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The Gazette SILVER SPRING | TAKOMA PARK | BURTONSVILLE

DAILY UPDATES ONLINE www.gazette.net

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

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Civic groups may get seat at Purple Line discussion Groups may form coalition on the plans n

BY

RYAN MARSHALL STAFF WRITER

Two Montgomery County Council members in districts where the Purple Line is slated to go want the county executive to create an official advisory work group for the project.

Councilman Roger Berliner (D-Dist. 1) of Bethesda and Councilwoman Cherri Branson (D-Dist. 5) of Silver Spring sent a letter asking County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) to turn the

goat n

BY CHRISTOPHER NEELY SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE

A call from Gaithersburg resident Stuart Helfman — about a dead deer in his backyard — was a routine service request for Montgomery County 311 operator Tamara Tyler. But the Jan. 24 conversation marked a milestone for the call center — its 2 millionth inquiry since it launched on June 17, 2010.

For MC311, the milestone serves as a positive measurement of the call center’s relevance in the Montgomery County community.

One new park in Studio Plaza Project on the books BY

ALINE BARROS STAFF WRITER

Silver Spring wants more green space, but county officials say challenges — traffic, location, cost and design — could stand in the way.

“We don’t have enough green space,” said John Marcolin, urban designer at the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission. “You can’t just throw grass and trees and call it green space.”

According to the Green Space Guideline for the Silver Spring Central Business District, 57 open spaces cover 32.61 acres in Silver Spring. The average open area is 0.57 acres.

The guideline says urban parks can bring economic benefits to surrounding neighborhoods and increase property values.

The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission acquired the largest consolidated area of public space — Jesup Blair Park, which has 24 acres — in 1943, according to the guide. Jesup Blair Park has a playground, a softball field, a baseball field, and two

Money to expand The Music Center at Strathmore and renovate the Strathmore Mansion is among the 31 local funding requests Montgomery County lawmakers have asked of the state.

Lawmakers annually ask the state to borrow money to help fund capital projects in their district. The requests are known as “bond bills.”

This year, state lawmakers from across the state have asked for about $40 million for projects in their districts.

“It’s tough,” Sen. Roger

See 311, Page A-10

lighted tennis courts. There also is a picnic area, and the Hillandale Recreation Building is available for rent.

The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission has recognized three possible areas for a park. The commission considered how often the community will use the spaces and possible access points.

Among them are Parking Lot 3 between Thayer and Silver Spring avenues; the Giant parking lot on East-West Highway; and land surrounding Progress Place, a facility

KATE S. ALEXANDER STAFF WRITER

day.

“In the morning, I mostly get Ride-On calls for buses,” Mitchell said. “As the day goes on, we get a lot of permitting service calls and a lot of health and human services calls, like questions regarding food stamps.”

Mitchell, who works from 6:45 a.m. to 3:15 p.m., said he gets about 70 calls per day, which is about average for most customer service reps.

In special circumstances, such as the chain of snowstorms that recently hit the

Manno said. “We’ve got about one-third of that [to work with].”

Only $15 million — $7.5 million in each chamber — is expected to be given to local projects in the fiscal 2015 capital budget that Gov. Martin J. O’Malley (D) proposed.

Montgomery’s delegation has asked for a total of about $12.3 million. The requests range from $60,000 for a Metropolitan Ballet Theater relocation and expansion to $3.5 million for the project at Strathmore.

Also on the list are $2.5 million for a new Silver Spring Volunteer Fire Station and $200,000 to restore the historic Seneca Store in Poolesville.

Manno (D-Dist. 19) of Silver Spring said the county does not lobby collectively for any projects. Rather, each senator and

See PROJECTS, Page A-10

POTENTIAL PARKS

According to the Silver Spring Green Space guideline, the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission has recognized three spaces as potential places for a park:

Potential users

County owned?

Challenges

Parking Lot 3 surrounded by Thayer Avenue on the north, Fenton Street and Silver Spring Avenue

Fenton Village residents and visitors

Yes

Parking during construction

Giant parking lot on East West Highway

Residents and Metro users

No

Financial investment required

Land surrounding Progress Place

Future residents of Ripley District

County and private ownership

Only one access from Georgia Avenue and surrounding areas

See GREEN, Page A-10

SPORTS

BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW Five Montgomery County basketball teams advance to high school state semifinals.

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BY

County 311 call center helps get answers to residents’ questions

Silver Spring eyeing more green space n

$3.5 million for Strathmore tops county’s wish list n

for a walk?’

“[MC311] began as a call center consolidation effort by the county,” MC311 Director Leslie Hamm said. “They wanted to take all of the smaller customer service hotlines in the county’s bigger departments and bring them together.”

The call center, with 43 customer service representatives, takes calls for all 37 of the county’s departments. That adds up to an average of 40,000 to 50,0000 calls a month from Montgomery County residents.

Allen Mitchell, a customer service representative for nearly three years, said the type of calls usually depend on the time of

See DISCUSSIONS, Page A-10

Montgomery asks for money for local projects

DAN GROSS/THE GAZETTE

Rhonda Palmer (front) talks to a caller whose front yard was damaged by a plow during the recent snow. Palmer has worked at the 311 call center in Rockville since 2010.

‘Can I take my

Coalition of Purple Line Neigbhorhoods, an informal group of civic and homeowners association along the Purple Line’s route, into a formal task force.

The group would work with county and state agencies to address issues such as noise, tree preservation, safety and the aesthetics of the project.

President Barack Obama recently included $100 million in his proposed budget for the long-awaited 16-mile light-rail project that would run from Bethesda to New Carrollton, a key step forward in the project

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THE GAZETTE

Page A-2

Wednesday, March 12, 2014 s

PEOPLE& PLACES More online at www.gazette.net

on the trail.

Cub Scout Pack 209, based in Silver Spring, is chartered by Woodside United Methodist Church.

ALINE BARROS

Cub Scouts clean up on the trail Spring has not yet sprung, but second-graders from Woodlin Elementary School already started their spring cleaning along the Silver Spring portion of the Capital Crescent Trail.

Six boys, members of Cub Scout Pack 209 Den 4, worked on their “wolf” rank during the community service project Saturday.

They helped cleared the woods along the trail of litter that has blown from nearby businesses, and filled 10 bags with trash they collected in a 100-yard stretch.

A big sister helped, too.

“Everybody was a little shocked of how much trash we collected ... [But] we all realized if we work together we can accomplish a big task,” said Heather Lair, a parent helper.

The Scouts found T-shirts, a big metal plate, plastic bags and coffee cups.

“It was really a mess ... pretty gross,” Lair said.

After an hour of cleaning up, the Scouts took an afternoon hike

Peace Corps volunteer begins service in Senegal Peace Corps volunteer Melissa Michel of Silver Spring, a Montgomery Blair High School graduate, left March 3 for Senegal, where she will work with Senegalese men and women as a community economic development specialist to help improve their business practices.

Michel attended Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pa., where she earned a bachelor’s in management and marketing in 2009.

During college, she also played Ultimate Frisbee and hopes to start a team in Senegal, according to an agency news release.

Silver Spring board seeks more members The county is seeking new members for the Silver Spring Advisory Board.

People of diverse backgrounds, professions, gender, geography, disability and ethnicity are encouraged to apply.

Those interested should send a brief cover letter and resume to County Executive Isiah Leggett, 101

EVENTS WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12

SATURDAY, MARCH 15

Author Talk with James Johnston,

Extreme Exhibit Makeover, 9

How to Apply for the Veterans Aid and Attendance Pension: Community Seminar, 7-8:15 p.m., Brooke Grove

Rehabilitation and Nursing Center, 18131 Slade School Road, Sandy Spring. Free. 301-388-7209.

THURSDAY, MARCH 13 All About the Ballroom, 7:30-8:45

p.m., National Park Seminary, 9610 Dewitt Drive, Silver Spring. $5. 301589-1715.

FRIDAY, MARCH 14 Communal Shabbat Family Dinner,

6:30-9:30 p.m., Har Tzeon Agudath Achim, 1840 University Blvd. West, Silver Spring. $25. 301-649-3800.

Monroe St., 2nd floor, Rockville, MD 20850; or by email to countyexecutive.boards@montgomerycountymd.gov. Applicants should include home and employment addresses, contact phone numbers and email addresses.

The application deadline is March 26.

More information is at montgomerycountymd.gov.

War. He returns home, expecting to think about the war in only the past tense, until he gets a call for one last mission.

For more information, call 405458-5642 or email Michelle Whitman at michelle@keymgc.com.

Novelist to sign books at Silver Spring Library

Students can sign up for free after-school art workshops Wednesdays until April 16 at the Silver Spring Civic Building, 1 Veterans Plaza.

Kindergartners through fifthgraders may participate in arts and crafts workshops, sewing classes and physical activity with TheaterFit games.

Registration begins at 3:35 p.m. on a first-come, first-served basis, and classes start at 4 p.m.

Author William Brown will be available to sign copies of his book “A Horse Called Nevada” at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Silver Spring Library, 8901 Colesville Road.

The book is about an Army paratrooper who becomes a special forces adviser during the Vietnam

BestBet

Send items at least two weeks in advance of the paper in which you would like them to appear. Go to calendar.gazette.net and click on the submit button.

Questions? Call 301-670-2070.

3 p.m., White Oak Library, 11701 New Hampshire Ave., Silver Spring. Free.

240-773-9555.

HEATHER LAIR

Cub Scouts in Silver Spring’s Pack 209 helped clean up the Capital Crescent Trail on Saturday before an afternoon hike.

a.m.-2 p.m., Sandy Spring Museum, 17901 Bentley Road, Sandy Spring.

Free. 301-774-0022.

Junior Jams: Dave Brewer and the Pre-K Kings, 10:30-11:30 a.m., Founda-

tion Galley and Liveroom, 3762 Howard Ave., Kensington. $6 in advance, $8 at the door. www.fndtnarts.com/ events.

How to Borrow E-books From the Library, 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., White

Oak Library, 11701 New Hampshire Ave., Silver Spring. 240-773-9555.

Carnival Featuring Silent Auction, Raffles and Games, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.,

Olney Elementary School, 3401 Queen Mary Drive, Olney. 301-924-3126.

General Membership Meeting, Potomac Valley Section of National Council of Negro Women, noon-1:30

p.m., The People’s Community Baptist Church, Norwood Center, 31 Norwood Road, Silver Spring. 240-515-7876.

Teen Craft: Duct Tape Wallet, 2

FRI

14

#HerYellowRibbon: Zumba Party for Endometriosis Awareness, 6:30-9

p.m., City Place Mall, 8661 Colesville Road, Silver Spring. $5. heryellowribbon@gmail.com.

MORE INTERACTIVE CALENDAR ITEMS AT WWW.GAZETTE.NET p.m., White Oak Library, 11701 New Hampshire Ave., Silver Spring. 240773-9555.

Chinese Dance Concert, 7-8 p.m., Washington D.C. Temple Visitors’ Center, 9900 Stoneybrook Drive, Kensington. Free. 301-587-0144.

Swing Into Spring Dinner Dance, 7-10 p.m., Springbrook High School, 201 Valley Brook Drive, Silver Spring. springbrookmusicboosters@gmail. com.

SUNDAY, MARCH 16 Purim Carnival, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.,

Congregation Har Tzeon Agudath Achim, 1840 University Blvd. West, Silver Spring. Free. 301-649-3800.

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Free after-school workshops offered

Used Book Sale, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, 4301 East West Highway, Bethesda. tdyspringer@yahoo.com. Jazz by Dave Burns, 3:30 p.m., Sandy Spring Museum, 17901 Bentley Road, Sandy Spring. $23. 301-774-0022.

GALLERY

Kennedy’s Zjhane West (at left), Magruder’s Adjowa Pinkrah and Kennedy’s Siteri Tale fight for the ball. Go to clicked.Gazette.net.

SPORTS Check online this weekend for coverage of every high school state semifinal.

For more on your community, visit www.gazette.net

ConsumerWatch Can insurance companies up your rate if you go from married to single?

LIZ CRENSHAW

Connecting Hearts and Minds: Music from the Jewish, Latin American and Arabic Traditions, 7-9 p.m., Tem-

ple Emanuel, 10101 Connecticut Ave., Kensington. $25. 301-230-1361.

A&E Sting and Simon stop by to raise money for the arts.

Don’t worry, Liz won’t steer you wrong on this one.

WeekendWeather FRIDAY

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

MONDAY, MARCH 17 Living on the Edge: Mental Illness in Montgomery County, 10 a.m.-noon,

Jane E. Lawton Community Center, 4301 Willow Lane, Chevy Chase. Free. dorset4708@yahoo.com.

TUESDAY, MARCH 18 Parent Loss Support Group,

6:30-8 p.m., Bethesda United Church of Christ, 10010 Fernwood Road, Bethesda. Free. 301-921-4400.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 19 Managing the Internet in the Age of Handheld Devices, 7:30-9:30 p.m., Par-

ent Encouragement Program, 10100 Connecticut Ave., Kensington. $30.

301-929-8824.

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26

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Get complete, current weather information at

NBCWashington.com

GAZETTE CONTACTS The Gazette – 9030 Comprint Court Gaithersburg, MD 20877 Main phone: 301-948-3120 Circulation: 301-670-7350

39

THE GAZETTE

Wednesday, March 12, 2014 s

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LOCAL

‘The Grapevine’ brings stories to Takoma Park n

Spoken word celebrated at community center BY

SARAH SCULLY STAFF WRITER

SARAH SCULLY/THE GAZETTE

Noa Baum gets animated while telling a story during Takoma Park’s new storytelling series.

The first time Geraldine Buckley was in a prison was when she realized she wanted to be a storyteller.

A friend asked her to do a creative workshop at a prison in Maryland. Buckley said she agreed without thinking it through. Then, she saw layers of barbed wire and fences while she drove in. She was terrified.

To start, she performed slam poetry, a dramatic form of spoken poetry, for two hundred male inmates — “in-yourface Jesus poetry,” is how Buckley, an ordained minister in the Faith Christian Fellowship, described it.

She invited the men to write their own poetry and read it aloud.

Something in her Jesus poetry hit them. “They stopped being inmates and I stopped being a volunteer,” she said.

They talked about missing their families and the hurt of having parents die while the men were still behind bars.

“I just knew from that moment that I wanted to go into every prison in America,” Buckley, a self-described “Irish peasant woman” with a “thin veneer” of English gentility, said.

She later became a chaplain at the Maryland Correctional Training Center near Hagerstown.

Buckley, of Frederick, was a guest

storyteller Thursday night at the second gathering of the new Takoma Park series called “The Grapevine.”

“You’re being you, just really big. You fill the room with you.”

Tim Livengood, storyteller Tim Livengood and Noa Baum, two seasoned local storytellers, are behind the series, which is in a pilot phase through the spring. Livengood said they expect to continue in the fall as a permanent program.

He worked with Emily Cohen, a management assistant for the city, to set up the program and pulled in Baum, who he knew from Voices in the Glen, a regional storytelling group, for her expertise.

They plan to bring in more storytellers on the first Thursday of every month, from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m., for the next three months at the Takoma Park Community Center.

Livengood said he became interested in stories because “I could remember things that were story-oriented.”

Although he’s been telling stories for years — mostly personal stories, some folk tales — he said he still gets nervous

every time.

“You’re being you, just really big.

You fill the room with you,” he said of being onstage. But, “it’s very much still a conversation.”

Unlike in other performing arts, the audience is not an afterthought in the dark, he noted; they react and chime in, and you react back.

It’s a folk art, Baum said, but there’s a richness to it that deserves attention.

“I want storytelling to be respected as an art form,” just like music or paintings, she said.

Baum has made a career of telling stories at schools, The World Bank, the Kennedy Center, hospitals, and many other venues. She hopes that one day, they can grow a regional storytelling festival from the program.

Baum shared two folk tales on Thursday.

Afterward, “People said, ‘It made me cry. It moved me,’” Baum said.

That’s what she has aimed for since she was 24, when she saw the power of stories after reluctantly taking a job running an after-school story hour in Tel Aviv. She was a struggling actress in need of income.

Acting out a fairy tale with the young kids, she watched one student’s domineering and rebellious front melt away to the 8-year-old girl she was, while playing a princess.

“We want to transport people to another world,” she said. sscully@gazette.net

Music and activism draw crowd at Republic Planners give go-ahead BY

for new townhomes at Glenmont Metrocenter

SARAH SCULLY STAFF WRITER

Takoma Park residents, music fans and voting activists filled the city’s newest restaurant, Republic, on Sunday to hear music and discuss voting reform.

Krist Novoselic, former bassist for Nirvana and chairman of FairVote’s board of directors, played “Royals” by Lorde on the accordion with band The Coward Choir, which also played a set. Novoselic, along with New Yorker essayist Hendrick Hertzberg, also a FairVote board member, and state Sen. Jamie B. Raskin (DDist. 20) of Takoma Park spoke about FairVote’s efforts.

The event aimed to raise awareness and funds for FairVote, a Takoma Park nonprofit that advocates for voting reform.

