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HEARTSTRING THEORY

The Gazette

Versatile performer views love on a scientific plane.

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GAITHERSBURG | MONTGOMERY VILLAGE

DAILY UPDATES ONLINE www.gazette.net

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Gaithersburg ends year with $14M surplus n

Ripple effect of state and county budget struggles will likely affect city’s finances

25 cents

Cold case has

a new lead CHIEF IDENTIFIES CONVICTED SEX OFFENDER WHO MAY HAVE HAD CONTACT WITH LYON SISTERS, MISSING SINCE 1975

Sheila (left) and Katherine Lyon of Kensington went missing 38 years ago at Wheaton Plaza.

BY JENN DAVIS STAFF WRITER

Gaithersburg wrapped up the fiscal 2013 budget year with a $14 million surplus after spending less and earning more than expected.

The city is in an excellent financial position, City Manager Tony Tomasello told the City Council and the public at the Gaithersburg’s budget forum Monday evening.

Tomasello and acting Director of Finance and Administration Tina Smith reported that the city’s expenses came in nearly $5.8 million under budget for fiscal 2013. The city collected about $7.7 million more revenue than expected.

“Clearly, we are in a remarkably strong financial position,” Tomasello said. “I don’t think I

See CITY, Page A-12

BILL RYAN/THE GAZETTE

Katie Ledecky, of Stone Ridge, laps the other swimmers in the girls 500-yard freestyle in the Washington Metropolitan Interscholastic Swimming Championships on Saturday in Germantown.

DAN GROSS/THE GAZETTE

At a news conference Tuesday in Rockville, Montgomery County Police Chief J. Thomas Manger points to a police mug shot of Lloyd Lee Welch, a person of interest in the missing persons case of the Lyon sisters from 1975. At left is Steve Vogt, a special agent with the FBI.

Ledecky breaks record at Metros

BY

‘These things don’t happen, we thought, in Montgomery County’

STAFF WRITER

Stone Ridge junior becomes first woman to swim 500-yard freestyle in less than 4 minutes 30 seconds n

BY JENNIFER BEEKMAN STAFF WRITER

The few minutes between the end of warmups and the start of a swimming championship is usually a time when swimmers focus inward, get themselves in the right frame of mind for the upcoming competition. Katie Ledecky, a junior at Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in Bethesda, spent those moments at Saturday’s Washington Metropolitan Interscholastic Swimming and Diving championships signing autographs for, and taking pictures with, young fans who approached her on the Germantown Indoor Swim center pool deck.

The 2012 Olympic gold medalist didn’t even turn away admirers that hoarded around her on occasion in between her events — ultimately Stone Ridge coach Robert Walker escorted them

ST. JOHN BARNED-SMITH

Montgomery County police are hoping to find out more about Lloyd Lee Welch, a convicted sex offender, and his possible connection to the disappearance of Sheila and Katherine Lyon almost 39 years ago from Wheaton Plaza. Police say they have confirmed he was at the mall the day the girls disappeared.

See LEDECKY, Page A-12

Police shed new light on an almost 39-year-old missing person case Tuesday when they identified a convicted sex offender they believe may have had contact with two Kensington girls the day they disappeared.

The girls, Sheila and Katherine Lyon, ages 12 and 10, walked to Wheaton Plaza, as it was known at the time, for lunch on March 25, 1975, and vanished.

At a press conference Tuesday, Montgomery County Police identified 57-year-old Lloyd Lee Welch, a convicted sex offender, and said they have confirmed he was at the mall the day the girls disappeared.

Investigators have traveled to Delaware, where Welch is serving a prison sentence for raping young girls, to talk to him, Assistant Police Chief Russell Hamill said.

Chief J. Thomas Manger declined to comment on how those interviews have gone and what police have learned in them.

Welch has served jail time for

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1975 case in which two girls disappeared shattered sense of safety n

AND

BY SARAH SCULLY ST. JOHN BARNED-SMITH STAFF WRITERS

The story of a disappearance almost 39 years ago has haunted Montgomery County, resurfacing periodically with remembrances or potential leads to a still unsolved crime. Two young girls walking a half-mile to the Wheaton Plaza were never seen again.

On March 25, 1975, the Lyon sisters went to the mall for pizza and window shopping. They vanished, shattering a sense of safety that made it common for kids to walk to the local mall

See SAFETY, Page A-12 multiple convictions of sexual offenses and raping young girls in Virginia, South Carolina and Delaware, Manger said.

He has not been charged in connection with the Lyons’ case.

“If we were able to charge

someone, we would have done it,” Manger said.

According to police, witnesses from that day told investigators they saw Welch “paying

See CASE, Page A-12

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THE GAZETTE

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Wednesday, February 12, 2014 z

PEOPLE& PLACES More online at www.gazette.net

Teen wins Hispanic Heritage award and college scholarship Andre Guzman has a strong interest in science and engineering, and after winning an award from the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, he has been given the opportunity to turn his passion into a career.

With college on the horizon, Guzman said he is looking to continue his academic studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Georgia Tech or Stanford University. Guzman said he hasn’t picked a career to pursue.

“I don’t really have a very specific idea but what I’m really interested in is robotics,” he said.

“So I’m hoping to maybe work for a company that designs robots.”

Campus congrats JENN DAVIS

The Gaithersburg teen was one of six students around the nation recognized at the Hispanic Heritage Foundation’s 15th annual National Hispanic Heritage Youth Awards. The winners were chosen for their leadership in the classroom and community. A ceremony and reception was held Jan. 30 in Miami.

As the winner in the engineering and mathematics category, Guzman, 18, won a $3,000 scholarship from ExxonMobil to pursue a degree in computer science and electrical engineering.

“I was really excited,” he said. “It was also kind of a surprise. I really didn’t expect to win.”

A senior at Poolesville High School, Guzman is involved in several extracurricular activities. He tutors his peers through the Science National Honor Society and is captain of the school’s robotics team.

As captain, Guzman said one of his duties is to organize all of the team’s meetings.

“My most important task is to bring the team together so we can think of ideas,” he said. “I also dole out tasks to everyone so that everyone works on a different component.”

EVENTS

The American Institute of Architects Potomac Valley chapter elected Wayne W. Broadfield of Gaithersburg president-elect of its 2014 board.

Broadfield works at MV + A Architects in Washington, D.C. Scott D.Q. Knudson of Gaithersburg was elected president-elect of the American Institute of Architects Maryland board and will represent the Potomac Valley chapter. He previously was 2013 board president of the Potomac Valley chapter.

Knudson is a vice president at Weincek + Associates Architects + Planners in Gaithersburg.

Chamber to host business expo The Gaithersburg-Germantown Chamber of Commerce will present its “Grow Your Business” seminar and expo for chamber members and

PHOTO FROM ANDRE GUZMAN

Andre Guzman of Gaithersburg, recent recipient of a Hispanic Heritage Foundation National Hispanic Heritage Youth Award, works on a robot as captain of Poolesville High School’s robotics team. the community March 5.

Two guest speakers will discuss sales success strategies and digital marketing. The event will be held from 7:30 to 11:30 a.m. at the Highlands at Germantown, 20260 Goldenrod Lane.

Tickets are $60, or $40 for members. Sponsorships are available. For more information or to register, visit ggchamber.org.

Open House, 10 a.m., Shaare Torah,

1409 Main St., Gaithersburg. Free. 301869-9842.

Teen Writers’ Club, 6:15-7:45 p.m., White Oak Library, 11701 New Hampshire Ave., Silver Spring. Free. 240-7739555.

Get the Facts Home Buyer Seminar, 6:30-8:30 p.m., Village Settle-

ments, 177 Kentlands Blvd., Gaithersburg. Free. 240-731-5970.

Lincoln Day Forum, 7-9 p.m., Potomac Library, 10101 Glenolden Drive, Potomac. Free. 301-762-9115.

THURSDAY, FEB. 13 Gaithersburg Fine Arts Association Meeting, 6:30-9 p.m., Stedwick Com-

munity Center, 10401 Stedwick Road, Montgomery Village. Email gaithersburgfineartsassoc@gmail.com.

FRIDAY, FEB. 14 ersburg, 620 Perry Parkway, Gaithers-

Montgomery County, 10 a.m.-noon,

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Asbury Methodist Village, Conley Hall, Trott Building, 301 Odendhal Ave., Gaithersburg. Free. 301-948-6218.

Antique Show, 10

7th annual Montgomery County Community Home Show, 10 a.m.-6

a.m.-5 p.m., Montgomery County Fairgrounds, 16 Chestnut St., Gaithersburg, also 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Feb. 16. $6, good for both days. 301-649-1915.

15

p.m., Universities at Shady Grove Conference Center, 9630 Gudelsky Drive, Rockville, also 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Feb. 16. $5. www.midatlanticexpos.com.

Methodist Men’s Choir Concert, 2-3:30 p.m., Boyds Negro School, 19510 White Ground Road, Boyds.

Free. info@boydshistory.org.

MORE INTERACTIVE CALENDAR ITEMS AT WWW.GAZETTE.NET

Presidential Punishment Professional Wrestling, 7-9:15 p.m., Bohrer

burg. $50 per couple. 301-651-2204.

Valentines Evening in the Park, 7-9 p.m., Black Hill Visitor Center, 20926 Lake Ridge Drive, Boyds. $25. Register at www.parkpass.org.

Park Activity Center, 506 S. Frederick Ave., Gaithersburg. $15 general admission, $20 front row. 240-421-1938.

District Comedy, 8-10 p.m., Blackrock Center for the Arts, 12901 Town Commons Drive, Germantown. $15. brad@districtcomedy.com.

Tree of Life Cafe: Heartfelt Songs for Valentine’s Day, 8-11 p.m., Unitar-

ian Universalist Congregation of Rockville, 100 Welsh Park Drive, Rockville. $15 suggested donation. 301-762-7666.

MONDAY, FEB. 17

SATURDAY, FEB. 15

Hands-on Exploration Day Camp: Survival 1810, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Sandy

Spring Museum, 17901 Bentley Road,

African-American Teachers in

Walt Whitman’s Hannah Niles moves past Walter Johnson’s Kristin Scott in a Friday matchup.

Go to clicked.Gazette.net.

SPORTS Check online for coverage of the state wrestling dual meet tournament.

ConsumerWatch Where does the money go when big banks get fined millions — or billions — of dollars?

WeekendWeather

Edna Belle Burton Wilson

FRIDAY

Edna Belle Burton Wilson, formerly of Burtonsville, died Feb. 7, 2014. A funeral will take place at 11 a.m. Feb. 13 at Donaldson Funeral Home, 313 Talbott Ave., Laurel.

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Sandy Spring. $60 per child, $20 for aftercare. 301-774-0022.

Kiwanis Club of Montgomery Village, 6:15-7:30 p.m., Bowl America,

www.alldayfamilycare.com

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The Gazette – 9030 Comprint Court

African Americans in Montgomery County During the Civil War, 7-9 p.m.,

Gaithersburg, MD 20877 Main phone: 301-948-3120 Circulation: 301-670-7350

Rockville Memorial Library, 21 Maryland Ave., Rockville. Free. 301-984-3187.

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 19 Mother’s Morning Out, 9:30 a.m.-

noon, Faith Presbyterian Church, 17309 Old Baltimore Road, Olney. wellwood15@verizon.net.

CORRECTION In a Feb. 5 story, the name of the BethesdaChevy Chase hockey team’s head coach, Jonathan “JT” Burton, was misspelled.

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For more on your community, visit www.gazette.net

If you have an interesting note or photo to share about the people or an event in the community, please send it to Staff Writer Jenn Davis, The Gaithersburg Gazette, 9030 Comprint Court, Gaithersburg, MD 20877, or email to jedavis@gazette.net. Our fax number is 301-670-7183. Photos should be 1 MB or larger. Deadline is 5 p.m.

Tuesday for consideration for the following week.

All items are subject to space availabiliy.

Send items at least two weeks in advance of the paper in which you would like them to appear. Go to calendar.gazette.net and click on the submit button.

Questions? Call 301-670-2070.

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 12

Church of the Redeemer’s Sweet Heart Banquet, 7 p.m., Hilton Gaith-

Architect groups elect new board officers

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Nathaniel Belak of Gaithersburg was named to the fall semester trustees’ list at Southern Baptist University in Bolivar, Mo. Students named to the list must earn a grade point average of 3.85 to 4.0 with no grade below a C.

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THE GAZETTE

Wednesday, February 12, 2014 z

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LOCAL Wolf hybrid seen in Laytonsville n

No reports of attacks in Maryland BY

Students, staff must wait up to 10 weeks for testing

TERRI HOGAN

n

STAFF WRITER

Residents of the Golf Estates community in Laytonsville are not just crying wolf—several of them recently spotted an animal in their neighborhood thought to be a coywolf, which is a hybrid western wolf and eastern coyote.

Mike Maloney said he saw the animal run across his yard in late January. He and his wife initially thought it was a deer, but it ran up close enough for them to take a photo while they were sitting inside their truck.

“I am a hunter so I am used to seeing wild animals, but this was big,” he said. “It took off running into the woods after I yelled at it. It passed a couple of dogs and didn’t bother them, so that is good.”

Pete Godwin, a neighbor and veterinarian, said he has seen it run across the pasture behind his house, and concurs that it was big. Although he is familiar with them, this was the first time he has seen a live coywolf.

According to the website www.coywolf.org, the coywolf is most commonly called “eastern coyote.” However, recent research suggests that this animal is both genetically and morphologically intermediate to western coyotes and eastern wolves.

Even though most people refer to them in the Northeast simply as “coyotes”, the website states that their background is much more complex and recent science suggests that it is more proper to call this animal a coywolf.

The website notes that the

Confirmed case of tuberculosis at Gaithersburg’s Watkins Mill High BY

LINDSAY A. POWERS STAFF WRITER

PHOTO FROM MIKE MALONEY

This coywolf, a coyote-wolf hybrid, was spotted recently in the Golf Estates community of Laytonsville. hybridization did not occur recently; rather, the animal has always been a hybrid of two different closely related species since it colonized the northeast U.S. starting 50-70 years ago.

After looking at the photo, Pete Jayne, associate director for game management at the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, confirmed that it appears to be a coywolf, or as his organization more commonly refers to them, an eastern coyote.

“Eastern coyotes certainly carry wolf genetics,” he said.

“That happened as they moved from the Midwest to the east, south from Canada.”

He said that eastern coyotes are bigger than western coyotes, and there is color variation between animals, which is a trait typically seen in wolves.

He said they are found in every county in Maryland, but the highest population is seen in the western part of the state.

“They’re not particularly dangerous,” he said. “There have been very few reports of attacks nationally, and none in Maryland. And most of those have been a result of people putting out food so they can see them better, but we don’t recommend that.”

Jayne said people should not create an attraction for the animals—including pet food outside, accessible trash, or even bird feeders.

He said that the department no longer tracks reports of eastern coyotes, but encourages people to contact them if they see one that is acting bold or aggressive. thogan@gazette

Someone at Watkins Mill School has been sick with tuberculosis, but there is only a small chance that others at the Gaithersburg school may have been infected, according to Montgomery County health officials.

School officials would not identify the person or say if the victim is a student or a staff member.

The person is being treated and students and staff are no longer exposed to the disease, according to a Feb. 6 letter to parents from county health officer Ulder J. Tillman and Principal Scott Murphy.

Tuberculosis, a contagious bacterial disease, usually affects the lungs and also can affect the brain, kidneys and spine, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fact sheet sent to parents.

Cindy Edwards, a senior nurse administrator at the county Department of Health and Human Services, said she doesn’t anticipate the individual will have infected others at the school.

Edwards said county officials will look at the individual’s schedule and determine who at the school might have been in close enough contact in late 2013 or early 2014 to warrant testing them for infection.

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will test the individual’s family members, she said.

She said she didn’t have an estimate for how many people might need to be tested as the health department is still investigating.

Watkins Mill has about 1,425 students and 175 staff members, according to county school system spokesman Dana Tofig.

Students and staff would not catch tuberculosis just walking through the hall near the person, Edwards said.

“It does require a pretty significant exposure,” she said.

“It has to be repeated and it has to be close exposure.”

The letter to parents said there is a “very small” chance that a student has been infected and that a person would usually need to be in close contact in a small room for about eight hours with the affected individual to become infected.

County officials are recommending that “all students and staff who were in any class or after-school activity with this individual between October 2013 and January 2014” be tested, the letter said.

Students and staff won’t be able to undergo tests to detect infection for about eight to 10 weeks — until late March — because tuberculosis has a long incubation period, Edwards said.

“It’s hard to wait, but there’s science behind why there’s no need to go test this right now,” she said.

In early March, the health department will contact those who should be tested, the letter said.

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Edwards said she doesn’t think a person would show symptoms of the disease before the eight- to 10-week period is over.

Anyone exhibiting symptoms of tuberculosis — such as coughing, night sweats or a fever — should contact a doctor, she said.

“If we find kids or staff (that have tuberculosis) at eight to 10 weeks, it’s very treatable,” Edwards said.

The county health department will conduct free blood tests at the school for students at staff, she said.

Because the disease is spread through the air, she said, there’s not much the school can do.

“There’s no particular cleaning that needs to be done,” she said.

In 2012, the most recent year with available data, the entire county had 85 cases of tuberculosis, Edwards said.

Susan Young — president of the school’s parent, teacher and staff association — said “it’s not a thrilling situation,” but she thinks the school has responded well with the help of the county health department.

Young said she doesn’t know how much her son was around the affected individual and that he will get tested only if the health department indicates it is necessary.

She said the school community has remained calm.

“For the most part, I really don’t think there’s a sense of panic at all,” she said.

The Census Bureau is looking for people to try out new questionnaires.

Participants will receive a stipend of $40 1884451

THE GAZETTE

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Wednesday, February 12, 2014 z

Gaithersburg gets high marks in citizen survey n

But elected officials disappointed with response rate

BY JENN DAVIS STAFF WRITER

Nearly 85 percent of Gaithersburg residents who responded to the city’s 2013 biennial citizen survey described the city as an “excellent” or “good” place to live.

Britta Monaco, director of the city’s community and public relations department, presented the survey results to the mayor and council at a meeting Monday.

The purpose of the survey was to assess resident satisfaction with municipal services, create benchmarks of service quality ratings and identify community needs.

The National Research Council — which collected, processed and reported the data to the city — mailed surveys to 1,200 randomly selected Gaithersburg residences last fall. The city’s has about 22,000

households, according to the U.S. Census.

The survey was available in both English and Spanish.

It was divided into three community “pillars”: community characteristics, governance and participation. It was compared with municipalities across the country.

Overall, 92 percent of residents recommended the city as a place to live.

“The fact that 92% of the respondents said they would recommend Gaithersburg as a place to live tells me that we’re on the right track,” City Manager Tony Tomasello wrote in a city news release.

In general, Gaithersburg received positive results about the city’s quality of life. About 90 percent of respondents gave a high rating for safety in the neighborhood, while 81 percent positively rated K-12 education.

Seventy-eight percent gave high marks for opportunities to participate in religious/spiritual events and activities.

Out of the 1,200 surveys mailed, 186 — or 16 percent — were completed and returned. When the survey was administered in 2011 and 2009, response rates were 18 and 21 percent, respectively.

“I continue to be disappointed by the response rate,” Councilman Mike Sesma said. “My impression is that we could be proactive in gathering data and soliciting participation in the process.”

For the future, Sesma suggested that the city put up signs publicizing the survey at all city facilities and set up kiosks to encourage resident participation.

Councilwoman Cathy Drzyzgula said she thinks the response rate might have suffered because a limited group of people received it.

“If we raise up our publicity for a survey that only a small fraction of people get, I’m not sure that is the best thing because it could make most people feel left out,” she said.

She wondered if the city could pay an extra fee next time to have surveys delivered to more resi-

dences.

The city received its lowest marks for community engagement and participation. Only 33 percent of residents said they talked to or visited with neighbors, while 18 percent said they attended a local public meeting and 13 percent reported they had contacted elected city officials.

Some of those categories, including talked to or visited with neighbors, garnered a percentage lower than that of the national average.The National Research Council indicated when city responses were above or below the national average, but didn’t give actual numbers.

Mayor Sidney Katz asked if the city could increase community engagement by studying the trends of other municipalities.

“I wonder if we could contact the cities that got the higher numbers on that to see what they do,” he said. jedavis@gazette.net

And then the president said ...

In celebration of Valentine’s Day, Rep. John K. Delaney (D-Dist. 6) of Potomac on Friday brought his Hearts for Heroes program to Summit Hall Elementary School in Gaithersburg.

Delaney and students from Carol Moretz’s fourth-grade class used construction paper, ribbon, yarn, foam hearts and other materials to craft homemade valentines for local veterans and military personnel.

Sometime this week, Delaney’s staff will deliver the valentines to service members at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda.

— JENN DAVIS

Rep. John Delaney (D-Dist. 6) of Potomac, visiting Carol Moretz’s fourth-grade class at Summit Hall Elementary School in Gaithersburg for his Hearts for Heroes program on Friday, describes going to the White House to talk with President Barack Obama. .

BILL RYAN/THE GAZETTE

Montgomery Village group hopes to limit golf club redevelopment Group leaders asking residents to collect petition signatures and write to County Council n

BY JENN DAVIS STAFF WRITER

When Monument Realty first unveiled its intention to redevelop its newly purchased Montgomery Village Golf Club property at a May 2013 community meeting at Watkins Mill High School, many residents weren’t pleased.

On that spring night, Kevin Conroy and several other community members decided to take action by forming Village Citizens, a grassroots organization focused on working with Monument and the Montgomery Village Foundation to ensure that future redevelopment benefits the entire village.

“After that meeting, some neighbors and I stood out in the parking lot pretty perplexed as to what was going on ... and that was the evening we formed Village Citizens,” he said.

Since that first meeting, Monument has hosted three community workshops, and drawn up plans that would add almost 600 residential units and community amenities to the 147-acre parcel of land on Montgomery Village Avenue.

Conroy, along with others on the Village Citizens team, hosted a town hall-style meeting Wednesday to share the group’s position and plan of action regarding the redevelopment plans.

Conroy said the group doesn’t believe that adding almost 600 residential units on the golf course will dramatically improve the quality of life in the village.

Zoning laws for the golf course fall under the Montgomery Village’s Town Sector Zone, which was created in 1965. The sector zone limits development and population size by using population credits. Under current zoning laws, the village only has 238 population credits available, which roughly equates to the addition of 80 new residential units.

With Monument proposing about seven times that amount, the company will eventually seek to work with the Montgomery County Council and amend the zoning ordinance to raise the population cap.

Conroy said the group does not believe the number of population credits should be raised and will not support a zoning text amendment that would allow Monument to proceed with its proposed plans.

As a result, residents who attended and agreed with the plan were asked to help out by signing a petition to oppose any zoning text amendments to the Town Sector Zone. Residents who signed the petition were also encouraged to knock on doors of homes throughout the village and collect more signatures. The petition can also be signed online at villagecitizens. org.

Residents were also asked to send letters and emails explaining opposition to the amendment to members of the County Coun-

cil, specifically Council President Craig Rice (D-Dist. 2) of Germantown, Nancy Floreen (D-At Large) of Garrett Park and Marc Elrich (DAt Large) of Takoma Park. Rice is Montgomery Village’s district representative, and Floreen and Elrich focus on planning issues throughout the county.

Resident Terry O’Grady agreed with the group’s stance that adding population credits to the zoning plan is not the right way to go.

“If we change this town sector zone, we are opening our village to become a city,” she said. “The town sector zone is what’s protecting us as residents of the village.”

Don O’Neill, a village resident and candidate for the Montgomery Village Foundation Board of Directors, said he thought the group’s plan was lacking strength.

“I don’t think your plan is aggressive enough,” he said. “I think we’re conceding to Monument.”

O’Neill said the community should create a plan based on an old statement from Kettler Brothers Inc., the creator of Montgomery Village, that the golf course should always remain in the village.

In April 2013, the Montgomery Village Foundation appointed the Montgomery Village Golf Course Joint Property Committee to review proposed plans by the developer and make recommendations to the board.

John Driscoll, chairman of the committee, attended the meeting and said that his group has not yet been able to decide on its recommendation to the board regarding

its position on the proposed development.

Speaking from his personal viewpoint, Driscoll said more development, whether now or later, is inevitably coming to the village and the county.

“We have a window of opportunity to get what you want and what I want which is a good development in Montgomery Village,” he said. “We can kill this development.

This development can go five or 10 years. But it will be there. It’s coming, whether it’s Monument’s plan or somebody else’s.”

Monument’s team has long known about the need to seek a zoning text amendment to raise the population cap.

“Assuming Monument gets a favorable reception from the MVF Board of Directors on the proposed Concept Plan, we would expect to seek the [zoning text amendment] this spring,” Monument President Russell Hines wrote in an email to The Gazette.

The realty company bought the failing golf course for $5 million last March, though the estimated value of the site was about $1.6 million, according to state records. Former owner, Jack Doser, a professional golfer, ran the golf club for 34 years before declaring the multimilliondollar business unprofitable at Montgomery Village Foundation meetings in 2011.

Monument is currently keeping the Montgomery Village Golf Club’s 18-hole course open. jedavis@gazette.net

InBrief

Montgomery Village to hold baby bazaar sale The Montgomery Village Foundation Department of Recreation, Parks and Culture will host its 20th annual Baby Plus Bazaar sale Feb. 22.

Village residents and visitors can sell or shop for new and gently used baby items such as clothes, toys, furniture and accessories.

The bazaar will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Lake Marion Community Center, 8821 East Village Ave., Montgomery Village.

Admission for vendors selling gently used items is $40, or $30 for residents. For vendors selling new items, the cost is $45, or $40 for residents. Admission to the bazaar is free for shoppers.

For more information or to register as a vendor, call 301-948-0110.

Interfaith group hosts lectures The Greater Olney Interfaith Ministerium is hosting lectures from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays this month at New Hope Presbyterian Church, 17930 Bowie Mill Road, Derwood.

The remaining topics are topics are “Weddings” on Tuesday and “Prayer” on Feb. 25.

Panelists representing Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions will present from their perspective. Community members are invited to attend.

The Greater Olney Interfaith Ministerium comprises faith leaders from religious groups in the Olney area. It strives to promote unity among the groups that they represent by increasing understanding of, and appreciation for, their diverse traditions.

More information is at goyim.org.

Spring recreation signups underway The spring issue of the Montgomery County Guide for Recreation and Parks Programs is now available. Registration opened this week for spring programs, classes and swimming lessons.

Classes and programs include aquatics, sports, therapeutic recreation services and active adult senior programming.

Residents may register online, by mail, fax or in person at the recreation offices at 4010 Randolph Road, Silver Spring.

Print copies of the guide are available at recreation centers, park facilities, aquatic and senior centers, and public libraries. Residents can pay $5 annually and receive the guide’s four yearly editions by mail.

The guide and mail subscriptions are available online at montgomerycountymd.gov/rec.

For more information, call 240-777-6840.

Online ‘blitz’ on county’s summer camps The county’s recreation department will host a “Chattin’ It Up Summer” online conversation from 9 a.m. to noon Feb. 22. Staff will monitor the department’s Twitter and Facebook pages, and its customer service mailbox, fielding questions and comments about summer camp programs.

The “virtual outreach blitz” is designed to help families select summer camp programs, understand the registration process, set up summer payment plans and answer other questions about the department’s hundreds of programs and activities, according to a news release. The morning also will feature social media contests.

POLICE BLOTTER

Complete report at www.gazette.net The following is a summary of incidents in the Gaithersburg area to which Montgomery County police and/ or Gaithersburg City Police responded recently. The words “arrested” and “charged” do not imply guilt. This information was provided by the county and/or the city of Gaithersburg.

Armed robbery • On Jan. 27 at 9:45 p.m. in the 20400 block of Aspenwood Lane, Montgomery Village. The subjects threatened the victim with a weapon and took property.

Commercial robbery • On Jan. 24 at 1:06 p.m. at Choice Market, 18700 Walkers Choice Road, Montgomery Village. The subject threatened the victim with a weapon and took property.

Homicide • On Jan. 23 at 1:49 a.m. at 7-Eleven, 9051 Snouffer School Road, Montgomery Village.

Residential burglary • 18300 block of Quondal Court, Gaithersburg, between 6:30 and 8:15 p.m. Jan. 25. Forced entry, took property.

• 800 block of Trotters Ridge Lane, Gaithersburg, between 7:30 a.m. and 6:40 p.m. Jan. 27. Forced entry, took property.

• 400 block of Carousel Court, Gaithersburg, between 12:30 and 2:30 p.m. Jan. 27. No forced entry, took property.

• 20500 block of Highland Hall Drive, Gaithersburg, at 11:39 a.m. Jan. 28.

• 200 block of Oakton Road, Gaithersburg, at 8:06 p.m. Jan. 28. Unknown subject(s) entered the residence through a window and took property.

THE GAZETTE

Wednesday, February 12, 2014 z

Voice coach sentenced to 18 months Prosecutors needed two trials to convict Ballard of sex abuse

n

BY ST. JOHN BARNED-SMITH STAFF WRITER

A Gaithersburg voice coach will have to register as a sex offender and serve 18 months of a 25-year jail sentence after being found guilty of sexually abusing one of his former students..

On Monday, Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Michael D. Mason also ordered Timothy Ballard, 48, of Goodport Lane, to serve five years probation and to not have unsupervised contact with minors.

