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The Gazette OLNEY
DAILY UPDATES ONLINE www.gazette.net
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Kimball’s property could become a CVS n
25 cents
Sherwood resolves its prom ticket problem
Stretch play
Community meeting Wednesday to discuss project BY
School negotiates new contract to accommodate students on waiting list n
TERRI HOGAN
BY
TERRI HOGAN
STAFF WRITER
STAFF WRITER
CVS is proposing to build a new pharmacy on the site of the former Kimball’s Service Center in Ashton. A pre-submission community meeting regarding CVS’s proposed site plan and preliminary plan will take place at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Sandy Spring Museum at 17901 Bentley Road. The proposal includes a 12,800-square foot building on the northeast corner of Ashton Road and New Hampshire Avenue, along with an improved pedestrian area, sidewalks, landscaping, and stormwater management. In an email response to The Gazette, CVS Director of Public Relations Michael DeAngelis confirmed that the company is in the early stages of building the store, which he expects to open in mid-2016. He said company officials have met informally with representatives from the local community to listen to their suggestions on building design and site layout. “We look forward to continue working with the community to ensure that our new CVS/ pharmacy complements the surrounding neighborhood,” DeAngelis said. John Salzberg, president of the Sandy Spring Civic Association, has attended some of the informal meetings with CVS officials and thinks that most residents are generally supportive of the plan. Currently, residents living in the area would have to travel to Olney to have prescriptions filled. He said he knows of residents who live at Friends House who do not have a car, but might be able to walk to Ashton. Sandy Spring resident Joy Turner said a pharmacy was one of the suggestions in a survey conducted a few years ago, which asked area residents what types of businesses they would like to see in the community. She said there were initial concerns about how the building would be designed, but people were pleased when they heard it could be modeled after
Sherwood High School students who were originally told that their prom was sold out will be able to attend after all. School administrators confirmed that the venue, the National Aquarium in Baltimore, can accommodate additional students. Several parents contacted The Gazette on April 11, disappointed that their children were told that tickets were sold out after waiting in line to buy them. That was the last day to purchase tickets, which had been available for several weeks. They also were sold on online. Some parents said that their students already had purchased gowns and rented tuxedos. Brenda Hoyle, Sherwood’s business administrator, said the school learned on April 15 that an additional 64 students can attend the prom. That includes 44 students who tried to buy tickets on April 11. Another 20 students who purchased tickets online after school on April 10 and couldn’t pick up their tickets on April 11 also will get to go, Hoyle said. “Those kids who made that deadline — we knew we were going to try to make something work for them,” she said. In addition to those 64 tickets, eight additional tickets were sold on Tuesday. The 72 additional tickets will be added to the initial 455 that were sold, for a total of 527, said Jodie Friedman, the junior class sponsor. Principal Wiliam Gregory said he heard from some parents of students who returned to class after being
See CVS, Page A-11
BILL RYAN/THE GAZETTE
Savannah Terry, 6, of Ashton finds an egg in a tree during an Easter egg hunt at Salem United Methodist Church in Brookeville on Sunday.
Former county employee’s tweets violated rules n
‘I wasn’t proselytizing on the MCFRS feed’ BY
TIFFANY ARNOLD STAFF WRITER
A former Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service spokesman violated the county policy by tweeting Bible verses and continuing to use his Twitter account in a way that appeared to be on the county’s behalf after he left the county in January. As a result, former Assistant Chief Scott Graham has been asked to change his Twitter name, @MCFirePIO, so that people won’t think he’s acting in an official county capacity, according to county government spokesman Patrick Lacefield.
“The things he was tweeting were in violation of the county’s social media policy,” Lacefield said. When Graham was serving as a public information officer for the county’s fire and rescue association, he routinely used the @MCFirePIO Twitter handle to interact with reporters, posting photos and public safety-related updates in 140-character bursts. Public information officers are responsible for responding to press inquiries and occasionally act as spokespeople for the departments or organizations where they work. The @ MCFirePIO account had more than 1,800 followers and more than 880 tweets, including at least 20 church-related posts — Bible verses, links to church sermons, and quotes from min-
isters — tweeted during and after his time as a county public information officer. The county’s policy prohibits official social media account administrators from broadcasting personal beliefs and states that content posted to these sites “must be consistent with the mission of county government and the mission of the department on whose behalf the post is made,” according to a copy of the policy obtained by The Gazette. Graham contends that he didn’t do anything wrong. “This is a First Amendment thing,” Graham said. Graham served MCFRS for more than 25 years and was described by colleagues as a “great guy” with a “distinguished career.” Graham helped craft what became the Emergency
NEWS
SPORTS
Nancy Floreen presented her Golden Shovel awards to people who helped their neighbors.
County athletes work to earn qualifying spots at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia.
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See PROM, Page A-11
FACING THE PENN DILEMMA
Automotive Calendar Celebrations Classified Entertainment Opinion School News Sports Please
“The things he was tweeting were in violation of the county’s social media policy.” Patrick Lacefield, county government spokesman Medical Transportation Insurance Reimbursement Act, which charges insurers for emergency medical transport. He’s a volunteer firefighter in the Upcounty. Graham said that he created the @MCFirePIO feed as a personal account because he saw the need for one and said he didn’t think it was in appropriate to use a personal account for county business. “It’s not a county account
and it never has been,” Graham said. Since Graham left the county on Jan. 31, at least three tweets related to weather and traffic incidents were posted to the account. “A lot of people I work with have to travel those roads and nobody else had put anything out,” Graham said. Graham said he didn’t think
See TWEETS, Page A-11
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