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DA I LY U P DAT E S AT G A Z E T T E . N E T
Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2014
25 cents
Freezing out disease
Looking to the future
Montgomery Village school takes Ice Bucket Challenge for special cause
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BY JENN DAVIS STAFF WRITER
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Montgomery Village Golf Club’s public planning process kicks off Oct. 1 BY
ounds of hooting and hollering resonated from the Montgomery Village Middle School blacktop Friday afternoon as hundreds of students excitedly prepared to watch some of their favorite administrators and teachers have freezing water dumped over their heads. More than two dozen school staff and faculty at the Watkins Mill Road school completed the Ice Bucket Challenge, but the purpose of the act extended beyond raising awareness of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). For Principal Edgar E. Malker, the challenge hits close to home. He was diagnosed with inclusion-body myositis (IBM) in 2010 and has since been living with the muscle disease. Because many of the symptoms and prediagnostic tests are similar to ALS, inclusion-body myositis is often misdiagnosed as ALS, Malker said. In an effort to raise awareness about inclusion-body myositis within the school community and address some of the noticeable changes that his body has undergone, Malker decided to take on the Ice Bucket Challenge and invite other staff members to participate in front of the entire student body. “I think rather than folks wondering what is going on, I thought it would be better that they really know my plight,” he said.
See CHALLENGE, Page A-14
VIRGINIA TERHUNE STAFF WRITER
DAN GROSS/THE GAZETTE
Edgar E. Malker, principal at Montgomery Village Middle School, took an ice bucket challenge along with nearly 30 of his staff members on Sept. 19.
The Montgomery Village Golf Club will close Nov. 30, and residents will soon have a say in what happens to the 147-acre tract of open land. County planners are hosting a public meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 1, in the Watkins Mill High School cafeteria to kick off an 18-month master plan process that could lead to zoning changes. A draft of the plan is expected to go to the Planning Board in June 2015 and to the County Council in early 2016. The Montgomery Village plan will be separate from a Gaithersburg East master plan focusing on the Snouffer School Road area that is due to start next year, said Council President Craig Rice, who represents Montgomery Village, at a community meeting on Monday. A decision about whether to extend the Mid-County Highway [M-83] from Gaithersburg to Clarksburg through
See PLANNING, Page A-14
Waiter on the Way delivers tasty food, satisfaction Schools Nearly 75 restaurants have partnered with Gaithersburg company for delivery services n
BY JENN DAVIS STAFF WRITER
They’re not doctors, but Gaithersburg entrepreneurs Bob Hamilton and Jay Twilley have been making people feel better for more than two decades with a well-timed house call. Based in Gaithersburg, Waiter on the Way coordinates restaurant food delivery and catering from local eateries to private homes, hotels and corporate events. It was started in 1989
by Hamilton and Twilley. The duo were first introduced to the business concept in the 1980s by a guest speaker in a business class taught by Twilley, who was then a teacher in Frederick County. “It turned out there was less than five companies ... I think there were two or three companies in the country already doing it, but nothing in this immediate area,” Hamilton said. Pizza parlors and Chinese restaurants were some of the only establishments that delivered at the time, Hamilton said, making it difficult for people to eat any other types of food or cuisines without traveling to the eatery. Providing spur-of-the-mo-
Thomas Yeung, who delivers food for Waiter on the Way, makes a pickup at Mama Lucia Restaurant in Rockville for delivery to King Farm.
ment delivery orders, especially for large corporate clients, was also a service that was lacking, Hamilton said. With pens, paper, telephones and two-way radios, Waiter on the Way opened for business in 1989, Hamilton said. Orders were sent over the radio to drivers and called in to participating restaurants, which numbered eight when the business began. In the beginning, the business received about 15 orders daily. Twenty-five years later, Waiter on the Way is thriving and growing. “We’ve had steady growth for most of the time,” Hamilton said of the business, which is at 16035
Police commander says special team making a difference BY
VIRGINIA TERHUNE STAFF WRITER
Categories of nonviolent crime are down in Montgomery Village since the
INDEX Automotive Calendar Classified Entertainment Opinion Sports
nity meeting hosted by Council President Craig Rice. The number of robberies, residential burglaries and stolen vehicles has decreased thanks to the efforts of the district’s Public Community Action Team, he said. The PCAT teams are made up of officers who are exempt from responding to dispatched calls to officers in cars.
ENTERTAINMENT B-13 A-2 B-9 B-5 A-15 B-1
BIG IN IMAGINATION Adventure Theatre MTC brings E.B. White’s “Stuart Little” to life.
B-5
1934339
Plan to use data to determine how to help students BY
LINDSAY A. POWERS STAFF WRITER
“There’s now a team in each Police Department district,” he said. That leaves the PCAT team free to focus on reported crime “hot spots” in the area and also spend more time on foot, getting to know people in the neighborhoods, Parker-Loan said. Most of the crime in Montgomery
See CRIME, Page A-14
See SCHOOLS, Page A-14
See DELIVERY, Page A-14
implementation of a special patrol, but there is one type that is increasing. “Thefts from automobiles are up 32 percent,” said Police Commander Willie Parker-Loan of the county’s 6th police district on Monday. Some drivers still leave their cars unlocked, even though they may contain purses and laptop computers, said Parker-Loan, who spoke at a commu-
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Montgomery County schools are using a new tool designed to detect signs early on that a student might need help to graduate on time. The county school board heard at its Monday meeting a presentation about the Early Warning Indicators online tool that launched in Montgomery County Public Schools this school year. The tool takes into account factors from four areas of a student’s education: attendance, behavior, coursework and mobility. Mobility refers to a student unexpectedly entering or leaving a school. Geoffrey T. Sanderson, associate superintendent of the school system’s Office of Shared Accountability, told board members that school system researchers analyzed records of students
DAN GROSS/ THE GAZETTE
Nonviolent crime down in Montgomery Village n
using new tool to catch obstacles
Volume 55, No. 38 Two sections, 32 Pages Copyright © 2014 The Gazette
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OUR CHILDREN Talking to teens about your own youthful alcohol and drug use; raising charitable children; teaching babies to talk; determining whether your child needs a tutor