Ballard, who owned Ballard Vocal Studio, had originally been charged in November 2012 with child sex abuse and committing six counts of sex offense. After his first trial ended in a hung jury in April 2013, Ballard was eventually convicted of one count of child sex abuse in November 2013.

Prosecutors had asked for four to nine years of jail time for Ballard, but Michael J. McAuliffe, his attorney, asked for a lenient sentence.

“This is the exceptional case where the court should go well below the guidelines and not incarcerate this gentleman,” he argued.

The case highlighted the murky waters lawyers and prosecutors must navigate in

sex abuse cases and the challenges juries face when they have to decide whether to convict a defendant based off of little physical evidence or corroborating testimony.

Prosecutors argued that Ballard’s actions had been a “textbook case” of a sex abuser grooming his victim.

“What is exceptional to the state is the way in which Mr. Ballard is a different man to different people,” argued Montgomery County Assistant State’s Attorney Jessica Hall, noting parents still supported him. Another of his ex-students had told prosecutors that Ballard had constantly asked him about his sex life, offered to let the student use his home for sex, and given him alcohol.

In court, Mason said he had received 20 to 30 letters attesting to Ballard’s character.

Despite the accusations of sex abuse and Ballard’s ultimate conviction, parents of Ballard’s pupils showed their support at his sentencing.

One mother told Mason she would have “absolutely no problem” with Ballard teaching her child.

“We will never know and can not know whether the abuse in this case took the form of one act or multiple acts,” Mason said.

In the two trials that eventually led to Ballard’s conviction, jurors learned about a relationship between a teacher and a student that became inappropriately close. The Gazette is not naming the teen because he was the victim of

sex abuse.

In trial, however, the teen testified that he had started taking semi-private vocal lessons with Ballard in 2007, when he was 10 or 11 years old.

As he grew older, he and Ballard became friends. Ballard also became friends with his parents, and the victim would sometimes talk with Ballard about questions he had about his sexuality. At times, the boy stayed at Ballard’s home between Friday and Saturday lessons, which is where Ballard had given him alcohol and played “Truth or Dare” with him, and performed a sex act on him, he testified.

McAuliffe had claimed the allegations were the actions of an embittered, disgruntled teenager who didn’t want to take voice lessons any longer, and that several of the acts of which Ballard had been accused would have been physically impossible to perform given his bulk.

Ballard wrote a letter to the judge in advance of his sentencing, and did not speak in court.

His victim, who has graduated from high school and is attending college, was not at the hearing.

“The thing we were most concerned about was making sure this didn’t happen to someone else,” his father said, after the sentence was handed down. “I wouldn’t want this to happen to a friend of mine, but he did this to my son. He deserves what he’s getting.” sjbsmith@gazette.net

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School board passes $2.32B budget Amendments include staff positions, special education review

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BY

LINDSAY A. POWERS STAFF WRITER

In adopting a $2.32 billion operating budget for fiscal 2015, Montgomery County’s school board on Tuesday approved additional money for staff positions, cultural competency training and a review of special education programs and services.

The school board voted unanimously to pass the amended budget, which was about $34.7 million more than what Superintendent Joshua P. Starr proposed in December.

The board is sending an operating budget to the Montgomery County Council and County Executive Isiah Leggett that asks for about $91 million more than the school system received this year.

The budget also is about $51 million more than what the county is required to give under state law.

In a Feb. 11 letter to school board members, Starr said the amended budget also reflects Gov. Martin O’Malley’s state budget proposal, which provided about $217,000 less than the school system’s requested amount.

The amended budget will rely on the county to make up that shortfall.

Under O’Malley’s budget, the school system would receive about $618.8 million from the state.

Following developments

in the school system’s negotiations with its employee associations, the adopted budget also includes about $35.8 million for employee compensation not included in Starr’s original proposed budget.

When Starr proposed his initial budget, he said he aimed to address growing student enrollment, ongoing achievement gaps among student groups and changes brought on by the Common Core State Standards, among other issues.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Starr and board members said the operating budget marked another step in a larger plan to add and restore positions and other budget items.

School board President Phil Kauffman (At large) of Olney said the budget, which doesn’t include everything the board members wanted, is “very responsible.”

“Sometimes that gets a little frustrating when we say, ‘Gee, can’t we do it all at once,’” he said.

“But I think it’s reasonable to have the multi-year approach.”

School board Vice President Patricia O’Neill (District 3) of Bethesda said the budget is “a reflection of the past, the present and the future.”

“It is a multi-year phase-in of some of the things we would like to see,” she said.

The board passed amendments to the budget that included resources for two more prekindergarten classes, professional development to educate staff on how to work with students of different cultures, and three more pupil personnel workers and one more psychologist. There also will be

money for an external review of special education programs and services and for student clubs related to science, technology, engineering and math.

Speaking on the added pupil personnel workers and psychologist, Kauffman said the board heard a lot from the community about the need for increasing the number of such positions.

“This is an area where I believe we have been underfunded in the past and we need to be expanding,” Kauffman said.

School board member Shirley Brandman (At large) of Bethesda said she supported the added staff members, as well, marking an acceleration of a plan to gradually add the positions.

“We’re trying, through the acceleration, to sort of note our committment,” she said.

Board member Christopher S. Barclay voiced his support for the cultural compentency training, which he said could benefit staff members who don’t have previous experience working with certain student groups.

“We need to know our differences, not from a negative perspective but from a positive perspective so we can figure out how to attain our goals,” he said.

Barclay (District 4) of Takoma Park said the review of special education programs and services is not a look at “what’s wrong.”

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THE GAZETTE

Page A-6

CITY AND COUNTY PRESIDENTS DAY CLOSINGS Most Montgomery County offices and other operations will be closed Monday in observance of Presidents Day. The closures include county government and school offices, libraries and liquor stores. The recreation department’s aquatics programs will meet as scheduled, and aquatic facilities and community centers will be open. All other classes and programs will be canceled, and administrative offices and senior centers will be closed.

Operating schedules for county parks, including Brookside Gardens, ice rinks, tennis centers, trains and carousels, are at montgomeryparks.org.

Ride On buses will follow a modified holiday schedule, available at rideonbus.com.

Metrobus will follow its

An evening with the stars Watkins Mill High School student Michael Mattocks, 16, poses questions to guests Matthew Scott, Wilson Jermaine Heredia and Aaron Lazar during ArtSpeak! at the Gaithersburg school Friday.

Saturday schedule with supplemental service; Metrorail follows its Saturday holiday schedule. The TRiPS Commuter Stores in Silver Spring and Friendship Heights will be closed.

The transfer station will be open, but trash and recycling pickup will be postponed by one day all week, with the last pickups on Saturday.

Parking at public garages, lots and curbside meters will be free.

State offices and courts will be closed.

BILL RYAN/ THE GAZETTE

Gaithersburg

ArtSpeak! came to Watkins Mill High School on Friday, connecting Broadway stars with locals with stars in their eyes.

ArtSpeak! is a free program for students that brings performing artists, most often Broadway stars, to Washington, D.C.-area schools to raise interest in theater and the arts. ArtSpeak! events are panel discussions with question and answer sessions, and include live performances. The program is open to anyone, but is aimed at students.

Artists who came to the Gaithersburg school Friday included Aaron Lazar, who

All city facilities will be closed Monday.

Police administrative offices will keep their normal business hours. Recycling pickups will follow regular schedules.

Obituary Mr. Herbert L. Miller, 85, of Frederick, passed away on February 3, 2014 at Frederick Memroial Hospital. He was the husband of the late Martha A. Miller, and the former husband of the late Audrey L. King.

In addition to his parents and his wife, Mr. Miller was preceded in death by two brothers, John Miller and Harold Miller; three sisters, Elsy Cole, Gladys Shultz, and Goldie Wilt; and his daughter-in-law, Katherine M. Miller. He leaves behind to cherish his memory a son, Carl D. Miller; a daughter, Anna Davis; a brother, Bill Miller & wife Gloria; grandchildren, Edward R. Moyers, Lee Ann N. Sanchez, Jennifer Hillyard, Katie Miller, Matthew Miller, and Robbie Miller; great-grandchildren, Jessica Maria Hernandez and Brandon Rene Hernandez; and special friend Mary Stone. Services will be held privately at a later date.

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Nancy Loraine McCartney-Francis, PhD Nancy L. Francis, PhD, died in her home in North Potomac, Maryland, on January 24, 2014. Funeral services were held at the First Baptist Church of Gaithersburg on January 29, 2014, with the Rev. Steven Price officiating. Many praising testimonials to her productive life were shared, and the choir, composed of current as well as former members, nearly 60 strong, for whom she had been the organist, performed special music. Inurnment will be held at a later date.

Nancy Loraine McCartney was born on June 5, 1950, in Bridgeport, Nebraska, the daughter of Urlin G and Loraine A. (Phillips) McCartney. Her formative years were in Bridgeport, Alma, Michigan, Scottsbluff, Nebraska, and in Garden City, Kansas, where she graduated high school as the salutatorian. While in elementary school she received organ lessons from her cousin. She then attended the University of Kansas, in Lawrence, where on May 22, 1972, she earned a Bachelor of Arts with Honors in Microbiology.

She was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. On June 16, 1972, she married Bruce O. Francis, her high school love, in Garden City, Kansas.

They moved to Austin, Texas, where they pursued graduate degrees.

Nancy earned as Master of Arts on May 21, 1977, and a Doctor of Philosophy on May 17, 1980.

Bruce and Nancy relocated to Maryland, where Bruce was an owner of Austron Navigation, and Nancy became a post-doctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda. Her work included the demonstration of the use of the rabbit as a model for immunological research. She then became a tenured scientist and collaborated in a variety of studies, including the development of a genetically pure strain of knockout mice. She was an author of multiple scientific publications, and made presentations at national and international meetings, including Oslo, Paris and Tokyo. She is remembered as a mentor for many graduate students who studied at the NIH, including one who became a Rhodes Scholar.

Nancy was an expert pianist and organist, accompanying many performers, and playing for the First Baptist Church of Gaithersburg. Even as she became increasingly ill, she went to work three times in the week prior to her death and played for the church service two weeks before she died.

Nancy is survived by her brother, Dr. Robert (Bonnie) McCartney, of rural St. Thomas, North Dakota, nephews Dr. John (Dr. Ingrid) McCartney, Boulder, Colorado, James McCartney, Denver, Colorado; nieces Dr. Ann Marie McCartney, Portland, Oregon, Elizabeth (Walter) Cambre, Webster, Texas, Suzanne McCartney, Denver, Colorado; greatniece, Scarlett Cambre, born two days before Nancy died, a moment of joy when she heard of the birth.

She is also survived by her husband’s brothers, Frank (Dawnell) Francis, Garden City, Kansas, and Brian Francis, Tucson, Arizona.

She was preceded in death by her parents and her husband.

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credits include “Jersey Boys” and who was a member of the original cast of “Sondheim on Sondheim,” also visited.

Scott also appeared in the world premiere of the musical “Beaches” at Signature Theatre.

The evening ended with an autograph signing.

ArtSpeak! was created and continues to be produced by Shugoll Research, a Bethesda market research company, as a part of its corporate commitment to support the arts and arts education.

— KRISTA BRICK

Washington Grove train crossing closed for two weeks Emergency repairs are needed to the track bed, owner CSX says

n

BY JENN DAVIS STAFF WRITER

Ali Alibakhshi, DDS • Lenora Blathers, DDS • T. Haddad, DDS

Obituary

Memorials may be made to the Music Ministry at First Baptist Church of Gaithersburg, MD, 200 West Diamond Avenue, Gaithersburg, MD 20877, or to a charity of choice. An online Guestbook is available at www.pumpheryfuneralhome.com. Robert A Pumphery Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.

starred on Broadway in “Mamma Mia,” “A Little Night Music,” “Les Miserables,” and “The Phantom of the Opera.” His film credits include “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “J. Edgar,” and he plays the role of O’Brady Shaw on the Onion News Network.

Also at the Gaithersburg event was Wilson Jermaine Heredia, who is a Tony Award winner for originating the role of Angel in “Rent” and also starred on Broadway in “La Cage aux Folles” and appeared as Angel in the movie “Rent.”

Matthew Scott, whose Broadway

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The CSX train crossing on Railroad Street in Washington Grove was closed Friday for emergency repairs to the track bed.

Repairs are expected to take two weeks and the crossing will remain closed to vehicles for the duration of the project. There are two tracks at the crossing and they are used both by freight

and passenger trains, according to CSX spokesman Gary Sease.

Arrangements have been made to keep at least one track open throughout the project, he said.

Drivers are encouraged to use Midcounty Highway as an alternate route. The East Deer Park Bridge, which is north of the crossing, may also be an option for drivers, but there could be delays since it is a one-lane bridge.

“We apologize for the inconvenience to motorists in the area, but once complete, they will have a smooth crossing,” Sease said. jedavis@gazette.net

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Wednesday, February 12, 2014 z

Page A-7

Bill would cut smoking in Montgomery, Prince George’s public parks Delegate says secondhand smoke is hazardous, even outside n

BY

ANDREW SCHOTZ STAFF WRITER

A smoking ban on parkland in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties is being considered in Annapolis.

The proposal, in a bill filed on Friday, would require action by the Maryland General Assembly.

The ban would expand upon Montgomery’s current smoking prohibition, which applies to a variety of public places, such as government buildings, businesses and many restaurants.

Last year, county property such as bus stops, parking garages and outdoor recreation areas was included, too.

Under the new bill, the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission would have to ban smoking of tobacco products on property under its jurisdiction, starting Oct. 1.

The new bill is sponsored by both the Montgomery and Prince

George’s counties’ delegations.

Del. Benjamin F. Kramer (D-Dist. 19) of Derwood, who worked on the idea and got his colleagues’ support for it, said a ban in parks makes sense because of the health risks associated with secondhand smoke, even outside.

There’s “no safe level of exposure,” he said, noting that secondhand smoke is a class A carcinogen, or cancer-causing agent. People might not realize that, even in open air, they need to stand at least 20 feet away to escape smoke, he said.

He said two other important reasons also are driving the proposed ban.

One is litter, which often is tobacco-related, such as cigarette butts, he said.

The other is the environmental damage tobacco trash can cause by leaching into the soil and the aquifer, Kramer said.

After visiting Ridge Road Dog Park in Germantown on Friday, Dr. Michael Raboy said he agreed with the proposed parkland ban, if the health dangers Kramer cited are true.

Upcounty seniors turn to county for help n

Aging in place is no longer a cure-all

BY

SYLVIA CARIGNAN STAFF WRITER

Upcounty residents are concerned about a lack of resources and support for the elderly as Montgomery County’s senior population continues to grow.

John J. Kenney, chief of the county’s Aging and Disability Services division, said “aging in place,” or seniors living in their own homes, is no longer the “panacea” once widely prescribed.

Kenney met Monday with the Upcounty Citizens Advisory Board, which comprises 20 upcounty residents who represent different communities, including Montgomery Village, Laytonsville, Dickerson and Germantown.

According to Pazit Aviv, village coordinator with the county, senior villages generally form because of geographic proximity. The villages are generally grassroots-led communities of existing neighbors who support one another, and hold social events such as potlucks.

More than a dozen have formed in Montgomery County.

Catherine Matthews, director of the Upcounty Regional Office, expressed concern that upcounty seniors are isolated and would be left out of new villages because they are geographically separated.

Aviv said there may be an opportunity for the county to help.

“One of the reasons people had to move to assisted living is because ... there was no local initiative to improve that and create that aging-in-place situation,” she said.

Transportation is an important need for senior villages, Aviv said.

The county’s new senior transportation service, which started in January, picks up residents from their homes and takes them to and from the county’s senior centers on weekdays. But of the five participating centers, only one is upcounty: the Damascus Senior Center.

“Our seniors today are so much more vibrant, more active, more mobile, and we need to make sure we can engage them,” Matthews said.

Kenney said the demand for county-fundedrecreationalactivities,gearedtowardseniors,ishigh.

When the county recently offered a bone-building class to help fight osteoporosis, Kenney said, seniors “flooded the registration.”

“Like kids signing up for summer swim classes,” he said.

Aviv, who holds a newly funded position as village coordinator, said part of her job is to make connections and possibly change how villages are formed, if it benefits seniors around the county. Her department is conducting research, but it is not yet clear how the county plans to help upcounty seniors.

Raboy, a dentist who lives in Germantown, said he was a heavy smoker for five years, but hasn’t had a cigarette in two years. Now, he uses an electronic cigarette, which delivers nicotine but releases water vapor instead of tobacco smoke.

He doesn’t support one part of the bill that would directly affect him: The Park and Planning Commission, in its regulations, could prohibit an electronic cigarette or similar device, “whether or not the electronic device contains tobacco or nicotine,” the bill says.

Raboy called that idea foolish and wondered why government officials wouldn’t encourage something that cuts down on cigarette smoke and use.

On Jan. 30, Montgomery County’s planning board expressed support for the bill.

“It’s going to happen,” Mary

Farm bill will not cut food stamp budgets

BY

SYLVIA CARIGNAN STAFF WRITER

Food stamp recipients in Maryland will be spared from the cuts once proposed in the federal farm bill.

President Barack Obama signed the Agriculture Act of 2014 into law on Friday. The controversial law, formerly known as the farm bill, sets U.S. agricultural and food policy for the next five years.

“Marylanders won’t see additional cuts as a result of the passage of the farm bill,” Maryland Hunger Solutions spokeswoman Brooke A. McCauley said.

About 34,800 households in Montgomery County receive monthly food stamp benefits.

Those households are already dealing with smaller budgets due to a cut late last year. At the end of November, food stamp recipients across the country saw a 5 percent decrease in their budgets when a federal expansion of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, expired.

“There have been some families that have been affected significantly by that cut,” said JoAnn Barnes, deputy chief of the county’s Children, Youth

and Family Services division.

Just a few months ago, food stamp advocates worried that a draft of the Agriculture Act would deal a second blow and cut as much as $39 billion from SNAP for needy households nationwide, but the bill that became law last week does not make those changes.

Households must meet certain income requirements to be eligible for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. A single household’s gross income must be 130 percent of the federal poverty level or lower.

According to Brian Schleter, spokesman for the state Department of Human Resources, the rules for eligibility for SNAP in Maryland will not change, but state funding could. The department could see a $750,000 decrease in funding for outreach.

“This could significantly reduce our ability to identify and enroll eligible families in needed services,” he said in an email.

The Capital Area Food Bank, which serves Montgomery, Prince George’s, and Washington counties; D.C. and northern Virginia, receives funding from the Maryland Department of Human Resources. For the calendar year 2014, the organization received $18,000 in outreach funding for Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, which it matches.

Bradford, director of parks at Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, said of the ban. “It’s the wave of the future; how you get there is the issue.”

One sticking point was that park employees would not have anywhere to smoke, a right protected under collective bargaining, Bradford said.

To solve that, the bill was

aschotz@gazette.net Agnes Blum contributed to this story.

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Food stamp recipients breathe sigh of relief n

DAN GROSS/THE GAZETTE

Michael Raboy of Germantown, a dentist who used to practice in Montgomery Village, uses an electronic cigarette Friday in the Ridge Road Dog Park in Germantown.

rewritten to let the county designate certain areas within parks for employee smoking.

Amy Presley, a planning board commissioner, admitted she was trying to quit smoking.

“It’s a horrible habit,” Presley said. But without designated areas, smokers like her would be forced out of parks.

The bill also was changed so the county could exclude facilities rented out for events and certain venues, such as golf courses.

“I would support this bill the way that it is written,” said Francoise Carrier, the board’s chairwoman. “It gives us parameters.”

A hearing on the bill will be held in Annapolis on March 5.

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Customers of Washington Gas may see bills increase Hearings on the surcharge wrapped up last week n

BY

MARGIE HYSLOP

SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE

Washington Gas officials hope to persuade state regulators to approve their plan to charge customers an extra fee to pay for improvements to the utility’s old and leaking gas lines.

Washington Gas’ proposal to the Maryland Public Service Commission calls for households to pay about 29 cents more per month in the first year of a five-year plan geared to generate about $200 million in revenue for the company to use for replacing obsolete and aging lines. Four days of hearings wrapped up Friday, to be followed by legal briefs, a preliminary order from the commission by March 21 and an order detailing the commission’s decision by May 6.

In its application, Washington Gas proposes to spend $200 million in five years as part of a 22-year plan to spend $863 million on replacing 633 miles of main and 75,200 customer lines and

connections.

Washington Gas says it will target bare or unprotected steel as well as some copper, “pre1975 plastic,” cast iron and obsolete mechanical couplings that are part of its infrastructure.

Washington Gas provides service through about 449,000 active meters in Montgomery, Prince George’s, Charles, Calvert, St. Mary’s and Frederick counties and 656,000 more meters in Virginia and Washington, D.C., according to its application filed Nov. 7.

A law enacted last year authorizes the commission to let gas utilities charge a special fee to accelerate reasonable improvements in its infrastructure that would increase safety and reliability.

The law limits the surcharge to five years, and requires that any surcharge be assessed to residential and commercial customers in a ratio proportionate to each customer class’ use.

The law requires the surcharge to be capped and sets the limit at $2 per month for households. Washington Gas’ proposal calls for the surcharge to increase, based on “actual capital expenditures” over the five-year period, until the $2 cap is reached, Company Vice

President Douglas A. Staebler told the commission in testimony filed with the commission.

“We were hoping to find a way to give them a little more money [to improve their infrastructure],” said Del. Charles E. Barkley (D-Dist. 39) of Germantown.

Last month, the commission gave Baltimore Gas and Electric conditional approval to add a surcharge to its gas customers’ bills and turned down Columbia Gas of Maryland’s surcharge request, urging the company to amend it and refile.

Barkley said he thinks Washington Gas’ response in repairing its aging delivery system has been sufficient so far, but that by authorizing the commission to allow a surcharge “we hoped to get ahead of the problem.”

A Washington Gas spokesman declined to discuss why the company needs the surcharge and whether it expects its request to face challenges. “…We do not comment on pending cases,” company Vice President Eric C. Grant replied in an email.

The Apartment and Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington objects

to Washington Gas’ surcharge plan.

Bruce R. Oliver, an economist who specializes in utility rates and regulation, said in testimony filed with the service commission on behalf of the apartment and office building association wrote that Washington Gas’ surcharge application does not provide enough detail tying project work and timelines to cost recovery. Oliver also estimated that Washington Gas’ replacement plan would not keep pace with the infrastructure’s projected lifespan.

The Washington Post reported last month that a team of university researchers found nearly 5,900 gas leaks when they conducted a survey along Washington, D.C., streets.

According to the report, researchers said they found concentrations in 12 manholes that could have set the stage for explosions. They said they notified Washington Gas, but found similar concentrations at eight of those locations four months later.

Gas dispersed at other leaks and posed no direct threat, but such leaks trap heat and can contribute to climate warming, the report said.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014 z

Test data ‘part of a story’ for teacher evaluations State superintendent weighs in on new education standards

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BY

LINDSAY A. POWERS STAFF WRITER

State schools Superintendent Lillian M. Lowery said she thinks the “confusion and tension” in Maryland around the Common Core State Standards stems from how local school systems will use data from tests aligned with the standards.

Maryland schools are transitioning to the new Partnership for Assessment of Readiness of College and Careers assessment based on Common Core, a controversial set of education standards for English and math that Maryland, along with other states, chose to adopt.

The test is scheduled for full implementation next school year.

Data from the PARCC test eventually will play a role in teacher evaluations, which has drawn concern from some around the state.

Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Joshua P. Starr previously said that, while he plans to follow

DAN GROSS/THE GAZETTE

“Common Core brings back a little bit of common sense,” says Lillian M. Lowery, Maryland’s state superintendent of schools.

the law, he will guard the integrity of the county school system’s current method for evaluating teachers.

Lowery stressed that the state test data will account for only 20 percent of an evaluation.

“It is part of a story,” she said. “It’s a data point.”

The inclusion of test data in teacher evaluations creates a common factor that can be compared across schools and help districts identify best practices and know where to direct resources, she said.

The data can help ensure that two teachers teaching the same subject in different schools are held to the same rigorous standards, she said.

If a teacher doesn’t show growth in their students’ test data, he or she “would have to bomb” the other components to feel a negative effect, Lowery said.

“Teachers will be evaluated every year,” she said. “It’s just how we use the state assessment to inform that work.”

Concern also has arisen around the tests’ implementation.

The Washington Post reported Jan. 30 that 22 superintendents — out of 24 across Maryland — signed a statement expressing a need for more time to implement the new assessments along with other significant changes.

Lowery said the state has “already built in three years to get this right.”

The state won’t use the data until the 2016-17 school year for teacher evaluations, Lowery said.

Next school year, the test results will provide baseline data, she said.

After students take tests in the 2015-16 school year, she said, districts will have “a point A to point B” reference.

She said her understanding was that the statement signed by the superintendents had been an internal document, but that its release will help generate “realistic” and “open” discussions.

“We want to be fair, we want to be thoughtful, we want to be deliberative,” she said.

Kentucky recently decided to leave the consortium of states that developed the new test.

Lowery said the state always had one foot in and one foot out. “(Kentucky) stuck with what they knew,” she said.

Soon to completely replace the Maryland School Assessment, the PARCC test will monitor students’ performance under Common Core, which Lowery described as more rigorous and evidence-based.

The kids are “owning far more of their learning” and teachers are able to provide more individualized instruction under the new Common Corebased curriculum, she said.

“We take the guesswork out of student learning,” she said.

The new standards allow students the chance to exercise creativity to find the right answer, she said.

“That’s higher-order thinking,” she said. “They own that.”

Under the new standards, students also will get the prerequisites they need to better prepare them for college or a career, Lowery said.

“Common Core brings back a little bit of common sense,” she said. lpowers@gazette.net

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Wednesday, February 12, 2014 z

After Purple Line bid, records differ on French rail company’s role in Holocaust SNCF says it wasn’t paid to transport Jews, but documents show company sought money n

BY

KATE S. ALEXANDER STAFF WRITER

The affiliate of a company seeking to operate the Purple Line says it was not paid to transport Jews to concentration camps during the Holocaust, despite records that show it asked for money.

Keolis America — a U.S. affiliate of French rail company Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français, or SNCF — is part of a consortium bidding for the 35year, $6 billion public-private partnership contract to operate the Purple Line. The Purple Line is a 16-mile light rail line that would connect Bethesda and New Carrollton.

A bill in the General Assembly would require companies with direct involvement in the Holocaust or their affiliates to disclose their involvement and pay reparations to surviving victims and their families to be eligible for a public-private partnership in Maryland.

According to an online petition by Leo Bretholz, a Maryland man who survived the Holocaust, SNCF was paid per head and per kilometer during World War II to deport about 76,000 Jews and others toward Nazi death camps.

However, Jerry Ray, a

spokesman for SNCF’s American operations in Rockville, said SNCF was not paid to transport Jews. The company, he said, was “conscripted” into transporting Jews toward Nazi extermination or death camps under German occupation.

Ray declined to define what he meant by conscripted, which is a term usually meant to signify a draft, or forced service in the armed forces.

Rafi Prober, pro bono counsel to the Coalition for Holocaust Rail Justice, said in a statement provided Friday by Prism Public Affairs that SNCF is trying to “parse its role in one of the most sordid chapters in world history.”

“If this is their way of defending their monstrous behavior, it is shameful,” Prober said.

The coalition says it comprises “victims and their family members, historians, community leaders, and volunteers committed to holding SNCF accountable.”

On its website, the coalition provides a copy of a bill, in French, supposedly sent from SNCF to the French government seeking payment with interest for transportation of “interned or expelled persons” in 1944. An English translation of the bill is posted, too.

In 2006, French government Commissioner Jean-Christophe Truilhé said that evidence indicated that SNCF willingly transported Jews during the Holocaust.

In an advisory opinion in a

case over the transports before the Administrative Court of Toulouse, Truilhé said SNCF’s independence from German coercion when it came to transporting Jews toward the camps was “particularly clear,” according to an English translation posted online in a law journal.

Truilhé said the transfers, in cattle cars, were “billed to the Ministry of the Interior of the government of the so-called French State at the rate of a third-class ticket for a seat per person.”

Ray did not respond to requests to comment on the records showing his company seeking payments.

Ray said the company is analyzing whether the Maryland bill is discriminatory and designed to single out the company at the exclusion of others.

A 2011 bill related to which companies may be awarded a MARC contract was similarly drafted to apply to Keolis. That bill passed.

Del. Kirill Reznik, who filed the recent bill, said it deliberately is specific to the Holocaust.

“We want to make sure that, at least with this bill, we deal with the information we have presently,” said Reznik (D-Dist.

39) of Germantown.

As for other atrocities and the companies that might have had direct involvement, Reznik said he would look at other issues and similar legislation. kalexander@gazette.net

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Wednesday, February 12, 2014 z

Teacher accused of faking own death to avoid prosecution held without bail n

Lawrence Joynes charged with victimizing one middle-school, 14 elementary students BY

ST. JOHN BARNED-SMITH STAFF WRITER

A former Montgomery County music teacher who prosecutors said faked his own death to keep a sex-abuse victim from confronting him was held without bail Friday.

The case against Lawrence W. Joynes, 55, is complicated and broad. He is charged with abusing 14 elementary school students during about 10 years teaching at New Hampshire Estates Elementary School in Silver Spring.

Joynes taught for the county for 27 years, according to school officials.

