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SUMMER of THE
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The season assembles with Free Comic Book Day, box office blockbusters and local guy-turnedterminator J. August Richards as the cyborg Deathlok in “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”
The Gazette ROCKVILLE | ASPEN HILL | WHEATON
DAILY UPDATES ONLINE www.gazette.net
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Wednesday, April 30, 2014
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Thousands wait while vacancies linger at complex New director, marketing agency work to fill Rockville apartments n
BY MARGIE HYSLOP SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE
A nearly 20 percent vacancy rate in subsidized apartments at Fireside Park is “unacceptable,” the executive director of Rockville Housing Enterprises told the Rockville City Council this month. “However, the situation is improving,” Jessica Anderson, head of the city housing agency since October, told the council in a letter. Anderson was responding to a resident’s concerns about empty apartments at the complex, while more than 4,000 families who are looking for the city’s help to obtain affordable housing languish on closed waiting lists. From March to April 22, the vacancy rate in subsidized apartments at Fireside Park dropped from 28.8 percent to 19.5 percent, according to numbers provided to the agency by representatives for
the complex. And the number of vacancies at the 84 Fireside Park apartments that are set aside for households with incomes at or below 60 percent of the area median income dropped from 16 to five. However, 18 of the 24 apartments reserved for households with incomes at or below 80 percent of the area median remained vacant. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development website, the 2014 area median income for Montgomery County is $107,000. So a family of four would need a household income of no more than $64,200 to qualify for a housing subsidy at the 60 percent level; at the 80 percent level, the limit would be $85,600. Nonetheless, according to Anderson, her agency “is confident the upward trend in occupancy will continue” with new property managers and that “all affordable units will be leased by the end of May.”
Vandalism plagues mental illness facility Rocks have crashed through windows at nonprofit’s headquarters n
BY
TIFFANY ARNOLD STAFF WRITER
BILL RYAN/THE GAZETTE
Stephanie Rosen, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Montgomery County, talks about rocks being thrown through windows at the agency’s Rockville office.
Last week, a worker found a broken glass door and more than 60 rocks outside the National Alliance on Mental Illness of Montgomery County headquarters near the White Flint
district. It was an escalation of vandalism targeting the nonprofit, the nonprofit’s executive director fears. “People are hesitant,” Executive Director Stephanie J. Rosen said. “I know I leave here earlier in the day.” The nonprofit, in a business district off Parklawn Drive, has been targeted several times in just over a month, racking up
See VANDALS, Page A-11
A peek at the Pike
See HOUSING, Page A-11
Asian Pacific festival on tap this weekend n
Event to feature variety of activities, displays BY
RYAN MARSHALL STAFF WRITER
With more than 20 percent of Rockville residents identifying themselves as being of Asian heritage, the city this weekend will host a celebration of cultures from around the Pacific Rim. The Lincoln Park Community Center will host the Asian Pacific American Cultural Festival, part of the city’s celebration of its significant Asian population. The city festival coincides with Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in May in the U.S. The event will feature demonstrations, films, cultural performances, artwork and other activities, said Janet Kelly, the city’s liaison to the Asian Pacific American Task Force. There also will be tables and exhibits representing various countries and cultures, including Korea, China, Taiwan, Hawaii, the Philip-
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IF YOU GO n What: Asian Pacific American Cultural Festival n When: 1-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday n Where: Lincoln Park Community Center, 357 Frederick Ave., Rockville n Cost: Free n Information: Janet Kelly, 240-314-8316
pines, Vietnam and Japan, she said. Rockville is becoming increasingly diverse, and its Asian community is one of its largest ethnic groups, Kelly said. The event is designed to raise the profile of the city’s Asian residents and highlight what they have to contribute, she said. According to the 2010 census, 20.6 percent of Rockville’s residents identify themselves as having Asian ancestry, compared with 5.5 percent of Marylanders statewide. The festival is free and open to the public.
GREG DOHLER/THE GAZETTE
Kathy Warren (left) of Gaithersburg and Kelly McKenzie of Bethesda run down Rockville Pike in Rockville during Sunday’s annual Montgomery County Road Runner Club’s Pike’s Peek 10K. About 2,370 runners raced from near the Shady Grove Metro station in Rockville to White Flint Mall in North Bethesda. The top male finisher from Montgomery County was Dereje Deme, 29, of Silver Spring, who finished third; the county’s top woman was Trish Stone, 39, of Kensington, who finished 10th among women.
Road project may put the squeeze on U-Haul n
Company: Montrose plan could force it to close BY
RYAN MARSHALL STAFF WRITER
The U-Haul store in Rockville sits at the busy intersection of Randolph Road and Parkland Drive, where, on a recent afternoon, cars stacked up with each red light. Pat Goodwin, marketing
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president for U-Haul in Maryland, is afraid a planned county project to ease traffic in the area might force the business to lose its land if the county takes it. Under the new plan, Montrose Parkway would extend up and over Parklawn Drive with an interchange and connect with Veirs Mill Road, said Bruce Johnston, chief of the Division of Transportation and Engineering in the county’s Department of Transportation.
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The project will be important in getting people from the western part of the county into the new development in the White Flint area and relieving traffic congestion in the area, Johnston said. Traffic on that stretch of road where the store is located is projected to be 42,000 vehicles per day by 2020, according to plans for the project listed in the county’s fiscal 2015-20 capital improvements plan.
The county is in the process of acquiring some of the rights of way needed for the project and is looking at taking the entire U-Haul parcel, once fair market value is determined, Johnston said. Goodwin said he wants the county to realize that the store is part of the community and needs to stay in its current location.
See U-HAUL, Page A-11
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