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ROCKVILLE | ASPEN HILL | POTOMAC | OLNEY DA I LY U P DAT E S AT G A Z E T T E . N E T
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
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County eyes overhauling headquarters Rockville mayor: City needs to be at the table for discussions n
BY
RYAN MARSHALL STAFF WRITER
BILL RYAN/THE GAZETTE
Tian Meng-Yi of Potomac performs a dance based on tai chi with the US Wushu Academy of Gaithersburg during the lunar and Chinese New Year celebration Saturday at Lakeforest mall in Gaithersburg. Rockville will hold its own celebration this Saturday at the F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre.
Rockville to mark lunar new year
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Saturday festival will feature dance, music, food BY
RYAN MARSHALL STAFF WRITER
Rockville will celebrate the lunar new year — and its residents of East and South Asian descent — on Saturday. The lunar new year celebration will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre at 603 Edmonston Drive in Rockville Civic Center Park. It will feature intergenerational dance, music and singing, said Janet Kelly, the liaison to the city’s Asian Pacific American Task Force.
It also will include tastes of Asian cuisine, information booths and demonstrations of various games, she said. Kelly said Rockville has a large AsianAmerican population, especially people of Chinese, Korean and Indian descent. According to census data, 20.6 percent of Rockville residents are of only Asian descent, as of 2010. The performers will include the Flowers of Beijing Opera, a boys Korean drum group from Germantown’s Matsunaga Elementary School and the Filipino-American Community of St. Rose of Lima Parish in Gaithersburg, according to a city news release. The goal is to not only help the city’s Asian Americans celebrate the lunar new
year, but draw others to learn about the lunar new year and its traditions, Kelly said. The Montgomery County Council celebrated the lunar new year, which began Thursday, at its Feb. 12 meeting. About 14 percent of Montgomery County’s population is of East and South Asian descent, according to a county news release. For more information, contact Janet Kelly at 240-314-8316 or jkelly@rockvillemd.gov, or visit rockvillemd.gov/apataskforce. For information about handicapped access, call 240-314-8108. rmarshall@gazette.net
Advocates say open area better for some dogs BY
RYAN MARSHALL STAFF WRITER
As Rockville updates its animal control ordinance, there’s a push to establish at least one area of the city where dogs would be allowed to get exercise off of their leashes. The proposal by Councilwoman Julie Palakovich Carr includes a measure that would let the city designate an area on public land where that would be allowed if the dogs were under the direct supervision of an owner or handler.
Experts have determined that well-exercised and socialized dogs are less likely to bite other dogs and people, she said. Small, fenced-in parks such as the city’s dog park in King Farm often don’t meet the needs of submissive dogs that may be frightened by more dominant ones, Kronzek said. In 2006, New York City considered changing its rules in city parks to allow off-leash dogs in some areas during offpeak hours. A memo from that city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to the Board
See PARK, Page A-12
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Leggett’s budget counted on funding; projects might have to wait BY
LINDSAY A. POWERS STAFF WRITER
Montgomery County could face difficult decisions if the state doesn’t help fulfill the school district’s funding request for capital projects, officials said Monday. Montgomery County Ex-
Resident honored for bringing beer garden to Olney Days, other help BY
TERRI HOGAN STAFF WRITER
BILL RYAN/THE GAZETTE
Jim Smith was named the Greater Olney Civic Association’s Howard J. Garber Citizen of the Year, in part for bringing a beer garden to Olney Days last year.
DIFFERENT WAY TO SHAKESPEARE Famed Folger Consort brings “Merchant of Venice” to Strathmore.
School plans rely on more state aid
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Much of the testimony at a Feb. 9 public hearing focused on provisions regarding control of the city’s feral cat population and allowing a small number of backyard chickens. But Rockville resident Andrea Kronzek told the mayor and council she supports changing the off-leash rules. Of about 4,600 licensed dogs in the city, 26 are certified to be allowed off-leash through a program run by the city, Kronzek said. But that doesn’t mean the rest of the city’s dogs are disobedient or aggressive, and they deserve the opportunity to run, play and release energy, she said.
See HEADQUARTERS, Page A-12
ecutive Isiah Leggett has recommended approving the county school board’s requested $1.74 billion fiscal 2015-20 Capital Improvements Program. Leggett’s recommendation banks on the success of a state bill to direct more school construction money to the county. The county wants to secure an added stream of state aid within the six-year capital program time frame, said county spokesman Patrick Lacefield.
See AID, Page A-12
Smith is Olney’s Citizen of the Year
Rockville mulls off-leash park n
As the Montgomery County Council considers the future of its headquarters, Rockville officials want to be part of the discussion. A plan under consideration would renovate either the Stella B. Werner Council Office Building on Maryland Avenue or the Grey and Red Brick courthouses in downtown Rockville to provide more room for the council and county staff. This month, Council Presi-
dent George L. Leventhal (D-At Large) of Takoma Park sent a letter to Rockville Mayor Bridget Donnell Newton inviting the city’s input as the council considers the proposals. Newton told the County Council on Tuesday that Rockville, the county seat, enthusiastically looks forward to being part of the discussions. “These buildings are central elements of our Town Center landscape and are some of the last remaining historic structures that exemplify our city and county’s rich history,” she said. The heating, ventilation and air conditioning in the Council Office Building has been a problem for years, and many of the
Volume 28, No. 8, Two sections, 32 Pages Copyright © 2015 The Gazette
Sure, the 430 cups of beer were a key factor, but it really was much more than that. Jim Smith has been named the Howard J. Garber Citizen of the Year by the Greater Olney Civic Association, in part for bringing a beer garden to the
annual Olney Days celebration. But Smith, 52, who moved to Olney in 1997, has been an active member of the community. He is a charter member of the Olney Town Center Advisory Committee and is its chairman. He also is vice chairman of the Olney Civic Fund and attends monthly civic association meetings as a representative of the Oatland Farms homeowners association. About a year ago, he was approached by Olney Days
See CITIZEN, Page A-12
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