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The Gazette ROCKVILLE | ASPEN HILL | WHEATON
DAILY UPDATES ONLINE www.gazette.net
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
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HISTORIC NIGHT FOR
ROCKVILLE QB
2013 FILE PHOTO
Rockville High School quarterback Chuck Reese, here throwing a pass against Wheaton High in September, threw for a record 480 yards and eight touchdowns in Friday’s 64-41 win over Col. Zadok Magruder High School. See story, Page B-3.
Speeding up the incubator process Montgomery County working on reorganizing its business innovation centers
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BY
KEVIN JAMES SHAY STAFF WRITER
For six years, green energy business Clean Currents made the Rockville Innovation Center above the downtown Rockville library its home. The company enjoyed reduced costs for spaces and certain services than it would have had in the general private market. It had access to shared conference rooms, administrative help, a kitchen and copy machine, all pretty much financed by Montgomery County. When Clean Currents “graduated” last year to reside in larger commercial space near the Silver Spring Metro station, it had grown from two employees in 2007 to about 20. Officials praised the company as exemplifying the intent of the Business Innovation Network program to see startups blossom into thriving businesses, but they admitted this week that the ideal goal is to get such companies out faster, preferably in three years, rather than six. Thus, the county has been working on a plan to reorganize its five innovation centers — once called incubators in reference to their role of hatching young businesses — to better focus them and provide more intensive services that can make them grow faster. “We want to rethink the system,” Steven A. Silverman, director of the county’s Department of Economic Development, said during a council committee meeting.
See INCUBATOR, Page A-5
Proposes 14 new classroom addition projects
BY
LINDSAY A. POWERS STAFF WRITER
Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Joshua P. Starr said he prioritized adding classroom space in his
BY
ELIZABETH WAIBEL STAFF WRITER
With a week left before the Rockville mayor and council election, candidates are mailing their last campaign materials and turning their efforts more to face-to-face interaction with voters. Bridget Donnell Newton and Mark Pierzchala, both current council members, are running for mayor. Newton said she has been knocking on doors and going to meet-and-greet coffees to talk with potential voters. “We’re working very hard,” she said. “I think it’s been really fun, and the weather’s cooperating.” Pierzchal said he has been campaigning door to door and attending coffees and forums in
the last days before the election. He said it’s hard to say who will win, but he thinks higher voter turnout will help him and his Team Rockville slate. “We just don’t know how it’s going to turn out because there’s no polling,” he said. The second round of campaign fundraising reports were due Monday. They n Anonymous show that letter draws so far in the ire as election campaign, nears, Page A-11 t h r o u g h n Election Sunday, guide, Page A-12 N e w t o n had raised more than $21,500 and spent more than $16,700, while Pierzchala had raised more than $13,700 and spent more than $13,400. In the race for four council seats, the six candidates include four members of the Team
See ELECTION, Page A-11
BILL RYAN/THE GAZETTE
DAN GROSS/THE GAZETTE
Mrinmayi Joshi (right) and Nishanth Parameswaran, research associates for Omni Array Biotechnology, test blood samples in the lab at the William E. Hanna Jr. Innovation Center at Shady Grove.
Starr proposes $1.55B capital improvements budget n
Final push underway before Tuesday’s election n
Helen Heneghan of Rockville, Rockville Mayor Phyllis Marcuccio, and Agnes Saenz of the Community Ministries of Rockville talk before the mayor and council meeting on Monday.
Proposal would refocus centers, close Wheaton One proposal from Silverman’s department calls for focusing the two Rockville centers on data analytics. Those include the 23,000-square-foot downtown one and the 60,000-square-foot Shady Grove center
Rockville candidates emphasize power of personal persuasion
newly proposed $1.55 billion Capital Improvements Program for fiscal years 2015 to 2020. “We are bursting at the seams,” he said Monday at Highland Elementary School in Silver Spring, which is at maximum capacity. Starr said the school system needs $2.2 billion to cover all of its capital improvement needs for the six-year period. He is proposing a $1.55 billion
FALL BACK This Sunday at 2 a.m., set your clocks back one hour for the end of daylight saving time.
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program, he said, because the county is currently facing “fiscal restraints” and the school system is not getting the funding it deserves from the state. The proposed program is about $184 million higher than the current program, which covers fiscal years 2013 to 2018. Starr said the program addresses the school system’s ongoing, significant enrollment growth with a recommenda-
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RECYCLE
tion for 14 new classroom addition projects. The plan also maintains schedules for other, previously approved capacity projects, including five new schools. Since 2007, he said, the school system has grown by 14,000 students; another 11,000 are expected over the next six years.
See BUDGET, Page A-9
Rockville bids farewell to Marcuccio and Hall Final votes taken on historic designation, APFS n
BY
ELIZABETH WAIBEL STAFF WRITER
Monday night was the last meeting of the Rockville Mayor and Council ahead of the election, and officials took time out to thank two of their own for their service over the past term. Mayor Phyllis Marcuccio served on the council from 2005 to 2009, and as mayor from 2009 to the present. Councilman John F. Hall Jr. served on the council from 2001 to 2005, and again from 2011 to the present. Neither is seeking re-election.
Both Marcuccio and Hall thanked the city for its support. “You have given me a great honor in allowing me to return to service, and I appreciate it,” Hall said. Marcuccio noted some accomplishments during her tenure, including better cooperation with other area governments, a new grocery store in Town Center and saving RedGate Golf Course. “Most of everything that is going on right now started during the time I have been in office,” she said. The Mayor and Council adopted resolutions recogniz-
See COUNCIL, Page A-9
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