PLANNING BOARD SUPPORT Groups tout Kensington businesswoman. A-9
The Gazette
A&E: A wingless fairy makes new friends in Imagination Stage’s “The Night Fairy.” A-11
BETHESDA | CHEVY CHASE | KENSINGTON DA I LY U P DAT E S AT G A Z E T T E . N E T
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
Festival honors service members
Sowing the scientific seeds of tomorrow
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BY VIRGINIA TERHUNE AND ELIZABETH WAIBEL STAFF WRITERS
PEGGY MCEWAN STAFF WRITER
Flanagan’s Harp & Fiddle, a restaurant and live music venue in downtown Bethesda, will host Armed Forces Appreciation Day from 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday along Cordell Avenue. The family-friendly festival, which Flanagan’s plans to become an annual event, will feature 10 live bands, Irish dancers, raffles, games, a silent auction and food. Proceeds will be donated to the Fisher House Foundation of Rockville and the Semper Fi Fund. Fisher House has served more 200,000 families since 1990 with a place for military and veterans’ families to stay at no cost while a relative is receiving medical treatment. Five of these houses are in Bethesda on the grounds of the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. The Semper Fi Fund provides immediate financial assistance and support for wounded, critically ill and injured members of all branches of the U.S. armed forces and their families. Since it was established in 2004, it has issued more than 78,000 grants, totaling more than $96 million in assistance to more than 12,300 service members and their families, according to its website. The festival will begin with the Washington, D.C., Fire Department Emerald Society Pipes and Drums marching on Cordell Avenue from Norfolk Avenue to Woodmont Avenue. Mary Ann Redmond will sing the national anthem and a color guard from
See FESTIVAL, Page A-7
PHOTOS BY TOM FEDOR/THE GAZETTE
(From left) Kael Gibson, Matthew Balbach, Ariel Mazor and Joselyn Toyoda, second-graders at Garrett Park Elementary School, plant lettuce Monday under the guidance of Debbie Boger, a GreenKids salad science coordinator from Silver Spring.
Garrett Park second-graders plant now, eat salad later BY
PEGGY MCEWAN STAFF WRITER
A salad party? For second-graders? It’s all part of the cross-curriculum Salad Science class for second-graders at Garrett Park Elementary School, as they get a nutrition boost, a lesson about planting and harvesting, and, yes, a super salad party. The program is offered in Montgomery County Public Schools by the Audubon Naturalist Society GreenKids Program. On Monday, the second-graders got started by planting lettuce, Swiss chard and spinach seeds in the school’s garden. “Inside each baby seed is a plant waiting to grow,” Katrina Kugel, Audubon GreenKids instructor, told the youngsters. “We will plant the seeds today and in six weeks harvest them for a salad party.” “This goes with the curriculum,” secondgrade teacher Amy Cassagnol said. “We research nutrition and learn about the U.S. government My Plate and by harvest time we will be studying Native Americans from this area, the Wampanoag people.” My Plate is an initiative of the U.S. Department of Agriculture designed to remind con-
Lettuce and Swiss chard seeds are visible in a magnifier. sumers about healthful food choices. For most of the students in Cassagnol’s class, Monday’s lesson in planting food was a first — as was the idea of a salad party. Gabriel Guadalupe, 7, said he thought it sounded like a funny idea. “Maybe there will be decorations that look like fruits and vegetables,” he said. He did say he likes vegetables and named many he liked: broccoli, carrots, lettuce and beets. The list of those he didn’t like was almost as long.
See PLANT, Page A-7
New tips in 38-year hunt for Bethesda man n
Six months after case was added to FBI fugitive list, investigators optimistic BY
DANIEL LEADERMAN STAFF WRITER
FBI
William Bradford Bishop Jr., accused of killing his wife, mother and three sons in Maryland nearly four decades ago, is on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.
