SILVER ANNIVERSARY
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Theater marks 75th with free showing of first movie. A-13
The Gazette GERMANTOWN | POOLESVILLE | BOYDS
DAILY UPDATES ONLINE www.gazette.net
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
25 cents
Policy on moving teachers reviewed
New program
discourages donations to panhandlers Instead, campaign seeks to increase aid to groups that help poor
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Reassignment after accusations could be rare n
RYAN MARSHALL
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STAFF WRITER
Richard Willis strolled up and down the thin median strip in Bethesda, following the ebb and flow of traffic as the lights changed. Monday was one of the first days Willis had come to the intersection of Democracy Boulevard and Old Georgetown Road in months, but he said he’s been coming to the area off and on for nearly 10 years. His small cardboard sign said he needed money for prescriptions, but Willis said he was actually trying to raise money to stay at a motel because there was no room in the homeless shelter where he had been staying. Drivers’ reaction to his presence is mostly good, although occasionally someone will tell him to get a job, Willis said. He said sometimes people will bring him a soda or a sandwich. Other times, a driver will say they are on their way to the grocery store across the street, and they’ll bring him something on the way back. In the winter, people will bring gloves, hats or an umbrella if it’s raining, he said. Earlier Monday morning in Wheaton, Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (D), County Councilman George Leventhal and other officials announced an initia-
See PANHANDLERS, Page A-12
LINDSAY A. POWERS STAFF WRITER
GREG DOHLER/THE GAZETTE
A store employee prepares the check-out area Tuesday for Sunday’s opening at the new Wegmans in Germantown.
Supermarket WARS
New Wegmans store enters highly competitive Montgomery County market
BY
KEVIN JAMES SHAY STAFF WRITER
With less than five days before Wegmans opens its first Montgomery County grocery store, Kevin Grenzig took a glance around at fellow employees preparing for Sunday morning. “This is going really smoothly,” said Grenzig, the executive chef of the Germantown store on Seneca Meadows, who has helped open several Maryland Wegmans branches. “By now, we’re usually scrambling to get things done, but I don’t see a lot of that here.” Employees have been preparing for opening day for months. The development process began some four years ago, after Wegmans found a parcel within walking distance of the 150,000-square-foot
Walmart in Germantown. Its latest 123,000-square-foot store is set to open at 7 a.m. Sunday. Such an opening can draw a large crowd. When the 130,000-squarefoot Frederick store opened on a Sunday morning in 2011, people started lining up hours before, and upwards of 20,000 shoppers packed the aisles that initial day. Planning for how much specialty food, housewares, beverages and other items on shelves can pose a challenge, said store manager Phil Quattrini, a 25-year company veteran who managed the Frederick store. Then, there is the fresh seafood shipped in daily from ports that include those in Maryland, and the meats, produce and other perishable items.
See SUPERMARKET, Page A-12
WEGMANS OPENING n When: 7 a.m. Sunday n Where: 20600 Seneca Meadows Parkway, Germantown n Hours: 6 a.m.-midnight, seven days a week
When a teacher has been accused of inappropriate behavior with a student, that teacher could wind up in a new school. Montgomery County Public Schools is considering new rules that would make such reassignments less likely in cases of “a sexual nature,” said chief operating officer Larry Bowers. The school system is examining its policy for reassigning teachers and other employees as it works to improve its ability to track incidents of employee behavior, he said. The school system recently studied several cases involving employees who engaged in inappropriate behavior with students over extended periods of time, leading the school system to make changes to its tracking system for reports on such alleged behavior, according to school system memorandums. The discussion over the changes comes on the heels of the arrest of Lawrence Joynes, a music teacher who was accused of sexually abusing 14 children at New Hampshire Elementary School in Silver Spring and raping a 15th victim at Eastern Middle School, also in Silver Spring. Joynes taught at 11 schools during 27 years in the school system. School officials have not said
See TEACHERS, Page A-12
n Employees: 550 n Size: 123,000 square feet n Special features: Market café with indoor and outdoor seating for 200, pizza shop, old-fashioned sub shop, kosher deli, coffee shop, organic salad bar, fresh seafood delivered daily from Maryland ports and others across the country, cheese shop with 300 specialty and artisan cheeses, pharmacy.
The latest education news in and affecting Montgomery County
Girl Scout creates patch for Poolesville Day Design will be on sale during town’s festival
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BY KRISTA BRICK STAFF WRITER
TOM FEDOR/THE GAZETTE
Richard Willis said he stays on the median as he panhandles. People who don’t follow the rules have no business panhandling, he said.
NEWS
WSSC ADMITS ‘MISTAKE’ Utility company takes responsibility for water main break in March.
A-5
Girl Scouts can earn a range of badges — such as for trailblazing and money management. Now, Girl Scouts in the Poolesville area will have one that’s unique. Eight-year-old Scout Amelia Hobart designed it in honor of her hometown. Hobart won the first-ever Girls
Scout Service Unit 32-11 Poolesville Day patch contest. The patch is in honor of Poolesville’s annual festival, called Poolesville Day. It is scheduled for Sept. 21. The third-grader at Poolesville Elementary School is a member of Girl Scout Troop 3380 now and has been in Scouts since kindergarten. Her mom, Nicole Hobart, is her troop leader. “My mom suggested I enter the contest and I did,” Amelia said. The contest was open to any member of the service unit. Amelia immediately focused on
SPORTS
A DIFFERENT TYPE OF PRESSURE Tennis players face a unique type of pressure when wearing their school’s colors.
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Amelia Hobart, 8, is shown with the patch she designed for the upcoming Poolesville Day.
the town’s iconic water tower. “I just starting drawing in crayon, but I used marker to write the words ‘Go Falcons’ on the tower since I didn’t have a black crayon,” she said. The design includes a sun and sky and the words “Poolesville Day 2013.” This is the second year the service unit has created a patch for Poolesville Day, but the first year the group offered a contest to design it, according to Marilyn Mense, service unit manager. Mense designed last
TOM FEDOR/ THE GAZETTE
See PATCH, Page A-12
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