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The Gazette ROCKVILLE | ASPEN HILL | WHEATON
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Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Wootton High: No cellphone tower now
25 cents
Snow blows hole in budget
Paying tribute in Rockville
Principal cites community’s ‘clear and strong opposition’ to AT&T project n
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NOAH JONES
SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE
Wootton High School in Rockville will not see a cellphone tower planted on its property following stiff community opposition to a proposal from AT&T. Michael Doran, Wootton’s principal, announced the decision on May 21 on the school’s website, the day after a community meeting on the issue at which dozens of parents and others protested the tower. “After careful consideration of AT&T’s request to place a cell tower on Wootton’s property and your clear and strong opposition to the proposal, it has been decided that we will not move forward with the proposal,” Doran said on the website. Robin Lenkin was one of the parents at the meeting on May 20 who opposed the tower. “On a basic level, I am outraged about this idea,” Lenkin said. “Public schools should not be used for commercial use. Schools are for education.” Lenkin also said she worried about the property values of nearby homes. “Some people have sacrificed a lot to live in this area and attend a school as prestigious as
See TOWER, Page A-9
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NEWS
THE PAINTING IS ON THE WALL Two immigrant seniors at Rockville’s Richard Montgomery High created a mural of self-discovery.
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RYAN MARSHALL STAFF WRITER
Spring’s balmier temperatures may have made quick work of this winter’s unseasonably high snowfall, but they failed to melt the huge bills Rockville racked up plowing those piles and spreading salt on its roadways. City officials are now examining their snow-removal policies, as the Public Works Department spent more than twice its budget clearing roads and parking lots. The city will increase its salt storage capacity and pursue an agreement with the State Highway Administration to allow the city to purchase salt if it runs out, plus change the criteria it uses to determine how soon residents must clear their sidewalks after a storm. The winter of 2013-14 cost the Public Works Department $654,207, more than double the $325,550 the city had budgeted for dealing with winter weather. Rockville experienced 24 socalled winter events, in which crews had to respond or be prepared to respond to snow and ice. That’s the most in the
PHOTOS BY GEORGE P. SMITH/FOR THE GAZETTE
(From left) Cpl. Phil Lew and Cpl. Karl Plitt of the Rockville City Police Department, along with Navy Hospitalman Malcolm Burts of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, salute during Rockville’s 70th annual Memorial Day ceremony and parade on Monday. At right, the Rockville High School Pipe Band marches. The parade was marred by an accident in which five people were injured as participants were lining up. Four fell off the back of a truck as it waited in a parking lot to join the parade, said Lt. Brian Paul of the Rockville City Police. “The vehicle, I guess, lurched suddenly, and it spilled the folks that were in the back of the truck onto the pavement,” he said. The truck also knocked a city employee to the pavement. The injured were treated at area hospitals. Paul said he was not aware of any serious injuries.
See SNOW, Page A-9
Relay for Life is Saturday The Rockville version of the American Cancer Society’s annual Relay for Life fundraiser will start Saturday and finish in the predawn hours Sunday. The event will begin at noon at the Johns Hopkins University campus at 9601 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, and wrap up at 5:30 the next morning. During the relay, teams of people camp out around a track, and team members take turns walking around the track. It also features food, games and entertainment activities. Called Rings of Hope — An Olympic Relay, it kicks off with a survivor luncheon at noon. Luncheon registration starts at 11:30 a.m. Relay registration and campsite setup runs from 12:30 to 1:45 p.m., followed by the opening ceremony at 2 p.m. Then comes the first lap, when cancer survivors walk around the track. At sundown, or about 9 p.m.,
Rockville’s public works takes $654,000 hit
a luminaria ceremony will be held to remember those who died of cancer and to support those who now have it. The closing ceremony will be at 5:30 a.m. Sunday. As of May 21, 35 teams and 188 participants had raised $71,446, according to the event’s website. The first relay to benefit the cancer society was held in May 1985, when Gordy Klatt walked and ran for 24 hours around a track in Tacoma, Wash., raising $27,000, according to the group’s website. The next year, 340 supporters joined the overnight event. Since then, the Relay For Life movement has gone global and raised almost $5 billion. For more information on the Rockville relay, contact Jennifer Vigario at 301-562-3648 or jennifer.vigario@cancer.org. — ROBERT RAND
Rockville’s mini-mayors sample life in City Hall n
‘Mayor for a Day’ essayists learn about public office BY
RYAN MARSHALL STAFF WRITER
TOM FEDOR/THE GAZETTE
Rockville fourth-graders William Stuart and Allie Coffey, local winners in the Maryland Municipal League “If I Were Mayor, I Would...” essay contest, enjoy lunch with Rockville Mayor Bridget Donnell Newton.
SPORTS
DRIVING TO THE HOOP St. Andrew’s hopes to increase exposure by launching boys basketball summer league.
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RECYCLE
Allie Coffey and William Stuart aren’t old enough to hold public office yet, but on Thursday, they got a taste of the busy schedule that public officials keep. Allie, 10, and William, 9, are local semifinalists of the Maryland Municipal League and Maryland Mayors Association’s “If I Were Mayor, I Would...” contest. They got
See MAYOR, Page A-9
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