Prosecutors also said that Joynes

engaged in an inappropriate and abusive relationship with a 15th victim — now an adult — when she was a student at Eastern Middle School in Silver Spring in the 1990’s. According to his charging documents, Joynes molested her and had sex with her over the course of three years.

All told, he faces 15 counts of sex abuse, four counts of committing a sex offense, and one count of seconddegree rape.

Montgomery County District Judge Eugene Wolfe cited the nature of the charges against Joynes, formerly of Dundalk, as a reason not to set a bail amount and keep him incarcerated.

Wolfe’s ruling came after Joynes pleaded guilty in Baltimore County Circuit Court to one count of possessing child pornography.

On Thursday, a judge there sentenced him to time served — about a year

— and ordered him to register as a sex offender, according to online court records.

The plea and sentencing in Baltimore allow prosecutors to pursue the charges against Joynes in Montgomery County.

Montgomery law enforcement officials first learned about Joynes after he was snared in a child porn investigation by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Baltimore County police.

Some of the images were of victims who appeared to be Montgomery County students, according to charging documents.

Federal and Baltimore County authorities contacted Montgomery County police, which got involved in the investigation. That led to new charges in two separate Montgomery County cases — one involving New Hampshire Estates Elementary School, the other involving Eastern Middle School.

Montgomery County police said in his charging documents they found thousands of images of child pornography on one of his computers and on other digital devices he owned.

According to the charging documents in the first Montgomery case against Joynes — which pertains to his time teaching at New Hampshire Estates Elementary School — prosecutors say Joynes abused 14 young girls. The school serves students in preschool through second grade, according to the school’s website.

According to charging documents, Joynes trained a group of his favorite students, his “lunch bunch,” to engage in sexually suggestive behavior — like sucking on his fingers or on candy — while he photographed and videotaped them.

In Montgomery County District Court in Rockville, Assistant State’s Attorney Timothy Hagan argued that

Joynes should be held without bail until his trial.

“The risk of flight is high here,” Hagan told Wolfe.

Hagan said that when the woman who had attended Eastern Middle School tried to contact Joynes and confront him about the abuse, Joynes malingered to avoid being found.

“The defendant not only falsified a death certificate to fake his own death, but also at different times, impersonated different individuals in order to avoid prosecution and discovery,” Hagan said.

Alan C. Drew, Joynes’ public defender, said Joynes deserved a reasonable bail.

“Regardless of the nature of the allegations, they are just allegations,” Drew said. sjbsmith@gazette.net

Carr’s House bill would let local governments assume ownership of streetlights Measure eliminates haggling with utilities

n

BY

KATE S. ALEXANDER STAFF WRITER

Maryland counties, cities and towns could soon have the power to take ownership of streetlights from utility companies.

A bill introduced by Del. Alfred C. Carr Jr. clarifies the process

for local governments to assume ownership from utility companies with a goal of driving down the cost to operate the more than 300,000 streetlights in the state.

Carr (D-Dist. 18) of Kensington, said $60 million is spent annually across the state on street-lighting services.

“That’s an equivalent of $400 just to change a light bulb,” he said.

And in Montgomery County

and Prince George’s counties, Carr said the cost to maintain the lights could rise further if Pepco’s request for higher rates is approved by the Maryland Public Service Commission. Pepco serves portions of both counties.

Pepco is still reviewing Carr’s bill, spokeswoman Courtney Nogas said in an email.

“However, in recent years we have opposed several similar measures that aim to take utility

owned streetlights without fair compensation,” she said. “We remain committed to negotiating with local governments ... interested in purchasing the streetlights within their jurisdiction.”

Carr said his bill attempts to define a formula for the value of the lights so that there is no haggling over the price to purchase ownership.

Energy efficiency is also at the heart of his bill.

Nogas said Pepco implemented in 2008 a multi-year effort to replace all of its mercury vapor streetlights with highpressure sodium streetlights.

“High pressure sodium lamps were chosen by cities and utilities nationwide because they are more efficient than mercury vapor and were a cost effective option for large scale conversions,” Nogas said.

Carr said high-pressure

sodium lamps are 1970s technology. Jurisdictions are now turning to induction or light emitting diode, LED, lights which last years longer and are more energy efficient than sodium lights, he said.

Public ownership would allow a county like Montgomery to decide what technology is best for its street lighting.

“It’s also a better service when you are able to put maintenance out to bid and hold a vendor accountable,” he said.

Montgomery and Prince George’s County Executives Isiah Leggett (D) and Rushern L. Baker III (D) back the bill.

Leggett’s spokesman Patrick Lacefield said the legislation would provide a useful opportunity should the county decide in the future that buying some lights would be in the public interest.

Finmarc pays $33M for buildings in Gaithersburg

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Finmarc Management of Bethesda announced that it bought a nine-building portfolio in Gaithersburg from First Potomac Realty Trust for $33 million.

The 342,000-square-foot deal includes a mixture of flex/ office, commercial office, retail and warehouse space. The portfolio is 82 percent leased.

The former First Potomac portfolio includes the following properties: • Girard Place, a 175,000-square-foot complex of flex/office and warehouse space at 602, 620, 630 and 640 E. Diamond Ave. • Girard Business Center, 123,000 square feet of flex/office and warehouse space at 200 and 220 Girard St. and 504 E. Diamond Ave. • Gateway Center, a 45,000-square-footofficeandretail project at 811 and 831 Russell Ave. Girard Place and Girard Business Center sit across from each on Girard Street near Interstate 270, the Intercounty Connector, Md. 355 and the Shady Grove Metro station. Gateway Center offers direct access to I-270 and is next to Lakeforest mall.

Significant tenants contained within the portfolio are Communication Supply Corp., the Foundation Schools, Family Services and Quaker City Motor Parts.

The acquisition was part of a 1031 tax-free exchange.

Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Service code allows companies or individuals to defer capital gains taxes on sales involving the trade of similar business or investment properties.

In its purchase, Finmarc used a portion of the proceeds generated from its sale last month of the 58-acre Port Covington retail development in south Baltimore for $35 million. The complex includes a 142,000-square-foot Wal-Mart and a former 130,000-squarefoot Sam’s Club, which has been vacant since 2008.

Finmarc cited research by broker Cushman & Wakefield showing that the Montgomery County flex/office market has a vacancy rate slightly more than 11 percent and has experienced positive absorption over the past nine months. Rental rates have steadily risen about 7 percent over the past two years.

Eric Berkman, Steve Gichner and Gideon Gil of Cushman Wakefield represented First Potomac in the transaction.

— SONNY GOLDREICH

THE GAZETTE

Wednesday, February 12, 2014 z

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Linkages to Learning program may expand to help more students, families County budget may include funds to add staff, sites n

BY RYAN MARSHALL AND LINDSAY POWERS STAFF WRITERS

A long-standing program serving Montgomery County students and their families is hoping to see some more program sites and increased staffing as the county’s operating budget takes shape.

The Linkages to Learning program, which includes sites at schools around the county, could receive a boost in county funding after the country’s economic downturn halted a trend of increasing funding and resulted in cuts to the program. In fiscal 2013, the program served more than 5,000 students at 26 Montgomery schools, according to a copy of the program’s six-year strategic plan. It provided comprehensive mental health and social services to about 3,700 of those students through a partnership between the school system and the county’s Department of Health and Human Services.

Among other components of a multi-faceted proposal, the plan would affect about 17 schools where county resources would either establish new sites or increase staffing.

County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) has said he would like to begin restoring funding to some county programs, but be careful not to return to spending as usual.

The amount of funding for

the Linkages program has not yet been set. County spokesman Patrick Lacefield said the county’s operating budget is still being developed, and isn’t scheduled to be released until March 17.

The program emerged from a 1991 County Council resolution urging the County Executive and Montgomery County Public Schools to set up a program that would offer comprehensive, school-based services to students to help them deal with a range of social and economic issues.

The resolution specifically targeted poverty, poor health care, difficulty speaking English, emotional issues and unfamiliarity with the types of mental health and social services programs available as obstacles to the success of students and their families.

The Linkages program established a pilot program in 1993 at Summit Hall Elementary School in Gaithersburg, Harmony Hills Elementary School in Silver Spring and the Rocking

Horse Road International Student Center in Rockville.

County Council President Craig Rice, who serves as the chairman of the council’s Education Committee, said Tuesday that the program has been a phenomenal success for Montgomery.

Providing a wide variety of services to students is key to helping all students succeed and close the achievement gap that often exists between poor students and others, he said.

That might range from helping to ensure the student is healthy to making sure they’re fed adequately or helping to identify if the student is living in a home plagued by domestic violence, he said.

“It’s a true wrap-around of that child,” to make sure they’re getting all the necessary services available, Rice said.

Linkages has usually picked which sites it will operate in based on what percentage of a school’s students qualify for the federal government’s free and reduced meals program, ac-

cording to the strategic plan.

The meal program is an indication of poverty in the county school system.

The number of Montgomery residents born outside the United States increased from 18.6 percent to 32.2 percent from 1990 to 2010, while the percentage of households that don’t speak English at home increased from 21.2 percent to 37.5 percent from 1990 to 2008, according to the plan.

Almost 20,000 students receive teaching in English for Speakers of Other Languages, nearly double the number in 2000.

And the county’s number of students who receive free or reduced meals increased by more than 20,000 students from 2000 to 2012, with nearly 49,400 such students in the county’s public schools in 2012.

The program strives to tailor its operation to the specific needs that are identified at each school. It also works to try and help students’ parents and families as well as the students themselves.

New Hampshire Estates Elementary School in Silver Spring would be among the schools to receive more county resources in the form of a full-time community service aide to supplement its staff.

Marinda Thomas Evans, principal at New Hampshire Estates, said school staff refer students to the Linkages program, usually for non-academic supports, Evans said.

Students could be facing situations in which their family lost a family member or a home, she said, while others might be experiencing medical issues or a lack of clothing.

Last school year, about 90 percent of New Hampshire Estates’ students received free and reduced-price meals.

Evans said the school is unable to refer all the students it would like to send to Linkages because the program workers have a limited caseload.

“That’s disheartening,” she said.

Kirian Villalta, New Hampshire Estates’ PTA president,

said Linkages conducts “a lot of outreach to parents.”

Villalta said that many families at the school are from other countries and, though well-educated, sometimes have a difficult time finding a job in the U.S. Linkages, she said, provides counseling to family members to help them be productive in new ways with the skill sets they have.

David Chia, principal at Wheaton Woods Elementary School in Rockville, said the Linkages site in his school currently includes a site coordinator, a social worker and a therapist.

According to the strategic plan, the part-time site coordinator at Wheaton Woods would become a full-time position.

The number of students Linkages serves at a given time varies, Chia said, but is usually around 20.

“Right now we’re at the maintenance level,” he said. rmarshall@gazette.net lpowers@gazette.net

NOTICE OF JOINT PUBLIC HEARING The Mayor and Council and Planning Commission of the City of Gaithersburg will conduct a joint public hearing on CTAM-4269-2014, filed by Lauren Pruss, Planning Division Chief, on

MONDAY MARCH 3, 2014 AT 7:30 P.M. or as soon thereafter as this matter can be heard in the Council Chambers at 31 South Summit Avenue, Gaithersburg, Maryland.

The application requests an amendment to Chapter 24 (City Zoning Ordinance), Article I, Entitled, “In General,” § 24-1, Entitled, “Definitions,” Article IV, Entitled, “Supplementary Zone Regulations,” § 24-163, Entitled, “Accessory Structures and Garages,” so as to Provide New Standards for Donation Drop Boxes Further information may be obtained from the Planning and Code Administration Department at City Hall, 31 South Summit Avenue, between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, or visit the City’s website at www.gaithersburgmd.gov.

Lauren Pruss, Planning Division Chief Planning and Code Administration 1890814

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Page A-12

CITY

Continued from Page A-1 would trade our place with any city in the region at this point.”

Proceeds from property sales, and licenses and permits accounted for $2.8 and $1.4 million respectively of the additional revenue, but Tomasello cautioned that it is unlikely to happen again next year. The extra revenue from licenses and permits can be attributed to the accelerated development at Crown, a large mixed-used project off Sam Eig Highway, according to Tomasello.

Income from the sale of property soared when the city sold the Y site in Olde Towne at 200 Old Towne Ave. The city has no other property for sale.

Even with the good news, the city still faces several obstacles, Tomasello said. While the state is close to closing its budget deficit, it is still not in a positive position and that will likely affect munici-

CASE

Continued from Page A-1 attention” to the girls and he may have spoken to them.

On Tuesday, police said they are looking for answers about an event that, still years later, remains a mystery. The case riveted the attention of the greater Washington area as police and volunteers spent weeks searching for the girls. Police combed the area with helicopters and dogs; citizens-band radio enthusiasts combed the woods. There was an alleged sighting of two girls bound and gagged in a car in Manassas, but that tip went nowhere.

Police said they are trying to find out more information about Welch, whom they say worked for many years as a carnival ride operator.

According to police, his job allowed him to travel across the country, including Austin, Texas, and Sioux City, Iowa.

Police said they have documented his travels from 1974 to his incarceration in 1997 through locations in Maryland, Florida, California, Iowa, South Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware, and possibly New York. Investigators are trying to figure out if Welch was involved in any criminal activity in those places.

The girls’ disappearance “really rattled the community, I think the entire county. Everyone in Montgomery County was shocked by this,” said Harry Geehreng, a detective with the department’s Juvenile Aid Unit when the girls vanished.

“We got more tips than we could handle,” he said in a phone

pal budgets. Smith said that the city received $1.7 million in total municipal revenue from the state in fiscal 2013. That number is expected to be lower this year.

A shortage in transportation funding at the state level is also expected going in to the fiscal 2015 budget process.

“We have tremendous transportation and infrastructure needs which will continue to develop in the city,” Tomasello said.

The county is working on recovering its tax income revenue, which continues to be sluggish. A lot of additional revenue should not be expected from the county, according to Tomasello.

Only a few members of the public spoke at the meeting and all were representatives of nonprofit organizations that provide community assistance.

Janet Neumann, an assistant director with Gaithersburg HELP, asked that the city continue funding the efforts of the organization, which provides shortterm emergency assistance for city families.

interview after the press conference. “So many tips, so many leads. It was difficult to follow them all, but we did.”

He welcomed the news that police believed they might be closer to solving the girls’ disappearance.

“If they could crack this case, I’d be so happy,” Geehreng said.

“It’d be very welcome news to all of us and to the community ... if for no other reason than to know what happened to these girls,” he said.

Welch bore a similarity to a sketch that police created, using information a witness provided of a man who may have been following the girls, Manger said.

During the press conference, he gave more details about Welch, whom he said may have had a connection to the area around the Walter Reed Annex in Silver Spring.

Welch was once arrested in the mid-1970s in connection with a burglary just blocks away from Wheaton Plaza, which is now called the Westfield Wheaton Mall.

The outcome of that case couldn’t be determined on Tuesday.

Welch had a reputation as a drifter who frequently hitchhiked and walked along the railroad tracks between Kensington and Silver Spring. He sometimes worked as a landscaper, Manger said.

In many of those travels, his girlfriend, Helen Craver, accompanied him, Manger said. She also worked for the carnival company.

She died in 2009.

“That’s what our cold case detectives have been able to establish,” he said, before asking for help from the public.

“We know we’re asking people to remember things they may

LEDECKY

Continued from Page A-1 away until after the meet — and when everything was said and done Saturday, after swimming four races in a two-hour time span when most normal people probably wanted to go home and take a nap or spend some time celebrating with teammates, Ledecky more than willingly hung around the facility to chat with more fans, of all ages.

“It’s great to get the support of this community and [Metros] really exemplifies that,” Ledecky said. “I was in [those fans’] place 10 years ago, some of

“I just want to always emphasize how important this is to our community,” she said. “We don’t really know what the health care reform is going to do just yet to the various programs, but I think our group is essential for the city to serve the disadvantaged and the multicultural population that we have.”

Jackie DeCarlo, executive director of Manna Food Center, the county’s largest food bank, said that while it’s encouraging that the city is in a stable financial spot, a growing number of people are hungry.

“Unfortunately even in the midst of these good times, we’re seeing hundreds of people in the city come through our doors,” she said. “We hope that you will continue to spread the prosperity by strengthening this safety net ...”

A fiscal 2015 budget public hearing will be held April 21 and City Council meeting on the topic is scheduled for April 28.

sjbsmith@gazette.net

SAFETY

Continued from Page A-1 unattended.

“These things don’t happen, we thought, in Montgomery County,” said Hedda Denton, who had two young daughters at the time. She would listen to the girls’ father, John Lyon, on WMAL radio as she drove to different schools for her job as a speech therapist.

Chris Core of WTOP radio worked with Lyon at WMAL when the girls went missing.

He said listeners loved Lyon’s “smooth style, soft humor.”

And he recalled Lyon’s courage in coming back to work several weeks later.

“When you’re on the radio, it’s a very intimate medium,” especially with the personality-driven radio of the time, Core said.

“It’s like the story can never go away,” he said. “It’s something that’s stuck with the Washington community in such an incredible way, partly because everything about it was so innocent.”

People still ask Core about the case.

“I can remember years later when my daughter was that age and wanted to go to the mall, and I was just sick to my stomach,” Core said.

Montgomery County Police said Tuesday that they believe a convicted sex offender, who is now incarcerated, may have had contact with the girls at the mall the day they disap-

liminaries, when Ledecky added yet another record to her already-impressive resume by breaking a six-year American record to become the first woman to break the 4 minute, 30 second barrier (4:28.71).

“On Friday I was fresh and I was ready to go and I just laid it all in the water,” Ledecky said. “It’s been a goal of mine to break 4:30, I’ve had my eye on that for a while and it feels really good to get that done,” In addition to Friday’s new mark Ledecky now holds American records in the 400- and 800-meter and 1,650yard freestyle and world records in the 800- and 1,500-meter freestyle.

Her blossoming career has put her in the spotlight worldwide, something Ledecky said she is becoming more and more comfortable with.

“I mean, it’s inspiring to a lot of little kids, but you see her race her 500 before you swim and you’re like, ‘OK, I’m going to race my race like that,’ and realistic or not, it just inspires you to go fast,” Churchill senior Alicia Tiberino said after Saturday’s meet. “Watching her swim any event, even warming down people are like, ‘Oh my God, I touched her foot!’ Being in close proximity to her made a lot of people really happy. It’s like, ‘Oh my God, I get to race an Olympian.’”

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Jackie DeCarlo, executive director of Manna Food Center

peared. Police are asking for the public’s help in filling in details about the man, his former girlfriend and a mall security guard.

Jamie Freedman of Gaithersburg was just 3 when her parents took her to the Wheaton mall that day to see her first movie, “Escape from Witch Mountain.” When they exited the theater, “the place was swarming with police,” Freedman’s parents told her.

Growing up in Potomac, she remembers the case coming up often throughout elementary school in safety talks.

Jane Harding saw police sweeping the woods behind her house on McComas Avenue, just south of the mall, after the girls went missing. They wouldn’t tell her what happened at first. Her daughter was a few years older than the Lyon sisters.

“It was such a tragedy,” she said.

“Everybody was so frightened. ... [Our kids] couldn’t go anywhere or do anything because we were so traumatized by it,” said Toni Ward, another neighbor.

Her son, Dan Parker, was in Sheila’s seventhgrade class. Ward said Parker often walked to the mall and local swim club with his high school-aged siblings.

Parker saw the sisters walking down Drumm Avenue around the time of their disappearance, though he

Professional Services

CHAIRMAN OF THE MD BANKRUPTCY BAR ASSOCIATION 1998-1999

“Unfortunately even in the midst of these good times, we’re seeing hundreds of people in the city come through our doors. We hope that you will continue to spread the prosperity by strengthening this safety net ...”

jedavis@gazette.net

not want to think about,” said Steve Vogt, the FBI’s special agent in charge in Baltimore, stressing the importance of the public providing any information they had.

“The family deserves closure, just as you do. ... Please contact us if you have anything to share,” he said.

Investigators are trying to find out more information about Craver, as well as a security guard working at the mall the day the girls disappeared, Manger said.

The security guard — whom police are trying to identify — may have had contact with Welch, he said.

“All of these folks, we believe ... could help us fill in some of the blanks and assist us and determine more information about Mr. Welch ...,” Manger said.

Through police, the Lyon family released a statement Tuesday about the disappearance of their daughters.

“Throughout these years our hope for a resolution of this mystery have been sustained by the support and efforts of countless members of law enforcement, the news media and the community.

The fact that so many people still care about this case means a great deal to us. ... We are grateful for any information the public can provide to help bring this story to its conclusion, and ask that the family’s privacy be respected during this time,” the family said.

Anyone who may have encountered Welch has been asked to call investigators at 1-800-CALL-FBI or submit a tip online at tips.fbi.gov.

the little kids, getting autographs from Olympians, so I know what it means to them and I definitely want to give them my autograph if they want it. It’s fun to see them so excited about the sport, I’m really happy to see that.”

Ledecky won three of four events she contested Saturday — she also anchored the second-place 400yard freestyle relay — setting a Metros and national high school record in the 200-yard freestyle (1 minute, 42.38 seconds). Stone Ridge in turn repeated last year’s first top 5 performance in a decade.

The biggest headline, however, came in Friday’s 500-yard freestyle pre-

Wednesday, February 12, 2014 z

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wasn’t sure if it was the evening before or the day the girls went missing. He rode the bus to school with the Lyon sisters and said Sheila was “a quiet, nice person.”

“We used to cut through the woods and go up to the plaza,” Parker said. But “everything kind of did change.

Everyone was on this heightened alert, and it was scary as a kid.”

Ward told her kids to stop taking the cut-through path in the woods.

John Hanrahan, who was working at a clothing shop at Wheaton Plaza the day the girls disappeared, said it had been a busy day.

He thought he saw the girls stop by. It was one of the last places they were reportedly seen.

The police came in during their investigation shortly after the sisters went missing, and posted Sheila’s and Katherine’s pictures around the mall, he said.

Hanrahan’s father, an amateur radio enthusiast, was one of hundreds of people who combed the woods for weeks and walked along the Beltway looking for them, he recalled.

“It was a different world back then. People were a little more community-oriented back then,” he said.

“It felt like you had lost part of your innocence when it happened.” sscully@gazette.net sjbsmith@gazette.net

Ledecky has risen to stardom in an age where social media enables fans to connect to their role models. The fourtime world champion, whose Twitter account has grown to more than 18,000 followers across the world. Still she remains grounded, seemingly unfazed by her fame, and truly appreciative of the support and admiration that’s coming from every which way.

“I’m more comfortable [being a role model], I’ve progressed through the years and gotten used to all this,” Ledecky said. “It’s been a fun ride, I just remember being in their place.” jbeekman@gazette.net

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BUSINESS

Biotech startups fret over incubator plans n

Duncan: Proposal to move companies is ‘very big issue’ for county BY

RYAN MARSHALL STAFF WRITER

Montgomery County’s biotechnology businesses are concerned about the effect of a county plan to move companies out of a Gaithersburg center for beginning businesses.

The county plans to renovate the William Hanna Center for Innovation at Shady Grove to make it the home for the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence,forcingbiotechandothercompaniesatthefacility to find new space.

The biotech industry is a community, whose members rely on each other for information and customer referrals, said Dietmar Wolf, executive vice president of AnalytiCon Discovery, which is at the Hanna Center.

Wolf spoke Thursday at a gathering of biotech companies for a meeting with Douglas M. Duncan, a Democratic candidate for Montgomery County executive.

Duncan, a former county executive, is running against incumbent Isiah Leggett and Councilman Philip M. Andrews (D-Dist. 3) of Gaithersburg.

Duncan criticized the decision to move the cybersecurity center into the Gaithersburg facility and relocate many biotech companies to the Germantown area.

“This is a very significant issue for the future of this county,” Duncan said.

He said he plans to send a letter to the County

DAN GROSS/THE GAZETTE

Douglas M. Duncan, a candidate for Montgomery County executive, meets with current and former tenants of the William Hanna Innovation Center at GeneDX in Gaithersburg on Thursday to discuss the county’s plan to close the biotech incubator.

Council asking it to reconsider the issue.

Surely, there’s another location in the county for the cybersecurity facility, he said.

“Why does it have to be at this facility? Why can’t the county do both?” Duncan asked.

Montgomery started nurturing the biotechnology and life sciences industry in the early 1980s, he said.

Duncan said if the county follows through with the plan, it would send a message to the world that Montgomery is losing interest in life sciences.

The county believes it can remain one of the nation’s top life sciences region while also establishing itself as a center of the cybersecurity industry, said Kristina Ellis, a spokeswoman for the county’s Department of Economic Development.

“We’re just unique in thinking we can be a leader in both,” she said.

Life sciences in the county seems to be moving toward the Germantown region anyway, she said.

Meanwhile, the Hanna Center’s proximity to the National Institute of Standards and Technology makes it a good spot for the cybersecurity facility, she said.

Ellis said the county would work with the companies now at the Hanna Center to help as many as possible to move to Germantown.

David Beylin, CEO of Brain Biosciences Inc., said his company moved into the Gaithersburg incubator in May and he appreciates the business “ecosystem” in the facility.

The county’s plan to move the biotech companies out “is not a friendly message” that these types of companies are welcome in Montgomery, he said.

Beylin said he’s not opposed to a cybersecurity center, but thinks the county should find another place for it.

Jonathan Cohen, president and CEO of 20/20 GeneSystems, said business incubators around the country and the world are trying to attract biotech companies.

“We should be growing the Shady Grove innovation center, not destroying it,” Cohen said.

Retailers, restaurant opening at Bethesda mall Lilly Pulitzer, True Religion and Talbots are new shops

n

BY KRISTA BRICK STAFF WRITER

Three stores and a restaurant are expected to open to shoppers and diners at the Montgomery mall in Bethesda this spring.

Opening its second Maryland location, Lilly Pulitzer designs and distributes apparel and accessories for women, children and men. The new

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store will be on the lower level, near Center Court, according to a press release from the mall.

Founded in 2002, True Religion, a men’s and women’s store selling denim, T-shirts, Western shirts and loungewear with a vintage feel is opening a new store on the lower level of the mall, along the Nordstrom wing. This is True Religion’s third store in Maryland, according to the press release.

Talbots sells women’s classic apparel, shoes and accessories and will soon move from the White Flint

mall in North Bethesda to the Montgomery mall. The company was established in 1947 and has more than 500 stores in the U.S. and Canada, according to the mall’s press release.

The new store will be on the lower level in the Sears wing.

Naples 45 Ristorante e Pizzeria is an authentic Neapolitan pizzeria and Italian restaurant originating in New York City. It is owned by Patina Restaurant Group, which has more than 60 restaurants, including Brasserie, Lincoln Ristorante, Patina and The Sea Grill. The Montgomery Naples

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45 location will be the company’s second outside New York City and its first mall location.

Naples 45 offers regional southern Italian specialties with gourmet brick-oven slices. The restaurant will be adjacent to the center’s new Dining Terrace and ArcLight Cinemas and will open later this year.

Other new restaurants that came to the mall in 2013 include Bobby’s Burger Palace, The Cheesecake Factory, Wicked Waffle and Kraze Burgers. kbrick@gazette.net

BizBriefs

Have a new business in Montgomery County?

Let us know about it at www.gazette.net/ newbusinessform

Mostly Monograms, but other gifts, too Jill McNamara has launched Mostly Monograms, which offers personalized monogram services and a variety of gifts.

“I love to sew and create items that are fun, bright colors and different,” McNamara wrote in an email. The Bethesda business “personalizes gifts for the whole family, and we try to monogram while you wait!”

Mostly Monograms also sells baby gifts, women’s and men’s accessories, Scout items, monogrammed sandals, candles, linens and hats.

The store, open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Tuesday through Saturday, is at 5110 Ridgefield Road, No. 207. Its phone number is 301-919-6321 and its website is mostlymonograms.com.

Schuler joins investment firm Stephen Schuler, a veteran investment adviser and former president of Maryland Capital Management, has joined Bridgewater Wealth & Financial Management of Bethesda as principal and chief investment officer.

Schuler brings to Bridgewater about $200 million in client assets, increasing its total assets under management to $500 million.

The company’s website is bridgewaterwealth.com.

Psychologist launches tutoring service John Leddo, an educational psychologist, has opened a new online tutoring service to help students prepare for SATs and do homework, with individual feedback provided via artificial intelligence engines.

Leddo uses “his knowledge of psychology and artificial intelligence to create an affordable, interactive, software-based learning tool,” according to a statement.

Education Online is at 10408 Insley St., Silver Spring, and is open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Its phone number is 800-763-9133 and its website is eollearning.com.

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Wednesday, February 12, 2014 z

SCHOOL LIFE Reading is Terrific is helping first-graders learn to love reading E.A. Stonesifer of Rockville and Frank Ieardi of Laytonsville are founders of Reading is Terrific, a nonprofit organization that provides books and readers to first-graders in eight Montgomery County Title I public schools.

They were interviewed Saturday and Sunday.

books. Our budget is between $20,000 and $25,000 this year. United Way has provided significant funding through its Community Impact Grants but unfortunately we do not qualify under their new rules. They are not funding organizations with budgets less than $50,000. We have developed other sources including grants from the Phase Foundation and IBM and we have generous individual donors.

VOICES IN EDUCATION burg] — it was one school and one classroom. We now go to eight schools and read to over 800 students.

Can you explain the program?

Frank, I know you make and distribute wooden toys to organizations who work with children in need. Is Reading is Terrific an outgrowth of that?

