City Council to Form Middle School Task Force

It's not often that a community gets to brainstorm ideas for new uses of a historic building. But that's exactly what the Greenbelt City Council is hoping to do.

With the official groundbreaking of the new Greenbelt Middle School set to happen on Sept. 27 and construction starting soon, the city council is working to form a task force to generate ideas for the existing school building.

City Clerk Cindy Murray said the task force will be similar to one formed in the 1990s, which helped to convert the old Greenbelt elementary school into the community center. The council has a draft of the resolution for the task force that will get a second reading at the Sept. 13 council meeting.

The task force will have 15 members, including one person from each of the city's advisory committees as well as citizen members.

Councilwoman Silke Pope said the committee would try to come up with good suggestions for the building's historic sections. 

"It's a good idea to have people get together and brainstorm," she said.

But ultimately, it will be up to Prince George's County, which owns the property.

"We hope we can work on this together," Pope said. "We just want to make sure we are proactive."

Already, community members have shared ideas, and the possibilities are endless, she said.

"I think that's why we need a task force, to come up with substantial ideas," Pope said, adding that she thinks it would be nice if the building could be repurposed for community use.

Community members interested in applying for the task force can contact Murray for an application or download the application online from the Greenbelt City website.

"We have been advertising for two weeks," Murray said in late August, "but I haven't received any applications yet."