Speakers discussed making presidential elections by popular vote; ranked choice voting, in which voters rank their candidate choices; and suffrage

171 homes planned by Winchester Homes, Inc.

n

BY

ALINE BARROS STAFF WRITER

PHOTOS BY GREG DOHLER/THE GAZETTE

Krist Novoselic, former bassist for Nirvana, plays the accordion as he joins guitarist Andy Zipf and other area musicians in a performance Sunday at Republic restaurant in Takoma Park. expansion. These are among the organization’s goals to be reached by 2020, outlined as the agenda on Reform2020.com.

Executive Director Rob Richie said the event also was “celebrating some of the wins

that there have been.” The organization was a force in the council’s decision last year to lower the city’s voting age to 16. Takoma Park also employs ranked choice voting and the city is among the most inclu-

New Yorker writer Hendrick Hertzberg speaks Sunday at Republic restaurant in Takoma Park about the need to do away with the Electoral College in favor of a popular vote in presidential elections. sive when it comes to which residents are allowed to vote.

Republic donated 5 percent of profits from sales during the event to FairVote. sscully@gazette.net

The new Glenmont Metrocenter is taking shape, at least on the books, as Winchester Homes gains planning approval for a new townhouse development in the project.

The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission members approved the first site plan for a townhouse community, the first development planned as part of the new Glenmont sector plan recently approved by the Montgomery County Council as an effort to revitalize that part of the county.

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Winchester Homes, Inc. is set to develop the 171 townhouses located on the northwest corner of Glenallan Avenue and Layhill Road in Silver Spring. Winchester has not set price ranges for the proposed units.

This plan includes 16 benches, one tot lot, 14 bicycle parking spaces, 5,000 square feet of open play area, and 171 homes each with its own garage.

The Glenmont Metrocenter project zoning was approved on July 17, 2012, by the Montgomery County Council.

Developers have to present the next site plan phase to the planning board, but no date has been set. abarros@gazette.net

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Obituary Shirley H. Donati, 81, of Olney, Maryland, died Thursday, February 27, 2014. She was born to the late Leo and Olga Cechvala, August 17, 1932, in Ford City, Pennsylvania. She graduated from Ford City High School in 1950. She married the late Washington D.C. orchestra leader and musician Eugene G. Donati on September 2, 1951. They lived in Rockville then relocated to Olney where they raised their five children. She retired from DHHS (Department of Health and Human Services) as an Acquisition Contract Specialist. Before her government work, she was an administrative office manager for an orthodontist. She was an outstanding wife, mother, homemaker and devout Christian. Shirley was a member of St. Peter’s Church in Olney. She is survived by her five children: Michaelene Doud of Atlanta, GA; Michael Donati of Maryland; Yvonne Mulgrew of Dickerson, MD; Christopher Donati of Damascus, MD; Christine Bucheimer of Gaithersburg, MD; three sisters in Pennsylvania, four grandchildren, and several nieces and nephews. The viewing will be Sunday, March 9, from 2-4 pm at the Roy W. Barber Funeral Home, located at 21525 Laytonsville Road, Laytonsville, MD 20882. Services will be on Monday, March 10, at noon at the funeral home. She will be laid to rest at Gate of Heaven in Silver Spring. Online condolences at www.barberfhlaytonsville.com.

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THE GAZETTE

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Wednesday, March 12, 2014 s

All the broccoli you can eat, kids n

Rice, Leventhal call for healthier school food program

BY CHRISTOPHER NEELY SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE

Students who buy lunch in Montgomery County should get all-you-can eat fruits and vegetables, under a new plan by two County Council members.

Montgomery County Council President Craig L. Rice (D-Dist. 2) of Germantown and Vice President George L. Leventhal (D- At Large) of Takoma Park sent Superintendent Joshua P. Starr a letter on Monday, advocating for support of their Healthy Food Program for Students.

According to the letter, the council members have worked closely with the nonprofit organization Real Foods for Kids while drafting their MCPS Strategic Plan. The plan seeks to help students “make constructive and healthy decisions that promote hope, personal well-being, and social behavior.”

One recommendation in the plan is offering unlimited fruits and vegetables for free to all students who purchase lunch.

Marla Caplon, director of the district’s Division of Food and Nutrition Services, said there is already a wellness policy in place within the school system.

Caplon said that at $1.25 per meal — what

the school system charges — it would be “absolutely impossible” to offer unlimited fresh fruits and vegetables. All meals already include a fruit and vegetable option, Caplon said.

Other recommendations in the letter from Rice and Leventhal include: • Easier access to unlimited water other than numerous trips to the water fountain • Offering at least one meal per day that is “scratch-cooked food” or not typical “junk food” (pizza, chicken nuggets, hot dogs) • Removing from foods all chemicals listed “caution” or “avoid” by the Center for Science in the Public Interest • Setting an upper limit on sugars in foods based on recommendations by the American Heart Association • Replacing items on vending and a la carte lists of foods with healthier choices • Providing transparency by having all items sold and served to children appear on monthly menus; send parents a list at the beginning of the school year of all a la carte items sold at the school.

Rice said he and Leventhal want to keep pushing the school system to provide healthier options.

He said that as they learn more about how food affects children, they want to do more to make sure schools provide the healthiest food.

Leventhal said menus often emphasize unhealthy options such as burgers or chicken fin-

gers, while a la carte options often don’t provide healthy alternatives.

Leventhal told The Gazette at a November forum focusing on healthful foods in the school system that he thought the system is making a good effort, but the food quality in cafeterias has not been a “front-of-mind priority” for the school board or superintendent.

Caplon said that, other than syrup, the cafeterias do not serve sugar in foods other than those already naturally containing sugar. She said the school system works with manufacturers to purchase foods with less additives; all of the system’s purchases are approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

“We follow all of the guidelines that we are supposed to follow,” Caplon said. “Water is always available. We’ve increased scratch foods and have a facility being built that will enable us to prepare even more food from scratch.”

In reference to the request for more information about food choices, “You couldn’t ask for more transparency,” Caplon said, referring to the website where all a la carte and menu items are listed.

The council members’ plan is expected to be discussed during the joint Health and Human Services and Education committee meeting on March 20.

Staff writers Ryan Marshall and Lindsay Powers contributed to this report.

Duncan: ‘Time for answers’ on transit center Leggett says county won’t make ‘politically expedient’ move into Silver Spring facility n

BY

RYAN MARSHALL STAFF WRITER

Calling it an “eyesore” in the midst of downtown Silver Spring, former Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan is calling on the county government to provide answers on the stalled construction of the Silver Spring Transit Center project.

The facility was originally scheduled to open in 2011, but construction defects have led to delays and cost overruns that have made the $120 million project at the corner of Colesville Road and Wayne Avenue in downtown Silver Spring a sore point for county politicians and residents alike.

The public deserves answers about when the facility will open, a detailed plan to fix the problems and how much they will cost and whether the project will be safe when it does open, Duncan said Thursday at a press conference outside the fenced-off transit center site.

“It’s time for answers,” Duncan said.

Duncan is challenging County Executive Isiah Leggett and Councilman Philip M. Andrews (Dist. 3) of Gaithersburg in the Democratic primary for the office that Duncan held from 1994-2006. Republican Jim Shalleck of Montgomery Village is also running for executive.

The county has suffered from “paralysis by analysis” on the project, with a focus more on assessing blame for the project than fixing what’s wrong, Duncan said.

The county commissioned KCE Structural Engineers of Washing-

DAN GROSS/THE GAZETTE

Montgomery County executive candidate Douglas Duncan (center) talks to NOAA employees Bala Vadlamani (left) and Betty Mutagwanya. Vadlamani and Mutagwanya have worked in the NOAA building for years and have seen many of the Silver Spring buildings go up, including the transit center, which they have watched from their office window for seven years. ton, D.C., to conduct an analysis that found serious flaws with the project, county spokesman Patrick Lacefield said.

“The detailed plan is the KCE report,” Lacefield said.

He said the county has moved forward on the project with due diligence, and won’t open it until the problems are fixed.

“We understand that people want it open, and nobody wants it open more than we do,” Lacefield said.

Crews are waiting for warmer weather so they can apply a concrete overlay designed to fix varying concrete thickness and cracking in the structure.

The latex-modified concrete used in the overlay requires temperatures consistently above 40 degrees before it can be applied.

The transit center issue also came up during a forum of the county executive candidates held by the Montgomery County Renters Alliance on March 5.

Leggett said that he would open the center when he’s satisfied that it’s safe, and wouldn’t make a “politically expedient” decision on the issue.

Leggett campaign manager Scott Goldberg echoed that message Thursday, saying Leggett would open the center once it’s been completed properly, whether that’s before the election or after.

Other candidates criticized the execution of the project, with Andrews calling it the “biggest fiasco in the county’s building history,” a line similar to one he used in a November council discussion of the project.

The county has to figure out what went wrong with the project and make sure it doesn’t happen again, he said.

Shalleck called for a federal grand jury investigation into the project to determine what went wrong.

David Dise, head of the county’s Department of General Services, said recently that there was no fixed date for the structure to be opened, and he expects to update the council on its status in early April.

Councilman Roger Berliner (DDist. 1) of Bethesda, the chairman of the council’s Transportation, Infrastructure, Energy & Environment Committee, said on March 5 that the center should be ready sometime in the summer or early fall. rmarshall@gazette.net

Man charged with killing girlfriend’s puppy n

Baltimore cop faces felony animal cruelty charge

BY KRISTA BRICK STAFF WRITER

A Silver Spring man arrested last week and charged with killing a 7-month-old Jack Russell terrier puppy is a Baltimore city police officer.

Alec Eugene Taylor, 27, of the 13800 block of Castle Boulevard in Silver Spring was arrested by the Montgomery County Police Animal Services Division and charged with aggravated animal cruelty, a felony offense, and abuse or neglect of an

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animal.

Taylor has worked for the Baltimore Police Department for five years, according to department spokesman Lt. J. Eric Kowalczyk.

The department is conducting an administrative investigation and Taylor has been suspended without pay, Kowalczyk said in an email to The Gazette.

At about 11:10 a.m. Feb. 28, Montgomery County police and animal services officers were called to a Castle Boulevard home. Taylor’s girlfriend, who was not named in the police news release, said Taylor had beaten and killed their 7-month-old Jack Russell terrier Rocko.

According to police, at about

4:30 p.m. Feb. 26, Taylor had texted his girlfriend, saying Rocko had defecated on the carpet and that he had killed the dog. Taylor also texted her a picture of what appeared to be a lifeless dog. In a follow-up phone call between the girlfriend and Taylor, Taylor said he was tired of cleaning up the dog’s feces and that he had beaten the dog with a mop, according to the girlfriend. He also said he had placed the dead puppy in a trash container in a parking lot.

Police said the girlfriend asked Taylor if he could remove Rocko from the container so she could bury him. She buried him that evening in a neighborhood park in Hyattsville.

Animal services officers found

the buried puppy. A necropsy showed the likely immediate cause of death as acute hemorrhagic shock likely due to blood loss from liver damage caused by blunt force trauma shortly before death.

Taylor told officers that he used a mop to force Rocko from behind a clothes dryer and then strangled the puppy, police said.

Animal services officers obtained a warrant for Taylor’s arrest March 4. The next day, he turned himself in to police.

Taylor was released on $1,500 bond March 5, according to court records. As of Tuesday, no attorney was listed in the case in online court records..

InBrief Floreen seeks shovelers for recognition One good thing about this winter’s aboveaverage snowfall: It’s given Nancy M. Floreen a chance to revive her SAFE/Golden Shovel Awards program.

The Montgomery County councilwoman launched the program in 2003 to honor residents who helped shovel neighborhood sidewalks and driveways after storms. After a hiatus of three relatively snowless winters, Floreen (D-At large) of Garrett Park wants to again recognize those who pitch in. The award’s acronym stands for Sidewalks Are For Everyone.

“Our seniors, schoolchildren, people with disabilities and those who walk to work or use mass transit depend on snow-free sidewalks,” Floreen said in a news release. “This goes beyond convenience — it is a matter of public safety. I certainly hope that residents will nominate individuals for the Golden Shovel who put the Golden Rule to work.”

Nominations must be mailed or e-mailed

by March 31. Candidates who are honored will receive recognition at a County Council session in April.

Nomination forms are available at montgomerycountymd.gov/Floreen/Resources/ Files/2014goldenshovel.pdf and in The Gazette.

Nominations also can be mailed to Montgomery County Council, SAFE/Golden Shovel Award, 100 Maryland Ave., Rockville, MD 20850.

Gem Show is this weekend The Gem Lapidary and Mineral Society of Montgomery County will hold its 50th anniversary Gem Show from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at the Montgomery County Agricultural Fairgrounds, 16 Chestnut St., Gaithersburg.

This year’s show features an expanded area of children’s activities. Conrad Smith, a member of the society, has created a Youth Introduction to Earth Sciences Area. Children can learn about some of the basics of earth science, including “What is a Rock?” and “Minerals Which Can Be Found in Your Everyday Life.”

Smith is a life Boy Scout with Troop 461 in Bethesda, and has been teaching the society’s Mini Miners group of elementary-school children for four years. He also gives presentations on rocks and minerals to Cub Scout packs and elementary schools. Last year, he also served on the staff at the Boy Scout National Jamboree.

This new educational area will be used for his advancement to Eagle Scout.

Admission is $6; children 11 and younger and Scouts in uniform are free. More information is at glmsmc.com.

POLICE BLOTTER

Complete report at www.gazette.net The following is a summary of incidents in the Silver Spring area to which Montgomery County police responded recently. The words “arrested” and “charged” do not imply guilt. This information was provided by the county.

Bank Robbery • On Feb. 20 at 12:50 p.m. at Capital One Bank, 18104 Town Center Drive, Olney.

Strong-Arm Robbery • On Feb. 19 at 5 a.m. at the bus stop at Wayne and Dixon avenues, Silver Spring. The subject assaulted the victim and unsuccessfully attempted to take property.

• On Feb. 19 at 9:30 p.m. in the 12400 block of Layhill Road, Silver Spring. The subjects threatened the victim and took property.

Aggravated Assault • On Feb. 19 at 11:45 p.m. in the 11500 block of February Circle, Silver Spring. The subjects are known to the victim.

• On Feb. 21 at 9:30 a.m. in the 11600 block of Lockwood Drive, Silver Spring.

• On Feb. 23 at 3:45 p.m. in the 2800 block of Weisman Road, Silver Spring. The subject threatened the victim with a weapon.

• On Feb. 24 at 5:30 p.m. in the 8700 block of Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring. The subject is known to the victim.

• On Feb. 24 at 9 p.m. in the 15200 block of Briarcliff Manor Way, Silver Spring. The subject is known to the victim.

Indecent Exposure • On Feb. 21 at 2 p.m. inside of Shop Rite, 12028 Cherry Hill Road, Silver Spring. The subject exposed himself to the victim, then fled.

Residential Burglary • 4400 block of Sigsbee Road, Silver Spring, between Feb. 14 and 21. Forced entry, unknown if anything was taken.

• 7900 block of Chicago Avenue, Silver Spring, between noon and 1:45 p.m. Feb. 18. No forced entry, took property.

• 2800 block of Lemar Street, Silver Spring, between 8 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. Feb. 19. Attempted forced entry, took nothing.

• 1300 block of Milestone Drive, Silver Spring, between 10 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Feb. 19. Forced entry, took property.

• 900 block of Rosemere Avenue, Silver Spring, on Feb. 19 or 20. Forced entry, took property.

• 10800 block of Gerogia Avenue, Aspen Hill, between 6:30 and 9:30 p.m. Feb. 21. Forced entry, took nothing.

• 4700 block of Levada Terrace, Rockville, on Feb. 22. Unknown entry, took property.

T HE G AZ ET T E

Wednesday, March 12, 2014 s

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AROUND THE COUNTY

Montgomery takes school construction fight to Annapolis n

Parents, teachers, officials press for more money BY

LINDSAY A. POWERS STAFF WRITER

MontgomeryCounty’sfightforschool construction funds took to Lawyers Mall in Annapolis on Thursday evening with a rally punctuated by some people wearing plastic yellow construction hats.

State lawmakers from the county, County Executive Isiah Leggett, Superintendent Joshua P. Starr and other county and school leaders joined about 200 parents, students and others in the school system community. They rallied for a bill that would direct money toward aging and overcrowded buildings.

Del. Anne R. Kaiser (D-Dist. 14) of Burtonsville, chairwoman of Montgomery’s House delegation, proposed a bill to establish the Supplemental Public School Construction Matching Fund Program.

Under the bill, counties with a triple-A bond rating and school systems with at least 100,000 students would be eligible for a share of up to $20 million each year to fund a portion of school construction projects or project debt.

Leggett told the crowd that the county has done “virtually everything” it can do on the local level and needs more state resources to address school construction needs.

“I know that we’re asking for something that is unique, but our challenge is unique,” he said. “Our challenge is one that we’re growing at the seams.”

Del. Eric G. Luedtke (D-Dist. 14) of Burtonsville described problems he has experienced as a teacher at A. Mario Loiederman Middle School in Silver Spring, including heating and air conditioning issues in his classroom and rain falling through the school’s ceiling.

“I’m tired of that,” he said. “Our kids deserve better.”