The wood toys started as a retirement activity; I worked for IBM as a computer programmer. When I retired I went to the Montgomery County volunteer office and they hooked me up with Wood to Wonderful, a group making toys for needy kids. Woodworking was always my hobby. When the organizers of that retired and moved to Pennsylvania, I continued the work, starting a nonprofit, Woodworkers for Children Charity, in 1997. The book program began in 2004. E.A. suggested it. She too knew Doug and Louise Brown, the toymaking couple who moved to Pennsylvania. They started a reading program there and suggested she start one in Montgomery County and get in touch with me to help her.

Can you tell me about that, E.A.?

We started nine years ago at Rosemont Elementary School [Gaithers-

Stonesifer: We have readers who go into the schools once a month to read to first-graders. All of the schools are Title I schools and each child gets a copy of the book each month, so by the end of the year they each own nine books.

The program gives the students reading skills, like learning new vocabulary and predicting [outcomes]. Frank and I are really careful to choose books with good storylines and we also want excellent illustrations — they are first-graders.

What does this program mean to you?

Putting books into the hands of kids. Many parents can’t afford them, they are struggling to put food on the table. I read in the newspaper that it is important for kids to have books in their homes. This is an attempt to help that situation.

Are you a reader?

Stonesifer: I am, and there is no doubt that the best part of my job is being with the children. I taught secondary school in MCPS [Montgomery County Public Schools] for 31 years.

Working with little ones is a real joy and to see the growth from the beginning of the year to the end.

My job is to coordinate readers and the schools. We go into 47 classrooms.

This year we opened a new area, Aspen Hill, Wheaton. So we added another coordinator, Kay McGuire, a retired MCPS

PEGGY MCEWAN/THE GAZETTE

E.A. Stonesifer and Frank Ieardi are the founders of Reading is Terrific. Their organization provides books and readers to first-graders in eight Montgomery County Public Schools. counselor. Most of our readers are from MCPS, because that’s who I know.

Frank and I do the book selection, we go to a book warehouse to purchase books two to three times a year. This year we are giving out over 800 books a month. I wish I knew how many we have given since the beginning, It’s thousands and thousands.

How about you, Frank, are you a reader?

I have done it once or twice as a substitute but my job is to deliver the books to the classrooms. Each book has a bookplate where the kids can put their name. I put those in, with help. I also do the fundraising, writing grants to get the money for the

More information about the Reading is Terrific program can be found online at www.woodentoy.org. Those interested in becoming readers with the program can email wonderfulnice@ aol.com.

“Voices in Education” is a twicemonthly feature that highlights the men and women who are involved with the education of Montgomery County’s children. To suggest someone you would like to see featured, email Peggy McEwan at pmcewan@gazette.net.

EDUCATION NOTEBOOK Budding grand masters enjoy competitive success

Their work will join a collection of original paintings by Herman Maril, an American modernist who was born in Baltimore and was a professor at the University of Maryland for more than 30 years.

More than 20 students from the chess club at Wood Acres Elementary School in Bethesda participated Feb. 1 in the 2014 Greater Mid-Atlantic Scholastic Chess Tournament in Baltimore, bringing home both individual and team trophies.

Fourth-grader Miles Stewart took first place in the Varsity K-5 Division and his team, which also included Aksel Bell,

Round House offers summer theater programs

Pascal Bell, Arden Hoehn-Saric and Zach Yaqub, won second

place in that division.

Wood Acres third-graders were first in the Varsity K-3 Division. That team comprised

Hari Mahaeswaran, Conner Khovananth, Conrad Decressin and Ben Adams.

“The chess program is a big activity at Wood Acres,” said parent coordinator Andrew Stewart. “We competed in four divisions in Baltimore.”

Every Wednesday, before and after school, club members meet to learn new moves and play against each other, testing their new skills.

There are 70 members of the club, which meets under the tutelage of coach Victor Sherman.

“Mr. Sherman has been teaching chess for over 30 years,” Stewart wrote in an email. “He was [formerly] the head coach for the City of Leningrad.”

Interest in the chess club, which includes both boys and girls from kindergarten through fifth grade, ranges from those who want to learn to play socially to those interested in competition.

“As chess has gained popu-

ANDREW STEWART

Members of the chess club at Wood Acres Elementary School in Bethesda, some of whom are pictured here, competed Feb. 1 in the 2014 Greater MidAtlantic Scholastic Chess Tournament in Baltimore. larity in the Wood Acres community, Wood Acres students have been achieving outstanding success in major scholastic tournaments,” Stewart wrote.

The students are now preparing for the Maryland Elementary School Chess Championships on March 8 at Dumbarton Middle School in Towson.

Three students honored with art awards Maryland Comptroller

Peter V.R. Franchot presented

his Maryland Masters Awards to three Montgomery County students at a ceremony Jan. 27 at Newport Mill Middle School in Kensington.

The awards, started by Franchot to celebrate the achievements and talents of Maryland public school students, recognizes young, talented artists who have dis-

played extraordinary artistic skills, reflecting the vision of Maryland’s future, according to a news release from Franchot’s office.

The honored students: • Nicholas Tucker, a fifthgrader at Piney Branch Elementary School in Takoma Park who created an undersea scene with a stingray, fish and sea plants.

• Pauline Turla, an eighthgrader at Newport Mill Middle School who used software to form small fractals for a landscape of trees and mountains.

• Adam Anderson, a senior at Winston Churchill High School’s Academy of the Creative and Performing Arts in Potomac, who digitally photographed a decommissioned railroad engine at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore.

The students’ art will be on exhibit for two months at Franchot’s office in Annapolis.

Round House Theatre is offering summer programs for anyone kindergarten age and older.

The theater offers one- and two-week classes where students can express their imaginations, create plays and learn theater from both sides of the spotlights, according to a news release.

The programs run June 16 through Aug. 22 in Silver Spring and Bethesda. For more information, call 301-585-1225, visit roundhousetheatre.org, or email education@roundhousetheatre.org.

Peace groups sponsor writing contest Maryland seventh- and eighth-graders are invited to enter the Fred B. Benjamin Peace Writing Contest, a competition focusing on the themes of peace and social justice.

To enter, students must submit an entry of up to 1,200 words on the following topic: “You learn that a friend at school has received repeated cruel and intimidating text messages from other classmates.

Some of these communications have even suggested that your friend deserves to be hurt in some way. Your friend also has

been contacted in this manner by text messages and email and through social media such as Facebook, MySpace, Tumblr and Formspring. You realize that these actions are not a joke and need to be stopped.

You decide to work with other students to develop a strategy for ending the cyber bullying.

Explain what you will do.”

The contest is sponsored by Anne Arundel Peace Action, the Maryland Peace Action Education Fund, the Benjamin Peace Foundation of Garrett Park, and the Peace and Justice Center of Annapolis Friends Meeting. It is open to seventh- and eighthgraders in public or private schools and home-schoolers.

Four cash prizes will be awarded: $350 for first place, $250 for second place, $150 for third place and $100 for fourth place. The winners also will be honored at a ceremony, although attendance is not required to receive an award.

Entries must be accompanied by a separate cover sheet including the student’s name, address and phone number or email address; school’s name, address and phone number; and the name of the teacher sponsor, if applicable.

Entries and accompanying materials must be postmarked

by April 30 and mailed to Fred B. Benjamin Peace Writing Contest, 310 Riverview Ave., Annapolis, MD 21403-3328.

Anne Arundel Peace Action and the Maryland Peace Action Education Fund are affiliated with Peace Action, a grassroots peace and disarmament organization with about 100,000 members nationwide.

For more information, call 410-263-7409 or email mjkeller@att.net.

Starr to host book club discussion on hope County schools Superintendent Joshua P. Starr will host his first book club discussion of the school year at 7 p.m. Feb. 19 in the auditorium of the Carver Educational Services Center, 850 Hungerford Drive, Rockville.

The book is “Making Hope Happen” by Shane Lopez, a senior scientist with the Gallup organization. He is the chief architect of the Gallup Student Poll — taken by more than 1 million public school students, including Montgomery County’s — which measures hope, academic success and overall well-being on the path to determining what drives achievement. Lopez offers examples of people with high hopes who changed their lives.

Starr will be joined by Lopez, who will discuss the book and take questions and comments from the audience.

Those watching online or on MCPS TV (Comcast Channel 34) can participate in the conversation by sending questions via Twitter, using the hashtag #mcpsbookclub, or by sending an email to ask@mcpsbookclub.org.

“Hope is a powerful factor in ensuring our students are prepared to succeed in their future,” Starr said in a statement.

“Shane Lopez is one of the nation’s foremost experts on hope and I look forward to engaging with him and our community about how we can instill hope in our children.”

Anyone who wants to attend the free event is asked to email pio@mcpsmd.org.

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CELEBRATIONS HEALTH CALENDAR WEDNESDAY, FEB. 12 Diagnosing Heart Disease, from 1-2 p.m. at Friendship Heights Community Center, 4433 S. Park Ave., Chevy Chase. Dr. Eva Hausner, cardiologist, will lead a discussion on echocardiography and other non-invasive tests that can be used to determine if you’ve had a heart attack. She will also review the signs and symptoms of heart problems and preventive strategies such as diet and exercise. Free. www.suburbanhospital.org.

THURSDAY, FEB. 13

Carlson, Wechtaluk Susan Carlson and Fred Maymir-Ducharme of Potomac and Jeffrey and Mary Ann Carlson of Richmond, Va., announce the engagement of their daughter, Caitlin Marie Carlson, to Ethan Parrott Wechtaluk, son of Kathleen Parrott and David Wechtaluk of Blacksburg, Va. The bride-to-be graduated from Winston Churchill High School in Potomac in 2006. Both the future bride and groom graduated from Virginia Tech in 2010 with bachelor’s degrees. The prospective groom will receive his MBA from Penn State this August.

Caitlin is employed by US Wellness in Germantown as an assistant manager. Ethan is employed by Booz Allen Hamilton in Rockville as a consultant.

A July 2014 wedding is planned.

Better Breathers Club, from 6:30-7:30 p.m. at Suburban Hospital, CR 1/2 (second floor), 8600 Old Georgetown Road, Bethesda. Be part of a patient-centered and community-based club that supports persons with chronic lung disease including COPD, asthma, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and lung cancer. Families, friends and support persons are welcomed. Registration required. Free. www.suburbanhospital.org.

Mangum, Hamilton Lindsay Mangum of Olney announces the engagement of her sister Heather Mangum to Michael Hamilton. The wedding is set for Sept. 6, 2014.

Michael asked Heather to marry him on Feb. 1, 2013, while on their trip to New Orleans for Super Bowl weekend. They will wed at her father’s estate in Kent Island at Love Point with a beautiful Bay and sunset view.

Gary Mangum and Maureen Campbell are the parents of the bride-to-be, and Rita and Richard Wayne Hamilton are the parents of the prospective groom.

SUNDAY, FEB. 16 Childbirth Express at MedStar Montgomery, from 1-5

p.m. at MedStar Montgomery Medical Center, 18101 Prince Philip Drive, Olney. Condensed version will prepare couples for their labor and birth experi-

ence. Class is presented in lecture/video format. To enhance what you learn, hands-on instruction available by taking the Lamaze Techniques class.

Hospital tour included. $75. www.medstarhealth.org.

TUESDAY, FEB. 25 AARP Driver Safety Class at MedStar Montgomery, 10

a.m. to 3 p.m. at MedStar Montgomery Medical Center, 18101 Prince Philip Drive, Olney. The nation’s first and largest refresher course for drivers age 50 and older has helped millions of drivers remain safe on today’s roads. Course is designed to help tune-up driving skills, explain safe driving strategies, and update knowledge of the rules of the road. Learn about normal age-related physical changes, and how to adjust driving to allow for these changes. Reduce traffic violations, the likelihood of crashes and chances for injuries. Some insurance companies operating in Maryland consider drivers who take the course qualified for an auto insurance premium reduction or discount. $15 for AARP members; $20 for nonmembers. Checks should be made payable to AARP to secure your registration. Mail to: MedStar Montgomery Medical Center, Planning & Marketing, 18101 Prince Philip Dr. Olney, MD 20832. www.medstarhealth.org.

RELIGION CALENDAR ONGOING Agape African Methodist Episcopal Church, 7700 Brink

Road, Gaithersburg, conducts Sunday morning worship service at 11 a.m. Sunday School is at 10 a.m. Communion celebration on first Sundays, men leading worship on second Sundays, youth leading worship on third Sundays. “You’ll Get Through This” Bible Study from 7-8 p.m. Wednesdays.

301-924-8640; www.agapeamec.org.

Watkins, Sprankle McCallum, Calderwood Mr. and Mrs. Rick McCallum of Venice, Fla. (formerly of Clarksburg), announce the engagement of their daughter, Elizabeth Joy McCallum, to Mr. Thomas Calderwood, of Tasmania, Australia.

The prospective groom is a platoon commander for the 12th/40th Royal Tasmanian Regiment, Australia, and an outdoor education/physical education teacher and head of house at Guilford Young College. The bride-to-be has been a child care teacher in Hobart, Tasmania.

The couple is planning an April wedding in Clarksburg and will reside in Australia.

St., Damascus, offers traditional Sunday morning worship services at 8:15 a.m., a youth contemporary worship service at 9:30 a.m. and a service of liturgy and the word at 11 a.m. with Sunday school at 9:30 a.m. for all ages during the school year. www.damascusumc.org.

The families of Jason Sprankle and Heather Watkins announce their engagement.

The bride-to-be is the daughter of Jim and Debbie Mahoney of Oswego, N.Y., and John and Tara Watkins of Olney. She is a 2008 graduate of Damascus High School and attended Towson University. She is employed as a nanny, working in Potomac.

The prospective groom is the son of Ken and Reina Sprankle of Damascus. He is a 2005 graduate of Damascus High School and received his bachelor’s degree in math from Salisbury University in 2009. He is pursuing his master’s degree in education and is currently employed by Montgomery County Public Schools, working in Chevy Chase.

A June wedding is planned in Ellicott City.

Emmanuel Lutheran Church, 7730 Bradley Bou-

levard, Bethesda, offers services at 8:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. each Sunday, with Sunday School for all ages scheduled at 10 a.m. Child care is of-

Liberty Grove United Methodist Church, 15225 Old

Columbia Pike, Burtonsville, conducts Sunday morning worship services at 8:30, 9:30 and 11 a.m. Sunday school, nursery through adult, is at 9:30 a.m. 301-421-9166. For a schedule of events, visit www. libertygrovechurch.org.

“MOPS,” a faith-based support group for mothers of children, birth through kindergarten, meets from 9-11:30 a.m. the first and third Wednesdays of the month at the Frederick Church of the Brethren, 201 Fairview Drive, Frederick. Child care is provided. For more information call 301-662-1819. Email mops@fcob.net.

Neelsville Presbyterian Church, 20701 Frederick Road,

Germantown, has returned to its fall worship schedule, with services at 8:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. Sundays. Sunday School for all ages at 9:40 a.m. www.

Neelsville.org.

The Gazette prints engagement and wedding announcements, with color photographs, at no charge, as a community service. Copy should be limited to 150 words and submitted in paragraph form.

Announcements are subject to editing for space. Please include contact information, including a daytime telephone number. Photos should be professional quality. If emailing photos, file size should be a minimum of 500 KB. Wedding announcements should be submitted no later than 12 months after the wedding. Send to: The Gazette, 9030 Comprint Court, Gaithersburg, MD 20877, or email kgroff@gazette.net. Montgomery County celebrations are inserted into all Montgomery County editions.

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PLACING AN ANNOUNCEMENT

Damascus United Methodist Church, 9700 New Church

fered from 8:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. A fellowship and coffee hour follows the 8:30 a.m. service. 301-365-5733, www. elcbethesda.org.

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Wednesday, February 12, 2014

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LETTERS TOT HE EDITOR

Clarksburg’s bargain

Shoppers, rejoice!

A recent decision from the Montgomery County Council has cleared the way for Premium Outlets to come to the Cabin Branch site in Clarksburg by late 2015, according to the outlet developers.

A vote taken Feb. 4 amended an approved development plan that increases the retail space on the property from 120,000 to 484,000 square feet — just the sort of space developers need for the center.

The good news — Coach handbags and J.Crew clothing will be marked down. Good thing, because the land was supposed to bring high-paying medical and technical jobs to the area as opposed to the retail jobs.

Because Adventist Healthcare did not win state approval WILL A SECOND to put a hospital on the land, the organization is selling the OUTLET property to recoup some of its PLAN BE LEFT costs in infrastructure and land BEHIND? purchase. Adventist Healthcare says that cash flow will help the organization create health care jobs and services elsewhere in the county — which is also good news.

Clarksburg folks are left to wonder — not a new sentiment for residents who were promised a build-out of their community more than a decade ago — whether a second project, Tanger Outlets proposed for the Miles-Coppola site east of Interstate 270, is essentially dead. At least some council members say they back a cap on impervious surfaces on three large developments, including the MilesCoppola site, to protect the Ten Mile Creek watershed.

But, even without the environmental concerns, could there really be two outlet centers less than five miles apart?

Premium and Tanger boast of many of the same major retailers on their websites, such as Gap, Ann Taylor and Banana Republic, though Premium has yet to announce specific tenants here. It’s a draw that will cut the drive time for bargain hunters who now head to Hagerstown or Leesburg, Va., outlet centers. Maybe that can count as an environmentally sound reason for two centers in Montgomery County.

But, really how many flat-front khaki pants and noiron blouses can one shop for?

Tracking bins

Trust is a bedrock in our donations to charity. We support causes largely because of their reputations, as best as we know them.

Few of us have the interest or time to do the legwork to bolster our instincts — such as looking up the percentage of monetary donations that pay overhead costs.

There’s a separate trust issue emerging in Gaithersburg, where some officials are wondering about public donation bins that pop up like mushrooms.

We see them so often, they’re a part of the landscape.

Now, Gaithersburg is considering how to track and possibly regulate the boxes.

One of the main concerns is about the organizations behind the boxes. Most people WE FAVOR A recognize Goodwill and its SYSTEMATIC But what of the other APPROACH TO work. groups? Are they charities or REGULATING businesses?

DONATION A memo by Planning DiviBOXES sion Chief Lauren Pruss expressed other considerations: Are the bins maintained and the contents regularly collected? Do they become a dumping ground for unrelated trash? Do they attract pests?

This is a common problem for unmanned dropoff spots. Some municipalities have had to remove public recycling bins because of the mounds of junk that were being left there. We could easily see charity bins attracting the same ignorant behavior, so Gaithersburg is right to take on this project.

The city’s staff has recommended creating a record of all public bins, along with guidelines on where they could go, how big they could be and how they should be labeled (with clear information about the organization and how to contact it).

This might sound like a lot of government for a relatively minor issue, but we favor a systematic approach to public bins. Goodwill has lobbied for similar regulations in other cities and states, aware that skepticism about questionable bin practices by other organizations hurts the charity’s cause.

New regulations are especially appropriate if businesses, rather than charities, are using bins as part of their commerce, circumventing the regulations in place on brick-and-mortar offices, where their employees work.

When Gaithersburg holds its public hearing on its proposed plan on March 3, local organizations should be there to explain their use of bins and how they maintain them.

Hopefully, this will be less of a crackdown and more of a cooperative plan for improving one aspect of the community.

The Gazette Karen Acton, President/Publisher

TOM FEDOR/THE GAZETTE

Montgomery County Circuit Court test books in Rockville.

Beall-Dawson House ’s connection to county history goes back generations As a volunteer docent at the Beall-Dawson House in Rockville, I read with great interest your article, “Old school technology, circa 2014,” [Feb. 5] concerning the oath book kept by the clerk of the Montgomery County Circuit Court since 1777.

In that year, the court clerk was Brooke Beall (pronounced Bell). His son Upton (1770-1827), built our mansion house sometime around 1815.

The Bealls were wealthy landowners.

They owned about 70 acres of land in Rockville, and at one time, Upton, who became the second clerk of the court, owned about 30 slaves.

The clerkship was quite a lucrative position, because unlike today, the clerk person-

ally received a fee for the filing of all deeds, death certificates, marriage licenses, and birth certificates.

After his first wife died, the 40-year-old Upton married, in 1810, the daughter of a local tavern owner, Jane Robb, who was 23 years his junior.

They had three daughters, Matilda (1812-1870), Jane Elizabeth (1815-1863) and Margaret (1817-1901). When Upton died, Jane never remarried, allowing her to own the vast estate outright.

When she died in 1849, Jane’s three daughters inherited the property. Although the Beall sisters, who never married, owned slaves, they were staunch Union supporters during the Civil War. Indeed, after staying

at the Beall house in September 1862, while on his way to the Battle of Antietam, Gen. George McClellan, then the commanding general of the Army of the Potomac, wrote to his wife about the sisters’ loyalty.

When Margaret’s cousin, Amelia Somervell, who had come to live with her in 1870, married local farmer John Dawson, the mansion eventually passed to their daughters.

As you can see, our house has quite a history. We welcome all to come visit it. We are open noon-4 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday. There is a nominal admission charge.

Allen H. Saperstein, Bethesda

Pepco’s neglect imperils pedestrians Winter storm Janus elicited joy for students across Montgomery County, leaving them with about 9 inches of snow, no school on Jan. 22, and a twohour delay on Jan. 23.

That joy, however, quickly turned to despair as students who were unfortunate enough to live within a certain distance from school realized that they had to walk to school. The Montgomery County public school system does not provide bus service to high school students within 2 miles of the school, middle school students within 1½ miles, and elementary school students within 1 mile.

I am one of the many students who does not receive bus service. Complaining about walking would do me no good, so I viewed it as an opportunity to exercise. I was bundled up in my warmest jacket, waterproof boots, two pairs of socks, a set of mittens and a hat shaped like Grover from Sesame Street and a scarf.

All was well until it dawned on me that Pepco, the company notorious for power outages without just cause, had not shoveled the sidewalk that parallels their property on either

side of Gainsborough Road. It’s a mere 300 feet at the most, 0.06 of a mile.

It doesn’t seem like much, but those 300 feet are located on a hill. The snow that had fallen on Jan. 21st had melted slightly and re-froze into a seemingly innocent sheet of ice over the course of the 48 hours that had lapsed since it stopped snowing.

The sidewalk was ice, the grass was ice, the road was full of cars; there was no safe way to get to school.

I began to walk on the ice-covered sidewalk, and it appeared to be somewhat safe. Halfway up I slipped, and landed on my backside.

Luckily, no one saw me, and everyone knows you didn’t really fall unless someone else is there to witness your embarrassment.

I didn’t mind, I just got up, brushed myself off, and continued on to school. At 2:15 that afternoon, I was walking in the same spot and fell again.

The next morning, my friend fell while walking to school with me. This has continued for over a week and I have witnessed someone fall or have fallen myself every single

day on the walk to and from school. It is unsafe for students, or anyone really, to be walking on Pepco’s death trap made out of neglect and water.

In case you are not familiar with Montgomery County’s code of law, under Sec. 49-17, the following three points are expressly stated: • “A person is responsible for removing snow and ice on any sidewalk, other walkway, or parking area on or adjacent to property that the person owns, leases, or manages, including any walkway in the public right-of-way, to provide a pathway wide enough for safe pedestrian and wheelchair use.”

• “If ice or hardpacked snow is impossible or unreasonably difficult to remove, the person is responsible for applying sufficient sand, other abrasives, or salt to provide safe pedestrian use.”

• “The person is responsible for removing snow and ice within 24 hours after the end of the precipitation that caused the condition.”

This code of law holds Pepco accountable for removing snow and ice on any sidewalk adjacent to the property

Kelly Walsh, Potomac

We have met the deer’s enemy, and he is us In answer to the letter in The Gazette’s Forum on Jan. 22: “For deer, sharpshooters maybe only option.”

The solution to the deer’s overpopulation is for humans to stop taking over their habitat: their forests; their waterways and every blade of grass.

We have, through the years and without mercy, overbuilt both in cities and suburbs thus creating a wildlife exodus and confusion.

We have the impression that deer’s population has increased when in reality it’s the human population triggering problems for the wildlife.

We could make an effort and live in good co-existence with wildlife if we stopped depleting woods and forests to create more suburbs and shopping malls infested with pollution and crime.

9030 Comprint Court, Gaithersburg, MD 20877 | Phone: 301-948-3120 | Fax: 301-670-7183 | Email: opinions@gazette.net More letters appear online at www.gazette.net/opinion

Douglas Tallman, Editor Krista Brick, Managing Editor/News Glen C. Cullen, Senior Editor Copy/Design Meredith Hooker, Managing Editor/Internet Robert Rand, Managing Editor/Presentation

that they own or manage. If the ice is too difficult to remove, they are responsible for applying enough sand or salt to make it safe to walk on. They also have to do this within 24 hours of the end of the precipitation. It has been over seven days.

The court case Poole v.

Coakley, 423 Md. 91 (2011), ruled that “knowledge undoubtedly acquired from encountering visible snow and ice may be imputed as a matter of law.” Without all of the lawyer jargon, that means that if you see snow and ice and continue to walk on it anyway, you assume the risk of potentially slipping and falling.

If someone fell there, Pepco would not be held responsible even though there is no other way to get past the ice without going in the road and potentially being hit by a car or trespassing on Pepco’s property.

Pepco has had over a week to fix this problem, yet they have not done anything and will continue to do nothing. It is unsafe and unfair that people are forced to deal with Pepco’s ignorance.

Andrew Schotz, Assistant Managing Editor Nathan Oravec, A&E Editor Ken Sain, Sports Editor Dan Gross, Photo Editor Jessica Loder, Web Editor

Dennis Wilston, Corporate Advertising Director Doug Baum, Corporate Classifieds Director Mona Bass, Inside Classifieds Director

Jean Casey, Director of Marketing and Circulation Anna Joyce, Creative Director, Special Pubs/Internet Ellen Pankake, Director of Creative Services

Viviane Pescov, Kensington

POST COMMUNITY MEDIA Karen Acton, Chief Executive Officer Michael T. McIntyre, Controller Donna Johnson, Vice President of Human Resources Maxine Minar, President, Comprint Military

THE GAZETTE

Wednesday, February 12, 2014 z

• Mary Ellen Barbera. Appointed chief judge of the state’s top court. First woman to hold that post.

• Laura Neuman. Anne Arundel County’s new county executive with a heroic life story and plenty of smarts.

• Tom Perez. President Obama’s new secretary of labor (this guy is a perennial rising star).

• Ben Carson. Hopkins superstar neurosurgeon celebrated by Hollywood and the media until he ventured into politics this year as a conservative, becoming a national political figure.

MGM. • Won the new casino rights in P.G. County (shocker?); will MY MARYLAND make zillions.

BLAIR LEE Stock • market. Stocks cap best year of century with 30 percent gains.

• Mike Pantelides. The young Republican who won Annapolis mayor’s race by 59 votes.

• Cyber security. Maryland’s hottest new growth industry with unlimited potential.

• University of Maryland. Breaks into top 10 on Playboy’s best “party schools” list.

• Bao Bao. The National Zoo’s new baby giant panda whose every move dominates the news.

• Towson Tigers. Coach Rob Ambrose takes Towson U. football from 1-10 (2010) to the 2013 National Championship game.

• “The Wire.” Baltimore-based HBO series named number one TV show of all time by EW magazine.

• The 2000 Dodge Caravan. Maryland’s most stolen car, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau.

Falling stars • Pro sports. Both the Orioles (.525) and the Nationals (.531) defy expectations, failing to make the playoffs. Meanwhile the NFL champion Ravens also miss the playoffs while the Redskins go 3-13 and fire coach Shanahan.

• The Terps. Football team limped through its last ACC season before joining the Big Ten (thank God the College Park geniuses didn’t put us in the SEC).

1905629

Rising stars

• Gold. The economic downturn drove up gold from $500 per ounce to $1,900 in 2011, but 2013 was the first year this century that gold finished lower than it began.

• Coal. Cheap natural gas (fracking) and stiff new EPA regs helped close two Maryland coal-fired plants, ban new ones.

• Public-financed hotels. Baltimore’s $300 million taxpayer-financed Hilton Hotel has lost $70 million since it opened in 2008. Meanwhile, the $120 million state-financed Cambridge Hyatt Hotel can’t pay its bills either. Both hotels are draining reserve funds.

• Maryland business/retirement climate. Maryland’s business climate dropped from 40th to 41st nationally and the state tied with Vermont (44th) as “one of the worst places to retire,” according to national surveys.

Fiascos and scams of the year • Baltimore speed cameras. When Baltimore’s hopelessly flawed speed cameras issued 70,000 incorrect tickets (including a parked truck) the city agreed to a $2.2 million camera replacement plan but exited the contract by paying off the vendor $600,000.

• Maryland’s Obamacare exchange.

Maryland’s self-styled website crashed the first day and has never fully recovered. It makes the federal website look good, but state legislators don’t want to hold anyone accountable until after November’s elections.

• Baltimore jail bust. The state took over the Baltimore jail in the early 1990s due to the city’s mismanagement. Yet, in April the feds busted the jail and indicted 44 inmates and guards who abetted the Black Guerrilla Family’s free run of the lockup.

• The rain tax. Taxpayers in Maryland’s 10 largest counties received “rain tax” bills for stormwater runoff from their rooftops and driveways.

• Baltimore’s school construction.

As a reward for the city’s years of failing to close schools and for operating halfempty buildings, the state guaranteed $20 million a year for thirty years to fix the problem while leaving other counties to fight for year-to-year funding.

