THE EBOLA BATTLE Army reservists based in Rockville heading to Africa. A-4
A&E: Actor/comedian brings his one-man show to the Parilla Performing Arts Center. B-5
The Gazette 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, November 19, 2014
SPORTS: Good Counsel to play DeMatha for WCAC football championship. B-1 25 cents
A generational shift in the city n
Rockville eyes changes to help get more money for schools BY
RYAN MARSHALL STAFF WRITER
GREG DOHLER/THE GAZETTE
Rohit Harapanhalli, an eighth-grader at Cabin John Middle School in Potomac, places the bridge his team built on a platform for strength testing as teammate Barry Itkin (center) looks on during Saturday’s Final Frontiers competition at Wootton High School in Rockville. Rohit and Barry’s team won and will attend a NASA luncheon in December.
Space is the place for physics whizzes n
County students compete at Rockville high school BY
PEGGY MCEWAN STAFF WRITER
Take five pieces of paper, a lunch bag and some paper clips and create a tower strong enough to hold a tennis ball. No, it’s not a party game. It’s a physics
problem that students at the Final Frontiers 2014 Montgomery County Competition had 15 minutes to solve on Saturday. The contest at Wootton High School in Rockville involved middle and high schoolers competing in five categories and a mystery event — the tennis ball tower. For the other categories, the students were advised to prepare ahead and bring their solutions with them. The competition was started about 25
years ago by Wilson Boscom, who taught physics at Wootton. “We did some of these things in my class and the kids [suggested] we compete against other schools,” Boscom said. “I really like seeing them get excited about [physics]. Also, some students aren’t the best in class but have a great ability to put things together and here they have a chance to shine.” After 30 years at Wootton, Boscom is
See SPACE, Page A-12
Town Center project may hinge on parking n
Rockville officials split on number of spaces to require BY
RYAN MARSHALL STAFF WRITER
As Rockville’s mayor and council consider whether to
approve a new development in the Town Center, the number of parking spaces allotted for the project might determine its fate. The developer Duball Rockville wants permission to add 178 residential units to the already approved 222 units in the second phase of its Town Center project to make it economically feasible. It also wants to shrink
the number of parking spaces from 470 to 353. The first phase of the project, with 263 apartments, a 140-room hotel and more than 23,000 square feet of retail space, is expected to be finished in early 2015. Duball has argued that with many residents taking their cars out of the garage during the day,
some of the residential spaces for the second building could be combined with spaces intended for the commercial uses in the building and at businesses nearby. Councilwoman Beryl Feinberg suggested a 15 percent reduction, eliminating 70 spaces
As older residents move out, young families move in and student enrollment rises, Rockville might get more school money from the county if it rejiggered its standards, a city councilman said Monday. But whether the city will align its system with Montgomery County’s is still to be determined. The mayor and council discussed changes to the city’s adequate public facilities standards at their meeting Monday night. A public hearing on the issue is scheduled for Jan. 5. The standards guide how the city determines whether potential development projects would overcrowd its schools. But the standards have failed to either control school growth or draw funding from the county for school projects, Councilman Tom Moore said. Moore wants the city to follow the county’s guidelines of al-
lowing development that causes enrollment to hit 120 percent of a school’s programmed capacity, rather than Rockville’s standard of 110 percent. The 110 percent threshold was designed to allow the city to request county money before a school’s enrollment hits 120 percent of capacity, with the money allocated to that school’s cluster more quickly, but it hasn’t worked, he said. Moore suggested other changes. He wants developers to pay a fee for projects when a school’s enrollment reaches 105 percent to 120 percent of capacity. He wants the city to assess the average of all schools in a cluster rather than each school’s capacity. Also, the city should calculate a project’s impact on enrollment when a developer applies for approval, not when it’s approved, as is done now. Older residents are moving out of Rockville and being replaced by younger families with schoolchildren, with 85 percent of the city’s enrollment growth coming from existing homes rather than new development,
See CITY, Page A-12
For 20 years, Olney’s kids ‘grew up with her’ Director of community’s recreation center retires
n
BY
TERRI HOGAN STAFF WRITER
During last week’s Club Friday kids program at Longwood Community Recreation Center, a boy got bumped by a pool cue. Instinctively, Sophie Randolph ran to him, offering an ice pack and a hug. Randolph, who has been
tending to Olney’s children for two decades, retired as the center’s director Oct. 1. She just happened to be back for a visit on Friday, so her comforting help for the boy was on the house, so to speak. For Randolph, 51, it’s been hard to say goodbye to a community she loves. Her love for recreation began when as an 8-year-old she was a participant in the Montgomery
See RETIRE, Page A-12
See PARKING, Page A-12
Rockville collects food, gifts for holiday drive n
Gift wrappers, delivery drivers among volunteers needed BY
RYAN MARSHALL STAFF WRITER
‘Tis the season for holiday giving, and Rockville is doing its part to spread holiday cheer with its annual food and toy drive. This is the 42nd year the city will operate
the drive, said Carlos Aparicio, community services manager for the city. This year, the city needs volunteers to help with sorting and packaging food, making deliveries to homebound residents, and gift-wrapping and escorting families through the city’s toy shop, he said. Thursday is the last day to donate food at City Hall and city recreation facilities, but toys can be brought in through Dec. 11, he said.
See DRIVE, Page A-12
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Along with toys, Aparicio also suggested gift cards to stores such as Giant Food, Target and Old Navy as potential gifts. Aparicio said the drive drew more than 200 volunteers last year. The holiday drive is a big deal for the city, said spokeswoman Marylou Berg. The mayor and council have adopted a family to support as part of the drive.
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TERRI HOGAN/THE GAZETTE
Jackson Diller, 8, gets some pool tips last week from Sophie Randolph at Club Friday, a program for third- through fifth-graders at Longwood Community Recreation Center in Olney.