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A JOYFUL Noise
Area choirs gather to spread the word on a region rich in talent. B-5
The Gazette POTOMAC | NORTH POTOMAC
DAILY UPDATES ONLINE www.gazette.net
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
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New bus cameras nab illegal passers n
10 tickets issued in county this year
BY
LINDSAY A. POWERS STAFF WRITER
Ten drivers who illegally passed a Montgomery County school bus in January were caught in the act by a new camera system. Since Jan. 2, five cameras on Montgomery County Public Schools buses have issued 10 citations, at $125 each, to drivers who passed a stopped bus while its stop arm was extended with flashing red lights, said Cpl. Rebecca Innocenti, a spokeswoman for county police. The cameras automatically record vehicles that pass a bus illegally. If an officer catches a motorist passing a stopped school bus, she said, the citation
Churchill’s Justin Spivak checks Wootton’s Austin Schoenfeld during play at the Rockville Ice Arena last month. A recent online petition aims to change ice hockey’s status and add it to the county school system’s group of about 30 varsity sports.
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GAZETTE FILE PHOTO
VARSIT Y ICE HOCKEY BY
LINDSAY A. POWERS
H
STAFF WRITER
ockey players in Montgomery County are used to competing against other high schoolers on the ice. The Maryland Student Hockey League they play in even includes several team names familiar to those in Montgomery County Public Schools: Montgomery Blair, Blake, Wootton and Winston Churchill, among others. The roughly 12 teams in the league’s
two Montgomery divisions, however, won’t be found under the schools’ list of varsity sports. Jeremy Skaife, a player on the Richard Montgomery hockey team, recently started an online petition to change ice hockey’s status and add it to the county school system’s group of about 30 varsity sports. As of Tuesday, the Change.org petition had grown to more than 1,000 signatures, including those from residents of Bethesda, Potomac, Gaithersburg, Rockville, Kensington and Poolesville. The petition is addressed to Superintendent Joshua P. Starr, the county’s board of education, high school prin-
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Measure would help fund county candidates, but place limits on size of contributions BY RYAN MARSHALL STAFF WRITER
A bill to provide public funding for county executive and county council campaigns has drawn praise from a number of organizations dedicated to good government as an example for other jurisdictions to follow.
cipals and school system athletics officials. In the petition, Skaife requests the school system provide support including morning announcements and website posts about the teams’ games and a “spirit bus” for the first game of the season. Skaife also asks that players earn varsity letters. “Above all else, we believe that these students deserve to earn and receive recognition for their achievements, hard work, and dedication, as all other varsity athletes, with a Varsity
BILL RYAN/THE GAZETTE
Salt trucks wait at a parking lot in Gaithersburg to start salting roads Monday.
Wintry assault assails area salt stockpiles Cold temperatures, regular storms have kept crews busy
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See HOCKEY, Page A-10
of special interests in government. Andrews said he’s been working on the issue since before his election to the council in 1998, including while serving as executive director of Common Cause Maryland from 1988 until 1994. That group’s current executive director, Jennifer Bevan-Dangel, praised the legislation Monday as something that could be used in other counties. “We absolutely believe that Montgomery County is setting the model for other counties to follow and for the state to fol-
See FUNDING, Page A-10
SPORTS
NEWS
FROG CALLING FrogWatch volunteers are part of a nationwide program to collect data on the amphibians.
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TOUGH DECISIONS FOR ATHLETES Players make signing day commitments too early because of recruitment pressure.
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See PASSING, Page A-10
School system officials cite obstacles
Andrews proposes public funding for campaigns The bill, sponsored by Councilman Philip M. Andrews (D-Dist. 3) of Gaithersburg and co-sponsored by all eight of his council colleagues, would allow candidates to receive public money to help fund their campaigns, but places limits on the size of contributions for candidates who accept it. The bill was introduced Tuesday. Andrews, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for county executive in the June 24 primary, said Monday he believes the bill will encourage more candidates to run for office and more residents to participate in campaigns, as well as reduce the influence
would be steeper: $570 and 3 points on their license. Innocenti said the tickets were issued on the following streets: Ridge Road in Damascus; Fairland Road in Silver Spring; West Lake Drive and Tuckerman Lane in Rockville; West Lake Drive and Tuckerman Lane in Bethesda; and Muddy Branch Road and East Deer Park Drive in Gaithersburg. The data from the bus cameras will help police further understand which areas in the county are the most problematic when it comes to this type of violations, Innocenti said. The cameras help police catch drivers whom they might not see or who would be difficult to stop based on the topography of the road, Innocenti said.
Automotive Business Calendar Celebrations Classified Entertainment Opinion School News Sports Please
BY
RYAN MARSHALL STAFF WRITER
Having survived last month’s polar vortex and with Punxsutawney Phil recently predicting six more weeks of winter weather, state, county and local officials are keeping an eye on the toll this winter’s weather has taken on their supplies and budgets. Montgomery County has used slightly less than 50,000 tons of road salt since the winter season started in November, said Keith Compton, the chief of the Division of Highway Services in the county’s
Department of Transportation. At $52 a ton from the county’s supplier at the Port of Baltimore, that’s about $2.6 million worth of salt so far this winter. The county tries to keep about 30,000 tons on hand so it will always be prepared for a major storm. “That’s the comfort zone,” Compton said. County road crews responded to eight weather events in January, and also had to deal with a lot of ice created by the unseasonably cold temperatures that sometimes dipped into the single digits, Compton said. The State Highway Admin-
See SALT, Page A-10
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