BACK TO THE OLD, BUT NEW, SCHOOL Students return to refurbished Derwood building. A-3
The Gazette
NEWS: Wootton High School sophomores are aces at apps. A-3
SOUTHERN MONTGOMERY COUNT Y DA I LY U P DAT E S AT G A Z E T T E . N E T
Wednesday, January 14, 2015
Shovel, or else n
25 cents
Muslim students celebrate Muhammad’s birth
Municipalities levy fines or hire contractors to ensure clear walkways BY
SPORTS: St. Andrew’s coach builds a top-ranked basketball program in only four years. B-1
ELIZABETH WAIBEL STAFF WRITER
After snowplows are deployed to clear the roads, many downcounty residents faithfully pick up their shovels to clear snow from sidewalks in front of their homes and businesses. Local municipalities have different tactics for making sure the sidewalks get cleared. In Montgomery County as a whole, property owners must clear public sidewalks on or next to their properties within 24 hours of the snowstorm’s end. Towns and cities may set their own rules, however. Kensington also requires sidewalks to be cleared within 24 hours of the storm’s end. Town Manager Sanford Daily said a code enforcement officer checks to see if sidewalks have been cleared, and the town clears sidewalks on Connecticut Avenue, where plows tend to push snow from the road back onto the sidewalks. “When a resident plows the snow and the state comes back along and plows Connecticut Avenue and plows it right back up on the curb, we don’t think the resident should have to suffer that repeat shoveling,” he said. “We get our snowblowers out and try to take care of that.” Kensington also tries to coordinate volunteers for people who need snow-shoveling assistance, according to an email alert sent Sunday, reminding people that they could be fined for not clearing adjacent sidewalks. Fines range from $65 for a resident’s first violation to $400 for a repeat commercial violation, Daily said, but those are rarely levied. “Most people take care of it,” he said, adding that his staff
See SHOVEL, Page A-15
Transit center now due in May Council OKs $21 million more; project cost now at $141 million n
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STAFF WRITER
GREG DOHLER/THE GAZETTE
(From left) Ava Taheri, 7; Zahra Baghee, 7; and Ida Beiraghdar, 8, sing during Thursday’s celebration of the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad at the Muslim Community School in Potomac.
Potomac school marks day with lecture and carnival BY
PEGGY MCEWAN STAFF WRITER
The party included performances, games and, of course, cake. It was a celebration of the birth of the Prophet Muhammad and, in a way, the birth of Islam. And the students at the Muslim Community School in Potomac really enjoyed the celebration Thursday afternoon. “We always have celebrations at school,” said Erfan Jahanparast, 15, a ninth-grader. “People think Muslims just have sad holidays and fasting. In the same way Christians celebrate Christmas because Jesus is a prophet, we have today.” The afternoon festivities started with a lunch of rice and beef kebabs followed by a lecture by Sheikh Jalil, a teacher at the school, on why the prophet loves children and how he encouraged unity during his lifetime.
Then the children took over, with third-graders performing a play depicting the placing of the black stone on the Kaaba at Mecca and three fourth-grade girls reading an original poem in honor of the birth of Muhammad. Those performances were followed by songs from several groups. Amira Kazi, 12, a seventh-grader, sang with four of her friends and later joined them playing games in the school’s meeting hall. “It really is a birthday party,” she said, pointing to the large cake that would soon be served. The Muslim Community School has 80 students, said Principal Somayyah Nahidian. “We say we go from diapers to diploma,” she said. “We have day care for the young ones and go through 12th grade.” Muhammad was born in Mecca, now Saudi Arabia, in 570. His birth-
day is celebrated throughout the month of Rabi al Awwal, the third month of the Islamic lunar calendar, said Dilshad Fakroddin, a mother with two children at the school. “It’s a joyous month,” she said. The day ended with the students playing games such as floor hockey, shooting basketballs and trying to get a soccer ball into a net about 2 feet off the floor. There were also games of skill such as Crazy Driver, in which children had to guide a ball past obstacles by shifting the board the ball was traveling down. And, of course, they ate cake. “This is a time you should celebrate, this is a time you should be really happy,” said fifth-grader Mahdi Tohidl, 10. “Someone we follow, the Prophet Muhammad, was born this day. This is a time to have fun.” pmcewan@gazette.net
The construction of a Silver Spring Transit Center has taken years and cost millions more than planned, but now the county says it should be done sometime in late May. To finish the repair work, the nine-member council on Tuesday unanimously approved an additional $21 million, bringing the total cost to about $141 million. At a briefing Tuesday, county General Services Director David Dise told the County Council that work to fix construction and design flaws in the commuter terminal should be complete and the project ready to transfer to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority by late May. Yet, with the project now four years behind schedule and $50 million over budget, a growing number of people don’t believe Dise’s assurances, Council President George L. Leventhal (D-At Large) of Takoma Park said. Workers broke ground on the transit center — designed to be a three-level transit hub connecting Metro rail lines, MARC commuter trains, taxis and buses — in 2008, hoping to finish it by late 2010. The estimated price tag in
See TRANSIT, Page A-15
School buses in, city park out Deputy city manager says it’s unclear if facilities will be relocated n
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Women reconnect 60 years after near-disaster on boat BY
TERRI HOGAN STAFF WRITER
It was 1951 and they almost drowned together in a harrowing mishap on the Chesapeake. Then they went their separate ways for six decades — until a recent dinner in Sandy Spring. Rita McDonnell Klosky, 87, and Vivian Hudson Moyle, 84, both were staying at Brooke Grove Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. Klosky’s husband, Phillip “Mike” Klosky, 88, also
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was there. Moyle, of Silver Spring, had been recovering at the rehabilitation center from pneumonia. On the first day she felt well enough to eat dinner in the dining room, she ended up seated next to Klosky, of Gaithersburg. As they introduced themselves, the pair quickly learned they both had attended the same high school, St. Anthony’s in Northeast Washington, D.C., and had graduated three years apart. As they were discussing mutual friends, the topic of that fateful day
See RECONNECT, Page A-15
BILL RYAN/THE GAZETTE
Vivian Moyle (left) and Rita Klosky reminisce about a boating accident on the Chesapeake Bay 60 years ago that left them stranded in the water for seven hours. They met again recently while staying at Brooke Grove Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Sandy Spring.
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LINDSAY A. POWERS STAFF WRITER
Big bay, small world n
KATE S. ALEXANDER
INFESTATION Rock band Papa Roach joins Seether for a show at Fillmore Silver Spring.
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Volume 27, No. 34, Two sections, 32 Pages Copyright © 2014 The Gazette
A Rockville athletic park will leave to make way for a Montgomery County Public Schools bus depot, according to a school system official. The school system plans to move its Shady Grove Bus Depot, now on Crabbs Branch Way in Rockville, to a site that currently holds the district’s Blair G. Ewing Center and the Mark Twain School Athletic Park. The district has another Rockville location in mind for the Ewing center, which houses alternative education programs for students struggling with academic, disciplinary or behavioral problems. Whether the Mark Twain park will find a new home is unclear. The school system-owned park grounds include baseball and soccer fields, a tennis court, playground equipment and picnic tables. The city of Rockville uses the park for its adult and youth sports leagues.
See BUS, Page A-15
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