HER VOICE Mexican American writer tells her story. A-5
The Gazette
NEWS: Clarksburg High School rallies to support cheerleader with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. A-3
GERMANTOWN | CLARKSBURG DA I LY U P DAT E S AT G A Z E T T E . N E T
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
25 cents
Parents press for traffic controls
Hearing on Clarksburg park set for Thursday n
More amenities proposed for Ovid Hazen Wells site BY
VIRGINIA TERHUNE
n Parkway too fast to cross at Clarksburg’s Wilson Wims Elementary
STAFF WRITER
The county Planning Board is inviting residents to comment about plans to further develop the Ovid Hazen Wells Recreational Park in Clarksburg at a public hearing on Thursday. The 290-acre park west of Damascus Road (Md. 355) is partly bounded by Skylark Road and the Arora Hills community. It already has ball fields, picnic areas and trails along its western edge. Planners are recommending additional development to include relocating a carousel now housed in Wheaton near the existing ball fields off Skylark Road. Planners have also proposed a new looped trail system, teen play area, sledding hill and dog park, as well as uses, such as weddings or public events, for a
BY
VIRGINIA TERHUNE STAFF WRITER
See PLAN, Page A-10
BILL RYAN/THE GAZETTE
Jessica Furey with her son Carter Furey, 2, who has been battling a very rare pediatric eye cancer, at home in Germantown.
Mom urges eye cancer awareness Germantown toddler fights and defeats retinoblastoma
n
BY
J A hearing to discuss the master plan update for the Ovid Hazen Wells Recreational Park will be held this week.
SPORTS: Poolesville High quarterback leads team into big game against Catoctin. B-1
SAMANTHA SCHMIEDER STAFF WRITER
ust a few days shy of their second birthday, Carter and Blake Furey, dressed in matching blue and white striped shirts and gray pants, ran energetically around the Germantown home where they live with their mom and grandparents. “You would never guess that’s a little boy who used to have cancer,” Kacy Furey, the twins’ grandmother said with a laugh, motioning toward Carter. Carter and Blake are identical twins and grandma always dresses them exactly alike. The only noticeable
difference between the blonde-haired toddlers is that Carter wears glasses to protect his eyes, which have been through quite a lot in his short life. Carter’s long journey started at the twins’ six month check-up. “Everyone else might get red eye, he would get one eye that was white and [doctors] call it ‘cat eye reflex,’” Kacy Furey said, explaining that the family had noticed it in pictures, but never thought anything of it. “The pediatrician was concerned and wanted us to see a pediatric ophthalmologist. I honestly just didn’t follow-up and when we went back for their nine month, I said I didn’t get an appointment and the doctor said we need to get an appointment now.” When Carter and Blake’s mom, Jessica Furey, 26, brought him to an ophthalmologist in Rockville, she said the doctor came out and did what she calls the “boyfriend
See CANCER, Page A-10
Wilson Wims Elementary students in Clarksburg who could easily walk across the street to their new school are taking the bus instead. But there’s a good reason for that. The street they have to cross is the four-lane Snowden Farm Parkway with a speed limit of 40 mph and no other traffic controls. Some parents who live east of Snowden Farm Parkway near the school are pressing officials to install traffic calming measures on the fourlane road so they can safely walk their children to school. “I’m advocating for some kind of controlled intersection,” said parent Seenu Suvarna, who has a son in second grade. Suvarna has asked school, police and transportation officials for several years to consider installing a four-way stop, traffic circle, crosswalk, traffic light, crossing guard and/or speed camera at the intersection of Snowden Parkway and Grand Elm Street, which runs in front of the school’s main entrance. So far he has met with little success. “I’ve hit roadblocks every single which way,” Suvarna said. The main reason is because Snowden Farm Parkway was designed and built as a four-lane arterial road to accommodate through traffic, according to county Department of Transportation officials. The speed limit is set at 40 miles per hour, which is typical for such arterials
See TRAFFIC, Page A-10
Germantown students help build bottle bench n
Project is part of Green Club at Roberto Clemente Middle School BY
VIRGINIA TERHUNE STAFF WRITER
Students in Germantown and Clarksburg working with other volunteers have started building the first “bottle bench” in Maryland made out of dirt, rocks and recycled materials. With a back shaped like a butterfly, the earth bench will overlook the wildflower meadow at the Visitors Center
INDEX Automotive Calendar Classified Entertainment Opinion Sports
B-11 A-2 B-7 A-11 A-9 B-1
in Black Hill Regional Park in Boyds when it is finished. On Saturday, students helped make “bricks” for the structure by packing 20-ounce soda bottles with plastic grocery bags using a long stick. “It’s kind of a smart idea,” said Suraj Modur, 11, a student at Kingsview Middle School in Germantown. Tightly packing the bottles with the plastic bags makes the bricks “really strong,” he said. Working with Modur on Saturday was Shabarish Nair, 12, a seventh grader at Roberto Clemente Middle School in Germantown. “It’s important; I came to help the
earth,” Nair said. “I don’t want it to be dirty; I want a clean future.” Montgomery Parks is working with seventh graders at Roberto Clemente and other children under the guidance of the nonprofit The Harvest Collective, based in Silver Spring. Also helping is the nonprofit So What Else, based in Rockville, which runs free after-school programs in the Washington, D.C., region. “It’s a way to get kids to serve their communities,” said David Silbert, executive director for So What Else. “I didn’t realize how much of a kidfriendly project this is,” he said, as he helped his young children stuff soda
ENTERTAINMENT
NEW LIFE IN THE DAYLIGHT A wingless fairy makes new friends in Imagination Stage’s production of “The Night Fairy.”
A-11
1932781
bottles. The bottle bench project is modeled on those built by the California-based nonprofit Peace on Earthbench Movement, which builds useful structures out of trash. Silver Spring residents David Rogner and Jayne Matt with the Harvest Collective are leading the So What Else’s Green Club after-school program for seventh graders at Roberto Clemente Middle School. The seventh graders meet for two hours after school on Wednesdays to
See BENCH, Page A-10
Volume 31, No. 39, Two sections, 28 Pages Copyright © 2014 The Gazette
Please
RECYCLE
VIRGINIA TERHUNE/THE GAZETTE
Shabarish Nair, 12, (left) a student at Roberto Clemente Middle School in Germantown, and Suraj Modur, 11, a student at Kingsview Middle School, also in Germantown, pack soda bottles with pieces of plastic on Sept. 27 to make “bottle bricks” for a bench being made from recycled materials at Black Hill Regional Park in Boyds.