Del. Heather R. Mizeur, a gubernatorial candidate, said the push for more school money from the state is a threecounty effort that also includes Prince George’s and Baltimore counties.

People are moving to Montgomery County because of its school system, said Mizeur (D-Dist. 20) of Takoma Park.

MCPS OVERCROWDING BY THE NUMBERS n There are 202 schools in the Montgomery County Public Schools system, including Edison High School of Technology in Silver Spring, five special schools and one charter school. The county school system website lists 132 elementary schools, 38 middle schools and 25 high schools.

64

n 54 elementary n 6 middle n 4 high schools

5

350

schools that serve students who fall in special categories have a total enrollment of 1,270 with a capacity of 920.

Number of students these five schools are over capacity.

Rice holds out hope for school funding bill n

Council president: ‘Stranger things have happened.’

BY

RYAN MARSHALL STAFF WRITER

Despite fading hopes among state lawmakers for its passage, the president of the Montgomery County Council hasn’t given up on the idea of getting a bill that would provide more state money to ease crowding in the county’s schools.

“StrangerthingshavehappenedinAnnapolis,”Council President Craig L. Rice (D- Dist. 2) of Germantown said Monday.

Rice said he’s had several conversations with Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown (D) about school funding and asked Brown to take a more visible role on the issue.

Montgomery’s entire delegation to the General Assembly has backed legislation that would provide up to $20 million a year outside of the normal capital budget process for school systems with 100,000 or more students and a triple-A bond rating.

On March 6, Brown, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor, sent a letter to the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee supporting the legislation.

Fellow gubernatorial candidates Douglas F. Gansler and Heather R. Mizeur (D-Dist. 20) of Takoma Park have also expressed support for Montgomery getting more

“We deserve to have the classrooms that tell these children that we’re investing in them, that we believe in them, that we support them in their future,” she said.

Starr told the crowd that the leaders

SOURCE: MCPS WEBSITE

1841812

Number of schools are over capacity by more than 50 students

money for school expansion.

Sen. Nancy King (D-Dist. 39) of Montgomery Village hasintroducedanotherbillthatwouldqualifyschoolssystemswiththreeconsecutiveyearsofenrollmentgrowthof more than 150 percent of the statewide average for a state matching grant for school construction projects.

Rice was among the Montgomery officials who testified at a March 6 hearing in Annapolis on the county’s need for more funding.

County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) also testified and has joined the county executives from Prince George’s and Baltimore counties to call for more funding to relieve overcrowding in schools in some of the state’s largest counties.

Rice said much of the opposition to the plan seems to be coming from rural jurisdictions who want their own needs addressed before the larger counties get more money.

It’s “unfortunate” that some jurisdictions see Montgomery’s needs as competing with those of rural jurisdictions, Rice said.

Montgomery, Baltimore and Prince George’s came up with a plan to address their needs, and rural areas are welcome do the same, he said.

According to county officials, Montgomery’s schools grow by about 2,000 students a year. By 2019, the county projects enrollment will have increased by 25,000 students in 12 years. rmarshall@gazette.net

needed them to “keep up the fight.”

“We need you. We need every single one of you and all of your friends and all of your neighbors to make sure they have the buildings that they deserve,” he said.

While the rally was full of enthusiasm, county lawmakers have expressed doubt that the bill will pass this year.

Kaiser said in a previous interview with The Gazette that she and other

151,289 Total students, making MCPS the largest school district in the state and the 17th largest in the U.S.

county legislators were “not necessarily expecting it to pass.”

“We are realistic in the ways of the world,”Kaisersaid.“Sometimes,youhave to take more than a year to make your case on the need for a bill.”

Parents who attended the rally said they were encouraged by the speakers.

But some also said they were prepared to continue fighting for money if the bill doesn’t pass.

Charisse Tang, who attended the rally with her family, said four of her five children attend Diamond Elementary School inGaithersburg.Shesaidtheschoolneeds an addition to the overcrowded building to accommodate its students.

“We worked really hard to drive our five children over here on a school night with [Maryland School Assessment] testing immediately the next morning because we’re desperate for funding,” Tang said.

Janette Gilman, president of the Montgomery County Council of ParentTeacher Associations, said many state legislators “don’t get” Montgomery’s capacity issues, but people from the school system are ready to return to Annapolis if need be.

“I think people know they’ve got to come back if we don’t get it this year,” she said. “It’s not going away and more kids will be coming.”

State Superintendent of Schools Lillian M. Lowery — who did not attend the rally — said she thinks Montgomery County’spresenceinAnnapolisonThursday could make a difference for the bill.

“I do think a loud voice and a show of force is going to be important in whether or not it does [pass],” she said.

THE GAZETTE

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Wednesday, March 12, 2014 s

Public schools’ athletic trainers on the sidelines County schools considering a second year for the pilot program n

BY

LINDSAY A. POWERS STAFF WRITER

Dr. Carter Mitchell said he was on the sideline of a high school football game this school year when a player was hit and fell to the ground.

Mitchell ran out on the field with Becky Taylor, a certified athletic trainer assigned to Sherwood High School in Sandy Spring as part of a pilot program that started this year at 11 Montgomery County public high schools.

“When I got out there, he couldn’t feel his legs or arms and couldn’t move his legs or arms,” said Mitchell, an orthopedic surgeon at MedStar Montgomery Medical Center in Olney who works closely with Taylor in the program.

For Mitchell — who attends some Sherwood games with Taylor — the incident highlights the importance of having trainers at school games.

“It’s having trained professionals on the sideline when they’re needed,” he said.

The program is serving as a

test for the school system, which has never before had athletic trainers on staff, according to William Beattie, the school system’s director of systemwide athletics.

“We’re seriously considering the addition of athletic trainers,” Beattie said. “We wanted to see what it would look like.”

The program, which could continue for a second year, involves nine athletic trainers from three health care vendors, Beattie said.

The trainers — two of whom are assigned to a couple of schools — cover games and practices as much as possible for all of a school’s athletic teams.

Taylor, an athletic trainer from MedStar with 10 years of experience, said she works about 40 to 50 hours a week with Sherwood’s teams.

In the case of the injured football player, she said, she and Mitchell were able to stabilize his spine, check his vitals and place him on a backboard so he could be taken to a hospital.

Their efforts, along with those of an emergency medical technician at the game, made a difference, Taylor said.

“We had better access to care and it was quicker,” she

said.

At each school, the trainer’s responsibilities include tending to injuries, monitoring athletes when they get a concussion, determining whether athletes are ready to return to play and some rehabilitation work, Beattie said.

He said he thinks athletic trainers are “important” for county schools to have, but added that the school system is working on a tight budget with many demands.

The school system reached out to vendors currently providing concussion baseline testing for student athletes to see if they also would provide athletic training services as part of a pilot, he said.

The vendors that agreed to are providing the trainers at no cost to the school system, he said.

Beattie said school system officials will soon meet with the vendors — which include the MedStar medical center, ATI Physical Therapy and Adventist Rehabilitation Hospital of Maryland — to discuss the pilot program and which vendors might want to participate in a second year of the pilot program.

Beattie said the school system has taken measures other

TOM FEDOR/THE GAZETTE

Becky Taylor, a certified athletic trainer with MedStar Sports Medicine, works Tuesday with students at Sherwood High School in Sandy Spring. than athletic trainers to make sure students are safe when they take to the field or court.

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In response to heightened concern about student-athlete safety around the country, Beattie said, the school system has “significantly adjusted” with added health and safety procedures, including concussion baseline testing for students.

Coaches are trained in several areas, including CPR, defibrillators, concussions and proper hydration, he said.

Each school also has two stipend positions — a CPR and defibrillator trainer for coaches and a first aid assistant, he said.

Dan Harwood, head coach of the boys basketball team at Col. Zadok Magruder High School in Rockville, said he thinks the county school system is “behind the times” when it comes to having athletic trainers.

While he feels competent to address the needs of injured players, he said, it’s valuable to have a professional present devoted to treating injuries quickly.

“It’s always a concern, especially in the heat of the battle, if we do have any kind of serious injury,” he said.

Harwood said coaching is stressful enough.

“I would be willing to pay some of my stipend to have that trainer,” he said.

Taylor said she thinks trainers bring sports medicine expertise and an eye for whether an injury is serious.

She has dealt with a variety of injuries this year, she said, including a fractured knee cap, el-

1905444

bow dislocations, ankle injuries and “tons of concussions.”

“I think it takes a lot of pressure off the coaches,” she said.

Mitchell said he thinks the county school system is catching up to others in the nation that have athletic trainers.

The trainers are “the first eyes and ears on the field,” he said, and are able to identify signs of a concussion that might not be as obvious as an injury such as a sprained ankle.

Students can find it easier to talk to the trainers rather than a coach, he said, because the trainer doesn’t determine playing time or status on a team.

Tom Hearn — who became an advocate for athletic safety after his son suffered a concussion while playing football at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda — said he thinks the pilot program is a step in the right direction but wants to see trainers at all 25 high schools in the county.

If the school system can’t provide athletic trainers, he said, it shouldn’t allow students to participate in contact sports that expose them to serious injuries.

He pointed to Fairfax County, Va., as a school district that decided to direct funds toward athletic trainers.

“These are ultimately choices that get made, budgetary choices that get made about keeping students safe,” he said. lpowers@gazette.net

THE GAZETTE

Wednesday, March 12, 2014 s

Howard running for Senate seat n

Laytonsville Republican calls himself a ‘social libertarian’ BY

TERRI HOGAN STAFF WRITER

Don’t let the name fool you: Franklin Delano Howard Jr. is running as a Republican for the District 14 seat in the state Senate.

He was named for his adoptive father, who was born around the time of Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s inauguration. Howard calls his name an “ironic label.”

Howard, 52, of Laytonsville, threw his hat into the ring Feb. 24 after serving as chairman for Daniel Bongino’s 6th Congressional District campaign for the past nine months.

“I really enjoyed that, and it opened my eyes to the world of politics and public service,” he said. “I had already started

thinking about running in 2016 or 2018, because I am very concerned about the direction Howard our country and our state are going in.”

He agreed to run in this year’s election after learning the incumbent, Karen S. Montgomery (D) of Brookeville, would be running unopposed, and after being approached by the Montgomery County GOP. “I’ve been told many times by many different people that I am the right kind of Republican — the kind who doesn’t scare people,” Howard said.

“I’m a social libertarian. I think the government should stay out of people’s business when it comes to social issues like gay marriage and abortion.”

He believes the county and state have gone crazy implementing too many taxes, but sees the solution as increasing the tax base.

“The current trajectory of our state is all wrong,” he said.

“It’s not business friendly and it’s not taxpayer friendly.

“Vital programs require taxes; taxes require taxpayers” such as businesses and citizens, Howard said. “Let’s not chase our taxpayers away. Let’s bring them back and increase tax revenues.”

Other key issues are education: rejecting Common Core standards, promoting school choice, defending teacher pensions and enhancing the pension system’s performance; transportation; and health care.

Howard, co-owner of business development consulting firm Shipley Associates, has never held public office.

He has been married to Denise Howard for 29 years and

they have no children. She is his campaign treasurer.

“This is kind of like a second honeymoon for us,” he said.

“We are doing something new and exciting together, and having a lot of fun.”

As for campaign funding, Howard has set a lofty goal of raising a minimum of $100,000 through grass-roots efforts and the support of the county GOP. He expects to have numerous fundraisers and plans to have a schedule firmed up within a week or so.

District 14 includes the eastern portion of the county, including Fairland, Burtonsville, Colesville, Ashton, Sandy Spring, Olney, Brookeville, Laytonsville and Damascus.

Howard has no opponent in the June 24 primary, but will face Montgomery in the Nov. 4 general election. thogan@gazette.net

Silver Spring man pleads guilty to child abuse, sex abuse Prosecutor requesting sentence of 29 to 57 years in prison

n

BY

TIFFANY ARNOLD STAFF WRITER

A Silver Spring man pleaded guilty March 5 to abusing a toddler and sexually abusing the child’s brother and sisters.

Adderli Jose Cruz-Rosario, 21, appeared in Montgomery County Circuit Court with his hair slicked back and his face unshaved.

Through an interpreter, CruzRosario said “yes” when asked by Judge Cheryl A. McCally if he entered the plea because he thought he was guilty of the crimes.

Those crimes, according to court testimony and court records, happened while he lived with the children and their mother in Silver Spring and in

Gaithersburg. What he pleaded guilty to includes throwing a 19-month-old girl against a wall, punching the child and pinning the child’s arm down with weights because she was supposed to be sleeping.

Prior to Cruz-Rosario’s arrest, the girl was examined at Children’s National Medical Center, where a doctor found rib fractures and what appeared to be bite marks on the child’s face.

She was diagnosed as a “battered child” with “failure to thrive,” according to court testimony.

Child abuse-related charges were filed in April 2012, shortly after Cruz-Rosario was arrested.

His plea also included charges of sexually abusing the girl’s older sisters — sometimes as the rest of the family slept — and molesting their brother.

Details of the sexual abuse

were outlined in criminal charges filed in June 2012.

The older sisters — who were 7, 8 and 11 at the time of the abuse — described being forced to have sex with CruzRosario. Their brother, who was 10, described being molested and being forced to watch adult videos, according to records filed in District Court.

Cruz-Rosario was eventually charged with a total of 55 criminal counts.

In court last week, he pleaded guilty to five criminal counts — one count of child abuse and four counts of sexual abuse. Each count carries a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison, which means Cruz-Rosario could face a 125-year sentence.

But Jessica Hall, a prosecutor with the state’s attorney’s office, is asking for a 29- to 57year sentence, what Maryland

sentencing guidelines call for.

Ramon Korionoff, a spokesman for the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office, said the plea agreement spares the child victims from having to relive the abuse.

“It’s important to hold the defendant accountable, but at the same time, it’s necessary for the children’s safety and wellbeing to reach an agreement, so that they don’t have to testify in court,” Korionoff said shortly after the court proceedings.

Cruz-Rosario’s attorney, Theresa Cheronsky of the public defender’s office, could ask for a lesser sentence.

Sentencing is scheduled for May 9. tarnold@gazette.net

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State legislature, county council races change after filing deadline Political parties had extra time to fill vacancies n

BY

GAZETTE STAFF

Feb. 25 was the filing deadline for federal, state and county candidates, but the primary ballots have changed since then.

Under Maryland election law, political parties can add candidates to races with vacancies. For example, if there were three open delegate seats in a district and only two people from a party had filed to run, the party had extra time to submit a third candidate.

The March 3 deadline to fill vacancies was extended to March 4 because of snow.

In addition, candidates who filed by Feb. 25 had until Feb. 27 to drop out of the race and have their names removed from the ballot.

Late changes in local races include the following: • In District 14. Olney resident Sharon Trexler Begosh was added tothedelegateraceonMarch4.Begosh, a Republican, is a newcomer topolitics.Shesaidshewaiteduntil the last minute to file because she thought there might be someone better qualified or with more experience. Democrat John Paul Evans of Gaithersburg withdrew from the race on Feb. 27.

• In District 16, the Republican Party added two late candidates for delegate — John Andrews and Lynda del Castillo. They join a third Republican candidate, Rose Maria Li, in a race that also has eight Democrats.

•Republicansputforwardtwo late candidates in District 19: Martha Schaerr, competing against six Democrats for delegate, and Felix Ed Gonzalez II, who will take on incumbent Sen. Roger Manno (D) in the general election.

• Steve Zellers, a Gaithers-

burg Republican, moved from the House to the Senate race in District 17, which includes Gaithersburg and Rockville. He is the only Republican to file in either race in that district.

• Melodye Berry said she has dropped out of the House race in District 19. Berry said she was not getting as many donations as she hoped. She also figured she and Charlotte Crutchfield, another Democratic candidate, would be representing the same area and “splitting all the votes,” she said.

Berry is asking her supporters to vote for Crutchfield instead.

• The Montgomery County Republican Central Committee nominated four candidates to fill out the party’s County Council ballot for the November elections.

Republicans Chris P. Fiotes Jr. of Gaithersburg and Adol T. Owen-Williams II of Potomac were nominated to run in at-large races. Jim Kirkland of Bethesda was nominated in District 1 and John O’Malley of Silver Spring in District 4.

They join Republicans Shelly Skolnick of Silver Spring and Robert Dyer of Bethesda, who filed to run at-large races before the Feb. 25 deadline, and Republican Dick Jurgena, who filed in District 2.

Fiotes originally filed to run in District 2, but withdrew from that race and will instead seek an atlarge seat.

Democrat Guled Kassim also filed to run in the District 3 council raceonFeb.25,afterTheGazette’s deadline.

Even with the more candidates, there will be no Republican council primaries in June; GOP candidates will advance directly to the November general election.

Democrats will have primaries in each race, except District 4, where Councilwoman Nancy Navarro is unopposed.

Page A-8

T H E G AZ ET T E

Wednesday, March 12, 2014 s

Gutierrez seeks fourth term District 18 incumbent runs for a more progressive Maryland

n

BY

PEGGY MCEWAN STAFF WRITER

Democrat Ana Sol Gutierrez was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 2002, the first Latina to serve in that body, and now 12 years later she is asking voters to return her to her post for a fourth term representing District 18.

