HANUKKAH VS. OUTDOOR ED Hoover Middle School program won’t be changed A-3
A&E: Adventure Theatre MTC brings E.B. White’s “Stuart Little” to life. B-5
The Gazette ROCKVILLE | ASPEN HILL | POTOMAC | OLNEY
SPORTS: Churchill field hockey taking a step forward after season filled with close losses. B-1
DA I LY U P DAT E S AT G A Z E T T E . N E T
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
25 cents
City, county at ‘stalemate’ on stormwater fees Rockville out about $460,000 in fiscal 2015 n
BY
RYAN MARSHALL STAFF WRITER
TOM FEDOR/THE GAZETTE
Helen Zatman, 100, of Brooke Grove Retirement Village in Sandy Spring, sings along with Steve Little of Rockville during Monday’s Centenarians Day celebration.
Celebrating its centenarians
n
Sandy Spring retirement village fetes its oldest residents BY
TERRI HOGAN STAFF WRITER
One hundred years ago, a gallon of gas cost 12 cents, the first stone of the Lincoln Memorial was put into place and Babe Ruth made his Major League debut. They probably don’t remember those events, but the 10 residents of Brooke Grove Retirement Village who were honored Mon-
day at its Centenarians Day Celebration were alive back then. Among the mothers, fathers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers honored, there was an accomplished artist, a former model, a nun and a schoolteacher — ranging in age from 100 to 103. They were all celebrated at a special dinner with live music, held under a tent on Brooke Grove’s Sandy Spring campus. After words from President Keith Gibb and Life Enrichment Director Brenda Norris, the centenarians were each presented with a certificate and a unique gift, created from the
artwork of centenarian Arabelle Kossiakoff. Brenda Palley, an independent living resident and friend of Kossiakoff, merged the artwork with poetry and mounted it in a frame. Kossiakoff turned 100 on Jan. 8, and lives in Brooke Grove’s independent living cottages. She was born in Baltimore and lived in Winchester, Va., before moving to Montgomery County. Her secret to a long life: drinking beer
See CENTENARIANS, Page A-13
Fall brings harvest of activities n
Festivals, runs on tap in Potomac area BY
PEGGY MCEWAN STAFF WRITER
Whether it’s sampling food from around the world or local restaurants, participating in a 5K, Fun Run or an evening of swing dance or visiting a local fire department, the area has it all scheduled for this weekend. Topping the list is the 31st annual Middle Eastern Cultural
Festival, which will be held all weekend at Sts. Peter and Paul Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church, 10620 River Road, Potomac. The festival will feature music, local vendors, church tours, raffles, a Debke troupe performance, a children’s play area and evening entertainment, plus plenty of ethnic food prepared by church members. Activities run from 4 to 10 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday.
More information is at peterpaulpotomac.org. • Those seeking more exercise can grab their lederhosen and running shoes and join the third annual 5K Oktoberfest Run & Fun Run on Saturday, hosted by the German School Washington D.C. and the German Language Courses. Events, including the race start, take place at the school, 8617 Chateau Drive, Potomac. The day begins at 9 a.m. with a 5K run, followed by a
See FALL, Page A-13
Rockville serves as the center of Montgomery County’s government, housing the offices of the county executive, county council, several of the county’s courthouses and other county facilities. But for more than five years, the city and the county have been in an ongoing dispute over whether the county should pay stormwater management fees for its properties in the city. There is “some confusion” over whether county properties are exempt from paying the stormwater fees, said Mark Charles, the chief of Rockville’s Environmental Management Division. In 2012, the state passed a
Parents celebrate planning board approval BY
TERRI HOGAN STAFF WRITER
BILL RYAN/THE GAZETTE
See STORMWATER, Page A-13
New middle school plan ‘a real win’ for Olney community n
Rene Shihadi of Rockville makes cookies at Sts. Peter and Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church in Potomac for this weekend’s festival.
law requiring the nine largest counties and Baltimore city to implement stormwater management fees to provide funds for cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay and the waterways leading into it. The law contains an exemption for public properties from having to pay the fee, and the county, Montgomery County Public Schools and Montgomery College don’t pay the fees based on a county attorney’s opinion that the fee is an excise tax from which government facilities are exempt. The county is exempt based on state law and an opinion by the Attorney General’s Office, said Joseph Beach, director of the county’s Department of Finance. The 2011 opinion said the city’s stormwater management utility charge would likely be considered a tax, for which the city likely wouldn’t have the authority
Members of the Farquhar Middle School community are patting themselves on the back, as plans to build a new school passed the final hurdle Thursday at the Montgomery County Planning Board. The decision allows Montgomery County Public Schools to move forward with plans to build a new school on property adjacent to the existing William H. Farquhar Middle School in
Olney. Once the new school is completed, the existing school will be demolished and the 20acre property will become a park. The board approved the detailed drawings for the school during a mandatory approval process, plus the plans for the interim park and the final forest conservation plan. “This mandatory referral was to approve the design of the school, and to do an amendment to the site plan to cover issues associated with what is going to become the park,” said Fred Boyd, Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission com-
See SCHOOL, Page A-13
Rockville teen sues school board, claiming psychologist was bogus School district says man appears to have had necessary license n
BY
DANIEL LEADERMAN STAFF WRITER
A man accused of being a phony psychologist in a lawsuit
filed Thursday against the Montgomery County Board of Education appears to have had the necessary license to be a school psychologist, a county schools spokesman said. Brandon Hall of Rockville, now 18, is suing the board for fraud, emotional distress and negligence, alleging that a school psychologist who counseled him
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ing and said it would “destroy” the 9-year-old Hall mentally and emotionally if the boy were placed in the care of his mother, the complaint says. The judge ultimately gave custody to the boy’s father, who had a history of mental illness and had a “meltdown” in court the following year, after which Hall was returned to his mother,
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and his mother for two years had falsified his credentials and used a false name. From 2005 to 2007, Duane Donald Flemmer — calling himself “Dr. David Flemmer” — served as a court-ordered counselor to Hall, whose parents were involved in a contentious divorce. In 2006, Flemmer testified as an expert witness in a custody hear-
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according to the complaint. The Maryland Board of Professional Counselors and Therapists concluded in 2012 that Flemmer never had a valid license to practice as a psychologist, according to a report filed as an exhibit in the lawsuit. Instead, Flemmer was a licensed clinical professional therapist whose license had expired
from 2001 to 2004, the board report says. Flemmer was found dead in North Carolina in 2013 in an apparent suicide, according to a police report filed as an exhibit in the suit. Dana Tofig, a spokesman for Montgomery County Public
See SUES, Page A-13