• Robert Saylor. When this Down syndrome moviegoer tried to watch an extra show, three off-duty Frederick County deputies scuffled with him, leading to his death by asphyxiation.

Page A-17

LETTERS TOT HE EDITOR • Silver Spring Transit Center. Due to faulty concrete work, this $120 million project is wildly over budget, overdue and a major embarrassment.

• DHCD headquarters. In a political payoff to P.G. County (and punishment to Anne Arundel County) Gov. Martin O’Malley defied all logic and cost effectiveness by relocating the Department of Housing and Community Development HQ to New Carrollton.

• Court delays. Once a case is heard

by Maryland’s top court, how long before a ruling should be rendered? How about seven years? In 2006 the court heard Kevin Alston’s plea for parole eligibility.

But, by the time the court decided (2013) in his favor, Alston had completed his five-year sentence. Numerous such delays are a judicial scandal.

• School cheating. No, not the students, it’s the administrators. Why are Maryland’s schools top ranked? Because Maryland leads the nation in excluding low-scoring special ed and immigrant students from national testing.

• More school cheating. Auditors found P.G. schools misspent $167,000 in federal stimulus funds (engraved watches, rental cars, teas) and $540,000 misspent by Baltimore schools (harbor cruises, catered mom/daughter “makeover days”). A Baltimore principal stole $10,000 from a student activity fund, a Baltimore school board member resigned for falsifying his education resume, and the University of Maryland disclosed that it secretly hired a PR firm to sway public opinion in favor of its move to the Big Ten. • Obamaphones. Free cellphones for low-income Maryland families grew from 5,821 (2008) to 509,000 (2012), an increase 40 times the national average because half the recipients were ineligible.

• Air pollution. Despite Maryland’s punitive environmental efforts against state businesses, it turns out that 70 percent of Maryland’s air pollution comes from upwind states beyond Maryland’s control.

Blair Lee is chairman of the board of Lee Development Group in Silver Spring and a regular commentator for WBAL radio. His column appears Fridays in the Business Gazette. His past columns are available at www.gazette.net/blairlee.

His email address is blairleeiv@gmail. com.

Praise for Andrews’ bill Councilman Philip Andrews’ bill to provide public funding for county executive and County Council campaigns [“Andrews proposes campaign money plan,” Feb. 5], which has drawn unanimous praise from fellow council members as well as support from a number of organizations dedicated to good government, is an example of his integrity, leadership, and, in particular, concern

about the influence of special interests in politics — characteristics that make Andrews an attractive candidate for county executive in the June 24 Democratic primary.

Andrews is the only candidate running in the primary who does not accept campaign funds from developers, unions and PACs.

Susanne Humphrey, Wheaton

Publicly financed candidates ensures government ‘by the people’ Phil Andrews’ new bill to set up a public finance system for Montgomery County elections [“Andrews proposes bill that would allow public funding for campaigns,” Feb. 5] will make our county more democratic.

Democracy means “government by the people” — not “government by special interest groups.” Right now, special interests dictate how politics are run more than they should. Andrews’ public finance system offers a way to stop special interests from taking over elections.

Politicians who chose to participate in the proposed public

financing system won’t be able to take big contributions from unions and developers. And, individual donations will be capped at $150.

Public financing would encourage more people to run for county office who don’t have access to special interest money or don’t want to be dependent on it.

This will make government more “by the people.” I hope the County Council approves Andrews’ legislation.

Thank you, Andrews, for caring about democracy.

Laura Markstein, Silver Spring

WRITE TO US The Gazette welcomes letters on subjects of local interest. Please limit them to 200 words. All articles are subject to editing. No anonymous letters are printed. Letters are printed as space permits and are limited to one per person per month. Include your name, address and daytime telephone number.

Send submissions to: The Gazette, attention Commentary Editor, 9030 Comprint Court, Gaithersburg, MD 20877; fax to 301-6707183; or email to opinions@gazette.net.

Page A-18

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THE GAZETTE

Wednesday, February 12, 2014 z

CHURCHILL BOYS’ BASKETBALL HITS ITS STRIDE JUST BEFORE THE PLAYOFFS, B-3

SPORTS GAITHERSBURG | MONTGOMERY VILLAGE

www.gazette.net | Wednesday, February 12, 2014 | Page B-1

HOW THEY RANK BOYS The 10 best boys’ basketball teams in Montgomery County as ranked by The Gazette’s sports staff:

Rank

School

Record Pts

1.

Bullis

19-3 60

2.

Montrose Christian 13-5 54

3.

Springbrook

16-2 46

4.

St. Andrew’s

17-4 38

5.

Gaithersburg

15-2 29

6.

Clarksburg

14-4 20

7.

Montgomery Blair 14-3 19

8.

Rockville

14-3 9

9.

Poolesville

13-4 7

10.

Walt Whitman

13-4 4

“THERE’S TWO THINGS IN THIS WORLD YOU CAN’T GET BACK AND THAT’S TIME AND WHAT YOU PUT ON THE INTERNET. ALL WE REALLY HAVE AT THE END OF THE DAY IS OUR LAST NAME, SO HOW DO YOU WANT TO BE RECEIVED?”

Others receiving votes:

Wheaton 3; Jewish Day 1.

BEST BET

Poolesville at Rockville, 5:15 p.m. Tuesday: This game that

could decide the Montgomery 3A/2A Division title.

TOP SCORERS

Name, school A. Trier, Montrose Christian J. Friedman, Sandy Spring W. English, McLean J. McKay, McLean I. Kallon, Wheaton N. Segura, The Heights K. Williams, Kennedy J. Stern, Hebrew Academy M. Adkison, St. Andrew’s A. Tarke, Gaithersburg

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY DAN GROSS/THE GAZETTE

ALASTS tweet today FOREVER

PPG 25.5 22.2 21.3 20.6 19.9 19.1 18.7 18.6 18.5 18.2

GIRLS The 10 best girls’ basketball teams in Montgomery County as ranked by The Gazette’s sports staff:

Rank

School

Record Pts

1.

Damascus

16-2 60

2.

Walt Whitman

15-2 54

3.

Paint Branch

16-2 48

4.

John F. Kennedy 13-2 42

5.

Holy Child

18-3 36

6.

Seneca Valley

14-3 20

7.

Poolesville

13-4 19

8.

Thomas S. Wootton 12-6 18

9.

Winston Churchill 10-8 11

10.

Gaithersburg

10-4 8

Others receiving votes: Good Counsel 3; Col. Zadok Magruder 1.

BEST BET

Damascus at Riverdale Baptist, 7 p.m. Tuesday: The best of

Montgomery and Prince George’s square off in a must-watch game.

TOP SCORERS

Name, school K. Prange, Damascus D. Lerner, Jewish Day S. Addison, Wootton K. Colston, Paint Branch D. Harris, Paint Branch B. Beckwith, Quince Orchard J. Karim-Duvall, Churchill J. Craig, Seneca Valley D. Walker, Watkins Mill K. Meredith, Northwest K. Porter, Bullis

1905875

PPG 19.6 18.6 18.4 18.1 17.5 17.4 17.4 16.5 16.2 16.1 15.9

From Twitter to Facebook to message boards, Web provides information, places to rant

BY

n

TRAVIS MEWHIRTER STAFF WRITER

Around 11 a.m. on an otherwise average Wednesday morning at Thomas S. Wootton High School (@ WoottonSports, 220 followers), Patriot football coach Tyree Spinner (@ TyreeSpinner, 243 followers) and his assistant coaches were dismissed.

The cyberspace feuding began soon after.

Upon hearing the news, one student said he arrived home around 2:30 p.m. and the first thing he did was create a Twitter account, @getspinnerback (195 followers), which has since launched a sea of discussion in the Montgomery County Twitter-sphere.

Social media has been used for all manner of things in myriad fields: public relations, news gathering and reporting, organizational efforts,

Einstein senior dominates the paint

trash talk, and publishing whatever is on one’s mind — anything under the sun. It can be a tremendous resource or entirely worthless, both trouble-causing and problem-solving.

The latter was the intent for the student behind the @getspinnerback account, who asked to remain anonymous in an interview.

See TWEET, Page B-2

G’burg sprinter qualifies for states

Camara stronger than ever after abbreviated junior season

n

n

Mitchell boasts county’s sixth-fastest time in the 55 meters

STAFF WRITER

BY JENNIFER BEEKMAN STAFF WRITER

Albert Einstein High School boys’ basketball senior Abraham Camara used to be a lanky 6-foot-5 center. A raw, talented big man, or as teammate Joe Bradshaw described him, “some skinny frail guy.”

But that all changed last year, after he temporarily left the team and missed out on Einstein’s late-season run to focus on his academics.

Thanks to the extended offseason, which allowed for extra time in the weight room, Camara has transformed into one of the most dominant big men in the county.

“He became a dedicated high school athlete,” Einstein coach Rich Porac said. “That, beyond anything else I’ve seen, has been the biggest improvement.”

Don’t be alarmed if Gaithersburg High School senior sprinter Alexia Mitchell’s eyes well with tears following a race. More often than not, it’s a good thing.

“I know when I’ve run a race really hard, after that race, the lactic acid builds up in my legs really fast and sometimes I’ll tear up,” Mitchell said.

“But if my legs are burning, then I know I ran a good race and that makes me feel really good.”

As one of Montgomery County’s top sprinters — she currently holds the sixth-best time in the 55 meters (4.70 seconds) — her arrival on the first day of Trojans cross country practice last August might have been surprising to some.

BY

ERIC GOLDWEIN

See EINSTEIN, Page B-2

TOM FEDOR/THE GAZETTE

Albert Einstein High School’s Abe Camara shoots against Rockville on Friday.

See SPRINTER, Page B-2

THE GAZETTE

Page B-2

SPRINTER

Continued from Page B-1 Long distance racing admittedly isn’t her cup of tea. This past fall, however, the cross country season was a means to an end after a hamstring strain suffered at the outdoor county championship in May knocked her off the track for the remainder of the summer.

A hamstring muscle strain is a tear or stretch of a major muscle in the back of the thigh, according to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. The No. 1 remedy, especially among relatively minor strains, is rest. Mitchell typically spends summers traveling and competing with the Firebirds track club and said the decision to sit out was

difficult but necessary. “[Cross country] gave Alexia an opportunity to get really comfortable with running and really in a position where she was comfortable with everything,” fifth-year Gaithersburg indoor track and field coach Melissa Ashby said. “We used [cross country] to build up endurance so during the indoor season we could focus on speed and not have to worry about endurance.”

The plan seems to be paying off. Worried just a few short months ago that she wouldn’t be ready to compete in her senior indoor track season, Mitchell’s third-place finish in the 55 meters in Thursday’s Class 4A West Region meet automatically qualified the Trojans’ three-year sprint captain for her second state champi-

EINSTEIN

Continued from Page B-1 Camara bulked up in the offseason and also played on the football team this fall. “You can see the difference,” Porac said. In just his third year playing organized basketball, the senior is averaging 18 points, 15.8 rebounds and 4.1 blocks per game (as of Monday), dominating inside on both ends of the floor.

“He’s way more aggressive. He feels like he has to prove a point in the county,” Bradshaw said.

The Titans rarely call plays for Camara, who leads the team in scoring and shoots about 60 percent from the field. The center inflicts most of his damage in the paint, collecting errant field goal attempts and turning them into easy buckets.

“Sometimes, our best play is a bad shot when Abraham is under the basket,” Porac said.

Camara has been playing his best basketball as of late. He had 40 points and 18 rebounds in a 72-56 win over

onship scheduled to be held Tuesday at the Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex.

Mitchell qualified for states in the same event as a sophomore in 2012 and finished 11th in the preliminary race — the top 8 reach the final.

Last winter she barely missed the cut in an extremely tight race at regionals, which she said makes this year’s return to states even sweeter. Rather than set specific goals regarding where she hopes to finish Tuesday, however, Mitchell is solely focused on achieving a personal best time. With that, the results will come. Her performances thus far this winter have already sparked more interest from Division I college coaches, she said.

“Competing at the highest level at states is a great feel-

Seneca Valley on Jan. 31. The week before, he recorded 37 points and 20 rebounds in a win over Walter Johnson.

“The thing with him, he doesn’t need us to pass the ball,” Bradshaw said. “If the ball comes off the rim, that’s just his.”

Camara began his sophomore year on the junior varsity team, but moved up to varsity after a rimbreaking two-handed dunk caught the attention of his coaches. Adjusting to the varsity level was a struggle, he said.

“It was really difficult for me,” he said. “... There were obviously guys better than me, bigger than me. I needed time to learn the game of basketball.”

Slowly but surely Camara has done exactly that, overcoming obstacles like the ones he faced his junior season.

“I started taking my grades seriously, hitting the weight room, trying to get better,” Camara said.

Even though he didn’t play at the end of last season, Camara attended all of Einstein’s games. After a 2-10

egoldwein@gazette.net

Continued from Page B-1

TOM FEDOR/THE GAZETTE

The announcement that Thomas S. Wootton football coach Tyree Spinner and his staff were dismissed caused one student to create a Twitter account. ever, that social media can’t backfire. In fact, it’s becoming increasingly rare when it

ing, you know you’re going in as one of the top in the county and you just strive to push yourself to do the best you can, there’s a lot of competition out there,” Mitchell said.

Pushing herself is something Mitchell does better than anybody, Ashby said. The Gaithersburg coach added that Mitchell is one of the hardest working athletes she’s seen, which is not always the case with those who boast such remarkable innate talent.

Perhaps it’s because at just 5-foot-2 she naturally has to work harder than most of her competitors. Mitchell is always going to have more steps than most of the field but one advantage to being among the shorter competitors is her leg turnover, Ashby added.

Despite running track

start, the Titans won nine of their last 13 before falling to Urbana in the 3A West Region semifinal.

“It really upset me,” Camara said.

“Seeing the looks on my teammates’ faces when they lost to Urbana, I knew I had to step up.”

Camara has added several elements to his game this season, including an improved left hand. He’s also become more versatile. In a game two weeks ago, he grabbed a rebound and took it coast-to-coast, as if he were a guard, Porac said.

With only three years of serious basketball experience, there is plenty of room for growth.

“I think there’s a little more time to add more stuff to my game,” Camara said. “I just need to put the work in.”

Camara said he is undecided about school but that he wants to continue playing basketball.

“If I get the opportunity and the grades are up to par, I think I can get to the next level,” Camara said.

TWEET

“I think it can have a pretty big impact because The Gazette (@Mont_Sports, 1,413 followers) has already talked about us and more people followed,” he said. “And if someone else writes about us, then more people will notice us and the word will get out and maybe Dr. [and principal, Michael] Doran will think about it.”

Wootton officials held a meeting at the school on Feb. 6 to respond to concerns in the community about the dismissal of Spinner and his staff.

Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and all other forms of social media give athletes, coaches, opponents, and students an unchecked, unfiltered voice behind the safety of a computer screen.

“Faceless Internet weasels” is how Quince Orchard football coach Dave Mencarini (@ QOCoach, 1,452 followers) put it.

Coaches and athletic directors can interact with the community at large, players with county peers, team accounts with other team accounts. The @getspinnerback account was created predominantly with positive intentions for the coach. That’s not to say, how-

Wednesday, February 12, 2014 z

doesn’t.

Colleges and high schools have suspended players for de-

since age 8 when — Mitchell started with the successful but now-defunct Maryland Titans club coached by Dave and Alexia Knight — Mitchell said it took her some time freshman year to adjust to her new surroundings and new coaching; the Knights moved to Texas the previous year.

She was a spitfire, in a good way, Ashby said, but really began to focus her energy the right way as a sophomore and embraced her leadership role as one of the team’s top athletes. Mitchell’s work ethic is contagious, the Gaithersburg coach added, and with a new wave of underclassmen that she’s taken under her wing this winter, Ashby said a turnaround might be on the program’s horizon — despite Mitchell’s third-place fin-

ish in the 55 meters and 12th place performance in the 300 meters, Gaithersburg’s girls finished 18th at the county championships.

“A lot of times you see someone run and they cross their arms over their body and what that does is it turns their hips, which messes up the stride,” Ashby said. “It can take years to work on that. [Mitchell] has great arm position, she doesn’t cross over which makes her body move forward quicker and she does turn her hips either way. When you watch her run, it’s absolutely beautiful.” jbeekman@gazette.net

TOM FEDOR/THE GAZETTE

Albert Einstein High School’s Abe Camara talks to his coach, Rich Porac, against Rockville on Friday.

rogatory tweets. Professional athletes have been fined. It’s become increasingly difficult for social-media users to straddle the line between First Amendment rights and when it simply goes too far to publish an item on a forum where one screen-shot can preserve it for eternity.

“The big thing that you really got to do, especially for a young coach like Spinner, is to stay away from it,” MoCoFootball.com founder Mike Cornejo (@MikeCornejo, 1,624 followers) said. “It’s very tempting to post something on a message board like MoCo Football and fire back. In a broader sense, it’s the same thing [as Twitter], but … you’re not limited to 140 characters.”

It’s not all negative, though. Students and athletic departments have found productive uses for social media as well, though it’s oftentimes the inflammatory comments that attract the most attention.

Those with student section twitter accounts, such as Quince Orchard’s Red Army (@ RedArmy2013, 413 followers), use it to get out the message for a certain theme for that week’s game, what color to wear, etc.

Athletic directors, principals, and higher-ups have discovered successful ways to organize fundraisers and events, or announce schedule changes or weather postponements.

James H. Blake Athletic Director Jared Fribush (@ BlakeAthletics, 807 followers) said he uses it mainly to promote games and provide live scoring updates and check scores from around the county. Seneca Valley Athletic Director Jesse Irvin (@SVHSathletics, 406 followers) has a policy that every single athletic event will have a score tweeted out within two hours of conclusion.

“It is great to get out information to them quickly,” said Irvin, who set up the department’s Twitter and Facebook accounts when he took the job in 2011. “I have also used it to garner fan interest by holding Twitter contests, such as tweeting a picture of the student athlete at a game in school colors, showing their school pride.”

Though he emphasizes caution, Fribush leaves any social media restrictions up to each individual coach, adding that it’s not necessarily their responsibility to monitor Twitter or Facebook. To his knowledge, he has yet to see an incident involving any Blake athletes.

Seneca, meanwhile, has devised a specific social media policy where “inappropriate comments/pictures/descriptions regarding another person’s race, ethnic background, culture, religion, gender, or

sexual orientation” can result in suspension or dismissal from the team entirely.

Mencarini views Twitter and the message boards as “an unbelievable resource,” though he recognized the wealth of drawbacks that go hand-in-hand.

“It’s a great opportunity for me as a coach to promote all the good things we’re doing …. You find out more about what’s going on in the world in sports, news, whatever, on Twitter before you have to even get on the Internet.”

As most any coach has at this point, Mencarini, who makes a point of following his players on Twitter, has had conversations with several of his players about using social media responsibly. A synopsis of his 30-minute speech he gives his players goes something like this: “There’s two things in this world you can’t get back and that’s time and what you put on the Internet,” he said. “All we really have at the end of the day is our last name, so how do you want to be received?” tmewhirter@gazette.net

COMMISSIONERS OF POOLESVILLE

NOTICE OF JOINT PUBLIC HEARING

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARINGS

The Mayor and City Council and the Planning Commission of the City of Gaithersburg, Maryland, will conduct a joint public hearing on Zoning Map Amendment Z-4355-2014, filed by Craig Pittinger of Siena Corporation, on

MONDAY MARCH 17, 2014 AT 7:30 P.M. or as soon thereafter as this matter can be heard in the Council Chambers at 31 South Summit Avenue, Gaithersburg, Maryland.

This application is for a proposed rezoning of 3.13 acres of land from the C-2 (General Commercial) Zone to the E-1 (Urban Employment) Zone, in accordance with § 24-196 (Map Amendments) of the City Code. The Property is located at 14 Firstfield Road, in the southeast quadrant of the intersection of Firstfield Road and Bank Street in the City of Gaithersburg, Maryland.

Further information may be obtained from the Department of Planning and Code Administration at City Hall, 31 South Summit Avenue, between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, or visit the City’s website at www.gaithersburgmd.gov.

Gregory Mann, Planner Planning and Code Administration 1890816

Notice is hereby given that three Public Hearings will be held on February 18, 2014 at 7:30 PM at 19721 Beall Street, Poolesville, Maryland for the purpose of the Commissioners of Poolesville receiving public comment on Proposed Ordinance 197, to amend the zoning map of the Town of Poolesville, Proposed Ordinance 198, to repeal Appendix B of the Poolesville Code, titled “Zoning” and enact in its place a new Appendix B with the same title for the purpose of revising in a comprehensive manner said zoning code; eliminating the Central Business District and General Commercial Zone; creating a Commercial Zone; establishing a 2+ acre transition zone, codification of design standards in the Commercial Zone; revision of the Use and Development Standards, modification of parking requirements, modification of Sign standards and expansion of the definition section and proposed Ordinance No. 199 to remove the Wellhead Protection from the Zoning Code Appendix B to the Poolesville Code by adding a new Chapter No. 24. Copies of these proposed ordinances are available at Town Hall.

1890813

THE GAZETTE

Wednesday, February 12, 2014 z

Page B-3

MONTGOMERY COUNTY NLI SIGNING DAY

BY GAZETTE STAFF

Feb. 5 was the first day high school seniors can sign a National Letter of Intent to play sports in college. Below is a list of all the student-athletes from Montgomery County that The Gazette has been able to confirm who have (or expect to) signed their national letters of intent. Athletes who plan to play at non-scholarship schools are also included.

Football n n n n n n n n n

BILL RYAN/THE GAZETTE

Walt Whitman High School’s Hannah Niles (left) dribbles past Walter Johson’s Kristin Scott on Friday.

Wootton pulls reversal vs. Gaithersburg Whitman’s streak reaches 14; Jewish Day leads the PVAC n

The Thomas S. Wotton High School girls’ basketball team (12-6, 8-2 as of Monday) clinched a share of the Montgomery 4A West Division title on Friday, defeating co-champion Gaithersburg 70-46 on Friday.

GIRLS BASKETBALL NOTEBOOK

BY ERIC GOLDWEIN The Trojans (11-5, 8-2) took the first meeting and could have earned sole possession of the division title with a series sweep, but the Patriots jumped out to an early lead and held on for the win.

Ellie Kobylski scored a game-high 22 points and hit five 3-pointers to lead the Patriots.

The junior guard also helped limit Gaithersburg’s leading scorer, Janessa Fauntroy, who finished with 19 points.

“She’s just strong and intense and a real competitor,” Wootton

coach Maggie Dyer said.

Wootton’s press kept Gaithersburg’s offense in check; the Trojans managed only 26 points through three quarters.

“I think defensively, we played a lot better. We played with a lot more intensity coming out,” Dyer said.

Wootton had four different double-digit scorers, including Kobylski, her twin sister Cece Kobylski (12), Sheri Addison (20) and Kaitlin Klausing (12).

“A lot of kids just stepped up and contributed to make it a team win,” Dyer said.

Whitman win streak continues Whitman (15-2, 7-0) has won 14 straight games after defeating Walter Johnson 65-30 on Friday and is peaking at just the right time.

Senior Avery Witt scored 12 points and sophomore Hannah Niles scored 11 off the bench to lead Whitman’s balanced attack.

Though Whitman doesn’t have a player averaging doubledigits in scoring, the offense has scored 50-plus points in six of its last seven games.

“We pride ourselves on the

defense, but the offense seems to be catching up,” Whitman coach Pete Kenah said after the game.

The Vikings returned two starters from last year’s 21-5 squad that won a region title and reached the state semifinals.

Jewish Day atop PVAC Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School (11-1 as of Monday) is on a nine-game win streak and in position to win the Potomac Valley Athletic Conference.

“As this season has gone on, they’re understanding better how each other play,” said firstyear coach Rebecca Silberman. “… I think I’ve done a good job of motivating them but I think they’ve done an even better job of motivating each other.”

The Lions are led by sophomore Daphne Lerner, who is averaging a team-high 18.5 points and helping carry the team on both sides of the floor. Their last loss came in December against Washington Waldorf (37-34). egoldwein@gazette.net Harvey Valentine contributed.

Churchill mixes up playoff picture n

Bulldogs upset Whitman and Blair back-to-back

Robert Bean was quick to keep his optimism in check.

His Winston Churchill High School basketball team had just followed up a four-point win against previously-ranked Walt Whitman by delivering a 20-point home thumping to

BOYS BASKETBALL NOTEBOOK

BY TRAVIS MEWHIRTER then-No. 5 Montgomery Blair.

But he has seen these flashes of brilliance before. He was quick to contain his excitement within realistic bounds.

“It’s a good sign for sure, but it’s a little bit too early to tell,” the first-year coach said. “We won three in a row earlier but then we lost three in a row. What I’m seeing right now is in practice, we seem a lot more focused and we’re playing in practice like we play in a game.”

What he’s also seeing is a consistently full roster for one of the first times all season. Bean has had to deal with injuries and various other reasons for athletes being unable to play. With 6-foot-5 junior Bobby ArthurWilliams and 6-4 sophomore Sean Strittmatter, both of whom have battled injuries throughout the year, and several others as healthy as they’ve been all year, Churchill has essentially its entire lineup playing together, and playing on the same page.

“We’ve had a couple big wins,” Bean said. “We needed them. Things are starting to come around. It’s tough to get a new coach and it’s tough to be a new coach.”

Earlier in the week, Springbrook coach Tom Crowell had actually voiced his confusion over why Churchill was struggling so much. Prior to the Bulldogs’ resurgent week, they were 5-11 and had lost four of the past

FILE PHOTO

Winston Churchill High School’s Allen Njumbe is one of the Bulldogs’ key players this season. five games, though that win did come against a solid Col. Zadok Magruder team.

“They’re so athletic, they have some really good players,” Crowell said, before specifically citing Jesse Locke and Allen Njumbe as the two that particularly stuck out to him.

Well, guess who combined for 37 points in the Feb. 4 victory over Whitman? And then another 36 in the rout over Blair?

Locke and Njumbe.

“Our offense was clicking, our defense — I think we were doing a job getting hands in [Blair’s] face and getting on the boards,” Bean said. “And on offense, we were getting a lot of good shots, open shots.”

Bean runs what he likes to call a “penetrate and kick” mo-

tion-style offense. The penetration draws the defense to leave a man, ideally Locke or Njumbe, open on the perimeter. The result was a devastating 13 made 3-pointers against Blair — topping the previous season-high of 12 on Magruder — nine of which came off the hands of Locke and Njumbe.

Though Churchill is well out of the running for a bye in the playoffs, every team makes the tournament regardless of regular season success. With the playoff draw near, it’s not too bad a time to begin peaking.

“We got to shore up a lot of things, to be honest,” Bean said.

“We have a lot to work on. Right now, I’m cautiously optimistic.” tmewhirter@gazette.net

n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n n

Jesse Aniebonam, Good Counsel, Maryland Bruno Anyangwe, Clarksburg, Elon Daniel Appouh, Seneca Valley, Old Dominion Lamonte Armstrong, Quince Orchard, Naval Academy Jamal Averette, Good Counsel, Gannon Gus Basanes, Georgetown Prep, Cornell Malcolm Brown, Quince Orchard, Delaware Andrew Caskin, Georgetown Prep, William and Mary Tamsir (Malleh) Ceesay, Clarksburg, Arizona Western Junior College Joe Cho, Poolesville, Carleton Patrick Crowe, Georgetown Prep, Colgate Elliott Davis, Quince Orchard, N.C. State Leo Ekwoge, Good Counsel, Western Michigan Alex Evans, Springbrook, East Carolina Alonte Evans, Kennedy, Nassau Matt Ferguson, Kennedy, Stevenson Marvin Galdamez, Kennedy, Bowie State Rasheed Gillis, Northwest, Shepherd Josh Gills, Northwest, Duquesne Julian Granby, Springbrook, Bowie State Kyle Gregory, Quince Orchard, Monmouth Justin Herron, Bullis, Wake Forest Stephon Jacob, Damascus, Richmond Byron Johnson, Northwest, St. Francis Kenneth Johnson, Kennedy, Bowie State Tyamonee Johnson, Bullis, Wagner Steven Johnston, Georgetown Prep, Dartmouth Lucas Kane, Northwood, Davidson Sam Madaras, Good Counsel, U. of Albany Sam Mustipher, Good Counsel, Notre Dame Nick Newsham, Walt Whitman, Alderson Broaddus Tatah Ndeh Springbrook, Shepherd Doron Redparth, Kennedy, Lakawanna Keannu Richards, Kennedy, Bowie State Nino Scalia, Georgetown Prep, Rhodes College Michael Scott, Kennedy, Nassau Patrick Stewart, Georgetown Prep, Holy Cross Desharnte Thompson, Good Counsel, U. of Albany Michael Udeogu, Georgetown Prep, Butler Solomon Vault, Gaithersburg, Northwestern Kobe Walker, Good Counsel, Kentucky Ritchie Wenzel, Good Counsel, Cornell

Soccer n n n n n n n

Joseph Bogan, Northwest, Lehigh Marisa Brisbane, Damascus, York Karl Brown, Einstein, Colgate Alicia Chavez, Good Counsel, Mount St. Mary’s Karli Cirovski, Good Counsel, Bucknell Michaela Colon, Gaithersburg, Cal U John Marc Charpentier, Einstein, Lehigh

n n n n n n n n n n

Stephanie Cox, Damascus, Shepherd Imani Dorsey, Good Counsel, Duke Joseph Fingerhut, Landon, Wake Forest Josh Golob, Winston Churchill, Lafayette David Hay, Clarksburg, Stony Brook Megan Hinz, Good Counsel, Michigan Katie Kirschenmann, Damascus, McDaniel Courtney Parr, Good Counsel, Michigan Abby Saturni, Good Counsel, Elmira Sarah Settlemire, Good Counsel, Indiana (Pa.)