Gutierrez, 72, sparked rumors of possible retirement last fall when she said she was thinking about whether to run again or not. But she filed as a candidate Dec. 16, 2013, long before the Feb. 25 filing deadline.

“That’s been made too big a deal,” she said. “I’ve been over 20 years in public service.

When it was time to say would I go through another four years ... you think about the best use of your time. Everybody should think about it.”

Before being elected to the House of Delegates, Gutierrez served on the Board of Education for Montgomery County from 1990-1998. She was also a member of the Governor’s Commission on Hispanic Affairs, 1989-91 and 1992-94, and Deputy Administrator, Research and Special Programs Adminis-

tration, U. S. Department of Transportation, 199496.

Gutierrez said she did think about stepGutierrez ping down but feels there is still work for her to do in the job.

“It has the potential for making real change in people’s lives,” she said. “I like making change in public policy and I like the opportunity, when you are dealing with legislation, to set policies.”

She said she is most proud of her work helping Maryland become “the progressive Maryland we should be.” She points to her work to help pass the Maryland Dream Act, on marriage equality and abolishing the death penalty.

“That [the death penalty] was my first hearing in 2003 and we finally passed it last year,” she said.

She is also proud of staying close to the community she represents, which includes Kensington, Garrett Park, Chevy Chase, Wheaton, and parts of Rockville and Silver Spring.

“I’m the only Latina representative from Montgomery County,” she said. “Yet Montgomery County has the larg-

est Latino population [of any county in Maryland].”

Locally she supports building the Purple Line.

“I see it as a social issue,” she said. “People are taking three buses to work, leaving their families.”

GutierrezwasborninElSalvador and came to the United States when she was 3 or 4, she said. Her father worked with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. She attended the University of Pennsylvania, studying chemistry and computer engineering.

She is retired and devotes her time to public service and enjoying her grandchildren. She did not give an amount raised so far in her campaign, but said she has a lot of support from individuals and labor.

“I don’t believe in expensive campaigns,” she said.

She also said she runs a double campaign, one in English and one is Spanish.

District 18 has three representatives in Annapolis.

Gutierrez and the other two incumbents, Alfred Carr and Jeff Waldstreicher are all running for reelection. They are challenged

by Rick Kessler, Elizabeth Matory, Natali Fani-Gonzalez and Emily Shetty, all Democrats.

The primary election will be held June 24, with the general election scheduled for Nov. 4. pmcewan@gazette.net

Election board fines Gutierrez State candidates not allowed to raise money during legislative session n

BY

ANDREW SCHOTZ STAFF WRITER

The Maryland State Board of Elections has fined five candidates — including one from Montgomery County — for fundraising during a prohibited period.

State elected officials — legislators, the governor, the lieutenant governor, the attorney general and the comptroller — are not allowed to raise money during the 90-day Maryland General Assembly session.

County and municipal

1912278

1910682

1884521

officials are not subject to the ban, even if they are attached to a prohibited candidate on a gubernatorial ticket.

Democratic Del. Ana Sol Gutierrez (D-Dist. 18) of Chevy Chase was among those who were fined.

Jared DeMarinis, the director of the election board’s Candidacy and Campaign Finance Division, said Gutierrez was fined $500. He said she had a fundraising solicitation message posted on a campaign website. During the ban period, that message is not allowed. Gutierrez is running for a fourth term as a House of Delegates member representing District 18.

DeMarinis said he didn’t think Gutierrez took in

money through that solicitation; if so, she would have had to return it.

The board also fined Harford County Executive David R. Craig, a Republican gubernatorial candidate, and his running mate, Del. Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio, $1,000 apiece for a fundraising message with both of their names on it. The mention of Haddaway-Riccio (R-Dist. 37B) of Newcomb, who is subject to the ban, triggered the violation.

Del. Barbara A. Robinson (D-Dist. 40) of Baltimore and Del. Glen Glass (R-Dist. 34A) of Aberdeen were fined $250 apiece for separate violations, DeMarinis said. aschotz@gazette.net

THE GAZETTE

Wednesday, March 12, 2014 s

Page A-9

Shock awaits utility customers Teacher of the Year finalists selected who opt out of smart meters Gaithersburg, Rockville and Poolesville teachers recognized

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Companies can charge upfront, monthly fees to customers BY

BY KIRSTEN PETERSEN SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE

MARGIE HYSLOP

SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE

Some Pepco customers are alarmed by Maryland regulators’ decision to let utilities charge them extra fees totaling more than $200 in the first year for refusing to have a smart meter installed on their homes.

Pepco, Baltimore Gas and Electric, Delmarva Power and Light and Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative are installing the digital meters, which transmit usage and other data through radio waves.

The Maryland Public Service Commission issued an order late February allowing those utilities to charge household and small commercial customers a onetime $75 fee, plus monthly fees, for opting not to have one of the “advanced” meters.

The meters have been controversial because of concerns over low-level radiation they emit, data security and privacy, and reports that some meter models have overheated and caused fires.

The service commission set monthly fees at $14 for Pepco customers, $11 for BGE customers and $17 for SMECO and DPL customers.

Pepco proposes $58 a month

large fees have been attached, and that they “are not going to be able to afford it.”

The notification process has had glitches, noted Milstein, who founded the group Powerupmontco to push for more reliable electric service.

Last year, Pepco sent installers to replace some analog meters with smart meters without notifying those customers in advance by letter, as the commission had ordered.

Pepco officials said March 5 that the utility had not counted how many customers have withdrawn their opt-out requests since the commission announced the fees Feb. 26.

“It’s too early to have any official numbers as we are still working through how to handle the new process,” Pepco spokesman Bob Hainey wrote in an emailed response.

Pepco delivers electricity to about 540,000 customers in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties and to 259,000 customers throughout Washington, D.C. From Montgomery Pepco has gotten 1,796 opt-out requests and from Prince George’s 439 and 99 percent of Pepco’s smart meter installation in the Maryland counties is complete, Hainey reported.

Costs of maintaining two billing systems Utilities have said it costs more to maintain two billing systems and to continue sending people out to read meters.

They also said some operational efficiencies are lost when customers don’t use smart meters.

The Public Service Commission order calls for utilities to track and report costs incurred by serving customers without smart meters so that the commission can review and adjust the charges if warranted. Since

the order was issued, the Commission estimates that it has received several dozen phone calls, e-mails, and letters from consumers, some voicing opposition and some seeking more information about the order, spokeswoman Regina L. Davis said.

PSC Commissioner Harold D. Williams wrote a dissenting opinion in which he noted that Vermont did not let utilities charge opt-out fees. Actual costs should be assessed when they are known and considered in rate hearings, Williams wrote.

Other commissioners said their decision is similar those made in other states, including California, Florida and Illinois.

Smart meters have been touted for their ability to notify utilities of outages and for the potential to help customers track and manage their electricity use.

So far the meters’ automated features have helped Pepco restore service faster and reduced the need to dispatch restoration crews by 10 percent, Hainey said.

Legislation is being considered in the Maryland Senate and House that would prohibit utilities from charging fees based on a customer’s choice of a smart or analog meter and that would prohibit disclosing data to a third party without the customer’s written consent — except for billing and to support “customer choice — and would penalize utilities for violations.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 37 million smart meters had been installed in the United States by 2011.

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shooting hoops with students in the morning or taking students out to play laser tag on a Friday afternoon.

“We are just overjoyed that he has been selected. He’s an extremely hardworking young man and he is so dedicated to the kids,” OuYang said.

OuYang said that during a promotion ceremony for the eighth-graders, the student speaker paused to recognize Shin.

“He said, ‘Mr. Shin, no words are appropriate. We just know that he loves us.’ The entire class gave him a standing ovation,” OuYang said. “I can’t give you the words for it. The kids can do it better.”

Shin said he has received praise from both students and parents and that his selection as a finalist is a victory for Parkland as well.

“I feel like it’s a community win and I’m honored and humbled to represent the community and the Parkland family,” Shin said.

The Marian Greenblatt Education Fund, which selects the finalists for the MCPS Teacher of the Year award, recognizes educators whose achievements continue the legacy of Marian Greenblatt, a member of the Board of Education from 1976 to 1984 who worked to improve academic standards for MCPS students.

Marshal Greenblatt, the president and founder of the Veteran Teacher Award, said that the fund recognizes teachers because of their impact in the classroom and beyond.

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According to the commission, Pepco and DPL (both owned by Pepco Holdings) had proposed charging customers $58 per month, BGE had proposed charging $15 per month and SMECO had proposed charging $34.94 per month.

All four utilities had proposed an up-front fee of about $100 for refusing the smart meters, according to a commission announcement of the decision.

Opt-out customers are to be billed on the first billing cycle after July 1 and may pay the upfront $75 fee in three monthly installments.

Customers who opted not to have a smart meter installed while they waited for the commission’s decision, are to be notified of the decision within 60 days by their utility, according to the Feb. 26 order.

Utilities are allowed to bill those customers who don’t withdraw their temporary optout requests. The opt-out requests were first allowed by the commission under a May 2012 order.

Abbe Milstein of Rockville said she is worried that some customers who chose not to have a smart meter installed while awaiting the Public Service Commission’s decision will be billed without knowing that

PHOTO RICK GIAMMARIA/COURTESY OF PEPCO HOLDINGS, INC

Electric customers face an upfront cost and monthly fees if they opt not to have a smart meter installed on their home.

Teachers from Poolesville, Gaithersburg and Rockville are all in the running for the county’s top spot as 2014-2015 Teacher of the Year.

Montgomery County Public Schools named the three finalists Friday — Kathryn Hageman, a fifth-grade teacher at Diamond Elementary School in Gaithersburg; Jane Lindsay, an eighth-grade English teacher at John Poole Middle School in Poolesville; and Aaron Shin, an eighth-grade U.S. history teacher at Parkland Middle School in Rockville.

Hageman, Lindsay and Shin are each recipients of the Veteran Teacher Award, a recognition by the Marian Greenblatt Education Fund for Montgomery County educators with five or more years of teaching experience. Recipients of the Veteran Teacher Award receive a prize of $1,000 and are then considered for the Teacher of the Year award.

The winner of the award will be chosen by the Montgomery County Business Roundtable for Education, a nonprofit that brings together business leaders and educators to find solutions to leadership challenges and prepare students for careers. The award recipient will be named during the Champions for Children Awards Celebration at the BlackRock Center for the Arts in Germantown April 29.

Carol Lange, the principal of Diamond Elementary School, said Hageman, who has been teaching for seven years, is a team leader who has consistently helpedherstudentsachievepositive results.

“She’s very creative. She’s a very, very engaging teacher and she just does a very outstanding job all-around,” Lange said.

Lange recalled a STEM project Hageman created that challenged fifth-graders to build a scale model of a doghouse for Clifford the Big Red Dog using only straws and Scotch tape.

“She has that kind of imagination,” Lange said. “She has that commitment to all of her students and then provides extra support for the students who need it. She’s an all-around outstanding educator.”

Hageman, who is on maternity leave, was not available for comment.

Charlotte Boucher, the principal of John Poole Middle School, said Lindsay has “tremendous strength as a leader” and deserves this recognition.

“She’s one of the all-time best teachers I have ever worked with,” Boucher said. “She has en-

ergy and focus and intense content knowledge and empathy for children that is not paralleled. We are all proud of her.”

Lindsay, who has worked for MCPS for more than 20 years, is extremely supportive of students, Boucher said, even going out to Baltimore to see one of her students participate in the Maryland Geography Bee. “I think the entire staff was delighted to see this recognition and the only possible exception was Mrs. Lindsay herself,” Boucher said. “She is self-effacing and she is ready to honor someone else before stepping up herself.”

Lindsay said she had no idea she had been nominated for the Veteran Teacher Award and the educators who nominated her kept it a secret.

“It was one of the rare times in my life when I was completely surprised, completely floored and completely speechless,” Lindsay said. “It was wonderful.”

Lindsay said the Veteran Teacher Award should not belong to one person but rather the entire school community.

“I am so deeply honored to receive this award and I feel very strongly that the award belongs to John Poole Middle School as a whole,” Lindsay said. “Without a supportive administration, a clean, safe building and a group of educators here who are all working for the good of the kids I don’t think I could be as strong of a teacher.”

Benjamin OuYang, the principal of Parkland Middle School, said Shin goes above and beyond his responsibilities as a teacher,

THE GAZETTE

Page A-10

GREEN

Continued from Page A-1 owned by Montgomery County that houses Shepherd’s Table.

The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission analyzed each space for potential users, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges.

Parking Lot 3 and the Giant parking lot have Fenton Village residents, employees, Metro users and visitors as potential users. Some of the challenges for both spaces are the need of parking during construction and the financial investment required.

Parking Lot 3 is part of the Studio Plaza project, a 5-acre mixed-use development project planned for downtown Silver Spring. It will feature 415 rental apartments, more than 10,000 square feet of retail space, a large public green space and an underground county parking garage.

According to Marcolin, the green space on Parking Lot 3 should be ready for community use in two years.

A date has not been established for the other two potential spaces.

Marcolin did not information on the cost of maintaining parks.

311

Continued from Page A-1 Montgomery area, the call volume increases. Mitchell said he always is prepared to stay later.

During a snowstorm in early February, “I volunteered to stay overnight ...,” Mitchell said.

“It was the first time I did that since the derecho storm in 2012.

I always have a blanket and a change of clothes in my car, just in case anything happens.”

Even with all of the training for common inquiries and the help of a state-of-the-art database, customer service reps sometimes field calls they aren’t necessarily prepared to answer.

“There was this one guy who wanted to go out and walk his goat,” Mitchell said. “So he called and asked if it was legal for citizens to own a goat in the

Land surrounding Progress Place would be used by future residents of the Ripley District and shoppers at surrounding retail spots. The challenge for this space is there is only one access point from Georgia Avenue.

Marcolin said green spaces must feel “separate but not separate,” so residents feel safe while spending time in the area.

Montgomery County Councilman Hans Riemer (DAt Large) spoke about a shortage of green spaces in Silver Spring.

He talked about the idea of having a Silver Spring “Central Park” at the triangular area on Ramsey Avenue, Wayne Avenue and Colesville Road, next to the Silver Spring Transit Center. That land is owned by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority and the county. That area is 5.65 acres.

Marcolin said the transit center may not be perceived as a place to “hang out” because once it opens, there will be a lot of pedestrian and vehicle traffic.

“It can become that way, but it [has] got to be well-designed,” Marcolin said.

He added: “It is going to take some work to make it work.” abarros@gazette.net county.”

Mitchell said one of the joys of the job is learning about the county, its government and how all of the departments work. He found the answer with relative ease.

“It is actually legal for someone to have a goat in Montgomery County,” he said. “Just as long as they are not making a profit off it, like giving kids rides or selling its milk, it is legal to own a goat.”

Cornelius Lungociu, a customer service rep since the launch, will never forget one call he received when he started.

“I had one person call to tell me that workers who were excavating a piece of land near his house were releasing ghosts from the ground and felt the county government should do something about it,” he said.

“I first asked if it was a ceme-

PROJECTS

Continued from Page A-1 each delegate generally pushes for the projects in the districts they represent.

Lawmakers spent all day

DISCUSSIONS

Continued from Page A-1 that will include a mix of state and federal money.

Branson said Monday that in meeting with community members, she’s sensed worries that residents’ concerns won’t be heard. The best way to re-

DAN GROSS/THE GAZETTE

Wilber Medina, 18, does tricks in the skateboard park that is part of Woodside Park in Silver Spring on Feb. 27. He and friends shoveled snow from the area so they could use the park.

DAN GROSS/THE GAZETTE

Claudia Palacios has worked at the Montgomery County 311 call center since July 2013. tery,” Lungociu continued. “But the caller said no, it was just a lot.”

Uncertain how to respond, Lungociu told the concerned

Saturday and Monday morning listening to requests.

“It’s an open process and it’s a fair process,” Del. Craig J. Zucker said.

“Each organization gets to come to Annapolis and demonstrate the need for their project. It’s a great opportu-

solve that is to have a formal process for concerns to be aired, she said.

County spokesman Patrick Lacefield said Leggett has been meeting with a number of groups about the project. “We’re certainly happy to expand that effort,” Lacefield said.

Alan Bowser, president of Park Hills Civic Association in

Professional Services

Wednesday, March 12, 2014 s

caller that he would see what he could do, but if the workers had permits, it was not likely they were doing anything wrong.

Customer service rep Uriel

nity for the state to help invest in the community.”

Zucker (D-Dist. 14) of Brookeville said all of the Montgomery projects are connected to lawmakers making the requests, but the project at Strathmore is a priority for the county and

Silver Spring, said he appreciates the interest of both council members and hopes the letter reinforces the consistent support members of the community have been getting from the Montgomery County Department of Transportation and Leggett.

“We hope that their interest will be reinforced by the state delegations,” said Bowser adding that residents want the best possible light-rail system, but

“should be a priority for the state.”

“I hope it gets the funding it needs to make the needed renovations,” he said.

Members of the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee and House Appropriations Committee will pick which

want to have a transparent dialogue between community representatives, Maryland Transit Administration officials and contractors.

Until final drawings and plans for the project are released, people will be naturally apprehensive about how change will affect them, Branson said.

