Route 1 another option to grab grocery essentials.

Aurora Market, which also has a location in Columbia Heights, opened last weekend at 2006 Rhode Island Ave. NE in the former home of Good Food Markets.

Owners Rahel Kassa and her husband Pablo Ortiz, who live nearby, told the Hyattsville Wire that they saw a market opening when Good Food Markets left.

For now, the store has a selection of organic groceries and a deli section where they make fresh sandwiches including tomato pesto avocado and turkey club. They plan to add coffee and breakfast options soon.

Its Columbia Heights store also functions something like a community center, with some items for sale from local artists and local producers.

Kassa said that they aim to have “affordable, healthy options” and are taking customer requests for things to stock.

“If people want other items, we will have it,” she said.

For now, the store is open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily, but Kassa said the hours may change based on what customers want.

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College Park’s Fazlul Kabir is the first Muslim mayor elected anywhere in Maryland.

A member of the City Council, Kabir won a special election over the weekend to fill out the term of former Mayor Patrick Wojahn, who stepped down in March prior to being charged with possessing and distributing child pornography.

He handily defeated three other candidates, Council Member Kate Kennedy, Mayor Pro Tem Denise Mitchell, and Bryan Haddad, campaigning on issues like helping small businesses and improving police relations.

Kabir grew up in Bangladesh and lived in the United Kingdom and Canada before moving to College Park 20 years ago, where he previously worked as an adjunct professor teaching cybersecurity at the University of Maryland.

He’s served on the city council for the last 12 years, where he’s led efforts like creating the Hollywood Farmers Market.

He will be sworn in on Tuesday and serve until November’s regularly scheduled elections.

Kabir is the latest milestone for the Route 1 corridor, where voters have elected some of the state’s first African-American, Latina, Asian and LGBTQ mayors.

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The Adelphi Pool will break ground on brand new facilities in September of 2023.

Located just off Adelphi Road at 9442 Riggs Rd., the community pool is embarking on a major renovation to rebuild its swimming pools into first-of-their-kind, state-of-the-art recreational swimming facilities in Prince George’s County.

The renovation includes expanding the pool by 1,600 square feet, replacing its main 50-meter pool, and adding a 25-meter competition size lap area to meet the needs of Adelphi’s top-ranked swim team, the Dolphins.

Adelphi’s unique metal slide will be replaced, but for thrill-seekers, the new pool will have two diving boards and a new slide. The fully-fenced baby pool will be updated and replaced, retaining a grassy play area popular with young children.

The newly designed pool area will also provide additional shallow water fun by adding a beach-entry intermediate pool. With depths up to 3 feet, the intermediate pool will provide a place for kids to play once they’ve aged out of the baby pool but aren’t ready for the big pool yet.

Adelphi will also make much-needed upgrades to accessibility, including improved Americans with Disabilities Act parking, new ramps to the pool deck, and gender-neutral, accessible changing and bathroom facilities at the pool level. Lastly, Adelphi will add stormwater management facilities to retain and filter runoff from the site, with a goal of improving water quality in its neighborhood stream, the Northwest Branch.

The private, membership-only pool was originally constructed in 1957 and pools have reached the end of their usable life. With a resurgence of new members over the last decade from neighborhoods across Prince George’s County, Montgomery County, and D.C., the pool will address longstanding issues with the structure, surfaces, and equipment.

In July 2022, the pool membership overwhelmingly approved a proposal for the renovation, which incorporated member input from a design discussion and focus groups coordinated by volunteer pool members.

With a membership of about 600 families, Adelphi Pool has typically admitted all waitlisted members who join before Memorial Day. Members joining in the 2023 season will lock in lower membership rates than those published for new members who join in 2024, after the pool is renovated.

To learn more about the pool and membership, visit www.adelphipool.org. A new and prospective members event will be held on Wednesday, May 24, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the pool.

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A house built by Hyattsville’s founder that is considered to be one of the oldest buildings still standing in the city is listed for sale.

Built by Christopher Hyatt sometime before 1873, the two-and-a-half story Colonial Revival house at 4901 40th Pl. is also called the Kuhns House after a previous owner. One previous occupant of the home was noted D.C. muralist MISS CHELOVE.

The five-bedroom, two-bath house is currently listed for sale at $795,000.

Hyatt founded the city that bears his name in 1845 after purchasing land near the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and the Washington and Baltimore Turnpike, two transportation lines that guaranteed it would be valuable land.

But the area really started to take off when the 82 Streetcar Line reached Hyattsville and Riverdale Park in 1899, and then College Park the following year.

Many of the homes in Hyattsville’s Historic District, where the Kuhns House is located, are from that era, making it a bit of a rarity. Its Colonial Revival design was also a little ahead of the time, as that architectural style was more popular in the early 20th century.

The house has been updated since then, with new wraparound porches, but many of the original touches, including a wood-burning fireplace, kitchen cabinets and exposed brick.

Another old house in Hyattsville, called Ash Hill, was built in the 1840s.

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A former sanitation worker in Bladensburg will graduate from Harvard Law School this spring and is using his story to help others in the industry.

Raised by a single father who often worked three jobs, Rehan Staton hauled trash and emptied dumpsters for Bates Trucking & Trash Removal in Bladensburg after being rejected from every college he applied to.

His coworkers convinced him to keep trying, however, and he was accepted into Bowie State University, eventually transferring to the University of Maryland.

“The other sanitation workers were the only people in my life who uplifted me and told me I could be somebody,” Staton said in a 2020 interview.

Due to financial issues, he had to keep working at Bates, often attending class in his neon-yellow uniform when he didn’t have time to change. His brother dropped out of college to work full-time to support him.

Staton graduated from the University of Maryland with a 4.0 in 2018 and was chosen as the school’s commencement speaker and two years later he was accepted into Harvard Law. After a story about his life ran in the Washington Post, the actor and producer Tyler Perry offered to pay his tuition at Harvard.

Set to graduate soon, Staton organized a fundraiser to benefit sanitation workers called the Reciprocity Effect, raising more than $70,000 so far.

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