Track and field n n n n

Claudia Ababio, Clarksburg, Maryland Jamillah Jonjo, Quince Orchard, Towson Naomi Sheppard, Northwest, Troy Chase Weaverling, Poolesville, Virginia

Field Hockey n Lizzy Parker, Quince Orchard, Bridgewater

Baseball n n n n n n

Matt Chanin Sherwood, UMBC Evan Colon, Gaithersburg, Frostburg Chris Conver, Poolesville, UMBC Nick DeCarlo, Gaithersburg, Mount St. Mary’s Ryan Kelchner, Good Counsel, Potomac State Joe Lozupone, Good Counsel, Washington College n Robbie Metz, Poolesville, George Washington n Hunter Pearre, Poolesville, Barton

Lacrosse n n n n n n n n

Caitlin Augerson, Damascus, Kenyon Paige Bonds, Damascus, Pfeiffer Andie deCelis, Clarksburg, Manhattan Nick Frankauski, Damascus, Manhattan Leigh Gatons, Damascus, Louisville Haley Giraldi, Good Counsel, Princeton Michelle Krenzke, Damascus, Messiah Alexis Rusnak, Watkins Mill, Robert Morris

Gymnastics n Danielle Hall, Clarksburg, Pittsburgh

Volleyball n Sarah Kenneweg, Poolesville, Seton Hall

Basketball n n n n n n

Brittany Beckwith, Quince Orchard, St. Vincent’s Aaron Briggs, Bullis, Naval Academy Janessa Fauntroy, Gaithersburg, Maine Jenna Kaufman, Damascus, Seton Hill Stacy Koutris, Good Counsel, Mount St. Mary’s Kendra Meredith, Northwest, Southern Connecticut n Babette Sanmartin, Quince Orchard, St. Vincent’s n Sara Woods, Good Counsel, Drexel

Cross country n Collin Crilly, Good Counsel, St. Joseph

THE GAZETTE

Page B-4

Wednesday, February 12, 2014 z

County high school hockey playoffs begin Seneca Valley grad Georgetown Prep, enjoys life at Virginia Churchill win Metros n

swimming

Women’s basketball: Wolfe, recovered from torn ACL, leads the Cavaliers n

A glimpse at the final Montgomery 2A standings in the Maryland Student Hockey League may have signaled a changing of the guard in the county, especially with Thomas S. Wootton High School (12-0)

BY

BY GAZETTE STAFF

BILL RYAN/THE GAZETTE

Our Lady of Good Counsel’s Brady Welch celebrates winning the boys’ 100 freestyle with a personal best time during Saturday’s Washington Metropolitan Interscholastic Swimming Championship in Germantown. goalies.

Defending champion Churchill (9-2-1) finished second in the standings, outscoring its opponents, 81-22, despite the two 5-1 setbacks to Wootton. In the 10 games that were not head-to-head meetings, Wootton outscored its rivals, 89-14, while Churchill, which went 9-0-1 in those outings, owned a 79-12 advantage in goals. Three Churchill players, Junmno Kim (14 goals), Philip Satin (10) and Connor Liu (10) scored at least 10 goals, while six players, Ross Allen (16 assists), Satin (12), Liu (10), Charlie Ruter (10), Richard Ying (10) and Justin Vagonis (10) had at least 10 assists. Marcus Hurd (8-2-1, 2.66) is the primary netminder.

— TED BLACK

Georgetown Prep, Churchill win Metros Eight total records were broken at Saturday’s 50th Washington Metropolitan In-

mark with her American record swim during Friday’s 500-yard freestyle preliminaries. With a time of 4 minutes, 28.71 seconds, Ledecky became the first woman to break the 4:30 barrier. She won the event by more than two pool lengths Saturday.

Georgetown Prep accounted for three meet records.

Juniors Carsten Vissering and Grant Goddard broke individual records in the 100-yard breaststroke (53.49) and 100yard butterfly (48.69), respectively. The two then joined classmates Adrian Lin and Brandon Goldstein to win the meet finale 400-yard freestlye in record fashion (3:04.83).

Other meet records were set by Sidwell Friends’ Gavin Springer (200-yard freestyle, 1:38.29), Sherwood’s Morgan Hill (50-yard freestyle, 22.97), Our Lady of Good Counsel’s Brady Welch (100-yard freestyle, 45.00) and Wootton’s Kristina Li (100-yard backstroke, 54.12).

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terscholastic Swimming and Diving Championships won by Georgetown Prep and Winston Churchill.

The Little Hoyas, who were the boys’ champion from 20042010, won their first Metros title in four years Saturday at the Germantown Indoor Swim Center with a 412-360 advantage over three-time defending champion Gonzaga. The Richard Montgomery boys finished third with 280.5 points and Thomas S. Wootton (263.5 points) and Walt Whitman (258) finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

Churchill, which led by 67 points following Thursday’s diving competition, won its third championship in three years by besting the defending champion Wootton girls, 426346. Resurgent Walter Johnson (246), Richard Montgomery (238) and Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart (224) rounded out the top 5.

Stone Ridge junior and 2012 Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky set a new Metros

As soon as it happened, Kelsey Wolfe said she knew she was significantly hurt.

On Feb. 17, 2013, Wolfe was leading a fast break for the University of Virginia women’s basketball team and in order to beat one last defender, she performed a routine move she had done many times before.

Around the 3-point line, Wolfe was going to execute an “in-and-out or a crossover” dribble, but as soon as she came down on her right leg, she collapsed to the John Paul Jones Arena floor with a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

“As soon as it happened, I really knew I messed it up,” said Wolfe, who had never seriously been hurt playing basketball prior to the first half against the University of Maryland last year.

Now recovered, the 2010 Seneca Valley graduate is one of the Cavaliers top players in her senior season.

“It was pretty hard watching from the sidelines, not helping my team,” the guard said. “...

Rehab took a long time and took a lot of encouragement from [friends, family, teammates, coaches and trainers].”

Wolfe’s self-diagnosis of her injury wasn’t jumping to the worst-possible scenario. As a kinesiology major, she had recently taken a biomechanics class and learned about the anatomy of the knee and the difference in stability of an intact and torn ACL. “It’s definitely been helpful,” said Wolfe, who hopes to attend graduate school for physical therapy after graduating in May. She may also pursue a basketball career overseas. “{Recovering] is just as mental as physical.”

For the next nine months, Wolfe rehabilitated her knee and was able to get back on to the court after missing the first couple weeks of preseason

1905894

PREP NOTEBOOK sporting the league’s only unblemished record punctuated by the Patriots’ 5-1 victory over Winston Churchill on Friday evening.

But longtime Wootton coach Dave Evans is hardly viewing the standings as an entire validation of his team’s pending coronation as tournament champions Thursday at the Gardens Ice House in Laurel. Granted, Wootton owns two, identical, 5-1 victories over Churchill this season and has outscored its opponents by a 99-16 margin in its 12 games, but Evans has seen enough during his 20 years at the helm to know regular season success is no guarantee of postseason triumphs.

“Right now, I couldn’t be happier with the way that we’re playing,” Evans said after last Friday’s latest victory over Churchill. “It’s great to have an undefeated season, but the guys know that the playoffs are what counts. Even toward the end of the game when things started to get a little chippy, I kept telling the guys to back away and not do anything that would hurt the team. We didn’t want to have anyone suspended heading into the playoffs.”

The Wootton attack is led

by Brandon Hall (18 goals, 17 assists, 35 points), Austin Schoenfeld (10, 19, 29), Luke Klecker (13, 5, 18) and Nicolas Band (12, 5, 17). Hall had two goals last week in the win over Churchill and Schoenfeld added a goal and an assist.

Jake Mitchell, in net last week against Churchill, owns a 7-1 mark with a 2.17 goals against average and Aaron Cooperman (5-0, 1.83) are the Patriots’ two

KENT ZAKOUR STAFF WRITER

practice. She returned to her starting role in Virginia’s (12-11 overall, 5-5 Atlantic Coast Conference) season-opening contest and has not looked back, averaging 10.8 points, 3.0 assists and 3.0 rebounds per game this winter.

Wolfe estimates she is “99 percent” recovered and says she stopped playing with a protective knee brace during a tournament in December. But there are still a few specific movements that she thinks about.

“I’m feeling more comfortable on the court,” she said.

“Conference play was when I really started to be really confident and sure.”

On Jan. 23, Wolfe scored 24 points and helped lead the host Cavaliers to an upset victory over then sixth-ranked Maryland, ending the Terrapins 14game win streak. It was the first time Virginia played Maryland in Charlottesville since Wolfe’s injury last year.

“It was definitely in the back of my mind,” Wolfe said.

But once the game got started, she said it was forgotten and she was focused on helping her team win.

Wolfe, who recorded 1,809 points in high school and was named The Gazette’s 2010 Player of the Year after leading the Screaming Eagles to the 3A state championship with a perfect 27-0 record, came off the bench during her first two seasons in Charlottesville, averaging 9.1 and 12.4 minutes as a freshman and sophomore, respectively. But she worked her way into the starting lineup to begin the 2012-13 season, starting all 25 games and becoming the Cavaliers’ second-leading scorer (10.6) before her knee injury.

Virginia coach Joanne Boyle, who replaced Debbie Ryan — the coach Wolfe was recruited by out of high school — in the spring of 2011, says she has been impressed with Wolfe’s improvement, particularly with her vocal leadership.

“I didn’t think it was going to go by so fast,” Wolfe said. “I grew a lot as a person and developed a lot of relationships.”

BREWS BROTHERS

&

AROUND THE WORLD

As other countries discover the creative talents and brewing prowess of American craft beers, the industry has witnessed a stupendous growth in exports.

The Gazette’s Guide to

Arts & Entertainment

Page B-8 www.gazette.net

body of work BY

WILL C. FRANKLIN STAFF WRITER

Five writers follow the rules to make ‘Exquisite Corpse’ hybrid film n

|

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

B

ack in 2010, writer and comedy filmmaker Ben Popik sat down with five of his friends with one simple idea — those guys should write a movie.

OK, maybe it wasn’t quite that simple.

Popik had rules and conditions. Each of the five would be responsible for writing 15 pages of the script. Each member would pull a number out of a hat, and that was the order in which they would write. Oh, and each writer was only allowed to read the last five pages of the previous person’s work.

The concept turned into “The Exquisite Corpse Project,” which will be screened Sunday at the BlackRock Center for the Arts in Germantown.

“Exquisite corpse” is a term coined in the early part of the 20th century for a parlor game where people would write or draw something, cover it up, and pass it along to

See WORK, Page B-9

COURTESY BEN POPIK

Marc (Caleb Bark) and Adayit (Megan Raye Manzi) share a moment in “The Exquisite Corpse Project.”

|

Page B-5

Writers (from left) Dave Segal, Chioke Nassor, Raphael Bob-Waksberg, Joel Clark and Adam Conover were given the task of putting together the film “The Exquisite Corpse Project” with a very unusual set of rules.

JAY KELLY

BOOKS

Proof in theory n

MEDIUM

Cabaret act explores astrophysics and love

Actor, vocalist and raconteuse Gia Mora will bring her cabaret show, “Einstein’s Girl,” to Bethesda Blues & Jazz on Saturday, Feb. 15.

Accompanying her will be pianist and composer Charlie Barnett.

FROM GIA MORA

BY

VIRGINIA TERHUNE STAFF WRITER

As Valentine’s Day approaches, Gia Mora — actress, singer and raconteuse — sees parallels between the unfolding of romantic relationships and the history of the universe.

“I see them as being similar, because they’re both momentous events,” said Mora, who mixes science, song and standup in her latest cabaret show, “Einstein’s Girl.”

A former resident of the Washington area, Mora will return to the Bethesda Blues & Jazz Supper Club on Saturday, Feb. 15, with an updated version of her show about “the science of love, theoretically speaking.”

“Music, physics and love go together,” said Mora, who sings and writes her own comedy material.

“How to tell a story in as short a time as possible — I love that challenge,” she said.

As a vocalist, she puts her own spin on romantic classics like “Stardust” and “What a Little Moonlight Can Do,” but she also throws in her own musical and comedic take on love in the digital age mixed with the latest in cosmology.

n

RARE

Psychic’s new book tells ghost stories BY

ELLYN WEXLER

SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE

There’s not a ghost of a chance that Laine Crosby has many solitary moments. Since the Atlanta native and her family moved into a house on the site of an 18th-century plantation in Derwood almost a decade ago, the once self-described “completely ordinary” wife and mother has been walking and talking with spirits. In her recently released book, “Investigative Medium: The Awakening,” Crosby tells the story of discovering and accepting her psychic abilities.

“I turned forty, ate chocolate Coca-Cola birthday cake, and woke up talking to dead people,” she wrote in the book’s preface. “Suddenly, I was

See MEDIUM, Page B-9

See THEORY, Page B-9

EINSTEIN’S GIRL

n When: 8 p.m.

Saturday

n Where: Bethesda Blues & Jazz, 7719 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda

n Tickets: $25

n For information: 240-330-4500, Bethesdabluesjazz.com, EinsteinsGirl.com

CAROL NESBITT

Laine Crosby, author of “Investigative Medium — The Awakening.”

THE GAZETTE

Page B-6

Wednesday, February 12, 2014 z

Each day is Frankenstein’s

DAY

Local legend Count Gore De Vol (aka Dick Dyszel) returns from his crypt to host a Valentine’s Day weekend presentation of “The Bride of Frankenstein,” Saturday at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring.

AFI SILVER

On the heels of heart-shaped chocolate boxes and hand-written sweet nothings, paramours throughout Montgomery County can put their heads together and celebrate a belated Valentine’s when the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center presents James Whale’s “The Bride of Frankenstein” at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

Hosted by District legend Count Gore De Vol (Dick Dyszel), the presentation promises to be a throwback to the good Count’s televised “Creature Features,” complete with interactive intermissions and “ghoulish” surprises. Unrated, the 1935 film stars Boris Karloff in the role that made him an icon, alongside Elsa Lanchester’s titular Bride, who would go on to become synonymous with “shocking” hairdos for generations to come. For more information, visit afi. com/silver. Visit spookyfest.com.

A night at the symphony

BETHESDA URBAN PARTNERSHIP

Six professional Washington, D.C.-area theater companies will write, direct, rehearse and perform original plays based on similar themes in only 24 hours as part of Saturday’s 10th annual Play In A Day.

JAKE JACOBSON

Folk-pop acoustic duo Buskin & Batteau will perform Saturday at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Silver Spring.

Dynamic duo Folk duo Buskin & Batteau will perform at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Silver Spring. Known for their trademark blend of humor — as evidenced in songs like “Second Homeless” and “Jews Don’t Camp” — and acoustic excellence exacted via piano and violin, the duo will perform songs from the recently released CD, “Love Remembered, Love Forgot.” Tickets are $25 for general admission and $20 for church members. Doors open at 7 p.m. For more information, visit uucss.org.

Play time Play In a Day returns to Montgomery County this Saturday.

Now in its tenth year, the one-of-a-kind event, presented by the Bethesda Urban Partnership and the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District, will unleash six professional Washington, D.C.-area theater companies on to the Imagination Stage’s Lerner Theater in Bethesda, where they will produce original works based on similar themes in 24 hours. The fun begins Friday evening, when playwrights and directors assemble to receive assignments and props, and to then hammer out a fully formed play throughout the waning night hours. Rehearsals begin Saturday morning, with teams of directors and actors striving to meet an 8 p.m. deadline, when the curtain rises and the real drama begins. Participating theater companies include Adventure Theatre MTC, Flying V, Imagination Stage, Keegan Theatre, Olney Theatre Center, and Round House Theatre. Tickets are $15. For more information, visit bethesda.org.

The Washington Performing Arts Society will present the St. Petersburg Philharmonic in concert at 8 p.m. tonight at the Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda. The program, featuring Rossini’s “Overture to the Barber of Seville,” Prokofiev’s “Violin Concerto No. 2” and Rachmaninoff’s “Symphony No. 2,” will be led by music director Yuri Temirkanov. Soloist Sayaka Shoji will perform on violin. For more information, visit strathmore.org.

Soloist Sayaka Shoji.

KISHIN SHINOYAMA

1905598

THE GAZETTE

Wednesday, February 12, 2014 z

Page B-7

AT THE MOVIES

‘The Lego Movie’: Pesky little pieces add up to long-awaited laughs THE LEGO MOVIE

MICHAEL PHILLIPS CHICAGO TRIBUNE

Finally! A comedy that works. An animated film with a look — a kinetic aesthetic honoring its product line’s bright, bricklike origins — that isn’t like every other clinically rounded and bland digital 3-D effort. A movie that works for the Legoindebted parent as well as the Lego-crazed offspring. A movie that, in its brilliantly crammed first half especially, will work even if you don’t give a rip about Legos.

“The Lego Movie” proves that you can soar directly into and then straight past product placement into a realm of the sublime, if you’re clever enough. This isn’t just the funniest PG-rated animation in too long; it’s the funniest film, period, in months, since the kid-hostile “This Is the End” and “The World’s End” came out last summer. I would like to nominate the screenwriting team of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (“21 Jump Street,” “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs”) for the Nobel Peace Prize, even though very little about “The Lego Movie” is peaceful. It is, in fact, a manic wonder, sneaking in so many small, medium and large jokes on the sly, it has an instantly re-watchable appeal.

The setup of “The Lego

n 4 stars n PG; 100 minutes n Cast: Chris Pratt, Morgan Freeman, Will Ferrell, Elizabeth Banks, Liam Neeson, Will Arnett, Nick Offerman, Charlie Day, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Alison Brie n Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller WARNER BROS. PICTURES

(Clockwise, from left) LEGO characters Vitruvius (voiced by Morgan Freeman), Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks), Batman (Will Arnett), Benny (Charlie Day) and Unikitty (Alison Brie) in the 3D computer animated adventure “The Lego Movie.”

Movie,” also directed by Lord and Miller, recalls both “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” and the recent “Wreck-It Ralph” in its mashup of familiar characters and imaginative worlds. (Confession: I always found “Roger Rabbit” a technically remarkable but mean-spirited drag, and consider “Wreck-It Ralph” clever but exhausting. So consider that when considering my response to “The Lego Movie.”)

The prophecy dictates that the one who will save the world is a person born with “face of yellow.” So says the Yoda-style soothsayer voiced by Morgan Freeman. The hero? An ordinary Lego construction worker, with

the classic waist-bendy design and fondness for right angles and orderly skylines of many colors. Emmet is his name, and he lives and resides in the bustling community of Bricksburg.

This world’s overlord, President Business (Will Ferrell doing the vocals, in full snivel), has nefarious plans for maintaining that order permanently. But a mighty band of resistance fighters has other plans, and pretty soon safe, routinized, anonymous Emmet is mistaken for the saviors’ ringleader and mastermind, even though he’s never really put much stock in individuality. He’s a good little Lego. The way Chris Pratt of “Parks and Recreation”

voices this fellow, his sweetness is never in doubt.

The movie flings Emmet, and the audience, into one Lego universe after another. There’s a Wild West sequence that owes as much to “Son of Paleface” as anything else. When other Lego favorites are introduced into the action — Will Arnett voices an exceedingly narcissistic Batman — they’re given distinct and vivid comic personalities. Liam Neeson is superbly cast as the voice of the quick-change artist Bad Cop/Good Cop, tasked with capturing Emmet and implementing the end of Bricksburg as we know it.

Each facet of Emmet’s world

is part of an insidiously entertaining mind-control experiment. The citizens of Bricksburg all tune into the same officially sanctioned hit show, “Where Are My Pants?”; everyone sings the same annoyingly hummable hit song, “Everything Is Awesome.” (Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo did the score.) This isn’t paradise; it’s hell. Or both. The satire’s extremely deft, and even when Lord and Miller, working with animation co-director Chris McKay, indulge their snarky postadolescent sensibilities with one too many torture sequences, the style of the animation doesn’t mistake “realism” for “quality.” We’re happily and fully in thrall to the stop-motion Lego world writ large, to the point that when a huge change occurs at the climax, it’s a bit of a killjoy. We don’t really want to

IN THE ARTS DANCES Carpe Diem Contra Dance,

Feb. 13, Caller: Ann Fallon, Music

by Gary Wright and Leah Weiss with Ahren Buchheister, 7-7:30 p.m. contradance workshops, 7:30-10 p.m. Contras & Squares, second Thursdays, Great Hall, Silver Spring Civics Center, One Veterans Plaza, Silver Spring, $10 for general admission, $8 for members, $5 for students and those without income, www.carpediemarts.com.

Hollywood Ballroom, Feb. 12, free Foxtrot lesson at 7:30 p.m., Social Ballroom Dance at 8:15 p.m. ($16); Feb. 13, 20, Tea Dance from 12:30-3:30 p.m. ($6); Feb. 14, drop-in lessons from 7:30-9 p.m., West Coast Swing Dancing with Dance Jam Productions ($15); Feb. 15, Valentine Day Dance with Helmut Licht Big Band, Waltz lesson at 7:30 p.m., dancing from 8:30-11:30 p.m. with Helmut, 11:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. with DJ ($25 in advance); Feb. 16, free West Coast Swing lesson at 7 p.m., Social Ballroom dance at 8 p.m. ($16); Feb. 19, free Waltz lesson at 7:30 p.m., Social Ballroom Dance at 8:15 p.m. ($16), 2126 Industrial Highway, Silver Spring, 301-326-1181, www.hollywoodballroomdc.com

Now and Then Dance Studio,

Saturday ballroom dances, second and fourth Saturdays, beginner group lesson at 8 p.m., open dancing at 9 p.m., $10 cash at door (all men admitted at halfprice throughout October), 10111 Darnestown Road, Rockville. 301424-0007, www.nowandthendancestudios.com.

Scottish Country Dancing, 8-10 p.m. Mondays, steps and formations taught. No experience, partner necessary, T-39 Building on NIH campus, Wisconsin Avenue and South Drive, Bethesda, 240505-0339.

Glen Echo Park is at 7300 MacArthur Blvd.

Blues, Capital Blues: Thurs-

Marsh; Feb. 26, Caller: Dan Gillespie, 8 p.m., Glen Echo Town Hall (upstairs), www.fsgw.org.

Swing, March, TBD, lesson at 8 p.m., dancing at 9 p.m., Glen Echo Park, $15, www.flyingfeet.org.

Waltz, Feb. 16, MacArthur Boulevard, 2:45-3:30 p.m. lesson, 3:30-6 p.m., dance, $10, www. waltztimedances.org.

MUSIC & DANCE Arts Barn, Singer Songwriter Concert Series, Slaid Cleaves with Tony Denikos, Feb. 22, 3 p.m. workshops at the Arts Barn

leave the Lego world, even for sincerely wrought pathos, and a complicatedly affecting message to parents everywhere.

Nick Offerman pirates his way, merrily, through the role of Metal Beard; Elizabeth Banks is Wyldstyle, the driven revolutionary with the mad motorcycle skills. The sight gags, most of them quick as an eyeblink, are shrewdly timed; considerable credit goes to editors David Burrows and McKay, who really know how to bite off the end of a scene at precisely the right moment.

I suppose it’s a bit much toward the end. A little more breathing room en route might’ve helped sell the heartfelt wrap-up. But most of the way “The Lego Movie” plays like the world’s greatest fan tribute, and I can’t wait to see it again.

w No ing! w Sho F.

Scott Fitzgerald Theater

603 Edmonston Dr. Rockville, MD 20851

240-314-8690

www.rockvillemd.gov/theatre

Victorian Lyric Opera Company Presents

or Kentlands Mansion, 7:30 p.m. concerts at the Arts Barn, 311 Kent Square Road, Gaithersburg. 301258-6394, www.gaithersburgmd. gov/artsbarn.

Bethesda Blues & Jazz Supper Club, Doors Wide Open, 7:30 p.m.

Feb. 12; Zoe, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 13; Valentine’s Day with the Softones, 8 p.m. Feb. 14; Gia Mora is Einstein’s Girl featuring Charlie Barnett, 8 p.m. Feb. 15, call for prices, 7719 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda.

240-330-4500, www.bethesdabluesjazz.com.

BlackRock Center for the Arts, District Comedy, 8 p.m. Feb. 15;

The Exquisite Corpse Project, 4 p.m. Feb. 16, call for tickets, 12901 Town Commons Drive, Germantown. 301-528-2260, www.blackrockcenter.org.

Institute of Musical Traditions — Rockville, Nuala Kennedy, 7:30

See IN THE ARTS, Page B-8

Yeoman of the Guards

February 20 (Preview) February 21, 22 at 8pm February 23 at 2pm

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days, 8:15 p.m. beginner lesson, 9-11:30 p.m. dancing to DJs, Glen Echo Park’s Spanish Ballroom Annex, $8, www.capitalblues.org.

Contra, Feb. 14, Valerie Young and the Glen Echo Open Band, 7:30 p.m. lesson, 8:30 p.m. dance, Glen Echo Park Spanish Ballroom, $10, www.fridaynightdance.org.

Contra & Square, Feb. 16, Valerie Young calls with Lars Prillaman and the Br, 7:30 p.m., Glen Echo Park Spanish Ballroom, $12 for general, $9 for members, $5 for students, www.fsgw.org.

English Country, Feb. 12, Caller: Anna Rain; Feb. 19, Caller: Carol

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Wednesday, February 12, 2014 z

Sharing the wealth: American craft beer exports on the rise As other countries discover the creative talents and brewing prowess of American craft beers, the industry has witnessed a stupendous growth in exports. In 2012, American craft beer exports increased by 72 percent to almost 190,000 barrels, the equivalent to the ninth largest craft brewery. Almost half the exports are to Canada followed surprisingly by Sweden and then Great Britain. Beer exports also are going throughout Europe, the Far East, South America, Australia and New Zealand.

BREWS BROTHERS STEVEN FRANK AND ARNOLD MELTZER Exports, however, are not a major part of most U.S. brewery sales. In virtually all cases, the percent of total sales is less than 5 percent and usually under 2 percent. There are exceptions, most notably Brooklyn Brewery which expects to export 25 percent of its projected production of more than 200,000 barrels in 2013 to 20 countries. Brooklyn’s General Manager Eric Ottaway said that “selling beer in France isn’t much different than selling beer in Oklahoma.”

The earliest craft beer exports came about by chance. In 1985, Jim Koch, founder of the Boston Beer Co., was

IN THE ARTS

Continued from Page B-7 p.m. Feb. 17; Carrie Newcomer, 7:30 p.m. March 8, Saint Mark Presbyterian Church, 10701 Old Georgetown Road, Rockville, call for prices, www.imtfolk.org.

Strathmore, Specialty Tea: Valentine’s Tea, 1 p.m. Feb. 12; AIR: Nistha Raj, Hindustani violin, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 12; WPAS: St. Petersburg Philharmonic, 8 p.m. Feb. 12; Guitar Passions: Sharon Isbin, Stanley Jordan & Romero Lubambo, 8 p.m.

Feb. 13; Valentine’s Day Dinner, 6 p.m. Feb. 14; Marcus Johnson and the Urban Jam Band, 8 p.m. Feb. 14; Specialty Tea: Teddy Bear Tea, 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. Feb. 15; BSO: Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique, 8 p.m.

Feb. 15, call for venue, Locations:

BREWS BROTHERS

The Boulevard Brewing Company’s Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale is one of the more popular American craft beer exports. called by a friend living in Munich who ventured that “Boston Lager is better than anything in Germany,” so Koch sent Boston Lager to Germany. Almost a decade later, Rogue Brewery became the second craft exporter when an American expatriate living in Sapporo, Japan, met with Rogue founder Jack Joyce and convinced him to sell beer

Mansion, 10701 Rockville Pike, North Bethesda; Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, 301-581-5100, www.strathmore.org.

Washington Chu Shan Chinese Opera Institute, Chinese opera, bal-

let, folk dance and “Hamlet,” featuring performers from the Shanghai Peking Opera Troupe, Beijing Vocational Institute of Local Operas and Arts and the Potomac Dance Center, 7 p.m. Feb. 15, Seneca Valley High School, 19401 Crystal Rock Drive, Germantown. For ticketing information, call 240-233-6596, 804245-4296 or 301-610-6592.

ON STAGE Adventure Theatre, “Miss Nelson is Missing,” to March 9, call for prices, times, Adventure Theatre

there. Rogue now exports to 32 countries, probably more than any other American craft brewery.

The reasons breweries export vary.

Sierra Nevada started exporting their beers to England in order to “protect our trademark, quality and integrity” from bootleggers. Oregon’s Deschutes Brewery has a similar story that “we

MTC, 7300 MacArthur Blvd., Glen Echo, 301-634-2270, www.adventuretheatre-mtc.org.

Arts Barn, “A Little Night Music,” to Feb. 23, 311 Kent Square Road, Gaithersburg, 301-258-6394, www. gaithersburgmd.gov/artsbarn.

Imagination Stage, “Rumpelstiltskin,” to March 16, call for prices, times, Imagination Stage, 4908 Auburn Ave., Bethesda, www. imaginationstage.org Olney Theatre Center, “How to Succeed in Business Without Even Trying,” to Feb. 23; call for prices, times, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Olney, 301-924-3400, www. olneytheatre.org.