The letter asks Leggett to make the Coalition of Purple Line Neighborhoods an executiveappointed task force that would

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Guadamuz of Silver Spring said he has received some out-ofthe-ordinary calls.

“During Hurricane Irene, someone called at 3 a.m. to see if it was safe to go out for a jog,” Guadamuz said. “I told him of course not, and that county officials did not say the storm had passed yet. So I advised him to stay inside until the storm was officially over.”

He said he once received a call from someone who just wanted to know what time it was.

“The job is always changing,” Guadamuz said. “You never know for sure what you will get on any given day.”

MC311 boasts that almost all calls are answered by a live representative within 20 seconds. A customer service rep who cannot answer a question transfers the call to a person or office that can.

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projects to recommend for funding during the next few weeks as they finalize the capital budget.

The budget then goes to the House and the Senate for votes. kalexander@gazette.net

work with the Maryland Transit Administration and county’s Department of Transportation as the project moves forward.

It also asks him to chair a meeting of the new task force with the two councilmembers, the state senators from districts 18 and 20 and representatives from the agencies handling the project to address community concerns.

Mary Anne Hoffman works with the coalition on behalf of the Town of Chevy Chase, one of 15 communities that are part of the coalition. She said the communities have been talking to the Maryland Transit Administration about mitigation for more than four years, and now they want solid commitments from the state on measures like noise walls and safe pedestrian crossings to lessen the negative impact of running a rail line through town.

“If the Purple Line is built, we all want it to be success-

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A recent report by the county’s Office of Legislative Oversight showed that MC311 is as efficient in helping Spanish-speaking callers as it is with those who speak English.

All calls are recorded and stored in a database that is easily accessible by the county’s departments. The stored data lets county officials see where calls are coming from and why.

MC311 handles calls for: • Department of Transportation’s Highway Services and Transit Information • Department of Health and Human Services • Department of Permitting Services • Department of Finance • Department of Environmental Protection’s Solid Waste Services • The Office of the County Executive’s information line.

ful,” Hoffman said, but success doesn’t just mean operating efficiently and having good ridership numbers and a healthy bottom line.

“Success should also mean that the Purple Line is a good neighbor, because it cares about its impact on the communities,” she said.

In Chevy Chase, Hoffman said, people want to see a gradeseparated crossing near Lynn Drive where some students cross the route on their way to Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School.

“We hope to be part of the design and construction process going forward,” she said.

Staff writers Aline Barros and Elizabeth Waibel contributed to this report. abarros@gazette.net rmarshall@gazette.net ewaibel@gazette.net

T H E G AZ ET T E

Wednesday, March 12, 2014 s

Page A-11

BUSINESS

Fate of Woods tournament in members’ hands BizBriefs Have a new business in Montgomery County? Let us know about it at www.gazette.net/ newbusinessform

Montgomery officials hope event continues in county

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BY

KEVIN JAMES SHAY

Home cleaning service franchise opens

STAFF WRITER

The AT&T National golf tournament has helped pump millions of dollars into local hotels, restaurants and shops since the annual event began at Bethesda’s Congressional Country Club in 2007.

But some members of the 90-yearold private club — whose past members have included Presidents Woodrow Wilson, Dwight Eisenhower and Gerald Ford and business tycoons John D. Rockefeller and William Randolph Hearst — are not sold on the tournament. They have not appreciated that it cuts into their playing time and use of other facilities, such as swimming pools and a tennis club, for several weeks each summer.

Members pay $100,000 or more in initiation fees alone.

As the tournament, which benefits the Tiger Woods Foundation, is in the last year of its contract at Congressional, members are voting through March 31 on a compromise proposal: The event could be played there in 2016, 2018 and 2020 and move to an unspecified venue in 2015, 2017 and 2019.

Montgomery County officials hope the event can continue at Congressional and perhaps another local course in alternate years.

“We made it clear that we want to continue to do this tournament,” said Steven A. Silverman, director of the county’s Department of Economic Development. “But, ultimately, the membership will decide if they want to continue doing it.”

The Tiger Woods Foundation “worked with the board and membership at Congressional Country Club to find a contract extension that works best for the club,” Gregory McLaughlin, foundation president and CEO, said in a statement. “If they approve the current proposal, we are evaluating a variety of local and regional alternatives for the other years.”

One other Montgomery possibility is TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm, Silverman said. The course, formerly called TPC Avenel, was a regular stop on the PGA Tour for more than a decade and last hosted the Booz Allen Classic in

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Tim Floyd has opened Molly Maid of North Rockville, a franchise of a national residential cleaning service.

The business is at 19638 Club House Road, Suite 215, Montgomery Village. Its phone number is 301-944-5650. The website is mollymaid.com/ local-house-cleaning/md/ north-rockville.aspx.

Therapist opens counseling practice in Rockville

2013 FILE PHOTO

Spectators line the ropes near the first tee at last year’s AT&T National Golf Tournament in Bethesda.

2006.

The Aronimink Golf Club near Philadelphia is another possibility for Woods’ tournament. The AT&T National moved there in 2010 and 2011 while Congressional prepared for and hosted the 2011 U.S. Open.

Kelly Groff, president and CEO of the Conference and Visitors Bureau of Montgomery County, said she could live with having the event in alternate years.

But a decision would be helpful as early as possible, she said.

“Advanced notice can really help us in promoting the event,” Groff said.

Joanne Rashbaum — who has volunteered during the golf tournament since it started at Congressional in 2007, except for the years the event was at Aronimink — said she hoped the event could remain in the area. “I plan to volunteer again this year.”

Quicken Loans next title sponsor?

Quicken Loans of Detroit could

become the next title sponsor of the tournament, according to an Associated Press report. The company is title sponsor of NASCAR Sprint Cup races in Michigan and Phoenix this year.

Dan Gilbert, majority owner of the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers, is the chairman and founder of Quicken Loans, the nation’s largest online retail mortgage lender. Last year, the company closed a record $80 billion worth of home loans, up from about $70 billion in 2012 and $30 billion in 2011.

AT&T of Dallas did not plan to renew its title sponsorship of the Congressional tournament after its contract ends this year, according to the AP report.

Mark Siegel, an AT&T spokesman, declined to comment on the sponsorship.

Emily Taylor, a spokeswoman for Woods’ foundation, said the organization had “nothing to announce” yet about a potential new title sponsor.

This year’s tournament is slated for June 23-29.

Woods won the event in 2009 and

2012. Last year, Woods pulled out due to an injury, and former Wake Forest All-American Bill Haas won the tournament.

The 2009 event saw its highest weeklong attendance, with about 194,000 spectators, and generated an estimated $29.1 million in direct and indirect spending in the county, according to a study commissioned by the county’s economic development department.

McLaughlin is in the process of leaving after 14 years of leading the foundation to take an executive position with the PGA Tour. A national search is underway for a new CEO, and McLaughlin is assisting with the transition, Taylor said.

“I’ve been close with Tiger and his family for more than 20 years,” McLaughlin said. “Although I will remain involved with the Tiger Woods Foundation, I am looking forward to joining the PGA Tour and expanding on my 25 years in golf.” kshay@gazette.net

Amy Craig-Van Grack, a licensed clinical social worker, has opened a new psychotherapy practice in Rockville — Best Practice Counseling & Consulting.

The practice promotes “growth, healing, and personal excellence by providing effective psychotherapy services to individuals, couples, children, and families,” according to a statement from Craig-Van Grack.

The practice is at 1680 E. Gude Drive, Suite 112, Rockville.

It is open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday. It accepts Medicaid and some other insurance.

The phone number is 240483-3873. The website is amycraigvangrack.com.

Potbelly opens Germantown location Potbelly Sandwich Shop opened Feb. 18 in Germantown.

The new restaurant is at 20940 Frederick Road. Its phone number is 240-499-7850. Potbelly is open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.

THE GAZETTE

Page A-12

Wednesday, March 12, 2014 s

SCHOOL LIFE Mock trial lets students learn government, law and self-confidence Young advocates sharpen skills by arguing both sides

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BY

PEGGY MCEWAN STAFF WRITER

The verdict: The mock trial competition has no losers.

High school students learn to look at both sides of an issue, make coherent arguments, show respect for each other and learn about the law, said Daniel Evans, one of Montgomery County’s most successful mock trial coaches.

“I think it also goes over into other [academic] areas,” Evans said.

In mock trial, students argue legal cases using authentic courtroom procedure, trying to win on the professionalism of their presentations and knowledge of relevant points of law.

Evans has coached for 25 years. He was assigned the job when he was hired at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, he said.

“I got into the activity and really got immersed in it,” he said.

Early in his career, Evans worked with Rockville lawyer Ben Vaughan, who volunteers with the Richard Montgomery team each season as they begin to study the case they will argue.

Since then, Evans said, his teams have won 16 county championships and the state competition twice.

Twenty-two teams from public and

private schools in Montgomery County participate in mock trial. Each school fields two teams of six people: three lawyers and three witnesses for each side, prosecution and defense.

Teams compete four times during the trial season, which runs January through March. Twice, they argue as the prosecution; twice for the defense.

They use the same case all season.

In the hypothetical 2014 case — plaintiff Chris Williams v. defendants Swathmore Pavilion Inc., et al. — Williams is asking for “relief” because of a permanent physical injury she suffered at the hand of security guards during a concert at Swathmore Pavilion. The case was created for the Citizenship Law Related Education Program, which administers the mock trial program.

The top 12 winning schools at the end of the regular season enter the county tournament, which eventually determines a championship team to compete in the state finals.

The Montgomery County champion will be determined Tuesday.

“The great part of this program is it mimics real life for the kids,” Scott Zanni, a teacher at Col. Zadok Magruder High School in Rockville and mock trial coordinator for Montgomery County.

“It’s as realistic as possible without being a real trial.”

Team members have the same role throughout the trial season.

Tahira Ismail, 16, a junior at Quince

DAN GROSS/THE GAZETTE

Richard Montgomery High’s Nathan Poland (standing) presents evidence to an “expert witness” during a mock trial Thursday against Quince Orchard High School.

Orchard High School in Gaithersburg, plays a character named Ryan Dempsey, a witness for the defense. Her team countered the prosecution put on by students from Richard Montgomery in the opening round of this year’s tournament Thursday at the Montgomery County Judicial Center in Rockville.

Four trials took place that night, all presided over by lawyers volunteering to judge the presentations.

Tahira said she started rehearsing

for her role in early January, reading the case and trying to pull out information she needed to know to be a believable witness.

“It’s really fun to get the experience of being in a mock courtroom,” she said, “The judges are real lawyers and they give you good feedback.”

E. Joseph Fitzpatrick, a lawyer with offices in Gaithersburg, presided over the Richard Montgomery/Quince Orchard mock trial.

Students can receive up to five points apiece from the presiding “judge” for their performance as witnesses and lawyers and up to five points for questioning witnesses and cross examination.

Teams also get scored on their opening and closing arguments and courtroom decorum.

Richard Montgomery won Thursday’s match, 52-49, to advance to the quarterfinals.

At the end of the trial, Fitzpatrick offered tips for future success to the students.

A few were points of courtroom etiquette, such as standing when speaking. He also reminded the students to make eye contact with the judge and witnesses during their presentations and to speak from memory rather than read what they prepared.

“It’s about storytelling,” he said. “A true story, but, as a lawyer, you are telling a story to people who don’t know it.

Speak from your heart.”

Quince Orchard coach Karen Jones, who has been with mock trial for five years, said in an email that mock trial helps students improve their communication skills and build confidence.

“I think it is an amazing experience for the kids,” she said. “...The poise and maturity these kids show at the trials always amazes me.” pmcewan@gazette.net

EDUCATION NOTEBOOK Fair features young scientists’ knowledge One hundred students with 75 projects showcased their scientific experiments at the annual science fair on Feb. 21 at Rosemont Elementary School in Gaithersburg.

Career scientists from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, plus science teacher and even Gaithersburg Mayor Sidney Katz and City Councilman Michael Sesma, himself a neuroscientist at NIH, visited the fair as “con-

sultants,” interacting with the students and providing feedback on their exhibits.

Many of them were recruited by David White, the fair’s coordinator and a scientist at the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

White puts in time with the students before the fair, getting to the school as often as he can to help the students with ideas for their projects.

“There is no question that this kind of event is extremely valuable to the kids,” White wrote in an email. “This is the first opportunity for many, if not all, of the students to par-

ticipate in an exercise where they have a chance to formally explore a topic or question critically and to answer it using the scientific method.”

Second-grade twins Neve and Brenden Norris, 7, both entered experiments in the fair.

“It was fun,” Neve said. “I did electrophorus,” which is a way to create an electrostatic charge.

“I learned that if you are sitting on wood, you don’t get a shock,” she said. “My friend was sitting on a wood chair and she didn’t get a shock. I was standing up and I did.”

Brenden was not available to

speak about his experiment but Neve said her brother “tried to make a magnet with a battery.”

It worked, she said.

Their mother, PTA board member Gail Norris, said the PTA sponsors the fair each year, helped by a grant from New England Biolabs, which enables the PTA to purchase display boards for all the entrants so student participation is not limited by financial concerns. The PTA also offers an after-school science program with help from the grant. This year it is offering an eight-week program called Big Learning Science and Engineering.

MARGARITA SERRANO

First-grader Andrew Smith (left) looks on as fifth-grader Logan Chancey explains his science project, “Which Fruit Makes the Best Fruit Battery,” at a science fair Feb. 21 at Rosemont Elementary School in Gaithersburg.

OVERCROWDED SCHOOLS Little Bennett Elementary School

CLARKSBURG

n Each week, The Gazette will feature a county school by the numbers, giving a glimpse at how local schools are dealing with overcrowded conditions.

Number of students:

986

Current student capacity:

Number of students over capacity:

Percent over capacity:

673 313 46.5 23.4 25.9 27.5

Number of school’s portable classrooms:

(Kindergarten through 5th grade)

School’s average class size:

MCPS average class size:

Kindergarten

PRINCIPAL’S

TAKE

Grades 1 to 3

Grades 4 and 5

Total MCPS portable classrooms:

Student/ instructional staff ratio:

8 338 16.5 19.6 20.7 24

Kindergarten

Grades 1 to 3

Grades 4 and 5

MCPS average elementary school student/ instructional staff ratio:

11

2006 Year school was built None Year of last renovation/modernization

Little Bennett Principal Shawn Miller said the school has felt the effects of population growth in the Clarksburg area. With close to 1,000 students, the school needs to include a threehour lunch block each day that starts at 10:40 a.m. so all the children have time to eat. The building is also prone to “hallway traffic jams,” he said. “We’ve had to establish walking routes for different classes during different times of the day.” Other concerns and challenges, he said, include limited parking for events and back-to-school nights, security for students in portable classrooms and a small place space. Miller said it will be “bittersweet” to lose some of the school’s families next year when about 300 students that now attend Little Bennett are assigned to a new Clarksburg elementary school. But, he said, “I think in the long run it will be better for everyone that our school stays at about capacity.”

DATA FOR 2013-14 SCHOOL YEAR SOURCE: MONTGOMERY COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS

1910881

1905558

1910695

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CELEBRATIONS

Norfolk, Meekin

Miller, Smith Dereck Smith, son of Jean and Joseph Smith of Tiffin, Ohio, and Erin Miller, daughter of Patricia Wojcik and step-daughter of Thomas Wojcik of Mount Airy, are to be married on May 24, 2014, at Mother Seton Parish in Germantown.

Mary and Steve Norfolk of Olney announce the engagement of their daughter, Megan Marie Norfolk, to James Wilson Meekin, son of Toni and John Meekin of Rockville.

The bride-to-be graduated from Sherwood High School in 2004.

She is a graduate of McDaniel College with a bachelor’s degree in exercise physiology. Megan received her Physical Therapist Assistant license after graduating from Carroll Community College in 2010. She is currently employed by MedStar National Rehab Network in Chevy Chase.

The prospective groom graduated from Our Lady of Good Counsel High School in 2005. He is a graduate of the University of Maryland with a bachelor’s degree in construction management. James is the president of a general contracting company, HRG Contracting, located in Rockville.

The couple currently resides in Rockville and the wedding is planned for Oct. 4, 2014, in Bethesda.

Get Your Back on Track, from 1-2 p.m. at Friendship Heights Community Center, 4433 South Park Ave., Chevy Chase. The latest technology of minimally invasive procedures lends to a shorter hospital stay, smaller incision and a return to work and daily activities much sooner. Dr. Quoc-Anh Thai, neurosurgeon from Johns Hopkins, will dissect many causes of back and neck pain covering herniated discs, spasms and spinal stenosis.

Free. www.suburbanhospital.org.

THURSDAY, MARCH 13 Untangling the Mind: Why We Behave the Way We Do, 1:15-2:15

p.m. at the Holiday Park Community Center, 3950 Ferrara Drive, Wheaton.

Suburban Hospital psychiatrist and physician, Dr. Ted George describes in his book, “Untangling the Mind,” how the brain translates sensory signals into emotions whether it is anger, fear, or depression and why. In this seminar, you will learn about your psychological and neurological makeup and begin to see new possibilities for optimism, motivation, and well-being.

Free. www.suburbanhospital.org.

