NEW BEAT Former journalist steps into role as principal. A-3
The Gazette
NEWS: Group works to ease impact of Purple Line on community. A-6
SILVER SPRING | TAKOMA PARK | WHEATON | BURTONSVILLE DA I LY U P DAT E S AT G A Z E T T E . N E T
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Takoma Park eyes a plastic foam ban
25 cents
In Silver Spring, group gives ‘Ear’ to the impaired
Lifelong bonds
Montgomery County considering similar law n
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SPORTS: Paint Branch receiver thrives on football team after transferring from Einstein. B-1
For those who can’t read the news, volunteers read it aloud to them n
KEVIN JAMES SHAY STAFF WRITER
BY JESSICA
Several students and residents lobbied the Takoma Park City Council on Monday to implement a ban on plastic foam cups and other polystyrene disposable eating ware in restaurants, supermarkets and other retailers. The move comes as the Montgomery County Council considers a similar ban. The council was scheduled to have a hearing on the issue Tuesday evening. The matter is slated for a work session by the Transportation, Infrastructure, Energy and Environment Committee Oct. 30. The county already has a plastic foam ban in its own cafeterias. Washington, D.C., has passed a ban on polystyrene food ware; it takes effect in January 2016. Takoma Park’s ban would be effective next July, six months before the county’s proposed ban would take effect, if it passes. Polystyrene, which is not biodegradable, is a pollutant that remains in landfills and a suspected carcinogen harmful to people’s health, said ban ad-
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SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE
PHOTO FROM JEFF GETEK/ERICKSON LIVING
Josephine Fannon, a resident at Riderwood in Silver Spring, holds a photo of Sub Deb Club members and their husbands. The black-and-white photo was taken in 1946, following World War II. Club members had gathered at a dinner party at the Crossroads Restaurant in Bladensburg in Prince George’s County.
Sub Deb Club members remain friends for 73 years BY
RAISA CAMARGO
tographs, letters, and newspaper articles are stored in her Silver Spring Riderwood apartment to preserve the memories. The local Sub Deb Club chapter led to a 73year friendship that persists to this day. As she recalls, they just clicked from the start. “I think of it more like real siblings,” she said. “It didn’t feel like we had to hold back. Not like we had any secrets or anything — we just were able to talk together.”
STAFF WRITER
It began as a social club for high school girls to engage in outside school activities without the formality of a sorority. For a particular group at McKinley Technology High School in Washington, D.C., the Sub Deb Club became more than that. Josephine Fannon, 89, is one of the five surviving members of the 12 original founders of the club at McKinley. A collection of pho-
See FOAM, Page A-15
When Olney resident Sandra Laurie reads The New York Times for an hour every Wednesday, she isn’t only reading to herself. She reads to anyone in Maryland, Virginia or Washington, D.C., physically incapable of reading the newspaper without help. Laurie is one of about 400 volunteers for the Metropolitan Washington Ear, a nonprofit organization based in Silver Spring. “The Ear,” as some call it, has provided the visually and physically impaired with audio access to various newspapers, magazines and live performances for almost 40 years. The Metropolitan Washington Ear was founded by Margaret Rockwell, who was blind and received her Ph.D. “She was a force,” said Neely Oplinger, the executive director of Metropolitan Washington Ear. She said funders of the organization used to say Rockwell would come into their office and not leave until she received
a check for a donation. The Metropolitan Washington Ear is a nonprofit organization that offers its services for free. The organization is funded 75 percent by the state of Maryland and 25 percent by private donations. The organization offers a few distinct services. It provides radios pretuned to its station, with broadcasts 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The station broadcasts prerecorded readings of The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and more. Volunteers are at the studio in Silver Spring from 9 to 11 a.m. every day to record the broadcast. People who want to receive a pretuned radio must apply and show that they cannot physically read newspapers or magazines. Those eligible may be blind or physically impaired in a way that restricts them from being able to read the newspaper. The organization also offers a dial-in service. Registered users can dial an unlisted number and use a touch-tone telephone to select which publication they would like to hear and which
See EAR, Page A-15
See CLUB, Page A-15
Silver Spring tower plan raises concerns AT&T working on changes to its proposal n
BY
RAISA CAMARGO STAFF WRITER
The debate over whether AT&T should build a cell tower on church grounds ended in an impasse Tuesday as Silver
Spring residents voiced their concerns at a public meeting. AT&T is proposing a 101foot cell tower monopole at Sligo Baptist Church. A packed room of neighbors from seven communities attended the community meeting at the Argyle Park Activity Building to discuss the proposal with Gregory Rap-
isarda, an AT&T representative and attorney. In August, the Montgomery County Board of Appeals accepted AT&T’s application for a special exception to construct the cell tower at 1610 Dennis Ave. But, the application did not include an approved preliminary forest conservation plan or a waiver of that require-
ment, according to a Montgomery County memorandum. Under the county’s zoning ordinance, a petition for a telecommunications facility must have an approved forest conservation plan or a waiver. Photographic simulations of the tower and site must be in-
See TOWERS, Page A-15
GREG DOHLER/THE GAZETTE
Mark Rockman of Takoma Park is among the volunteers who read newspapers as part of a radio and phone broadcast service for the visually impaired at The Metropolitan Washington Ear in Silver Spring.
Clergyman says Montgomery County officer drew his weapon Video shows cop briefly took gun from holster when Silver Spring advocate reached for ID
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DANIEL LEADERMAN STAFF WRITER
Video taken on a bystander’s cellphone has captured a Montgomery County police officer briefly drawing
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his weapon Friday when a clergyman reached into his pocket for identification. The Rev. Jeffery O. Thames Sr., who works with the homeless in Silver Spring, said he was watching as police arrested a suspect in a reported altercation at the corner of Wayne Avenue and Georgia Avenue. Thames said he asked one of the officers what happened. When the officer asked who he was,
Thames offered to show him identification. The cellphone recording, taken by a homeless couple Thames knows, didn’t clearly pick up the conversation between Thames and the officer, but shows the officer unholster his weapon and hold it at his side — pointed to the ground — for about 5 seconds while the
two talk. Thames, several feet away from the officer, is standing still, and it’s not clear what he is doing with his hands. After the officer put his gun away, he walked away from Thames without looking at his identification. Thames told The Gazette that he reached into the breast pocket of his coat when asked for ID — that’s when the officer took out his weapon.
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OH, DANNY BOY! Play delves into the big life of a little person.
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A police incident report was not available Monday, but a police spokesman — who also watched the video and knew some details of the incident — said it was likely that the officer felt threatened, at least momentarily, by Thames. Unholstering a gun “is within our protocol” if officers feel threatened,
See WEAPON, Page A-15