The Puppet Co., “Sleeping Beauty,” Feb. 13 to March 23; Tiny Tots @ 10, select Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, call for shows and show times, Puppet Co. Playhouse,

know a gray market exists for our beers overseas and these have not been handled up to our quality standards. We decided to take control of our exports.”

Brooklyn Brewery began seriously exporting beer in 2005 after Carlsberg gave brewmaster Garrett Oliver an award, and this relationship evolved to Carlsberg becoming the Brooklyn importer. Deschutes started exporting to Canada after many Canadian visitors asked where their beers were available.

Breweries have different experiences about which styles to export.

“IPAs are hot in every country,” according to Deschutes. Rogue has similar experiences as do several other breweries.

On the other hand, Brooklyn Lager accounts for about 80 percent of Brooklyn’s export sales, much higher than their domestic sales. Boston Lager also is Boston Beer’s most requested style.

Among the more popular exports are: • Samuel Adams Boston Lager (4.9 percent alcohol by volume, ABV) is brewed by the Boston Beer Co. It has a an earthy, bready and malty nose with a hint of noble hops. The slightly effervescent front has a light bready sweetness which continues in the middle. A mild floral hop is added in the finish which increases in the aftertaste of this crispy and refreshing brew. Ratings: 7.5/7.5.

• Dead Guy Ale (6.6 percent ABV) is

Glen Echo Park’s North Arcade Building, 7300 MacArthur Blvd., $5, 301-634-5380, thepuppetco.org.

Round House Theatre, Bethesda, “Seminar,” to March 4, 4545 East-West Highway, Bethesda. 240-644-1100, www. roundhousetheatre.org.

Round House Theatre, Silver Spring, “Pluto,” presented by Forum Theatre, Feb. 20 to March 15, call for show times, 8641 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, $15 for general admission, $10 for subscribers, patrons 30 and younger and seniors, 244-6441100, www.roundhousetheatre.org.

Silver Spring Stage, “Superior Donuts,” Feb. 21 to March 15, Woodmoor Shopping Center, 10145 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, see website for show times, www.ssstage.org.

The Writer’s Center, Poetry and

produced at the Rogue Ales brewery in Newport, Ore., and is Rogue’s best selling export. This Hellerbock style brew has a caramel, apricot and faint berry bouquet. The modest sweet caramel malt front melds into a middle where a trace of sweet berry is added. A touch of bitter hops emerges in the finish and grows to medium in the aftertaste where there is a lingering caramel malt.

Ratings: 8/8.

• Torpedo Extra IPA (7.2 percent ABV) is made by the Sierra Nevada Brewing in Chico, Calif. Torpedo, Sierra Nevada’s highest exported IPA and a well balanced and smooth brew, has a robust grapefruit hop aroma. The moderate malt front is joined by a muted citrus hop with notes of lemon and grapefruit in the middle. The hops elevate in the finish and again in the aftertaste to a balanced medium bitterness. Ratings: 7/7.5.

• Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale (8 percent ABV) has a complex nose of apricot, lemon, pepper and melon. Very smooth, the medium-bodied Tank 7 begins with a restrained lemon and melon sweet front. A pinch of pepper joins in the middle and a pleasant grapefruit combines in the finish. In the aftertaste the grapefruit increases to medium, with a delicate bitterness, a mild dryness, and a hint of alcoholic warmth. Ratings: 8.5/8

Prose Open Mic, 2 p.m. Feb. 23, 4508 Walsh Street, Bethesda, 301654-8664, www.writer.org.

VISUAL ART Adah Rose Gallery, “The Deepest Feeling Always Shows Itself in Silence,” Feb. 13 to March 23, opening vernissage from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Feb. 22, 3766 Howard Ave., Kensington, 301-922-0162, www. adahrosegallery.com Gallery B, “Creative Connections,” MFA at Gallery B, to March 1, opening reception from 6-9 p.m.

Feb. 14; gallery hours are noon to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, 7700 Wisconsin Ave., Suite E. www.bethesda.org.

Glenview Mansion, Gordana Gerskovic, experimental photography,

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to Feb. 21, Rockville Civic Center Park, 503 Edmonston Drive, Rockville. www.rockvillemd.gov.

Marin-Price Galleries, “The Way of the Horse,” Feb. 18 to April 18, 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday, 7022 Wisconsin Ave., 301-718-0622.

VisArts, Ryan Rakhshan: Robin Meyer: “Life and death of charm city,” Feb. 14 to March 16, opening reception from 7-9 p.m. March 7, Common Ground Gallery, 155 Gibbs St., Rockville, 301-315-8200, www.visartsatrockville.org.

Washington Printmakers Gallery, “Fourth Annual Excellence in

Printmaking Exhibition,” to Feb. 23, Pyramid Atlantic Art Center, second floor, 8230 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring, www.washingtonprintmakers.com.

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Wednesday, February 12, 2014 z

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AT THE MOVIES

‘The Monuments Men’: Great story, but result is no masterpiece BY

MICHAEL PHILLIPS

CHICAGO TRIBUNE

A genial disappointment about the preciousness of art amid the destructive horrors of war, “The Monuments Men” is scored to a military march by composer Alexandre Desplat.

You hear what he was going for: jaunty heroics. The throwback sound of it suggests the director, co-writer and star George Clooney sat down with Desplat, gave him a smile and said: “Gimme some of that Elmer Bernstein ‘Great Escape’ magic, Al.” It almost works. The whole film, with its unfashionable techniques (slow fades and dissolves by the dozen) and uberrelaxed, old-school vibe, almost works. Yet Clooney’s attempt to honor unsung real-life heroes while recapturing the ensemble pleasures of some well-remembered Hollywood war pictures, notably “The Great Escape” and “The Guns of Navarone,” comes off as a modestly accomplished forgery at best.

You keep waiting for it to kick into gear, for the odd-couple banter between Bill Murray and Bob Balaban to start clicking. The actors, including Matt Damon, John Goodman, Jean

THE MONUMENTS MEN n 2 stars n PG-13; 110 minutes n Cast: George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, John Goodman, Bob Balaban, Jean Dujuardin, Hugh Bonneville and Cate Blanchett n Directed by George Clooney

Dujuardin, Hugh Bonneville and Cate Blanchett as a Parisian curator based on Rose Valland, are present and ready for duty.

It’s “Ocean’s Eight,” this time with serious historical import.

The script by Clooney and Grant Heslov offers the actors an outline and some functional scenes, mostly two-handers.

But at some point during filming in Germany and England, Clooney must’ve realized behind the camera that his own script needed another rewrite or two to make dramatic and comic sense of its mission. “All hell’s broken loose here,” his character says at one point, traveling through another frontline scene of mass destruction. You see it, you don’t feel it, and while it’d be crazy to expect a movie such as “The

CLAUDETTE BARIUS

(From left) Dimitri Leonidas, John Goodman, George Clooney, Matt Damon and Bob Balaban in Columbia Pictures’ thriller “The Monuments Men.” Monuments Men” to dive into wartime miseries, its calculated breeziness veers perilously close to a State Department tour.

It’s a wonderful subject, which makes the engagement level all the more frustrating.

The curators, architects, art historians and artists of the FDRsanctioned Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives crew scrambled around Europe during the war, saving what they could, finding Nazi-looted and culturally priceless Rembrandts and

Picassos and frescoes, many of them crated deep within Hitler’s salt mines.

Largely fictionalized, the film compresses events and cooks up dramatic death scenes, even as it asks the audience to chuckle through a scene of Damon’s character trapped atop an unexploded land mine. That scene is followed, abruptly, by the discovery of barrels of gold teeth extracted from Jewish concentration camp prisoners. The change-up is jarring, intention-

THEORY

WORK

Accompanying her on piano is her musical collaborator, pianist and producer Charlie Barnett, who underscores her monologues.

“He improvises [while I’m] speaking. ...

We have a symbiotic relationship,” Mora said.

A Colorado native whose father plays jazz guitar, Mora stated singing and performing from age 3.

She also started writing plays early, later earning an undergraduate degree in screenwriting and playwriting from the University of Colorado.

“I’ve always loved writing, but good writing is extremely hard,” she said. “Singing comes more naturally to me.”

She also became an actor and dancer, performing in the Washington, D.C. area for six years at the Round House Theatre, Woolly Mammoth Theatre, MetroStage and other venues before moving to Los Angeles two years ago.

Over the years, Mora has written and performed several cabaret shows, mostly about the intersection of politics and romance, before taking on the origins of the universe.

About year ago, she happened to hear an NPR “Science Friday” radio program featuring a dialogue between cosmologists and a novelist who incorporates science into his stories.

Astrophysics and love have things in common, she said.

“There’s the Big Bang Theory [about the origin of the universe] ... where everything collides and explodes,” she said. Cosmic dust coalesces into planets, and things start to settle down a little, much like falling in love and entering into a relationship over time.

“I dived into it and thought, ‘This metaphor could really work,’” said Mora, who started reading up on everything from multiple universes to particle accelerators.

Mora launched her “Einstein’s Girl” act in Los Angeles in February 2013, and it wasn’t long before it got the attention of Jennifer Ouellet, writer of the blog “Cocktail Party Physics: Physics with a Twist” for Scientific American. “[Mora] explores old-fashioned romance in the digital era, marked by snappy patter in between songs and lyrics peppered with allusions to ... cosmic inflation, singularities and of course, relativity and Albert Einstein, a.k.a.

the next person for them to write or draw something. At the end, the last person would open up the paper and read what was written or show what had been drawn.

In the case of “The Exquisite Corpse Project,” the writers — Chioke Nassor, Joel Clark, Adam Conover, Dave Segal and Raphael Bob-Waksberg — would only pen their part of the script if Popik agreed to make the movie, no matter how bad it turned out.

“My background is in sketch comedy,” Popik said. “That’s where we came up as a group. We started in [Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, N.Y.] and then after college we moved to New York City to pursue comedy professionally.”

Popik, along with the other writers, were part of the comedy group “Olde English,” which filmed sketches that became popular on YouTube and throughout the Internet.

While in New York, the group performed at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, which is a jumping off point for many “Saturday Night Live” comedians. During one of the shows, the guys assigned each other rules by which to write sketches. As the writers learned of their rules, they were filmed and the video was shown to the audience that night.

“One of the writers, one set of constraints I gave him was he had to combine his three most embarrassing memories into one sketch,” Popik said. “Rule No. 2 was that he had to write the sketch in five minutes and rule No. 3 was the five minutes starts right now.

So the audience got to see me assign those rules to him … and then got to watch him scramble to write something in five minutes.

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GIA MORA

Gia Mora will bring her cabaret show, “Einstein’s Girl,” to Bethesda Blues & Jazz on Saturday.

‘Albie,’” wrote Ouellette on Feb. 25, 2013.

“Albie” plays a role in “E=mc2,” a song Mora co-wrote with Brad Brown, an English teacher at the Chelsea School in Hyattsville.

In it, she asks Einstein, “What is love?”

“He said, “Well, my girl, I know a lot about physics.

“And I’ve studied me a little bit of chemistry, too.

“But nothing in mathematics can explain love’s boogie woogie for two.”

Mora also throws in songs about romance and social media, such as “Oh Internet,” “I Google You” and “The Facebook Song,” as well as a song she wrote called “Missing David B.-w4m-41” about missed connections on Craigslist.

Mora also weaves in the latest developments in science and high-tech, such as China’s lunar rover and Google Glass.

At Bethesda Blues & Jazz, she will also be singing a “quirky song” written by the composers of the musical “Orphie and the Book of Heroes,” premiering from Feb. 8-25 at the Kennedy Center.

Mora sings the part of Persephone in the show.

She is also working on new songs for her next cabaret show and album, and inspired by the likes of multi-faceted entertainers such as Hugh Laurie and Tracey Ullman, is working on some television pilots.

In the meantime, she’s still focused on the connection between relationships and universes.

“They’re explosive, momentous, life-altering events, and they take time to develop,” she said.

MEDIUM

Continued from Page B-5 a psychic medium, and I never wanted to be.”

Although Crosby knew her maternal grandmother had psychic abilities, she mostly ignored her own childhood experiences, like seeing people — or ghosts — “out of the corner of my eyes,” and what is known as traveling clairvoyance, “being able to go back and forth in time,” she explained. Crosby’s skeptical mother credited her child with “a big imagination,” and she attributed her young adult daughter’s accurate predictions of when people would die to “women’s intuition,” dubbing her “the prophet of doom.”

Still, prior to her awakening, the paranormal was rarely in evidence in Crosby’s adult life.

After earning an undergraduate degree in economics from Agnes Scott College and an MBA from Georgia State University, she spent 20 years doing marketing and public relations for companies including The Weather Channel, Wachovia and CocaCola.

Not long after the family moved to Montgomery County,

LAINE CROSBY

Crosby said, their house began to “feel a little strange,” and unexplained sounds and occurrences filled her days and nights.

On Sept. 21, 2004, she woke up from a nap to hear “the sweet, soft voice of a woman” speaking to her and “saw the image of a beautiful woman with dark skin and an almond-shaped face.” That was the beginning of her continuing relationship with Jannette, the ghost of a slave who lived on the plantation in the 1850s. In a series of

conversations, Jannette told Crosby about her own romantic history: a love triangle with her master and another slave.

She also showed Crosby visions of the locale through time and introduced her to other spirits, many of them denizens of the property’s slave cemetery.

“My first event where I knowingly talked to a ghost was when I heard and saw Jannette physically in the room with me,” Crosby said. “She was there and it was two-way communication.”

A dramatic acknowledgement of Crosby’s abilities occurred in February 2005 when she heard a television news report about a missing 9-year-old, and had a vision that revealed Jessica Marie Lunsford’s location. Crosby and her husband opted not to relay the information to the police because they thought it would not be credible.

Once the truth of Crosby’s “remote viewing” was confirmed, that decision weighed heavily on her conscience, and, she wrote, “My life has never since been the same.”

“It was the first time all my abilities came together and I knew the outcome of a crime.

I could see, hear, smell and

ally. The effect feels misjudged.

Clooney plays a Harvard art historian based on George Stout, a World War I veteran returning to the fields and villages of battle with a different objective this time. He’s the ringleader, and once he enlists James Granger (Damon, playing a character loosely inspired by James Rorimer of the Metropolitan Museum of Art), it’s a matter of lining up the best character men for the job. Murray’s introduced atop a Chicago skyscraper, with the Wrigley Building and Tribune Tower behind him. He plays an architect borrowing a bit of real-life architect Robert Posey’s story. One of the peculiarities of “The Monuments Men” is its generic texture; the men’s specific skills and interests are largely washed over.

Clooney’s work as a director includes “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” “Good Night, and Good Luck” and “The Ides of March,” good films all. He also directed the period football comedy “Leatherheads,” proving his fallibility. “The Monuments Men” deals in an entirely different genre, but there’s a similar tonal indecision at work here.

Now and then the film goes for the jugular, emotionally speak-

“What he wrote was bad … but the interesting effect that we noticed is that because the audience knew the context of the assignment, because they knew the constraints and they knew essentially why the piece was bad, they thought it was hilarious, which was very interesting.”

Just like that, the fundamental building blocks of “The Exquisite Corpse Project” were assembled.

The writers wrote their part of the scripts, cursing the previous writer for what they were given to work with, and the movie was shot. All the while, Popik was filming interviews with the writers, which he would use in the movie as well.

Although it was written and filmed in relatively short time, the editing process ended up taking almost two years.

“The original plan was to leave the writers’ sections completely intact,” Popik said. “We would see 15 minutes of one person’s section, then maybe we’d have three or four minutes of documentary material and then we’d see the next person’s completed section, then see three or four minutes of documentary material. Once we shot the whole thing, that’s how we edited it.”

Popik said the first time through the editing process just did not work because the audience doesn’t want to go in and watch these 15 minute scenes straight through.

“They’re too bad, especially Joel’s section … it’s quite tedious,” Popik said. “When that didn’t work, there was the mandatory panic — basically, ‘Oh my God, did we just waste months of our lives on this garbage?’ Then we started to just play around with ‘What if we introduce the documentary footage this way and that way …’ Eventually, through the editing process, we found a really satisfying way to work back and forth with the footage.”

‘know’ what was going on,” Crosby said about the pivotal event that opens her book. “Up until this point, I had gradually been recognizing abilities as I met Jannette and the other slaves on the plantation.”

Being a medium does not conflict with Crosby’s devout Christianity. In fact, she wrote, “Over the years… with prayer and God’s help, I have assisted a number of spirits in crossing over into Heaven. That is, moving on from our physical dimension, through the tunnel of white light, into the dimension that is of God.” Crosby, who sets aside time before sleep to talk to her guides or angels, said she sees herself as “an instrument to help the other side connect to this world …. A mouthpiece — a channel, a medium — not really much different from a telephone or radio.

As I experience information, I do the best I can to make sense of it, define it, and pass it on.”

Instead of doing readings and offering advice to individuals, as is the wont of many mediums — “That is not what I’m here to do,” Crosby said — she devotes her time to investigative weekends at historic locales like the battlefields at Gettysburg;

leading psychic training classes and workshops; lecturing at venues including colleges, plantations and historical societies; researching, writing and marketing her books; and, perhaps most important, working with missing persons networks and police — free of charge.

Three new books are in the works. A sequel to “The Awakening,” titled “The Adventures of a Free Range Investigative Medium,” is half done and Crosby expects to complete it

by July 2015. Among its ghosts is Annabelle, who, according to Crosby, is “5, almost 6.”

Crosby learned that Annabelle drowned in the Patuxent River and located her grave. “The last year she [Annabelle] remembers is 1812. It could be her birth year, or her death year.

I don’t know. She did drown, and she is with me all the time, mostly, but when she’s in my house, she plays with the dogs (one alive, two dead) and with her cousins and also my kids.”

An ebook, “Conversations with the Ghosts of Gettysburg,” consisting of four stories, is due out this month, and Crosby hopes to release “Real Daughters,” conversations with the

ing, as when Murray’s architect tears up listening to his family’s homemade recording of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.” That scene should kill, yet somehow it doesn’t. It’s not Murray’s fault: The scene needed a simpler, straighter attack, not all the fancy intercutting with field hospital trauma footage. Realism schmealism: This is a Hollywood movie. But that sort of scene takes you out of the movie you’re trying to invest in.

The actors are quite marvelous, and a brief sequence featuring “Downton Abbey’s” Bonneville as dissolute art lover out for redemption, in which he asks a superior officer for permission to go into Bruges and save a Madonna, provides exactly what the rest of the movie lacks — namely, some snap. Clooney acts with more charm than urgency in “The Monuments Men.” He’s a far better actor than many realize; he makes everything look easy.

But this time he really does just sort of George-Clooney his way through. See John Frankenheimer’s “The Train” again, the one with Burt Lancaster, for a wholly different and genuinely exciting perspective on the same historical outrage.

THE EXQUISITE CORPSE PROJECT n When: 4 p.m. Sunday n Where: BlackRock Center for the Arts, 12901 Town Commons Dr., Germantown n Tickets: $8 n For information: 301-5282260; blackrockcenter.org

Although the film highlights the movie created by the writers, the project itself feels like it’s a full documentary about the writers.

“Well, it didn’t start out as a documentary about them,” Popik said. “When these guys all signed on, they signed on to ‘Hey, let’s play this silly game!’ and everybody was on board with that.

By the end, we found the most interesting footage was in the documentary footage with their relationships and the way they dealt with each other.”

In the end, Popik hopes audiences really get the feeling that the movie really was a labor of love and that everyone had more than one hand in helping to make it a reality.

“I personally shot the movie,” Popik said. “We were all the editors. Everybody you see in the film, if they’re not on-screen, they’re off and holding a boom mic. It’s really a film we made ourselves and I hope the take-away for young people is that. I think a lot of filmmakers get intimidated by the budgets they see on the big screen … I think content is more important than polish in many cases.

“I would really encourage people to go out there an experiment and make a lot of content and not get too hung up on making ‘Iron Man 4.’” wfranklin@gazette.net daughters of soldiers who fought for the Confederacy, in conjunction with Atlanta’s celebration of the Civil War’s 150th anniversary in the spring of 2015.

Crosby’s books are selfpublished, she said, because not only does she have a background in digital publishing, but also she refused to work with publishers who wanted her to make her stories spookier to enhance their marketing value.

Ample matter is available for additional books.

“I save my findings and use them for future material for books, and I research when I can, so I have lots of ideas for books that are a bit unique,” she said. “My father wrote nine books, which are not in print now, and I would like to use his historical research to write historical fiction eventually — after I tackle what is already on my plate.”

That’s a substantial meal, but no doubt, Crosby can enlist some help from the spirits that surround her.

“Investigative Medium: The Awakening” is available on amazon.com and www. lainecrosby.com.

Page B-10

THE GAZETTE

Wednesday, February 12, 2014 z

Wednesday, February 12, 2014 z

Page B-11

Classifieds Call 301-670-7100 or email class@gazette.net

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MONT VILLAGE- 2

LVL TH 3BD 1.5 BA Fenced Yard $1675 301-787-7382 or 301787-7583 HOC OK

GAITHERSBURG:

Townhouse for rent $1500 3br/2.5 BA 3 floors. Contact Raman at 240-899-5378

Charming 4BD, 2FB, Ranch.

Completely renovated with hardwood floors & carpet.

Granite counter tops & SS appliances. $345K. 313-220-1823

OLNEY: 1BD, 1BA

renovated condo, FSBO. New BA, Kit Cabinets, SS Appliances, Counters, New Floring, WIC, Fees incl water, heat, AC, Pool, Pkg. $135,000. For appt 301-774-1017

ba,Fenced yard, Good location,HOC OK Avail now! $1550 301-9219225 or 301-412-1450

GBURG: Spacious 3

bd 2.5 ba TH w/ garage & deck. Near shops, metro & 270 $2500 301-330-1177

GERM: 3Br, 2.5Ba TH

finished bsmt, patio, back yard, avail 03/01, $2000 + utils Ns/Np call 540-588-3481

G E R M A N : 3BR, 2.5BA, totally remodeled TH, plenty parking, HOC welcome $1750/month Call Francis 301-570-0510 GERMANTOWN: 4

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New carpet, new kitchen. $1900.

HOC okay. 240-888-0592

MOUNTAIN HOMESTEAD! High Moun- G E R M A N T O W N : tain Vistas. 8+ Acres $39,657. Enjoy it all!

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TH, 3Br, 2.5Ba, h/w flrs, updated kit, Ba & paint $1600 + util Pls Call: 301-956-4775

GE RMA NT OWN :

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MONTGOMERY V I L L A G E :

3br/2.5ba TH patio np,ns $1450+util/dep, HOC ok 202-391-1311

VILLAGE:

TH, 3Br, 2.5Ba, 2 lvl, $1650/per mo + util nr 270, NS/NP Please Call: 301-613-4721

N

GBURG - 3 bd / 1 .5

DAMASCUS:

MONT

POTOMAC:

Renovated TH, 3Br, 1.5Ba, W/D, 2 car grg, fin bmst. AC, lrg private yard, great neighborhood and schools, park nearby, (soccer/tennis & more) surrounded by upscale houses $1850 + util /mo 240-481-9294 or yochanantennis@yah oo.com

FOR RENT: 2 person, 425sq feet furnished office in shared unit on Russell Avenue at Christopher Avenue in Gaithersburg. 240-446-3486 FOR RENT: Office/light commercial. 960sq feet on Professional Drive at Frederick Road, Gaithersburg.

Call 240-446-3486

POOLESVILLE:

3br 2.5ba Remodeld TH $1350 + 1/mo Sec Dep. N/s, N/p. Avail.

Mar 1st. 240-876-9627

POOLESVILLE: TH

3BR 1.5BA, W/D fncd bkyd, Pets Ok. $1395 + utils, avail immed Call: 301-407-0763

ROCKVL:

SFH,

4BR 2.5BA 3lvl Split 1/3 acre, tbl spac Kitch FR w/FP. Near metro / 270. Owner/Agent $2,350 301-924-5536

SIL SPR: MARCH RENT FREE FOR APPROVED APPLICANTS. 3br/2ba

SFH, fin rec rm, hrwd flrs, W&D, CAC $1975 plus util, Metro/shops.

202-210-5530

S.SPRG/RVILLE:

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N.POTOMAC ROCKVILLE: 1 BR

Apt. $1150 incl util, CATV, Free Parking Avail now.

NS/NP CALL: 301-424-9205

GAITHER:

3 Bedroom + den, 2 Bathroom, renovated, Sec 8 welcome, Util incl 410-800-5005 GERM: 2BR, 2BA Nr I-270, Bus, Shops, $1,275 + elec., water incl. HOC Pref. Avail Now. 240-498-0606

SS: 1 bd /1 ba $1300

BOWIE: Furn rm in

SFH, $550/mo utils incl Free Cable. Available March 1st! Call: 301-509-3050

DAMASCUS: Bsmt

1br, 1LR, 1ba, pvt entr, cable, int, util inc. $800+ sec dep. Np/Ns Call: 301-253-1370

GAITH: 2 Rooms in

GAITH:M BRs $435+ 440+475+555+ Maid Ns/Np, nr 270/370/Bus shops, quiet, conv.Sec Dep 301-983-3210 GAITH/MUDDY BRANCH: M/F only for LG lwr Lvl suite

w/ba,Fam RM w/FP NSTH $745 + utils avail Mar.3016747928

GAITH/MV: MBR in

TH 3rd floor, prvt BA Nr shpng, on bus line. $650 utils incl + Sec Dep. 240-893-6951

GERMAN: Bsmt in

TH, BA, prvt ent, shrd kit, Conv. loc, safe neigh, $800+ refs incls utils. 240-316-5944

GERMANTOWN

Mature Male, Furn BRs. Util not incl. Near 61 Bus Line. Maria 240-671-3783

GERMANTOWN :

Room in TH $500 incl utils. N/S, N/P. Avail immed CALL: 240361-3391

util inclu near Forest Glen Metro. New Kitch & Bath, LRG closets.

Call (301)213-7749

TH: both shr Ba $600 GERM: Bsmt, 1 BR, each plus shared 1 BA, sep entr, nr MC. utliities Please call: w/d, refridge. $850/mo 240-305-6331 incl utils. NS, NP. Avail Now. 301-366-1673

ADELPHI: Lrg BR,

1BD in Apartment.

Share Bath & Kitchen. $530 + util. Wifi avail.

240-406-6694

walk to UMD. $595 utils incl. Sec Dep. Req. Avail Feb 1st Call: 301-213-3348

ADELPHI:

Renovated bsmt Br suite, priv entr, W/D, Nr UMD, $1450 utils incl. SD Avail 02/01 301-213-3348

BELTSVILLE/LAU REL: furnished base-

ment with room with private BA in SFH. Gt community. $700 incl. utils. 240-273-2512

GAITHERSBURG:

GAITHERSBURG:

2 bedrooms in TH. $650/$550 + util & Sec Dep. Avail immed.

Call: 301-440-4189

GAITHERSBURG:

GERM: Bsmt w/pvt

Entr, Ba, Br, nr schls, bus, util incl N/S N/P Avl now! Please Call 301-461-2636

GERM: Full basmt in

TH $575 + utils & Sec Dep Requ. NS/No pets Avail 02/17 Call 202491-1565

G E R M : TH, 1 Lg SS: Furnish BR w/pvt room w/pvt BA Ba in SFH, Fem Only $650/mo, 1 small uti incl $675 +Sec Dep room priv Ba $450/mo nr RIDE ON, Wheaton both inc util & int. Nr Metro 301-681-7848 Walmart & 270/355 SS: Furnished 2 BRs CALL: 240-744-2421 in Bsmt, Liv Rm, Shrd HYATTSVILLE: Rm BA/Kit, Prvt Ent. $750 incl utils. in Apt, shrd Ba/Kit, ech/mo Free Wifi, Cls to shops NS/NP Cls to Veirs & Randolph. /metro, $600 inclds Mill Please 301-213-9797 utils. 301-728-7816 LAYTNSVL: M, N/S off street park, Furn Br, shr kit, lndry & comm. areas, homey, quiet $625 utils incl.

TV/int 301- 253-9662 MONT

VILLAGE

WHEATON 1 Large

+ Den avail in TH for mature female only! $500 util inclu + security dep 301-774-6075

OLNEY:

GREAT DEAL!! 1 Br, shr Ba, beautiful EU TH, female only $675/per month w/util, int, cable TV, NP/NS Call 301-774-4654

SILVER

SPRING:

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GERM: Male 1Br in TH Share bath & kitchen $450 ut inc Nr MARC/Buses, Ref’s Req. 240-370-2301

GAITH/LAYTONSV ILLE: Lrg Rm in SFH,

GERM: Male only 2 SILVER SPRING BRs $400 each + utils MBR with private bath

full privlgs, pool ,beautiful setting, NS. $600 301-482-1425

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2Rooms avail Mar.1st

$550/$465 w/private bath shared kitch & utils, 301-404-2681

available 02/01. $650 includes all utils. Call 240-505-8012

pref non-smoker, 1BR, shr BA, near metro, $525/mnth util incl +dep 301-933-6804

WHEATON: 2 BD in

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WASHINGTON DC: Brentwood NE,

M.VILLAGE- 2 bds

OLNEY: Furn Bdrm

WHEATON: Male

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OLNEY: 1 Rm in bsmt in SFH share kitchen $500 utils included, NS/NP Avail Now. 301-257-5712

kFull Size W/D in every unit kSwimming Pool

S.S: RM for Rent

1 Br in TH, shrd Ba w/female NS/NP, $429/mo + util Call: 240-401-3522 $500/$550shared utils, kitch & bath, nr bus & shops Avail Now. call 240-406-3276

kFamily Room G560368

(301) 670-2667

301-762-5224

Office Hours: M-F 9:00am - 6:00pm, Saturday 11:00am - 3:00pm

GAITHERSBURG

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GAITHERSBURG

14431 Traville Garden Circle Rockville, Maryland 20850

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To Advertise Realtors & Agents

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Page B-12

Wednesday, February 12, 2014 z

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Housing and Financial FAA approved program. Finanical aid if Aid for qualified stuqualified - Job placedents. Job placement assistance. CALL Avi- ment assistance.