SATURDAY, MARCH 15 AARP Smart Driver Course, from

9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Suburban Hospital, 8600 Old Georgetown Road, Bethesda. Learn defensive driving

PLACING AN ANNOUNCEMENT

techniques, new traffic laws and the rules of the road. Appropriate for drivers age 50 and older. The fee, due at the class, is $15 for members, $20 for nonmembers; checks are to be made out to AARP. Bring driver’s license and a ballpoint pen. To register, call 301-896-3939. www.suburbanhospital.org.

SUNDAY. MARCH 16 Childbirth Express at MedStar Montgomery, 1-5 p.m. at MedStar

Montgomery Medical Center, 18101 Prince Philip Drive, Olney. Condensed program will prepare couples for their labor and birth experience.

Class is presented in lecture/video format. Hospital tour included. $75. www.medstarhealth.org.

SATURDAY, MARCH 22 CPR and AED at MedStar Montgomery, 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Med-

Star Montgomery Medical Center, 18101 Prince Philip Drive, Olney.

The Heartsaver class teaches basic CPR, rescue breathing, and relief of choking for adults, infants and children and Automated External Defibrillator use. After successful completion, the student will receive a Heartsaver AED card from the American Heart Association. Class is for the lay community and is not adequate for individuals who have or will have patient care responsibilities. $80. www.medstarhealth.org.

Mr. and Mrs. Richard Stewart of Germantown announce the engagement of their daughter, Jessica Leigh Stewart, to Brian Paul Ostry, son of Walter and Sandra Ostry of Pittsburgh.

Brian is the proud dad of Madison and Logan Ostry. Both Jessica and Brian are teachers in MCPS. The couple got engaged in Pittsburgh on Mount Washington overlooking the city. An August wedding is being planned on Castaway Cay, a Disney Island in the Bahamas.

RELIGION CALENDAR

HEALTH CALENDAR WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12

Stewart, Ostry

UPCOMING Chabad of Upper Montgomery County, MD, 11520 Darnestown Road, Gaithersburg, will be offering the following Purim services: March 13, The Fast of Esther, Shacharit at 7:15 a.m., Mincha/Maariv at 6:45 p.m.; March 15, Red Carpet Masquerade at 8:30 p.m.; March 16, Purim, Shacharit at 8 a.m., followed by Megillah reading at 8:45 a.m., Kids Got Talent Showcase at 10 a.m., Purim Under Raps featuring Jewish hip-hop and rap by Ari Lesser, freshly grilled wraps, Purim desserts, traditional reading of the Megillah at 4 p.m. (charge for Purim Under Raps is $20 per adult, $10 per child (ages 3-12), $50 per family), 301-926-3632, info@ OurShul.org, www.OurShul.org/Purim2014.

Concord-St. Andrew’s United Methodist Church, 5910 Goldsboro Road, Bethesda,

will present a special Lenten Sermon Series to April 13 (Palm Sunday) based on Adam Hamilton’s book, “24 Hours That Changed the World.” Based on the author’s travels in the Holy Land and other sources, the book helps readers experience the final day of Jesus’ life and understand it’s significance.

Sunday service starts at 10 a.m. www.csachurch.com.

The Shiloh Baptist Church of Landover, 8801 Ardwick Ardmore Road, Landover, will present the full stage play, “It Is Finished,” at 7 p.m. Friday, April 18. Admission is free. www.shilohbc.org.

ONGOING Agape African Methodist Episcopal Church, 7700 Brink Road, Gaithersburg, con-

ducts Sunday morning worship service at 11

a.m. Sunday School is at 10 a.m. Communion celebration on first Sundays, men leading worship on second Sundays, youth leading worship on third Sundays. “You’ll Get Through This” Bible Study from 7-8 p.m. Wednesdays.

301-924-8640; www.agapeamec.org.

Damascus United Methodist Church, 9700 New Church St., Damascus, offers traditional Sunday morning worship services at 8:15 a.m., a youth contemporary worship service at 9:30 a.m. and a service of liturgy and the word at 11 a.m. with Sunday school at 9:30 a.m. for all ages during the school year. www.damascusumc.org.

Emmanuel Lutheran Church, 7730 Bradley Boulevard, Bethesda, offers services at 8:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. each Sunday, with Sunday School for all ages scheduled at 10 a.m. Child care is offered from 8:15 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. A fellowship and coffee hour follows the 8:30 a.m. service. 301-365-5733, www.elcbethesda.org.

Geneva Presbyterian Church, 11931 Seven Locks Road, Potomac, offers potluck lunches at 11:30 a.m. the second Sunday of each month. There is no fee to attend. All are welcome to bring a dish to share; those not bringing dishes are also welcome. Call 301-424-4346.

Kemptown United Methodist Church, 3716 Kemptown Church Road, Monrovia, conducts a contemporary service at 8 a.m. followed by a traditional service at 9:30 a.m.

Sunday mornings, with children’s Sunday school at 9:30 a.m. and adult Sunday school at 11 a.m. For more information, call 301253-1768. Visit www.kemptownumc.org.

Liberty Grove United Methodist Church, 15225 Old Columbia Pike, Burtonsville, conducts Sunday morning worship services at

8:30, 9:30 and 11 a.m. Sunday school, nursery through adult, is at 9:30 a.m. 301-4219166. For a schedule of events, visit www. libertygrovechurch.org.

“MOPS,” a faith-based support group for mothers of children, birth through kindergarten, meets from 9-11:30 a.m. the first and third Wednesdays of the month at the Frederick Church of the Brethren, 201 Fairview Drive, Frederick. Child care is provided. For more information call 301-662-1819. Email mops@fcob.net.

Neelsville Presbyterian Church, 20701 Frederick Road, Germantown, offers services at 8:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Sunday mornings, with Sunday School for all ages at 9:40 a.m. Neelsville Presbyterian Church announces a new preschool partnership.

Damascus Community Preschool is moving to Neelsville Presbyterian, 20701 Frederick Road, Germantown. Classes to begin in the fall. For sign-up and other information, www.neelsville.org/#/preschool-grandopeningProvidence.

Trinity Lutheran Church, 11200 Old Georgetown Road, North Bethesda, conducts services every Sunday, with child care from 8 a.m. to noon and fellowship and a coffee hour following each service. 301-8817275. For a schedule of events, visit www.

TrinityELCA.org.

“Healing for the Nations,” 7 p.m. every first and third Saturday of the month at South Lake Elementary School, 18201 Contour Road, Gaithersburg. Sponsored by King of the Nations Christian Fellowship, the outreach church service is open to all who are looking for hope in this uncertain world.

Prayer for healing available. Translation into Spanish and French. Visit www.kncf.org.

The Gazette prints engagement and wedding announcements, with color photographs, at no charge, as a community service. Copy should be limited to 150 words and submitted in paragraph form.

Announcements are subject to editing for space. Please include contact information, including a daytime telephone number. Photos should be professional quality. If emailing photos, file size should be a minimum of 500 KB. Wedding announcements should be submitted no later than 12 months after the wedding. Send to: The Gazette, 9030 Comprint Court, Gaithersburg, MD 20877, or email kgroff@gazette.net. Montgomery County celebrations are inserted into all Montgomery County editions.

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The Gazette OUROPINIONS

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Wednesday, March 12, 2014

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Steady school funds, not horse trading Montgomery County’s delegation to Annapolis has proposed that because of its size and needs, the county should have a regular flow of school construction dollars from the state.

Bills introduced by Del. Anne Kaiser and Sen. Nancy King would guarantee an annual allotment, so county leaders can leverage the money on the bond market. With regular payments, Montgomery could turn tens of millions into hundreds of millions, then convert money into classrooms.

King’s bill targets fast-growth counties. Kaiser’s would specifically benefit Montgomery, Baltimore and Prince George’s counties.

You can argue that the state needs to pony up to the largest jurisdictions, so they can make sure there’s a seat for every student. That’s a nice logic that one anyone can understand.

But the real reason why either bill should pass is that the legislature needs to take politics out of school construction funds. Schools have become the benchmark by which we measure the effectiveness of our politicians. You can predict the number of an incumbent’s challengers by counting the portable classrooms docked outside an elementary school.

As a result, elected and appointed officials are willing to submit themselves to the annual rite of the “beg-a-thon” — a tedious effort to convince the governor, the comptroller and the treasurer that a county’s school construction needs are so great, it deserves a larger portion of the pie.

And school construction money has become the honeypot that lets bad policy move forward.

Take 2007, for example. Montgomery regularly has elected progressives, who — almost to a person — reject slot machine gambling. Yet, that year, Gov. Martin O’Malley offered money for school projects as an incentive to get enough local lawmakers to change their votes.

O’Malley isn’t the only governor who has done it. It’s a perk of being the state’s chief executive.

Kaiser, King and their colleagues face an uphill battle — Kaiser already expressed pessimism that her bill will pass.

We should expect our lawmakers to disagree over policy. We should expect them to debate, squabble, argue, deliberate and pettifog over details. But we shouldn’t expect them to horse trade votes just so a child can sit in school and learn.

Keeping track

There’s no question that allegations of sexual abuse always should be treated seriously.

But what of less defined out-of-the-ordinary behavior?

Actions that could be seen as unwise? Creepy?

Montgomery County Public Schools has begun a formal system for tracking suspected inappropriate staff behavior with students. Allegations are entered into a database, making it easier to “establish a pattern” of behavior, according to Robert Grundy, the director of the Performance Evaluation and Compliance Unit in the district’s Human Resources and Development NEW SCHOOL Office.

We could imagine inSYSTEM DATABASE formal complaints being REASONABLE handled differently deFOR COMPILING pending on the judgment COMPLAINTS of the person in charge.

ABOUT STAFF But even if allegations don’t rise to the level of disciplinary action, there should be some record of them and an explanation of how they were handled.

In that way, the centralized database will be a helpful tool.

It should not, however, be a substitute for a strong, meaningful reaction whenever it’s called for.

Grundy said an allegation of inappropriate behavior has to be made by a principal for it to be entered in the system.

But that brings up an obvious gap in reporting: What happens when the person in charge is the subject of a complaint? For example: Kemp Mill Elementary School, where six teachers filed a lawsuit, accusing the principal of bullying, retaliation and sexual harassment. (The case was settled out of court, according to The Washington Post.)

Often, we are reminded of how much society has changed through the generations. Iron-fisted teachers in decades past might not have hesitated to physically punish an unruly student.

Now, teachers or other adults in a supervisory position have to think twice about laying a hand on a student, even if the intention is innocent.

Consider some of the behaviors that prompted 25 notations in the database this school year — tapping a student on the butt, lifting students in the air.

This might require retraining how older minds think and counseling those who don’t recognize the implications of gestures meant to be friendly.

As long as it is maintained consistently, the district’s database is a good step toward accountability. It can be a fair middle ground between inaction and prosecution.

The Gazette Karen Acton, President/Publisher

LETTERS TOT HE EDITOR

Upcounty residents need M-83 The County Council held a town meeting in Clarksburg on Feb. 26. Whilst the upcounty is grateful that the meeting took place, it must not be considered to be sufficient, either in length or scope.

One question which did not get put to the council was M-83. This is a major part of the road network which is in no less than five master plans.

Stages 1-3 of the Clarksburg Master Plan were predi-

cated on direct light rail/bus to Shady Grove and major roads, of which M-83 is one.

The southern part is built (Midcounty Highway) and the northern part to Md. 27 (Snowden Farm Parkway) should be completed within the year.

When is the county going to keep its promises outlined in master plans which hundreds of thousands of residents are constrained to say that we have read (or had the

opportunity to read) when we buy our houses?

New construction in Clarksburg pays the highest impact fees in Montgomery County by far — for what?

The upcounty needs this road to be completed (which was to have been in the fiveyear CIP in the 1974 Germantown Master Plan), and it needs to be the master plan alignment (Alternative 9a).

Kathie Hulley, Boyds

The police graffiti runaround When I read the paragraph quoting Lt. Kevin Sullivan of the Montgomery County Police Department in your article “Silver Spring residents see increase in graffiti” [Feb. 19], I could hardly believe what I saw. Apparently Lt. Sullivan is connected with the “Criminal Street Gang Unit” and he “has not seen an increase in gang graffiti reporting.” Both statements confound me.

One reason Lt. Sullivan sees no increase in graffiti reporting could be that when a citizen calls the MCPD to report such activity he or she is told that there is no “gang unit” in Montgomery County.

This happened to my husband.

Not one to give up, this citizen searched the Montgomery County website and found the phone number for the Montgomery County Police Department’s (nonexistent?) gang unit with the encouraging statement that

this is the number to call to report any alleged gangrelated graffiti. However, the number is a “non-working number at Montgomery County Government” and the line disconnects.

Rather than continue seeking an elusive special number, my husband decided to just call our local police district on their nonemergency number. He was told to call the “Special Investigative Unit,” which he did. He got a recording, left a message, and never got a return call.

I tried that same number a week later, on Jan. 17, and was lucky enough to speak with a person. I was promised a call back either that same evening (it was a Friday) or Tuesday the following week since Monday was a holiday. I never received a return phone call.

The reason we were trying to connect with the MCPD was to report the significant

increase of graffiti (call it “tagging” if you like) in our neighborhood. Perhaps Lt. Sullivan believes there is no increase in graffiti due to a broken communication system between police and citizen.

In fact, there appears to be a broken communication system within our police department, when they don’t know what special units exist and wrong numbers are posted on their Web pages.

Why did the MCPD not tell us about the Montgomery County Gang Prevention Initiative? The good-hearted coordinator of that program, Luis Cardona, hasn’t seen much graffiti, and for that I am thankful, but has he been over here in my neighborhood? Is he depending on the police self-reporting that they believe there is no increase in graffiti reporting because they have made it so difficult for the community to report it?

Spring by cutting down hundreds of trees and building tracks that will compete for space with bikers and walkers.

In addition, the trains will destroy the peace and quiet that the much beloved trail now offers to residents and people in the regions.

This sounds more like dumb growth to me, considering what we now know about the importance of green space and exercise to good health and quality of life.

There is indeed a great need for public transportation, but less expensive alternatives exist for the Purple Line that planners and politicians for various reasons have let fall by the wayside. In fact, the exorbi-

Andrew Schotz, Assistant Managing Editor Nathan Oravec, A&E Editor Ken Sain, Sports Editor Dan Gross, Photo Editor Jessica Loder, Web Editor

Dennis Wilston, Corporate Advertising Director Doug Baum, Corporate Classifieds Director Mona Bass, Inside Classifieds Director

William (Bill) Samuel, Silver Spring

Bills attack free speech

tant cost of the Purple Line option chosen (and described in the article) should be of great concern to taxpayers.

So far the estimated cost has doubled — and with the track record of failures in Maryland/Montgomery County such as the Maryland health exchange, the transit hub in Silver Spring and the ICC, we have every reason to be skeptical of what planners and politicians tell us.

Similarly, the downplaying of the disruption involved in the construction of the Purple Line and its environmental impact is a great concern for residents all along the planned Purple Line.

Maj-Britt Dohlie, Bethesda

Liana Smith, Takoma Park

Cynthia Cathcart, Silver Spring

9030 Comprint Court, Gaithersburg, MD 20877 | Phone: 301-948-3120 | Fax: 301-670-7183 | Email: opinions@gazette.net More letters appear online at www.gazette.net/opinion

Douglas Tallman, Editor Krista Brick, Managing Editor/News Glen C. Cullen, Senior Editor Copy/Design Meredith Hooker, Managing Editor/Internet Robert Rand, Managing Editor/Presentation

“Democratic council races get lively” [editorial, March 5] notes candidates planning to run in the Democratic primaries. What it doesn’t note is that these primaries are undemocratic.

In Montgomery County and much of Maryland, the Democratic primary is the most important election, with the general election often only being a ratification of its results.

However, anyone who is not registered as a Democrat is not permitted to vote in the most important elections held. Furthermore, writeins are prohibited.

The Democratic Party in Maryland often shows many of the expected effects of a one-party system. It is run by machine politicians who favor restricting democracy, and have created the most gerrymandered districts anywhere in the country.

It is time to reform the election process in Maryland. Open the primaries up and remove barriers to third party and independent candidacies.

I am pleased that The Gazette publicized the issue of limiting free speech in Maryland through its article “Kramer bill puts reins on college memberships” [Feb. 14]. Both the Senate Bill 647 and the House Bill 998 would bar state funding for academic groups that engage in boycotts against higher-education institutions in other countries.

This has been done in retaliation for the recent American Studies Associatio resolution that supports a call by Palestinians to boycott Israeli academic institutions. I would stress that the ASA did not boycott individual Israeli scholars — an important distinction.

The ASA and several other major academic organizations recognize that boycott is a useful tool in opposing Israeli occupation of Palestinians.

SB647 and HB998 would put a serious chill on dissent on college campuses. As a lifelong resident of Maryland, and someone whose family has gone through the University of Maryland system for both undergraduate and graduate degrees, I am disheartened that our state legislators have proffered bills that would limit healthy discussion of issues using monetary punishment. Our Maryland legislators need to drop this serious attack on academic freedom and free speech.

