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The Gazette DAMASCUS | CLARKSBURG
DAILY UPDATES ONLINE www.gazette.net
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
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Council leaning toward transit instead of M-83
Student school board member elected
Transportation issue factor in upcoming election n
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‘Student advocacy is my passion’ says Clarksburg’s Dahlia Huh
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STAFF WRITER
LINDSAY A. POWERS STAFF WRITER
Dahlia Huh can wield a tennis racket and rock a piano, but said she found where she belongs — student advocacy. The Clarksburg High School junior learned on April 30 that she will soon take that interest to a new stage as part of the Montgomery County Board of Education, starting July 1. Huh was elected on her 17th birthday by her fellow county students to be the next student member of the board, or “SMOB.” “SMOB has always really been in the back of my mind,” Huh said. “Student advocacy is my passion.” When she heard she had won the SMOB election, Huh said, “I was so surprised. I was shocked. My jaw dropped.” She ran against Calvin Yeh, a junior at Poolesville High School. She will take the reins from current SMOB Justin Kim. Huh, a junior in Clarksburg’s Advanced Placement Power Scholars program, currently holds student government positions both at her school and at the county level. She is the secretary of the Montgomery County Regional Student Government Association and — for the second year — one of several vice presidents in Clarksburg High’s student government. She also is a member of the SMOB Advisory Council. Beyond the county, Huh has participated in the Maryland Association of Student Councils
See BOARD, Page A-11
VIRGINIA TERHUNE
TOM FEDOR/THE GAZETTE
Clarksburg High School’s Nick Infanti runs for third base during a game against Watkins Mill on March 22. The Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association is staging its draw for the playoffs today with games scheduled to start on Friday.
A majority of the present nine-member County Council appears to support construction of a transit system to connect Clarksburg to down county jobs and shopping instead of spending more than $350 million on an extension north of the Midcounty Highway. “I do believe our council has adapted a transit-first mentality,” said Roger Berliner (D-Dist. 1) of Bethesda on Tuesday. “When you look at the cost of M-83 [the extension], it is so significant compared to other priorities.” The county is picking up the total cost of extending a highway from Gaithersburg to Clarksburg. As of right now there is no additional planning money and no construction money in the Fiscal Year 2014 budget, pending responses from the environmental agencies. There is also associated en-
vironmental damage with proposed route, which some critics say can’t be entirely mitigated. If built as proposed the M-83 would be a 5.7-mile highway from Montgomery Village Avenue to Ridge Road east of Interstate 270. Though the final design and route has not been set, it’s been described as a fourlane road. Some Clarksburg residents take the opposite view, saying they moved to the suburban area expecting the highway to be extended north. “Our quality of life and our mobility is greatly reduced if that road doesn’t get built,” said Doug Reimel, who moved from Rockville to the east end of Clarksburg Village near Md. 27 about a year ago. “The roads around here are already gridlocked— Md. 355 out of Clarksburg, 27 is very bad, and I-270 is typically jammed,” said Reimel, who also cited commuter traffic coming south from Carroll County. Brian Donohue of Clarksburg is a member of the ap-
See TRANSIT, Page A-11
Damascus girl breaks powerlifting record n
Judo champion takes on the deadlift BY
VIRGINIA TERHUNE STAFF WRITER
Ella Anotonishek can really throw her weight around. In fact, she can lift twice her weight. Weighing in at 60 pounds, this 8-year-old from Damascus broke the current U.S. National Powerlifting Ironman record of 85 pounds for her age and weight division by lifting a barbell weighing 90 pounds on April 26 at the 2014 RAW Mary-
land State Powerlifting Championships in Westminster. With encouragement from the crowd, she went on that same day to break her own record by lifting 110 pounds. At RAW challenges competitors are not equipped with things such as knee wraps or supportive shirts. The deadlift requires lifting a weighted barbell off the floor to mid-thigh level. “It took a lot of strength,” said Antonishek, a third-grader at Woodfield Elementary School in Gaithersburg. “I felt like I might drop it, but I kept going.” The Olympic sport of judo
is her main sport, but Ella recently took a side trip into competitive power lifting and did well at it. Antonishek has been taking judo lessons for three years with the Maryland Judo Team club for children 12 and under coached by Mark Dantzler of Damascus. Judo is an Olympic sport in which opponents try to throw each other off balance using a variety of holds. The team typically trains twice a week at Fox Chapel Elementary School in Germantown. “I like judo, because it’s become very fun for me,” Anton-
ishek said. “It’s challenging to fight [an opponent] for two or three minutes.” Dantzler said he thought the powerlifting event would be a fun diversion for Antonishek and five other students who have been lifting weights as part of their strength training for judo. “I thought it would help me with my judo, and make my arms stronger,” Ella said about entering the April 26 competition. Dantzler said deadlifts help build core muscles and if done
See RECORD, Page A-11
MARK DANTZLER
Third-grader Ella Antonishek of Damascus broke a national record by lifting 90 pounds, and then broke her own record by lifting 110 pounds, in the deadlift event at a Maryland powerlifting competition in Westminster on April 26.
New townhouse owners complain to county Consumer Protection A dozen Clarksburg owners say Beazer units have defects n
BY
VIRGINIA TERHUNE STAFF WRITER
More than a dozen townhouse owners have filed complaints with the county’s Department of Consumer Protection about what they claim is shoddy workmanship in units recently built by Beazer Homes in the Arora Hills neigh-
borhood of Clarksburg. “There have been numerous warranty-type issues raised,” said Eric Friedman, director of the agency based in Rockville. “We’re working with Beazer and consumers to resolve them.” Two townhouse owners who have been particularly active about the issue invited Friedman to answer questions from neighbors dealing with similar problems at a meeting in Arora Hills on April 29.
About 70 people attended, and the half dozen who spoke cited problems with leaking front doors, cracked and poorly installed hardwood floors, ineffective caulking, appliances that didn’t work when they moved in and damaged driveways due to water runoff, as well as poorly built outside retaining walls along Sweetspire Drive. The Beazer townhouses in Arora Hills have been selling for about $350,000, according to owners. Mai Bui, who bought the top two
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floors of a stacked townhouse on Spicebush Drive, said, “Noise is my main problem.” Bui said a Beazer salesperson told her that there is layer of concrete between the upper unit and lower units designed to muffle noise. However, she said her neighbors below have complained repeatedly to her about foot traffic in her unit. “Our neighbors are constantly knocking on our door,” Bui said. “They can hear us walking and watching TV.”
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Bui said she and her husband moved from Gaithersburg to a bigger place in Clarksburg in anticipation of having children. “This has made our purchase a living nightmare,” said Bui, who filed a complaint with Friedman after the meeting. Funded by county taxpayers, the county Department of Consumer Protection has the authority to investigate
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