CALL Aviation Institute ation Institute of Mainof Maintenance 877tenance 800-481818-0783.

8974.

ELDERLY CARE I am a Licensed Experienced Caregiver.

Leisure World (exp.)

Live-out, Excel. Refs.

Own Trans, Flex Hrs.

301-598-3114

20817 20872 20872 20876 20876 20886 20886 20886 20902 20904

Plan ahead!

Place your Yard Sale ad Today!

Loving, caring, dependable Nursing Assistant looking for work. FT, day/night.

Own car. Exc. ref.

240-476-6005

24.99

$

*includes rain insurance

Call Today 301.670.7100

Careers 301-670-2500 Road Service Technician

Gaithersburg location serving MD, DC & N. Virginia. Repairing cust. equipment and performing maintenance in the field.

Competitive salary, company vehicle, health/dental benefits & profit sharing after one year. Email resume to brad@metrobobcat.com or fax to 301840-0521. Must have experience on compact equip, good cust. service skills, a good driving record and a CDL med. card.

class@gazette.net Local companies, Local candidates Get Connected

Gazette.Net

AUTO BODY TECH

Experienced Body Tech for an independent Gaithersburg shop. If interested please call 301-948-5993

Recruiting is now Simple!

Tag & Title

Get Connected

Must be organized & efficient.

T&T experience required.

R&R/accounting exp. a plus.

Great benefits. Call Laurie 301-212-3013

CARPENTERS

CWC Remodeling, Inc. looking for carpenters, send resume and salary requirements to

cwc.inc@comcast.net

Customer Service Rep

High tech Gaithersburg company seeks self starter for permanent position. Must have strong typing and computer skills including excel spread sheets, excellent communication skills and be able to multi task. Benefit package.

No phone calls please.

Email tchaikin@nscainc.com

Education CMMS Germantown location is looking for qualified: * Directors * Teachers * Assistant Teachers 90 hour certification and Bachelors Degree preferred.

Please forward resumes to admissions@cmmschool.com

DELIVERY DRIVER

Suburban Propane, a nationwide provider of propane & related services has the following opening in the Rockville, MD area: Delivery Driver. Qual incl a HS Diploma or equiv. Class B CDL w/Hazmat and tanker endorsements, clean driving record. Strong team player w/excellent cust service skills, propane gas delivery experience preferred, flexible schedule w/after hours call-outs, heavy lifting required. Suburban offers a competitive salary w/incentive potential and comprehensive benefits including 401K and tuition reimbursement. For add’l info or to apply, please visit our website at: www.suburbanpropane.jobs.

Click Career Opportunities and search for job opening ID 7421. As part of our hiring process, DOT physicals, background checks and preemployment drug tests are performed.

EOE, M/F/D/V

DRIVERS HOME WEEKLY & BIWEEKLY - Earn

$900-$1200/WK Class A CDL & 6 Mos. Exp. Req. No Canada, HAZMAT or NYC! 877-705-9261

DENTAL ASSISTANT

Needed FT/PT for our endodontic office. We are seeking an experienced, energetic person that will compliment our team approach to quality centered care. Xray License required Rockville locations.

Email: phelps@endogroup.com

Education

TEACHERS

Sunrise Learning Center Seeks Pre- School ft/pt Teachers for pre-school center in Gaithersburg. 90 hrs plus experience or college credit in ECE is needed.

Call 301-208-6948

VETERANS NEEDED Use your GI Benefits NOW for training in Healthcare.

JOB PLACEMENT ASSISTANCE Offered.

Call Now 1-888-3958261

Foster Parents

Treatment Foster Parents Needed Work from home!

û Free training begins soon û Generous monthly tax-free stipend û 24/7 support

Call 301-355-7205

Dental/ Medical Assistant Trainees Needed Now Dental/Medical Offices now hiring.

No experience?

Job Training & Placement Assistance Available 1-877-234-7706 CTO SCHEV

Pharmacy/ Phlebotomy Tech Trainees Needed Now Pharmacies/ hospitals now hiring.

No experience?

Job Training & Placement Assistance Available 1-877-240-4524 CTO SCHEV

Wednesday, February 12, 2014 z

Page B-13

Careers 301-670-2500

class@gazette.net Real Estate

Local companies, Local candidates

Silver Spring

Work with the BEST!

Be trained individually by one of the area’s top offices & one of the area’s best salesman with over 34 years. New & experienced salespeople welcomed.

Get Connected

Must R.S.V.P.

Call Bill Hennessy

Gazette.Net GC3191

Family Services Inc.’s Watch Me Grow Child Development Center is dedicating to providing the most high quality form of child care for children aging from 6 weeks through age 5. Our mission is to enrich the lives of children by creating a warm and nurturing environment that encourages children to grow and experience appropriate developmental practices, personal interests, cultural diversity, and a lifelong love of learning. Our Watch Me Grow Child Development Center currently has the following positions open: two full time vacancies for Senior Staff Teachers for 2 year olds, one full-time position for a Before and After Care Coordinator, one full-time Senior Staff Teacher for the infant and toddler age groups, and two part-time Assistant Teachers. Please refer to our website http://www.familyservicesagency.org about the specific qualifications that are applicable to each of the positions. To apply to any of the positions listed above, please email resume and cover letter to careers@fs-inc.org or fax to 240-631-9356.

301-388-2626 301-388-2626

bill.hennessy@longfoster.com • Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc. EOE

Family Services, Inc is an Equal Opportunity Employer [EOE]

GC3196

HEALTHCARE

The A.R.T Institute of Washington Inc. has an immediate opening for an Andrologist in Bethesda, MD. College education or cert. in a biological or chemical science pref. US citizenship req. Previous andrology experience &/or background check for work in a DOD facility is beneficial. Will train a qualified applicant. Work schedule requires some weekends & holiday work. EOE The successful candidate must be detail-oriented & have superior communication and organizational skills. We seek a lab colleague who has the drive and enthusiasm for patient contact, quality control, regulatory compliance and who functions well independently.

Please fax or email your resume to Aidita James at 888-399-7045 or aida.n.james.ctr@health.mil

Hotel ∂ ∂ ∂ ∂ ∂ ∂ ∂

NOW HIRING!

Restaurant Servers Bartenders Food and Beverage Supervisor Room Attendants Laundry and House person Desk Agents (PT/FT) Van Driver

Apply in person Crowne Plaza Hotel 3 Research Ct., Rockville, Md. 20850

REPORTER Comprint Military Publications has an immediate opening for a full-time, general assignment reporter in its Joint Base AnacostiaBolling Washington, D.C. office. Good writing and interviewing skills along with solid knowledge of AP Style a must; camera familiarity a help. E-mail resume and writing/photo samples to: jrives@gazette.net.

We offer a competitive compensation and comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, pension, 401(k) and tuition reimbursement. EOE.

WE’RE HIRING WEEKEND CNAS, GNAS, AND HHAS!

Provide non-medical care and companionship for seniors in their homes. Personal care, light housework, transportation, meal preparation.

Must be 21+. Must have car and one year professional, volunteer, or personal experience www.homeinsteads.com/197 Home Instead Senior Care To us it’s personal 301/588-9023 Call between 10am-4pm Mon-Fri

CAREER FAIR

Thursday, February 20th • 9am – 3pm

Sheehy Ford Lincoln 901 North Frederick Ave. Gaithersburg, MD 20879 Salesperson Experienced preferred but not required Service Advisors Willing to train Quick Lube Technician Automatic Trans Tech Ford experience preferred – Rare opportunity!

Body Shop Technician Experienced preferred but not required

Medical

RECEPT/TECH

For Family Practice in Rockville.

1 yr exp with front office/tech.

Patient appt scheduling, filing, chart prep, prescriptions, insurance verification/follow up of denied claims. Billing experience. Multi-tasking.

Email Resume to: monakraj@gmail.com SKILLED TRADE

PLUMBER IMMEDIATE Position Avialable for Plumber. MUST have 2 yrs exp.

Great hourly pay, commission, weekly bonus & insurance. Drug free, customer oriented, and motivated. Only qualified applicants apply.

301-670-1944 - Gaithersburg

SKILLED TRADE

We provide training for all those interested in applying, and are looking for personable, fun, and customer service orientated professionals.

Bilingual speaking employees needed in all departments.

All positions require a background and drug screening test before employment. Excellent pay with Great Benefits, 401k, Life, STD, Flexible spending and other insurance offered!

GC3181

Lab Technician Andrologist

Can’t make it to the event? Apply online at www.sheehy.com/applicant and look for the job position.

Seminar

Interested in a career in decorating?

Career opportunity seminar Thursday Feb. 20th @ 6:30pm - 8pm 10426 fawcett St, Kensington, MD RSVP to

jimkirlin@decoratingden.com

HVAC SERVICE TECH

IMMEDIATE Position Avialable for NATE and/or Journeyman HVAC service technicians. MUST have 2 yrs exp. Great hourly pay, commission, weekly bonus & insurance. Drug free, customer oriented, and motivated. Only qualified applicants apply.

301-670-1944 - Gaithersburg

Janitorial

EVS Company seeking motivated individuals to fill positions available in the Silver Spring area. The job is convenient to public transportation. Please call 301-890-9797. EOE. Part-Time

Work From Home

Let Gazette Careers help you find that next position in your LOCAL area.

National Children’s Center Making calls. For more info please call Weekdays between 9a-4p No selling! Sal + bonus + benes.

Call 301-333-1900

Page B-14

THE GAZETTE

Wednesday, February 12, 2014 z

Wednesday, February 12, 2014 z

Automotive

Page B-15

Call 301-670-7100 or email class@gazette.net

2008 FORD EDGE: 4dr, V6, blk, 104K miles, fully equipped, great cond. $15,300. Call 301395-5899

CARS/TRUCKS WANTED! Top

DONATE AUTOS, TRUCKS, RV’S. $$$$$ PAID! Running LUTHERAN MISor Not, All Makes!

SION SOCIETY. Free Towing! We’re Local! 7 Days/Week.

Call 1-800-959-8518

CA H

Your donation helps local families with food, clothing, shelter.

Tax deductible.

MVA licensed.

LutheranMissionSociet y.org 410-636-0123 or toll-free 1-877-7378567.

breast cancer families.

Tax Deductible. Free Next-Day Towing. $1000 Grocery/Restaurant Coupons. Call 7 days/week United Breast Cancer Foundation 800-728-0801

DARCARS VOLVO OF ROCKVILLE

Full WANTED: Size Station Wagon Small/medium engine in MD, good cond.

Sun-Fri 240-475-3210

2005 Mazda Tribute

ANY CAR ANY CONDITION

WE PAY TOP DOLLAR-FAST FREE PICKUP! SELL YOUR CAR TODAY! CALL NOW FOR AN

INSTANT CASH OFFER

Any Make, Model or Year. We Pay MORE! Running or Not. Sell Your Car or Truck TODAY. Free Towing!

Instant Offer: 1-888-545-8647

#N110008A, 144k Miles

G558500

4,980

$

2007 Honda Accord EX-L

ALL APPLICATIONS REVIEWED WE HELP EVERYONE!

(301) 288-6009

2003 Volvo S60

2005 Ford Escape Limited

CASH FOR CARS!

4 NEED AUTO FINANCING ASSISTANCE? 4 TIRED OF HASSLES? 4 WANT A FRESH START?

FOR CAR !

G560639

Search Gazette.Net/Autos for economical choices

DONATE YOUR CAR - Give hope to

10,980

#422048B, 96k Miles

$

2006 Lexus IS 250

6,980

$

#422035A, 130K Miles

10,980

$

2009 HondaAccord Coupe

$

2007 VW Passat

2012 Fiat 500 POP

#E0295, 42k Miles

7,980

#E0259A, 137k Miles

11,480

#N0294, 89k Miles w/Navigation

$

#P8834, w/Navigation, 106k Miles

$

2009 Volvo XC-90

EMAIL US AT BUILDMYCREDIT@JIMCOLEMANAUTO.COM OR CALL

1-866-464-1618

11,980

#426006A, AWD With Navigation, 176k Miles

$

2012 Hyundai Sonata Limited

17,280

#N0276, 22k Miles

$

#438145B, WithNavigation, 77kMiles

14,980

$

2008 Ford Expedition L

#327213B, With Navigation, 87k Miles

21,980

$

16,980

2009 Chevrolet Silverado LTZ Crew Cab

#327217C, 63k Miles

25,980

$

2007 Jeep Wrangler X......................................$13,480 2011 Volvo XC-90..................................................$33,980 #325118A #P8827, Navigation, 32k Miles 2008 Mazda MX5 Miata Grand Touring.......$17,480 2012 Volvo XC-60 R-Design Platinum..........$35,980 #325094A, 21k Miles #422036A, 37k Miles 2012 Volvo C30 Premium Plus................$18,480 2011 Chevrolet Tahoe LTZ.............................$37,980

#326023A, 46k Miles

#N0290, With Navigation, 45k Miles

2010 Volvo XC-90.........................................................$25,480 2013 Lincoln Navigator L................................$46,480 #P8828, Entertainment System, 47k Miles #N0279, With Navigation, 17k Miles

DARCARS

VOLVO

15401 Frederick Rd, Rockville, MD

www.darcarsvolvo.com

Looking for economical choices?

Search Gazette.Net/Autos

1.888.824.9165 DARCARS

Selling Your Car just got easier!

Log on to

Gazette.Net/Autos to place your auto ad!

As low as 29.95! $

See what it’s like to love car buying.

YOUR GOOD CREDIT RESTORED HERE

Page B-16

Wednesday, February 12, 2014 z

YOU ALWAYS GET YOUR WAY AT OURISMAN EVERYDAY

PRESIDENTS DAY SALES EVENT

OURISMAN VW

32 INCH HDTV WITH EVERY NEW & PRE-OWNED VEHICLE PURCHASE

FRIDAY (FEB 14), SATURDAY (FEB 15) & MONDAY (FEB 17)

2014 JETTA S

2013 GOLF 2 DOOR

04 Toyota Highlander LTD #462007B, $ 4 Speed Auto, Vontage $

2014 PASSAT S 2.5L

Blue, Sport Utility

#7380482, Power Windows, Power Locks, Keyless Entry

14,999

$

2014 PASSAT S #9009449, Power Windows, Power Locks, Keyless Entry

MSRP 22,765 $

BUY FOR

18,999

$

OR 0.9% for 60 MONTHS

2013 GTI 4 DOOR

BUY FOR

16,999

$

OR 0% for 60 MONTHS

BUY FOR

#1679497, Power Windows/Locks, Sunroof, Auto, Loaded

#7415025, Automatic Power Windows, Power Locks, Bluetooth

BUY FOR

19,490

OR 0% for 60 MONTHS

2014 PASSAT TDI SE

10 Scion XB $$

18,999

$

2013 JETTA TDI

$

#355064A, Release Series 7.0, SW, 4 Speed Auto, 1-Owner

13 Toyota Corolla LE #472176A, $ 1-Owner, 1.9k Miles, $

MSRP $25,510 - $5,000 OFF

4 Speed Auto

20,155 2014 TIGUAN S 4WD BUY FOR

13,800

$

15,500

11ToyotaRAV4 $$

#4116048, Automatic, Power Windows/ Power Locks, Keyless Entry

MSRP $26,960 BUY FOR

22,955

$

OR 0% for 60 MONTHS

#9060756, Automatic, Power Windows, Power Locks, Sunroof

MSRP $27,385 BUY FOR

23,399

$

OR 0.9% for 60 MONTHS

#364568A, 4 Speed Auto, 1-Owner, 18K miles

#13543457, Automatic, Power Windows, Power Locks, Keyless Entry

BUY FOR

13 Toyota Corolla S $$

#364525A, 4 Speed Auto, 22k miles, 1-Owner

17,700

08 Mercedes-Benz C-Class 3.0L #457003B, 7 Speed Auto, Mars Red

18,700

$$

#472173A, CVT Transmission, 1-Owner, 11.6k miles, Brilliant Silver

2011 Toyota Camry LE......... $14,700 $14,700 #P8906, 1-Owner, 6 SpeedAuto, Spruce Mica, 39k Miles

$16,700 2013 Toyota Tacoma........... $16,700 #364577B, 4 SpeedAuto, 14.6k Miles, Reg Cab, Silver Metallic

22 Available...Rates Starting at 2.64% up to 72 months

11 Toyota Camry LE $$

#P8895, 1-Owner, 6 Speed Auto, 25k Miles

15,500

12 Toyota Camry LE #477442A, 16k $ Miles, 6 Speed $

Auto, Silver Mertallic

17,700

12 Toyota Camry SE $$

#472168A, 6 Speed Auto, 1-Owner, 6k Miles

19,700

2009 Nissan Murano SL....... $18,500 $18,500 #P8851A, CVT Trans, 4WD, Sport Utility 2012 Toyota Sienna Minivan. . $18,700 $18,700 #460044A, 6 SpeedAuto, 25k Miles, Silver Metallic

$18,800 2011 Toyota Avalon............ $18,800 #478001A, 6 SpeedAuto, 1 Owner, 4 Door 2007 Acura MDX................ $19,700 $19,700 #N0287A, 5 SpeedAuto, Tech/Ent Pkg, Steel Blue Metallic

2010 Toyota Prius II............ $16,800 $16,800 2013 Ford Escape SE.......... $21,700 $21,700 #P8874, CVT Trans, 1 Owner, 25k Miles, Barcelona Red #377732A, 6 SpeedAuto, 22k Miles, 1-Owner, Sterling Grey Metallic 2011 Chevy Traverse LS....... $17,900 $17,900 2013 Nissan Quest SV......... $26,700 $26,700 #363442A, 1-Owner, Sport Utility, Dark Blue Metallic #363238A, CVT Trans, 11k Miles, 1-Owner, White Pearl

2012 Jetta Sedan...#V348867A, Black, 14,749 miles..............$17,995 2012 Nissan Juke..#V257168A, White, 57,565 miles.............$18,491 2011 CC.....................#VP0032, White, 36,116 miles................$18,991 2011 Honda CRV.....#V003776A, Gray, 37,086 miles..............$18,992 2011 Tiguan S..........#VPR0017, White, 32,529 miles..............$18,995 2011 Jetta TDI...........#VP0034, Blue, 44,443 miles................$18,999 2013 Jetta SE...........#VPR0027, White, 6,101 miles...............$19,995 2013 Jetta SE............#VPR0030, Silver, 4,340 miles................$19,995 2013 Passat S...........#VPR0026, Black, 6,891 miles................$20,995 2013 Beetle Conv...#V827637A, Black, 20,496 miles..............$21,991 2012 Routan SE......#VP0033, Maroon, 12,853 miles..............$24,991

PRE-OWNED 3355 5 5 TTOYOTA OYOTA P R E - OW N E D DARCARS

G560637

All prices exclude tax, tags, title, freight and $200 processing fee. Cannot be combined with any previous advertised or internet special. Pictures are for illustrative purposes only.

See dealer for details. 0% APR Up To 60 Months on all models. See dealer for details. Ourisman VW World Auto Certified Pre Owned financing for 60 months based on credit approval thru VW. Excludes Title, Tax, Options & Dealer Fees. Special APR financing cannot be combined with sale prices. * 32” HDTV quantities limited. Ends 02/28/14.

Ourisman VW of Laurel

G560638

3371 Fort Meade Road, Laurel

Online Chat Available...24 Hour Website • Hours Mon-Fri 9 am-9 pm • Sat 9 am-8 pm

13,800

$13,500 2012 Nissan Sentra 2.......... $13,500

24,999

$

1.855.881.9197 • www.ourismanvw.com

18,700

12 Nissan Altima S #470192A, CVT $ $ Trans, 2.5. Low Miles

2010 Scion XD.................. $12,800 $12,800 #P8873, 4 SpeedAuto, 24K miles, 1-Owner, Super White

MSRP $28,936

OURISMAN VW WORLD AUTO CERTIFIED PRE OWNED 2009 GTI..................#V551811A, White, 99,448 miles.............$12,991 2006 Toyota Tundra #V001658A, Gray, 51,123 miles..............$13,999 2009 CC.....................#V0022A, Black, 90,298 miles................$14,491 2006 Dodge Charger. .#V007711A, Yellow, 65,873 miles........$14,491 2011 Toyota Corolla #VP0020, Black, 30,992 miles................$14,991 2012 KIA Rio............#V415025A, Red, 57,565 miles...............$15,491 2012 Mazda 6..........#VPR0023, Black, 44,340 miles...............$15,491 2012 Nissan Altima.#VPR0024, Gray, 42,366 miles...............$15,991 2013 Passat S….....#VPR0031, Silver, 34,132 miles...............$15,999 2007 BMW Z-4.......#V006539B, White, 69,522 miles.............$16,991 2010 Tiguan.............#V563875A, Gray, 77,182 miles..............$17,491

11,999

$$

MSRP $22,765

2013 BEETLE

MSRP $24,490 - $5,000 OFF

11,700

11 Ford Focus SE #364474A, Auto, 23k Miles, 1-Owner

#9009449, Automatic, Power Windows/Power Locks, Keyless Entry, Cruise Control

MSRP $20,860

MSRP $17,810 BUY FOR

#3096366, Automatic, Power Windows/Power Locks, Keyless Entry, Heated Seats, Bluetooth, Cruise Control

9,800

10 Toyota Corolla LE $$

#363279A, 4 Speed Auto, 1-Owner, Desert Sand Mica

See what it’s like to love car buying

1-888-831-9671 1-888-831-9671 15625 Frederick Rd (Rte 355) • Rockville, MD | OPEN SUNDAY

V VISIT ISIT U US S O ON N T THE HE W WEB EB A AT T w www.355.com ww.355.com

Wednesday, February 12, 2014 z

Page B-17

DARCARS NISSAN DARCARS

2004 Nissan Sentra S

#340139A, Auto, 4 Door, 1-Owner

See what it’s like to love car buying.

5,977

$

2003 Honda Civic DX

5,977

$

#441011A, Automatic, Silver

2013 NISSAN SENTRA SV MSRP: $18,360 Sale Price: Nissan Rebate NMAC Bonus Cash:

$

#12113 2 At This Price: VINS: 788738, 797494

2014 NISSAN ALTIMA 2.5 S MSRP: $23,940 Sale Price: Nissan Rebate: Nissan Holiday Bonus Cash: NMAC Bonus Cash:

16,995

$

$14,995 -$500 -$500

13,995

With Bluetooth, Rear View Monitor #13114 2 At This Price: VINS: 190462, 259344

$

2013 NISSAN JUKE SV AWD

17,995

$

choices?

13,977

$

#446119A, Auto, 1 Owner, Special Edition, Sunroof, Navigation

$18,995 -$500 -$500

11,977

$

2007 BMW 3 Series 328Xi

14,977

$

#445067A, AWD, Automatic

17,995

2012 Nissan Altima 2.5s

$24,800 $20,995 -$2,500 -$500

#E0293, Auto, 1 Owner, 4 Door

14,977

$

2010 Volkswagen New Beetle

16,977

$

#442018A, Auto, Convertible, Final Edition

#20413 2 At This Price: VINS:221861, 221956

2014 NISSAN MURANO S$31,755 AWD MSRP: Sale Price: Nissan Rebate: Nissan Holiday Bonus: NMAC Bonus Cash:

With Bluetooth, #23214 2 At This Price: VINS: 504898, 506183 G560640

2012 Nissan Sentra 2.0S

2013MSRP: NISSAN ROGUE S$22,795 AWD

#22213 2 At This Price: VINS: 665691, 665708

MSRP: Sale Price: Nissan Rebate: NMAC Bonus Cash:

11,977

$

2011 Kia Forte SX #447501A, Black Leather, Low Miles, 5-Door, 1-0wner

$19,995 -$1,000 -$1,000 -$1,000

Sale Price: Nissan Rebate: NMAC Bonus Cash:

Selling Looking for Your Car just economical got easier!

2008 Nissan Rogue SL #E0263A, Automatic, FWD, Sport Utility, Leather, Sunroof

$

$27,245 -$2,000 -$750 -$500

2010 Cadillac DTS w/1SC #374548A, Auto, Sunroof, Heated/ Ventilated Seats

23,995

DARCARS NISSAN of of ROCKVILLE ROCKVILLE 15911 Drive • • Rockville, Rockville, MD MD (at (at Rt. Rt. 355 355 across across from fromKing KingFarm) Farm) 15911 Indianola Indianola Drive www.DARCARSNISSAN.com 888.824.9166 •• www.DARCARSNISSAN.com

Prices include all rebates and incentives. NMAC Bonus Cash requires financing through NMAC with approved credit. Prices Pricestax, include rebates incentives.

NMAC Bonusand Cash requires financing through NMAC with approved credit.with exclude tags, all freight (carsand $780, trucks $725-$995), $200 processing charge. *Lease payments are calculated Prices exclude tax,$200 tags,processing freight (cars $810,and trucks $200 processing charge. valid only onthrough listed tax, tags, freight, charge first$845-$995), payment dueand at signing, and are valid withPrices tier one approval VINS. See dealer for details.

Offer expires 02/18/2014.

NMAC. Prices valid only on listed VINS. See dealer for details. Offer expires 10/22/2012.

17,977

$

2013 Nissan Juke SL #P8870, Navigation, Leather, Sunroof, 1-Owner, AWD

18,777

$

www.DARCARSnissan.com DARCARS NISSAN of ROCKVILLE 15911 Indianola Drive • Rockville, MD (at Rt. 355 across from King Farm)

888.805.8235 • www.DARCARSNISSAN.com

BAD CREDIT - NO CREDIT - CALL TODAY!

Search Gazette.Net/Autos

2014 NEW COROLLA LE ECO

36 $

NEW2 2014 COROLLA LE AVAILABLE: #470335, 470347

2 AVAILABLE: #470361, 470312

SWEET DEALS

79/ MO**

VALENTINE’S DAY

4 DR., 4 CYL., AUTO

NEW 2014 VENZA 4X2 2 AVAILABLE: #474515, 474506

24,690

$

15,790

4 DR., AUTO, 4 CYL., INCL.

NEW 2014 SCION XD 2 AVAILABLE: #453012, 453005

$

4 CYL., AUTO

AFTER $1,000 REBATE

$

169/mo.**

4 CYL., 4 DR., AUTO

NEW 2014 RAV4 4X2 BASE 2 AVAILABLE: #464032, 464051

NEW 2014 CAMRY LE 2 AVAILABLE: #472312, 472335

MO**

$

4 DR., 4 CYL., AUTO

NEW 2014 CAMRY SE

2 AVAILABLE: #477415, 477416

21,690

AFTER $750 REBATE

4 CYL., AUTOMATIC

AFTER $500 REBATE

NEW 2014 PRIUS II

$

21,590

2 AVAILABLE: #472008, 472036

0% FOR

HATCHBACK 4 DR., AUTO, 4 CYL.,

60

DARCARS

MONTHS+

On 10 Toyota Models

See what it’s like to love car buying

$

17,990

DEMO AUTO, 4 CYL., 4 DR

AFTER TOYOTA $1,750 REBATE

1-888-831-9671

15625 Frederick Rd (Rte 355) • Rockville, MD n OPEN SUNDAY n VISIT US ON THE WEB AT www.355Toyota.com

G560636

99/

$

PRICES AND PAYMENTS INCLUDE ANY APPLICABLE MANUFACTURE’S REBATES AND EXCLUDE MILITARY ($500) AND COLLEGE GRAD ($500) REBATES, TAX, TAGS, DEALER PROCESSING CHARGE ($200) AND FREIGHT: CARS $795 OR $810, TRUCKS, SPORT UTILITY AND SIENNAS $810, $845 AND $995. *0.9% APR & 0% APR FINANCING UP TO 60 MONTHS TO QUALIFIED BUYERS THRU TOYOTA FINANCIAL SERVICES. TOTAL FINANCED CANNOT EXCEED MSRP PLUS OPTIONS, TAX, AND LICENSE FEES. 0% APR 60 MONTHLY PAYMENTS OF $16.67 FOR EACH $1000 BORROWED. 0.9% APR 60 MONTHLY PAYMENTS OF $17.05 FOR EACH $1000 BORROWED. APR OFFERS ARE NOT VALID WITH ANY OTHER CASH BACK OR LEASE OFFER. NOT ALL BUYERS WILL QUALIFY.**LEASE PAYMENTS BASED ON 36 MONTHS, 12,000 MILES PER YEAR WITH $995 DOWN PLUS $650 ACQUISITION FEE, NO SECURITY DEPOSIT REQUIRED. SEE DEALER FOR COMPLETE DETAILS. 2014 COROLLA LE ECO & CAMRY LE LEASES ARE FOR 24 MONTHS WITH $995 DOWN. EXPIRES 02/28/2014.

Page B-18

Wednesday, February 12, 2014 z

G560634