Green space and the Purple Line The March 5 article in The Gazette, “Jump-starting the ‘heart’ of downtown Bethesda,” underlined that people living in Bethesda want more green space, which is a rapidly disappearing commodity in the area.

Sadly the “smart growth” touted by planners and politicians does not appear to foresee a need for new parks and recreational areas despite the planned (more than) doubling of the population between 2010 and 2040.

On the contrary, another article on The Gazette’s front page describes how the Purple Line, as currently conceived, will destroy the Capital Crescent Trail between Bethesda and Silver

Make the Democratic primaries democratic

Jean Casey, Director of Marketing and Circulation Anna Joyce, Creative Director, Special Pubs/Internet Ellen Pankake, Director of Creative Services

POST COMMUNITY MEDIA Karen Acton, Chief Executive Officer Michael T. McIntyre, Controller Donna Johnson, Vice President of Human Resources Maxine Minar, President, Comprint Military

THE GAZETTE

Wednesday, March 12, 2014 s

Send in the clowns

Most Montgomery countians view state and local government as a nuisance. They moved here to be near the federal government, where they make their livings. What goes on in Annapolis or Rockville doesn’t interest them.

In Maryland’s last state primary elections (2010) Montgomery’s voter turnout (19.9 percent) was the state’s lowest. And, according to last month’s Washington Post poll, only 30 percent of Montgomery countians are following this year’s governor’s race, again, the state’s lowest and well below the state average, 42 percent . Likewise, only 43 percent of Montgomery voters say they’re certain to vote — another last-place finish.

Decades of voter neglect have led to a cozy symbiosis between the county’s politicians and special interest lobbies. When 80 percent of Montgomery’s voters don’t show up on primary Election Day, a state senator or delegate candidate can win with only 5,000 to 8,000 votes in a county of nearly 1 million people.

But winning those votes means getting into bed with the folks who do care about Election Day: the public employee unions, the environmentalists, the women’s groups, minority groups, the gay lobby, the teacher’s union, liberal newspaper editors, etc.

Because these special interests elect our state lawmakers, their agendas become the lawmakers’ agendas.

Other delegations come home bragging about winning more state money for schools and services. Montgomery’s delegation brags about winning gun control, gay marriage, death penalty repeal and raising taxes. Montgomery’s “progressive agenda” doesn’t include grubbing for money or protecting MoCo’s taxpayers.

But finally, some Montgomery countians are realizing that every dollar squandered in Annapolis results in a dollar tax hike or a dollar spending cut back home. The wake-up call is school construction: Montgomery parents are rebelling against overcrowded, obsolete, moldy classrooms.

Enrollment, driven by immigrants, is exploding by 2,500 per year (enough to fill 100 new classrooms), 10,500 students now occupy 458 portable trailers (tops in Maryland) and within five years nearly half the county’s schools will be above capacity.

Yet, new construction and renovations are delayed, and delayed, and delayed due to shortfalls in Montgom-

ery’s share of state school construction money. Montgomery, with 17 percent of the state’s students, received only 11.7 percent of the state’s annual school construction funding during the past 10 years.

But, instead of demanding more, Montgomery’s politicians made up the difference with county funds. Now, however, that well is going dry. Hence the delays, hence the parents’ rebellion.

Like smart politicians, the county school board and superintendent passed the blame to the county executive, Ike Leggett, and County Council who, in turn, are blaming Annapolis.

Established in 1971 to help defray loMY MARYLAND cal school construction BLAIR LEE costs, the state program works like this: every year the governor budgets a lump sum based on needs forecasts. The state makes a preliminary allocation between the counties, and at the annual January “Beg-A-Thon” hearing, the counties lobby the Board of Public Works for more.

The construction money always was allocated based on costs until the mid-1980s, when Baltimore city got the allocation “equalized” (i.e. based on each county’s wealth), which helped the city and cut MoCo, whose lawmakers offered no resistance.

Then, in the 2007 legislative special session when Gov. Martin O’Malley’s $1.4 billion tax hike needed MoCo’s votes, he promised MoCo $55 million in 2008 school construction funds.

However, when O’Malley later reneged (with only $46 million), MoCo lawmakers didn’t make a peep.

In the chaotic 2012 and 2013 sessions Baltimore city vote-traded for school construction funds, P.G. votetraded for a new hospital and MoCo traded for a state gas tax. That’s right, instead of asking for more state aid, our idiots made the 83 percent state gas tax increase Montgomery’s top priority.

This was stupidly bordering on suicide. The gas tax is paid primarily by Montgomery motorists without particularly benefiting Montgomery.

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LETTERS TOT HE EDITOR

Once again MoCo adopted a “statewide perspective” at its own expense.

Only MoCo makes raising taxes its top priority.

Meanwhile, Baltimore city made off with the candy store. Anticipating a drop in state revenues and school construction funding ($325 million last year, $275 million this year), the city won a $1 billion school construction deal including the state’s $20 million-per-year guarantee for the next 30 years. This is on top of whatever the city gets at the annual Beg-A-Thon.

Montgomery’s lawmakers voted unanimously for what Baltimore’s mayor called “the largest legislative achievement in the city’s history.”

Now, under attack from angry parents, Ike Leggett and MoCo’s lawmakers are asking O’Malley and the legislature for the same deal Baltimore got. Leggett says he’s cashing in his moral IOUs, which is this session’s moment of comic relief.

So far, this year’s school construction allocation is $22 million for MoCo ($146 per student) and $37 million for Baltimore ($435 per student). But instead of making war, Leggett and Montgomery’s lawmakers are making excuses. Their battle cry is, “Ready, aim, surrender.”

Meanwhile, O’Malley’s capital budget is chock full of money for Baltimore’s zoo, library, aquarium, museums and a pedestrian bridge spanning Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. On deck are a new $355 million Baltimore jail and a $900 million sports arena complex.

Back in MoCo, County Councilman Phil Andrews is being shunned by fellow Democrats for blowing the whistle on the county’s State House malfeasance.

“We need a different approach.

We’ve got to mobilize our public so we get a fair share of school construction money every year. And we must also elect a governor who is not going to shortchange us.”

Andrews is right — it’s up to Montgomery’s voters. As long as they continue electing the same old clowns, they’ll get the same old circus.

Blair Lee is chairman of the board of Lee Development Group in Silver Spring and a regular commentator for WBAL radio. His column appears Fridays in the Business Gazette. His past columns are available at www.gazette. net/blairlee. His email address is blairleeiv@gmail.com.

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All who work deserve a living wage It simply makes no sense to not pay a living wage to all who work. Not doing so causes debt as well as hurts the economy, not to mention the most important factor of all — the human factor. People who make a living wage can often afford to buy food, clothing and other basic necessities, whereas those whose wages are low are forced to get food stamps, help with clothing themselves and their children, as well as do without utilities in some cases, and a safe and decent place to live.

Montgomery County is a wealthy county, a diverse county, and a county whose residents cross all economic lines. It is a tragedy that this county allows so many of its working residents

to not be able to supply the basic needs of living.

Anyone who works deserves to make a living wage, deserves a respectable wage. So many people are working two or three jobs to try and make ends meet. This keeps the working parents away from their children, and the entire family suffers.

A living wage for all must be established in Montgomery County. Show leadership. Don’t wait for the state or the feds to do your work for you. Be responsible to the citizens of Montgomery County, those you represent.

Charles and Anne Marie Martinez, Silver Spring

Speed cameras improve safety Why does The Gazette continue to publish unoriginal and uninformed critiques of Montgomery County’s SafeSpeed (i.e., speed camera) program? Gerry Adcock’s recent letter [“Speed cameras generate revenue, not reduce speeding” Feb. 26] is an example of space on your pages that could have been put to a more productive use.

I have had the privilege of serving on the Police Department’s Citizens Advisory Board for Traffic Issues since its inception, so I know something about how the SafeSpeed program was conceived, how it was deployed and how it has been managed. It is a model of thoughtfulness and integrity.

First, from the start, camera locations have been selected based on citizen input and a methodology that takes into account both subjective and objective criteria regarding the propensity for speeding to pose an outsized risk to pedestrian or vehicle safety at particular locations. That is why many cameras are located near school and Metro bus stops, playgrounds and the like. The one factor that has never been considered in connection with any location is the potential for a particular location to generate revenue.

Second, the speed cameras are

working. Since inception, overall speeds have declined by 4 percent, with some cameras showing declines in excess of 20 percent.

Mr. Adcock’s supposition that an increase in the number of citations proves the opposite conclusion is simply uninformed.

The number of citations increased from 2012 to 2013 because the county added 10 new cameras, and CABTI approved 34 new locations (some in corridors), over the same period. Thanks to those new cameras and locations, the SafeSpeed program is able to cover more of the county’s roads, and that is a good thing.

Third, speed cameras are a highly efficient way to enforce our traffic laws. Mr. Adcock’s suggestion that it would be more efficient to replace the cameras with new patrol officers in marked cruisers is pure poppycock.

For whatever reason, many in our community consider it their “right” to exceed posted speed limits. It is not, and as a parent of school-age children I wish they would slow down. But, as a practical matter, if drivers do not exceed posted limits by more than 10 mph, they have no reason to fear the SafeSpeed cameras.

Alan M. Freeman, Potomac

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GEORGETOWN PREP JUNIOR LEADS THE ALL-GAZETTE BOYS’ SWIMMING AND DIVING TEAM, B-3

SPORTS SILVER SPRING

www.gazette.net | Wednesday, March 12, 2014 | Page B-1

STATE BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP PREVIEW

Girls move to a new home n

Coaches adjust to Towson University’s SECU Arena instead of UMBC BY

ERIC GOLDWEIN STAFF WRITER

BILL RYAN/THE GAZETTE

Springbrook High School’s Andrew Robinson (left) goes up against Dulaney’s Jason Lawson during Friday’s 4A North Region final.

Ready for the spotlight n

BY

Whitman, Springbrook could face off in an all-Montgomery 4A state final

TRAVIS MEWHIRTER STAFF WRITER

There was no shortage of naysayers when Kyle Depollar decided to transfer from The Heights to Walt Whitman High School this season. The shooting guard had torn it up under coach Sunny Hemphill as a freshman — what could he possibly gain from changing schools now?

“People were telling me, ‘What are you doing? You got the green light, why are you transferring?’” recalled Depollar, who is Whitman’s leading scorer this winter at 14.3 points per game.

Well, those detractors can now make the trip to College Park this week and pay the admission fee to watch Depollar and the Vikings vie for the 4A state title.

“I guess making it to the Comcast

Center kind of shut them up,” he said after Whitman upset Clarksburg for the 4A West Region title, 49-44, and the school’s first appearance in the state tournament since 2006, when the Vikings won their only state championship. “Before the season started our goal was to get here and anything else would be a failure. ... And you could say we’re something of a Cinderella because a lot of teams do overlook us.”

It’s not unlikely that Annapolis, whom Whitman will see in Thursday’s scheduled 7 p.m. semifinal, was also somewhat overlooked when it came playoff time. The Panthers’ last successful run came in 2005, just one season prior to Whitman’s, and they suffered eight losses this year to boast a fairly similar record (17-8)

Churchill senior, Damascus junior win crowns; Northwest, QO wrestlers earn second place n

BY TED BLACK STAFF WRITER

After he completed a perfect wrestling season with a 5-3 decision victory Saturday at the Maryland Class 4A/3A state tournament in the 152-pound weight class, Winston Churchill High School senior Hutton Sutton could smile. One year after his season ended prematurely due to a knee injury, Sutton finished his senior year with

TOM FEDOR/ THE GAZETTE

a 47-0 record and his third state crown. He stood on the podium at the University of Maryland, College Park’s Cole Field House, smiling.

“From where I was one year ago at this time to today this is a big difference,” said Sutton, who said he is planning on attending the United States Naval Academy in the fall. “When I had to sit out last season, it was tough. So to be here tonight and win the state title is a great feeling. I really accomplished all of my goals this season. I finally won a county title, I won another region title and I finally got my third state title. I could not ask for a better end to my senior year.”

Damascus junior Mikey Macklin completed a

See WRESTLERS, Page B-2

See GIRLS, Page B-2

GAME SCHEDULES Girls at SECU Arena (Towson) Col. Zadok Magruder vs. North Point, 3 p.m. Thursday Eleanor Roosevelt vs. Paint Branch, 5 p.m. Thursday Damascus vs. Baltimore Poly, 7 p.m. Thursday

Boys at Comcast Center (College Park) Walt Whitman vs. Annapolis, 7 p.m. Thursday Springbrook vs. Henry A. Wise, 9 p.m. Thursday

See SPOTLIGHT, Page B-2

Two county wrestlers win state titles

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Walt Whitman High School’s Kyle Depollar has helped lead the Vikings to the state tournament.

Forty-one years ago, the Parkville High School girls’ basketball team won the Maryland state championship in front of a packed house at Woodlawn High School’s gym in Baltimore.

“Let’s just say one thing,” Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association girls’ basketball tournament director Diane George said, recalling the 1973 finals, “The bleachers were full. But IF YOU GO it’s not like at a community college or a DiState basketball vision I school.” tournaments The tournament has since grown by n Admission: $8 leaps and bounds, n TV: MPSSAA live George said, with the streaming by title game venue movsubscription only ing to Catonsville Com— http://www. munity College, then to nfhsnetwork.com/ the University of Marychannels/maryland land, Baltimore County in Catonsville, and this n Radio: SFM Sports season to a 5,200-seat Division I arena.

After 20 years at UMBC, this year’s state tournament will be played at Towson University’s SECU Arena, which opened in June 2013. The 16 region champions are scheduled to play their semifinal games on Wednesday or Thursday with the winners advancing to Saturday’s title games.

“It’s really just exciting to see the growth of the tournament,” George said. “... I look at it as another chapter in the history of the tournament.”

Eleanor Roosevelt and Paint Branch are scheduled to play Thursday for a spot in the Class 4A state championship game.

“I’m excited about [the new venue],” said Roosevelt coach Delton Fuller, whose undefeated Raiders played in front of around 4,000 people in the Prince George’s County county championship.

“That atmosphere was really nice,” Fuller said.

“I hope it continues and it was definitely good for

Major changes could be coming to wrestling Proposal would unify state tournament, add more duals champions

n

BY

KENT ZAKOUR STAFF WRITER

KENT ZAKOUR ON WRESTLING

Saturday may have been an end of an era for Maryland high school wrestling. That’s a good thing.

The Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association is considering drastically altering how the wrestling postseason is

conducted. Currently, it’s divided into two separate factions — the 2A and 1A classifications are combined as well as the larger 4A and 3A schools. That leaves room for a pair of dual meet state champions, two state tournament team victors and two individual state champions for each of the 14 weight classes.

The new proposal calls for expanding the regional and state dual meet tournaments to include team championships in all four

See CHANGES, Page B-2

THE GAZETTE

Page B-2

Wednesday, March 12, 2014 s

SPOTLIGHT

Continued from Page B-1

PHOTO FROM TOWSON UNIVERSITY

Towson University’s brand new SECU Arena will be the site of the 2014 MPSSAA girls’ basketball state tournament, which moved from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s Retriever Athletic Center.

GIRLS

Continued from Page B-1 my girls.”

Paint Branch won three consecutive regional titles from 2007-09 and a state championship in 2008, but this will be the first trip to the state semifinals for third-year coach Rochelle Coleman. The girls went to Towson earlier this month “to see what the arena is like and get a feel for it,” Coleman said.

Damascus coach Steve Pisarski said

WRESTLERS

Continued from Page B-1 perfect season by capturing the 113-pound weight title for his second state crown. The Damascus team, which had hopes of competingfortheteamstatechampionship,fell tofourthinthestandings.

“Getting my second title was really special,” said Macklin, who won the 106-pound title last season after plac-

his team might practice in a college gym to adjust to the larger court but will otherwise prepare for Thursday’s 3A semifinals against Baltimore Polytechnic Institute like it was any other game.

“We’re going to go about our business kind of the same as we always do,” said Pisarski, who led the Swarmin’ Hornets to the semifinals last season.

Largo coach Ayana Ball-Ward, whose team lost in the 2A South Region finals, said the venue change was a positive step for girls’ basketball.

ing sixth as a freshman. “This year I went undefeated, which really helped validate it. Last year I lost a couple of matches, but this year to go undefeated is special. I was really hoping that we would win the state title as a team. I never thought I would be the only person on my team to win a state title.”

Quince Orchard senior Connor Tilton saw his bid for a perfect season come to an end when he lost the 285-pound title by a 4-3 decision to Huntingtown

“It’s a great experience for the girls and it’s a great lift for the state of Maryland,” said Ball-Ward, who has made three trips to the state semifinals since winning the Class 3A title in 2007.

George said she does not expect the upper level to be utilized, but it may open for future postseason games. Cost of admission ($8) remains the same as previous years, she said.

“We’re excited about the new arena and going to a new place,” George said. egoldwein@gazette.net

senior Dalonte Holland. During the season Tilton had reached numerous personal goals and milestones and capped it with a designation as state runner-up, although at the time it hardly seemed like an acceptable consolation.

“Other than getting beat tonight, it was a great senior season,” Tilton said.

