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Easement stands in the way of new Boyds horse trail Details still being debated n
BY
VIRGINIA TERHUNE STAFF WRITER
RAPHAEL TALISMAN/ FOR THE GAZETTE
Yappy Hour attracts dog owners Group cites benefits and tries to rally support for dog park BY
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Wednesday, April 16, 2014
On April 9, Poolesville residents and dog owners Vicki Capone, left, and Richard Garner meet outside the Poolesville Town Hall before a commissioners meeting to show that they want and need a dog park in the area.
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Maryland’s annual “Unclaimed Property” booklet, with names and addresses of those who have accounts with unclaimed funds, will be distributed this week and next. If you regularly get The Gazette at your home and do not receive the publication, email circulation at circulation@gazette.net after May 2.
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SARAH SCULLY STAFF WRITER
About 15 dogs romped around outside the Poolesville Town Hall during a Yappy Hour last week. Their owners brought them to show town officials that the dogs need a new place to play. Inside Town Hall, members of the Dog Park Committee discussed how they could bring a dog park to Poolesville. The committee, comprised of three Parks Board
members and four residents, has been researching the possibility of a designated dog park. “We are feeling encouraged,” said Michelle Riley, a member of the committee and a leader on the dog park effort. “They are willing to move forward, but they need to see the support of the residents first.” Riley and her husband, Kevin Roehner, are behind PoolesvilleDogs.info and have been trying to rally Poolesville dog owners to show support for the park. The couple has lived in Poolesville since 2009 and has two pugs, Oscar and Ollie, whom they adopted from North Carolina. “It’s really the only thing I feel like this
town is missing,” Riley said. She and other dog park advocates argue that dog parks are good for socializing dogs and allow townhouse dwellers a place to let dogs run off-leash. The closest dog park is about 30 minutes away in Boyds, Riley said. The peer pressure of being part of the dog park community also encourages responsible ownership, including picking up after your dog, she said. It’s a “social outlet for dogs and their humans,” Riley said. Another advocate, Richard Garner, lives
See DOG, Page A-10
Horse lovers in Montgomery County may get a new public riding trail around an approved subdivision straddling Peach Tree Road in Boyds. But agreeing on the wording of the easement of land needed for the trail is a bone of contention between the developer, Barnesville Oak Farms LLC, and Equestrian Partners in Conservation (EPIC), a nonprofit based in Boyds that would accept the easement and maintain the trail. Among other conditions, the developer wants EPIC to buy insurance and guarantee its immunity from liability, which is not required under Maryland law, as riders use trails at their own risk, said attorney Allan Noble, a member of EPIC board and former president of the Boyds Civic Association. The draft also states that the trail is only for horses during the day and that vehicles are not allowed, even for maintenance. Any bridges or fences built by EPIC would become the property of the landowner. In addition, if the developer is
not satisfied with the way EPIC is managing the trail, it can file in Montgomery County Circuit Court to terminate the easement. Any communication with the developer about the easement would be through an attorney for the developers, Stephen Orens of the Rockville office of Miles & Stockbridge, with fees for his time paid by EPIC, according to the draft. The developer’s conditions in the draft easement are unusual and onerous enough that EPIC feels it cannot accept them, Noble said. He said the draft is more complicated than trail easements granted by landowners to Montgomery Parks for trails. “It would create a bad precedent for the acceptance of future trail easements by nonprofits such as EPIC,” he said. The easement is about 20 feet wide and encircles the 840acre farm property. The proposed trail would add to the growing network of riding trails in the rural Agricultural Reserve, which are considered one of the amenities of living in Montgomery County. Orens declined to comment until after the issue is resolved.
See TRAIL, Page A-10
Mooey’s Frozen Yogurt on the way n
Self-serve shop will open on Fisher Avenue BY
SARAH SCULLY STAFF WRITER
Mandy “Mooey” Sordo already had the perfect nickname for someone about to open a frozen yogurt shop. Friends, family and others she grew up with in Poolesville have always called her Mooey. The frozen dairy came later. Sordo plans to open Mooey’s Frozen Yogurt in Poolesville this summer, with
her husband, Steve Sordo, a chef at Bretton Woods Recreation Center in Germantown. The couple lives down the road in Beallsville. “He knows food, I know business,” she said. Mandy Sordo has done some accounting work and is pursuing a master’s in industrial/organization psychology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, which teaches management with a psychology angle. The shop will occupy the 1,320-squarefoot storefront at 19719 Fisher Ave., next to Subway, according to the couple, who
are leasing the space. The Sordos “felt like there was a lack of dessert places” in Poolesville, Mandy Sordo said, and saw the traction that frozen yogurt shops were getting elsewhere. Mooey’s will be independently owned. The shop will have self-serve frozen yogurt machines and self-serve toppings, with seasonal and rotating flavors. “We’re going to have some fresh local fruit,” Mandy Sordo said. The couple hope to get blueberries, strawberries, peaches and other ingredients from local
See YOGURT, Page A-10
TOM FEDOR/THE GAZETTE
Mandy Sordo and her husband Steve Sordo stand before the future location for their frozen yogurt shop, to be called Mooey’s, at the Poolesville Village Center on Tuesday morning in Poolesville.
Private money for public schools: How much is too much? n
Officials seek public’s opinion for its policy
BY
LINDSAY A. POWERS STAFF WRITER
From gardens to benches, scoreboards to playground equipment, public schools across Montgomery County receive facility improvements that are
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QIAGEN ON THE MOVE Dutch biotech shifting operations from Gaithersburg to main Germantown campus.
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paid for with private contributions rather than out of the county’s pocket. But that can lead to inequities between schools. Next month, Montgomery County Public Schools plans to hold three meetings to ask the public whether there’s a problem in the ability of wealthier schools to raise more money for nonessential improvements than other schools can. The meetings will be one part of a
larger study aimed at making any necessary policy changes next school year. The policy on private contributions for facility improvements includes funds from PTAs, booster clubs, businesses and local government agencies. Such private funds cannot go toward capital projects that the school system, county and state are responsible for, according to the school system’s policy on its website.
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Bruce Crispell, director of the school system’s Division of Long-range Planning, said the meetings will give community members the chance to say if they think the situation is fair. School officials want to promote involvement in schools, he said, but also want to explore ideas such as creating stronger policy language and providing support to school groups that need help building their fundraising capacities.
Under current policy, school officials must consider during an approval process “whether the improvement would foster or exacerbate inequity.” Crispell said smaller contributions, which are most common, appear all over the county. “I think you see a little bigger totals when you get to the more affluent com-
See SCHOOLS, Page A-10
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