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The Gazette BETHESDA | CHEVY CHASE | KENSINGTON
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Wednesday, April 23, 2014
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Affluent, tiny Chevy Chase Village hits a big milestone n Hamlet of fewer than 2,000 holds annual meeting to talk budget, progress BY
ELIZABETH WAIBEL STAFF WRITER
Chevy Chase Village held its 100th annual meeting Monday — not that that’s a big deal or anything. Patricia S. Baptiste, chairwoman of the village Board of Managers, was quick to point out that it’s not the 100th anniversary of the village, which didn’t become an incorporated municipality until 1951. It started out as part of a development by the Chevy Chase Land Co.
Chevy Chase Circle a ‘free-for-all’ Collisions in busy intersection called a chronic problem
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BY
ELIZABETH WAIBEL STAFF WRITER
In Chevy Chase Circle, honking horns and car crashes are chronic problems. “It tends to be sort of a freefor-all when people hit it,” said John M. Fitzgerald, chief of the Chevy Chase Village Police Department. He is trying to publicize the rules for driving in the circle, which is on Connecticut Avenue on the Washington, D.C., line, to reduce the number of collisions in the circle. “Motorists either don’t understand the right of way rules, or perhaps they just don’t care,” he said. From 2007 through 2011, an average of about 28 collisions — or about one every two weeks —
PHOTOS BY BILL RYAN/THE GAZETTE
(Top): A cyclist and car travel around Chevy Chase Circle. (Above): Sergey Karpenko of Washington, D.C., crosses Chevy Chase Circle — near a smashed-in utility pole — on Monday. occurred on the Maryland side of the circle, according to Fitzgerald. That number does not include collisions on the Washington side of the circle.
Crashes happen most often when cars are trying to merge onto or off of Connecticut Avenue, Fitzgerald said. Unlike some traffic circles in the area, Chevy
Chase Circle doesn’t have any exit-only lanes. Legally, drivers in the circle can travel the entire way around the circle in any of the three lanes as many times as they want without exiting. Those entering the circle have to yield the right of way to those already driving in it. The only vehicles that have a right to exit from the circle are the ones traveling in the outside lane. “Honking horns are our morning song here, because people just don’t yield the right of way,” Fitzgerald said. At rush hour, when most drivers are taking Connecticut Avenue to or from Washington, they often assume everyone else is traveling the same way they are, Fitzgerald said. Drivers are allowed to exit the circle onto Connecticut Avenue from any of the three lanes, but those in the inside lanes should pay attention to what the cars in the outer lanes
See MILESTONE, Page A-11
Restaurants on Bethesda Row cook up specials Annual downtown event features lunches for $15, dinners for $30
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BY
ELIZABETH WAIBEL STAFF WRITER
Local foodies are in for a treat this week, as some downtown Bethesda restaurants plan to offer special dishes or deals during Bethesda Row Restaurant Week. During the annual event, which runs Monday through Sunday this year, 16 Bethesda Row restaurants are offering three-course menus for $15 during lunch and $30 during dinner. Cuisines run the gamut from traditional American fare to French, Spanish, Lebanese, Japanese and Italian.
See RESTAURANTS, Page A-11
See TRAFFIC, Page A-11
Former county employee’s tweets violated social media policy n
‘I wasn’t proselytizing on the MCFRS feed’ BY
TIFFANY ARNOLD STAFF WRITER
A former Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service spokesman violated the county policy by tweeting Bible verses and continuing to use his Twitter account in a way that appeared to be on the county’s behalf after he left the county in January. As a result, former Assistant Chief Scott Graham has been asked to change his Twitter name, @MCFirePIO, so that people won’t think he’s acting in an official county capac-
ity, according to county government spokesman Patrick Lacefield. “The things he was tweeting were in violation of the county’s social media policy,” Lacefield said. When Graham was serving as a public information officer for the county’s fire and rescue association, he routinely used the @MCFirePIO Twitter handle to interact with reporters, posting photos and public safety-related updates in 140-character bursts. Public information officers are responsible for responding to press inquiries and occasionally act as spokespeople for the departments or organizations where they work. The @MCFirePIO account had more than 1,800 followers and more than 880
tweets, including at least 20 churchrelated posts — Bible verses, links to church sermons, and quotes from ministers — tweeted during and after his time as a county public information officer. The county’s policy prohibits official social media account administrators from broadcasting personal beliefs and states that content posted to these sites “must be consistent with the mission of county government and the mission of the department on whose behalf the post is made,” according to a copy of the policy obtained by The Gazette. Graham contends that he didn’t do anything wrong. “This is a First Amendment thing,”
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Germantown girl who spent the first two months of her life in a neonatal intensive-care unit named ambassador for March of Dimes.
County athletes work to earn qualifying spots at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia.
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Graham said. Graham served MCFRS for more than 25 years and was described by colleagues as a “great guy” with a “distinguished career.” Graham helped craft what became the Emergency Medical Transportation Insurance Reimbursement Act, which charges insurers for emergency medical transport. He’s a volunteer firefighter in the Upcounty. Graham said that he created the @ MCFirePIO feed as a personal account because he saw the need for one and said he didn’t think it was in appropriate to use a personal account for county business. “It’s not a county account and it never has been,” Graham said.
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Since Graham left the county on Jan. 31, at least three tweets related to weather and traffic incidents were posted to the account. “A lot of people I work with have to travel those roads and nobody else had put anything out,” Graham said. Graham said he didn’t think choosing “@MCFirePIO” as a name for his private account would lead people to think it were official. The bio on the account, whose first tweet was posted in 2011, now states that he is a retired from MCFRS and works for Holy Cross Hospital. The photo on the account depicts him in what appeared to be an MCFRS uniform.
See TWEETS, Page A-11
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