Automotive Calendar Classified Entertainment Obituaries Opinion Sports
A corpse floating off the coast of Mexico. One look-alike in Cambodia, another in New York. Six months after former Bethesda resident William Bradford Bishop Jr. was put on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, investigators say they’re getting
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ONE HEARS, AND ONE DOESN’T
Bethesda woman co-writes book about growing up with a sibling who is deaf.
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a steady stream of possible sightings — about 350 so far. In fact, a couple of new leads have the potential to break the case wide open, said Special Agent Steve Vogt of the FBI’s Baltimore field office. He said he couldn’t discuss the details of those leads. The key to such a break is usually publicity, such as showing an age-progressed bust depicting what Bishop may look like now at age 78. The last sighting authorities know of was in 1976, when he purchased a pair of sneakers using a
See HUNT, Page A-7
NEWS
INDEX
Road plans in White Flint alarm groups Pedestrian friendliness of North Bethesda area is chief concern
Irish restaurant recognizes Armed Forces Appreciation Day n
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SPORTS: Bethesda-Chevy Chase soccer looks for more offense to make another state title run. B-1
Volume 3, No. 33, Two sections, 28 Pages Copyright © 2014 The Gazette Please
RECYCLE
Advocates for a high-density, pedestrian-friendly White Flint area in North Bethesda say the county’s road plans could “sabotage” that vision. According to a blog post by Friends of White Flint, the county’s most recent design for Old Georgetown Road calls for a roadway that is eight lanes wide, including turning lanes. The master plan for the area, the blog post says, envisioned five lanes of traffic with bike lanes on each side of the road and a shared-use path. The post, written by Lindsay Hoffman, the group’s executive director, is at whiteflint.org. Hoffman wrote that the county’s design is a setback that could undo years of work to implement the bike- and pedestrianfriendly environment outlined in the White Flint Sector Plan. The design prioritizes cars over other forms of transportation and will lead to fewer people walking, biking or taking transit, she wrote.
Her post urged residents to email the county with their concerns. They responded — more than 350 emails were sent. In addition, a number of other groups, including the Action Committee for Transit, Chevy Chase Land Co., Coalition for Smarter Growth and White Flint Partnership, have written to County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) with their concerns, according to the blog. Hoffman plans to meet Thursday with Ramona BellPearson, assistant chief administrator for the county, to talk about the section of Old Georgetown Road several blocks west of Rockville Pike to the intersection with Executive Boulevard. The problem, Hoffman said, is that Old Georgetown, now six lanes, already is not an easily crossed road for pedestrians. It’s a state road — Md. 187 — designed to carry through traffic. “There’s a commuter thoroughfare right through the sector,” she said. The State Highway Administration says the work on Old Georgetown will need to be done in stages as other traffic-flow improvements along Rockville Pike are made, including the extension of Hoya Street from Montrose Parkway southward.
See ROAD, Page A-7
Court will not hear challenge to new Kensington school Citizens association had sued to block building on parkland
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BY
ELIZABETH WAIBEL STAFF WRITER
The Maryland Court of Appeals has declined to hear a petition from a citizens association seeking to stop the construction of a middle school in a park in their neighborhood. The Rock Creek Hills Citizens’ Association had asked the court to block construction of a middle school in the BethesdaChevy Chase school cluster on what is now Rock Creek Hills Park in Kensington. Jim Pekar, the association’s president, wrote in a blog post that the court on Monday declined the association’s petition to hear the case. The associa-
tion’s board plans to talk with legal counsel about what other steps may be available, Pekar wrote. In 2013, a Maryland Circuit Court judge dismissed the association’s complaint seeking to block construction. This year, the Court of Special Appeals upheld the Circuit Court ruling, saying the citizens association does not have standing to challenge the decision to put a school on the park site, The Gazette reported at the time. Now that the Maryland Court of Appeals has declined to hear the association’s case, the ruling against the association will stand, Pekar wrote. According to the school system, the new middle school is expected to be completed in August 2017 and have space for 944 students. ewaibel@gazette.net