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ANYTHING BUT ORDINARY ‘Ordinary Days’ follows lives of four New Yorkers A-11
The Gazette DAMASCUS | CLARKSBURG
DAILY UPDATES ONLINE www.gazette.net
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
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Damascus firm takes carousel out for a spin
Flags fly in Damascus
Company tasked with job of moving it to new Gaithersburg home
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BY KRISTA BRICK STAFF WRITER
Kenny Miller has always like carousels — the mechanics of them. But he’ll skip the ride. The spinning makes him sick. So when his company K.W. Miller Inc. of Damascus got the chance to move a 36foot classic carousel from Selbyville, Del., to its new home in Rio Washingtonian Center in Gaithersburg he leaped at the chance. “When we first got a look at it, we were overwhelmed, but once we started it was like putting together a Lego set,” Miller said of the job. The Peterson Cos., who purchased the carousel, hired Miller’s company to the shopping center Peterson owns in Gaithersburg. The two companies have worked together before. Peterson hired Miller Inc.
Members of the Damascus American Legion, Post 171, spent Saturday morning placing flags on the graves of veterans buried in local cemeteries. Above, Robert Mullinix posts flags at grave sites. At right, post member Sandy Seipp helps Kevin Mook, 2nd vice commander, gather flags to post. PHOTOS BY BRIAN LEWIS/FOR THE GAZETTE
to move the Awakening statue from Hains Point in D.C. to its new location at National Harbor in February 2008. K.W. Miller is an excavating company that has expanded into what Miller says is more like “a jack of all trades.” “We enjoy a challenge,” Miller said. The team of 10 dismantled the carousel and loaded the pieces onto a 53-foot box trailer, an 18-foot box truck, a 12-foot truck and two trailers. Sue Miller, vice president of the company and Kenny Miller’s wife, said the planning took two months, disassembling took a couple days. Putting the carousel back together once it was on site in Gaithersburg took three days, but site work took more than a month. The work was bittersweet as company patriarch Kenny Miller Sr., who founded the company in 1970, died in March. “It was hard doing it without him here. He was so ex-
See CAROUSEL, Page A-8
Legion marks the graves of 580 veterans BY
VIRGINIA TERHUNE STAFF WRITER
For years, members of American Legion Post 171 in Damascus used hand-drawn plot maps of local cemeteries to find the graves of veterans and mark them with flags on Memorial Day. But as time went on, members suggested it was time to modernize the method. “People kept telling me it should be on computer,” said John Seipp, 89, who enlisted the help of his daughter Sandy Seipp, who lives with him in Damascus. Sandy Seipp made use of SmartDraw
software to make diagrams of the veterans’ graves in each cemetery that can be easily updated on her computer. The post used her maps on Saturday when nearly 30 volunteers placed 580 American flags on graves in 20 cemeteries in Damascus, Clarksburg, Purdum, and Hyattstown. The largest group of veterans’ graves – 92 of them – are in the Damascus United Methodist church cemetery and chapel in Damascus. Post members also held a Memorial Day service at the post on Sunday and picked up the flags on Tuesday for use again next year.
Born in Carroll County, John Seipp served in the Army in the Pacific during World War II. “We took the Philippines back,” he said. After post member Gerald Duvall died in 2004, he assumed the coordination of the annual flag project with his daughter’s help. Seipp reads the obituaries in the local paper every day to check for veterans that have died in the area, and other members also keep an eye out for similar news in other papers. Volunteers then find where in each cem-
See LEGION, Page A-9
DAN GROSS/THE GAZETTE
From left, Michael Ray of Damascus, Gene Covell of Westminister and Kenneth Miller of Damascus, owner of K.W. Miller, Inc., put the finishing touches on the installation of a carousel they disassembled in Delaware and reasembled at the Rio Washingtonian Center in Gaithersburg on Friday.
County adding security, Latino Damascus family faces charges services at Rockville, Boyds jails over underage drinking party n
Additions will help make up for cuts during the recession BY
SARAH SCULLY STAFF WRITER
Five new hires included in the county’s newly approved 2015 budget will bolster security at Montgomery County’s two jails in Boyds and Rockville, address the growing issue of mental health among offenders, and improve accounting, record keeping and processing.
NEWS
STUDENTS’ ROBOTS GO TO BATTLE Northwest High’s Jagbotics team learns life lessons while having fun.
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The county Department of Correction and Rehabilitation’s budget increased by 6.8 percent, in the 2015 budget, mostly to cover standard pay and benefit increases, according to Department of Correction and Rehabilitation Director Arthur Wallenstein. About $340,000 will go to the new hires. Two officers will be hired for perimeter security at the Boyds jail at 22880 Whelan Lane, Wallenstein said. “We lost our evening and night perimeter
See JAILS, Page A-9
Family’s attorney says there was no probable cause
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BY
STAFF WRITER
The case against a Damascus family accused of assaulting police officers breaking up an underage-drinking party has moved from District Court to
SPORTS
DRIVING TO THE HOOP St. Andrew’s hopes to increase exposure by launching boys basketball summer league.
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RECYCLE
Circuit Court. The Montgomery County state’s attorney’s office on May 19 charged parents George Magas, 55, and Cathy Magas, 46, and their sons Nicholas Magas, 21, and Eric Magas, 19, with furnishing alcohol to minors, obstruction and assaulting police. George Magas also has been charged with trying to disarm a police officer, according to court records accessed online.
That charge, a felony, is a common law offense. A sentence for such an offense is up to a judge’s discretion. The Magases previously faced similar charges connected to a January drinking party and multiple fights at their home in Damascus. Some of the original charges have been dropped.
See PARTY, Page A-9
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