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The Gazette ROCKVILLE | ASPEN HILL | WHEATON
DAILY UPDATES ONLINE www.gazette.net
Wednesday, May 14, 2014
Taxes flat, but fees are higher n
Rockville council adopts $118M spending plan BY
RYAN MARSHALL STAFF WRITER
First the good news on Rockville’snextbudget:Property tax rates won’t be going up. Now the not-so-good news: Residents will pay more for water and sewer service and to have their trash picked up. The City Council voted 4-1 Monday night to approve the $118 million fiscal 2015 operating budget, which kicks in July 1. Councilwoman Beryl L. Feinberg was the lone dissenter. It’s a $4 million increase over the fiscal 2014 budget, which ends June 30. The council also approved a nearly $74 million capital budget, which is up $7.4 million over fiscal 2014 and includes money for 47 projects. Feinberg said that while there were good things in the budget, it doesn’t do enough to help residents who suffered through the Great Recession
and need relief from rate increases and other costs. “It doesn’t represent the needs of our ratepayers, and for that reason alone I cannot vote for this budget,” Feinberg said. The rate increases approved Monday will increase the average household’s water and sewer bills by about $76 per year, while residents will pay about $7 a year more for trash pickup and recycling service. The budget keeps property taxes flat at 29.2 cents per $100 of assessed value for all properties in the city and 80.5 cents per $100 of assessed value for commercial properties. It also includes a 2 percent cost-of-living adjustment for city employees and a lump sum payment for workers who aren’t at the top of their pay scales on the anniversary of their hiring. Councilman Tom Moore said the budget shows the city has essentially emerged from the recession, with revenues and tax assessments increasing. rmarshall@gazette.net
Blintzes, borscht and more on tap Sunday Snack on some knishes and dance the hora as Rockville celebrates Israel’s 66th birthday from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. Israel Fest — organized by the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington in Rockville along with the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington — will feature Capa’im, a New York band that covers Israeli and Jewish hits. Other entertainment will include a drum circle; singalongs with Makela Jewish A Cappella and JewKvox A Cappella; and a local Israeli dance troupe. Handmade jewelry from Israel will be for sale and there will be children’s activities, too. Among the food vendors
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PHOTOS BY GREG DOHLER/THE GAZETTE
Marty Dow (left) of Montgomery Village, who has a spinal cord injury, is helped into his kayak by Joe Mornini, executive director of Team River Runner, at Seneca Creek Landing in Poolesville. Supported by the Rockville Elks lodge, the group helps wounded veterans get out on the Potomac River.
Community service is Elks’ mantra BY
STAFF WRITER
IF YOU GO n What: Israel Fest n When: 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday n Where: Rockville Town Center, 200 E. Middle Lane n Cost: Free n Information: 301-348-3712
will be Israeli Harvest of Southern Maryland, which supports agriculture in Israel by offering Americans natural and organic Israeli farm products, such as dates and olive oil. The festival, which is free, will be in Rockville Town Center, 200 E. Middle Lane. For information, call 301-348-3712. — ROBERT RAND
KATE S. ALEXANDER
(From left) Edward Reiman, Melanie Weaver, Debbie Hansen and Camille Brown, all of Rockville, dance Friday during a regular dance party for adults with special needs at Washington/Rockville Elks Lodge 15.
Every Sunday in the calm water at Riley’s Lock, a group of wounded and disabled veterans slips into the Potomac River in kayaks. Many bear wounds inflicted by war that would seem to make kayaking difficult, if not impossible. But through the innovative programs and adaptive help of a local nonprofit, Team River Runner, these men and women paddle to help heal wounds both visible and invisible. Despite its now-45 chapters across the nation, the 10-year-old program born at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., remains underfunded, underutilized and relatively unknown, said Joe Mornini, its executive director and co-founder. “People don’t realize what we can do in a kayak,” Mornini said. “There are quad-amputees — people missing all four limbs — who paddle kayaks with us.” But a partnership with the local Elks club is changing that by helping Team River Runner raise funds and get people involved. “Team River Runner really caught our heart,” said Judy Black, the veterans committee chairwoman for Washington/Rockville Elks Lodge 15. It’s just one of the many community service efforts that
See ELKS, Page A-12
For a wet Wheaton Woods, it will be four more years of waiting 62-year-old Rockville school flooded by latest rainstorm
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BY
MARGIE HYSLOP
SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE
The waiting will continue for Wheaton Woods Elementary
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students, staff, faculty and parents who long for the day when they won’t worry about flooding when a hard rain falls. After a downpour on April 30, water gushed into the Rockville school, taking down ceiling tiles and soaking about 12 areas in the school, including storage areas that held supplies,
Cherissa Taylor, president of the school’s PTA, told county schools Superintendent Joshua P. Starr in an email. “Whenever it rains, Wheaton Woods elementary has water leaks and falling ceiling tiles. Over time, this water damage can and will turn into mold issues,” Taylor wrote. “Our chil-
dren deserve a safe, healthy environment in which to learn and our PTA and school community will not accept another year in a substandard building.” But unless the County Council amends the capital improvements budget on which it expects to reach tentative agreement Thursday, the Wheaton
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RECYCLE
Woods community will have to wait four years for a new elementary school to replace the structure on Faroe Place, which was built in 1952 and has been expanded five times. That schedule would keep Wheaton Woods students, faculty and staff in the current building through the fall semes-
ter of the 2016-17 school year. In January 2017, the school would move to the North Lake Holding Center, a temporary school site on Bauer Drive in Rockville, where it would remain for 2017-18 school year while a new building is constructed on the
See SCHOOL, Page A-12
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