“I won the county and region title and I got my 100th win this year. I went undefeated all the way through the season until today. It was tough walking off the

as the Vikings (20-6). Their playoff stretch is even eerily parallel. Both teams knocked off the top seed in their section — Montgomery Blair for Whitman, North Point for Annapolis — and either another one or two seed from the other section in the region finals.

“I’ve already been watching the film,” Whitman coach Chris Lun said. “We’re certainly going to have our hands full but we’re just excited for the opportunity.”

Montgomery County compatriot Springbrook will not be following the underdog narrative on the right side of the bracket. The Blue Devils are the owners of the richest basketball history in the county and one of the state’s, winners of five state titles — Whitman has only appeared in four state tournaments — to go along with five additional final runs and seven semifinals, a total only bested by five other schools in Maryland. They sport the best record (24-2) of any team left in the 4A, which is the exact same as Prince George’s County champion Henry A. Wise, whom they are scheduled to meet in College Park Thursday night at 9, making the winner the de facto favorites in Saturday’s championship.

“We match up pretty good,” said Springbrook’s Andrew Robinson, a senior who leads the team with 17 points per game and is averaging 19

mat after getting beat today. I did my best, but he deserved to win. But I think I did enough this year that people at the school are going to remember me.”

In the last 4A/3A match of the tournament, Northwest junior Dell Ngonga was pinned by Northern junior Breandan Coughlin, who capped a perfect season with his second state title.

Ngonga had emerged from the shadows in Montgomery County by taking the West Region title with a 4-3, seventh

tblack@gazette.net

Continued from Page B-1

TOM FEDOR/THE GAZETTE

Spectators watch the finals of the Maryland state wrestling tournament Saturday at the University of Maryland’s Cole Field House in College Park. possible?

Changing the duals is also a good idea. It opens up more opportunities for teams to succeed and makes wrestling comparable to most of the other team sports. For example, the last few

years, Damascus, a 3A school, has dominated county competition. Class 4A schools Thomas S. Wootton, Northwest, BethesdaChevy Chase, Winston Churchill, Sherwood and Springbrook — all of which have participated in the

4A/3A West Region duals since 2012 — were not able to advance.

Who knows who would have moved on sans Damascus the past two seasons.

In an informal straw poll Saturday of 10 current and former

tmewhirter@gazette.net

period victory over Damascus freshman Scott Obendorfer. He also needed narrow decision victories to get through the quarterfinals and semifinals.

“He was definitely really good,” Ngonga said. “When you get this far, you want to leave with the state title.

When you get beat, it’s tough. You have to wait a whole year to get another chance. That’s a long time.”

CHANGES

classifications. In turn, the individual state tournament would be unified to create one state champion per weight class. The proposal also would eliminate team scoring from the individual tournament.

This is good and bad.

For starters, there shouldn’t be a difference in talent between an individual wrestler at a small 1A school and a large 4A program. If you are good, you’re good. Unifying the state tournament will give wrestling fans — in theory — a true best of the best state public school winner. Imagine having the spotlight at Cole Field House focusing on one marquee final bout, rather than two. That gives me chills.

But to not keep track of the team score doesn’t make any sense. Is it because the politically correct MPSSAA doesn’t want to have five team champions crowned, more than any other team sport? In college, where several of the individual state champions will go on to wrestle, team scores are kept at conference and national tournaments.

Why not try to be as uniform as

in the playoffs. “They got the two bigs down low [Micah Till and Devin Moore] and Justice [Sneed] is pretty good up top.

It would be a good matchup.

We know we’re going to have to play our best game to beat them and not get caught up in the hype, just play our game.”

Prior to Friday night’s 4A North Region final with Dulaney, Blue Devils coach Tom Crowell labeled the Lions as “probably the best team we’ve seen this year.” And then Springbrook won by 30, playing its best basketball of the season at just the right time.

“There were moments [Friday night], the offense, the 3-point shooting — it was almost like a perfect storm,” Crowell said. “It was just a great night for us. I said Dulaney would be the best team we played and believe me, I still wouldn’t want to play them again, but Wise will definitely be the best team we’ve played.”

On Thursday, the moment that Depollar and the Whitman boys and the Robinsons and the Springbrook boys sought since November will alas arrive. Maybe there will be an all-Montgomery final, maybe it will be a Prince George’s-Anne Arundel final.

Blue Devils guard Aaron Robinson just wants to play some basketball.

“I have never been this excited for a basketball game in my life,” he said. “This is definitely the biggest moment in my basketball career.”

wrestling coaches from Montgomery and Prince George’s counties the sentiment expressed was that they are in favor of the proposed format changes, albeit with some reservations, mainly the lack of team scoring in the

state tournament.

Nine of the coaches said they would like to see the new format implemented in some way, some more agreeable than others. Of that group, two said they would like to see things kept status quo if the scoring issue was not addressed.

One coach was completely against changing the structure since he believed it would allow for fewer opportunities for student-athletes to be featured and limit promotion of the sport.

He was concerned that reducing the number of state placers by combining classifications would discourage kids from participating.

The MPSSAA Wrestling Committee voted on Oct. 9 to submit the proposal to schools for further consideration and it is scheduled to be discussed further at the committee’s March 25 meeting. The committee then could make a recommendation to the MPSSAA Board on Control, which would then vote on the matter. Duke Beattie, the director of the state wrestling committee, said any changes could be in place as soon as next season. kzakour@gazette.net

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Wednesday, March 12, 2014 s

Page B-3

With growth, comes quality

GIRLS’ SWIMMING AND DIVING

Coaches say talent level increasing across Montgomery County n

BY

First team

ERIC GOLDWEIN STAFF WRITER

When Sara Mayes tried out for the Paint Branch High School girls’ lacrosse team about a decade ago — never having picked up a stick — she made varsity.

She said there weren’t enough girls to field a junior varsity team.

Mayes is now the first-year coach at her alma mater, and the 2008 graduate watched a school record 60-plus girls try out this spring, she said.

“It’s amazing to see the level of interest, compared to when I was there. It really is amazing,” said Mayes, an assistant on last season’s 3-10 team.

With interest in the sport at an all-time high, the rise of younger, homegrown coaches such as Mayes — coupled with the boost in club lacrosse participation — is helping balance public school competition in Montgomery County, coaches said.

“You have more and more qualified coaches now and it’s growing your experience,” second-year Richard Montgomery coach Brett Ponchione said. “…

Not only is the gap closing but the level of play across the county is getting better every year.”

Ponchione’s Rockets went 4-9 in his first year and have finished above .500 twice since 2005, according to LaxPower. com, but return almost all of their key players, including six who participated in club lacrosse this past summer.

“We’ve implemented a lot of

Carsten Vissering TOM FEDOR/THE GAZETTE

Our Lady of Good Counsel High School girls’ lacrosse player Abby Wilson (right) practices Friday at the Olney school. new concepts and the foundation was laid last year,” he said.

Quince Orchard coach Jennifer Holliday, a coach for the MC Elite Lacrosse club, said the club used to be filled with private school athletes but now has representatives from public schools across the county.

“I just think everyone as a whole, we can’t take anyone lightly now,” said Holliday, a 2004 Quince Orchard graduate.

Several public school teams have added private school games to their schedules.

Our Lady of Good Counsel, ranked 13th in the Nike/US Lacrosse poll, is scheduled to play Walt Whitman and state runnerup Sherwood. Good Counsel coach Michael Haight said the top public school teams have not caught up to the elite private schools, but the county is improving.

“It’s definitely getting better and the more youth leagues we develop, the better the teams will

PLAYERS TO WATCH n Elizabeth Makuch, Graceanne Rosen (B-CC); Jenna Kanner, Amalia Perez (Blair); Caroline Tatnall, Victoria Wolsh (Blake); Jane Beightol, Caitlin McMahon (Bullis); Christine Kennedy, Rachel Thal-Larsen (Churchill); Andie deCelis, Mia Winterburn (Clarksburg); Leigh Gatons, Jacqueline Pino (Damascus); Reva Alperson, Paige Harrison (Einstein); Bethany Scott, Madison Williams (Gaithersburg); Lexi Rieu, Abby Wilson (Good Counsel); Blair Greenwald, Olivia Lee (Holton-Arms); Mary Claire Byrne, Emily Hunt

be,” said Haight, whose team has 15 Division I recruits.

First-year Poolesville coach Brittany Hilton said girls are starting to play at younger ages, which is making for better competition.

Emily Zmoda is a first-year coach at John F. Kennedy, which went 1-11 in 2013 and has registered six victories since 2005. She said the numbers were dwindling in recent seasons but this year’s tryouts had a “decent” turnout with about 35.

“I told them right at the beginning, I’m not going to promise you we’re going to suddenly make it to the playoffs,” Zmoda said.

Sherwood, coached by Kelly Hughes, became the first Montgomery County school to earn a victory in the state tournament last spring. The rise of the bottom tier teams would benefit the county as a whole, she said.

“Win or lose, that’s all I want.

I want a good game, I want girls playing,” Hughes said.

(Holy Child); Jackie Branthover, Kristyn Gaines (Holy Cross); Emma Bearman, Katelyn McKneely (Kennedy); Nicole Burchett, Jacqueline Page (Richard Montgomery); Janice Fiallos, Kimberly Hall (Paint Branch); Amanda Chasin, Marie Jankowski (Poolesville); Umbar Kassa, Rachel Hollander (Quince Orchard); Hope Basile, Kathleen McTighe (Rockville); Caroline Graves, Lindy Hill (St. Andrew’s); Emily Kenul, Kristen Lauda (Sherwood); Jessica Hartley, Ria Peralta (Springbrook); Natalie Gosnell, Allie Rock (Stone Ridge); Alexis Rusnak, Helen Marsh (Watkins Mill); Olivia Mangum, Madeline Romm (Wootton)

Wootton’s tennis reign in jeopardy n Boys’ tennis: Four-time champs graduated seven players from a year ago

BY JENNIFER BEEKMAN STAFF WRITER

For Montgomery County’s top high school boys’ tennis teams, and even those outside of Division I, the tops of lineups can read like a who’s who of U.S. Tennis Association ranked junior tournament players. But winning dualmatchesandcountychampionships comes down to a team’s depth — there can sometimes be a costly drop-off after the first few singles players.

For four years the depth of reigning county champion, Thomas S. Wootton High School, has been nearly untouchable; half of its doubles lineup probably could have played singles at any number of county programs. The Patriots’ streak of 57 consecutive regular season wins was broken

by Winston Churchill last spring but they went on to avenge that defeat with their fourth straight county championship. Now, for the first time since 2010, Wootton looks vulnerable to historic rivals Walt Whitman, who looks to be the county’s deepest team this spring, and fellow perennial power Churchill.

“For the past few years it’s just been a foregone conclusion that Wootton was going to win,” Whitman coach Jasen Gohn said. “We had good, competitive matches with them, but you kind of knew you weren’t going to win four out of seven. But this is the year, it could go either way, I think there could be a lot of 4-3 matches.”

Wootton, despite graduating seven players, is by no means out of the running for Division I and county titles. The Patriots are actually in better shape than coach Nia Cresham said she expected.

Despite losing two of its top four singles players, there won’t have to be too much movement in the singles roster as Wootton inherited the country’s No. 4-ranked 14-year old, Kyrylo Tsygura, and welcomes back Abhishek Patwardhan, who recently returned

PLAYERS TO WATCH n Titas Bera, Wootton; Guy Beven, WJ; Jonathan Chen, Seneca Valley; Kasey Countee, Bullis; Nakita Demir, Georgetown Prep; Amanuel Gebremariam, Einstein; Darien Hashemzadeh, Bullis; Sean Hogan, Good Counsel; Brandon Huan, Clarksburg; Lucas Intrater, Einstein; Reed Joyner, Good Counsel; John Jung, Clarksburg; Kyle Lowery,

to the area from India. Just a freshman, Tsygura is already ranked No. 104 nationally in the USTA Boys 16s. He and Patwardhan will join last year’s Gazette Player of the Year and 2013 boys state doubles champion Titas Bera atop the Patriots’ lineup.

The biggest question mark for Wootton, Cresham said, will be its doubles pairings after losing that entire contingent.

“I was worried about this year until Kyryl came and he’s really excited about the team so that helps,” Cresham said. “Having him come in pushes everyone down again and makes everyone stronger [in their position].”

Speaking of players being stronger in their positions, the return of seniors Aries Wong and Sean Ngo to the top of Whitman’s lineup is going to do wonders for the Vikings’ depth. The pair, which won consecutive state doubles titles in 2011-12, took last spring off to focus on their USTA rankings and college recruitment.

They return this spring to a team that has brought back 16 players and added freshman Jack Welch (No. 63 in USTA Mid-Atlantic Section Boys 16s) to the singles roster.

“It’s always nice to get one more good player and in this case I’m getting two,” Gohn said. “Well, athird,because[Welch] isgoingto push everyone down, too, so we will have better players at lower positions and that could be the difference.”

Churchill will also benefit from the return of a former player to the top of its lineup. Joining returning third-year No. 1 Will Szamosszegi will be Blake Morton, a George Washington University

Wheaton; Colin Mattingly, Richard Montgomery; Blake Morton, Churchill; Nick Mouser, Georgetown Prep; Justin New, WJ; Sean Ngo, Whitman; Christopher Nguyen, Sherwood; Billy Owens, Seneca Valley; Matt Quattrociocchi, Northwest; David Snyder, Northwest; Will Szamosszegi, Churchill; Leul Tesfaye, Wheaton; Ryan Tom, Sherwood; Kyrylo Tsygura, Wootton; Aries Wong, Whitman.

recruit who played as a freshman but devoted the past two years to his USTA ranking, and last year’s undefeated No. 4 singles player Sohrob Ganjbaksh.

Montgomery’s IAC trifecta When 13th-year Landon tennis coach Adam Atwell took over the Bears program in 2002, Landon and Georgetown Prep dominated the Interstate Athletic Conference. A couple down years for both teams followed as Bullis rose to power for nearly a decade.

But everything came full circle last spring as the Bears and Little Hoyaswerenamedco-conference champions. It was Landon’s second straight conference title; the Bears have won 46 total. The two plus Bullis, which shared the title with Landon in 2012, are favorites to contend for the league once again.

In addition to returning its entire singles lineup, which includes third-year No. 1 Alex Reinke and Gabriel Goldberg. Raman Ananthanpillai returns after a year off to focus on USTA play, adding to the Bears’ already deep roster. Depth won’t be a problem for Prep, either, as eight starters return for the Little Hoyas, including Nick Mouser and Nakita Demir.

BackatthetopofBullis’lineup is three-year IAC tournament champion Kasey Countee — the last two titles have come in the No. 1 singles slot — and George Washington recruit Darien Hashamzadeh.

“This is the best I’ve seen the IAC, top to bottom,” Atwell said. jbeekman@gazette.net

Geo. Prep Junior, 100 breast

Jack Crow

Grant Goddard

Broke three Barons record in state title campaign.

Set Metros mark (48.69) in one of two individual wins there.

B.-Chevy Chase Junior, diving

Geo. Prep Junior, 100 butterfly

Led Prep to first Metros title in four years, set independent school mark.

Georgetown Prep junior Carsten Vissering set the independent school mark in 100 breaststroke at 53.49 and is The Gazette’s Athlete of the Year in boys’ swimming.

Brandon Goldstein

Rory Lewis

Adrian Lin

Jean-Marc Nugent

Brian Tsau

Brady Welch

Won first individual Metros title with 50.29.

Won first state title in event, was third at Metros.

County’s highest finisher at Metros (1:38.72).

Won states, second to Goddard at Metros.

Won at states, third at Metros with 4:27.63.

Touched out Lin for Metros record (45.00)

Geo. Prep Junior, 100 backstroke

TOM FEDOR/THE GAZETTE

Albert Einstein Junior, 200 IM

200 MEDLEY RELAY

Geo. Prep Junior, 200 freestyle

Walter Johnson Senior, 50 freestyle

Blair Junior, 500 freestyle

200 FREE RELAY

Good Counsel Senior, 100 freestyler

400 FREE RELAY

Georgetown Prep

Georgetown Prep

Georgetown Prep

Won Metros by nearly three seconds (1:33.98).

Close second to Gonzaga at Metros (1:26.44).

Bested Jack Conger-led 2013 Metros mark (3:04.83).

Kevin Berry, sophomore Brandon Goldstein, junior Andrew Omenitsch, freshman Carsten Vissering, junior

Coach of the Year Aryn Wheeler

Richard Montgomery Led Rockets to first state title and third at Metros without a single firstteam swimmer.

Grant Goddard, junior Matthew Hirschberger, freshman Adrian Lin, junior Samuel Tarter, freshman

Grant Goddard, junior Brandon Goldstein, junior Adrian Lin, junior Carsten Vissering, junior

Second team 50 freestyle: Xavier Laracuente, Poolesville 100 freestyle: John Mooers, Walt Whitman 200 freestyle: Mike Sullivan, Walt Whitman 500 freestyle: Matt Hirschberger, Georgetown Prep 100 backstroke; Andrew Gibson, Thomas S. Wootton 100 breaststroke: Harrison Gu, Win-

ston Churchill 100 butterfly: Michael Thomas, Montgomery Blair 200 individual medley: Gregory Song, Richard Montgomery 200 medley relay: R. Montgomery 200 freestyle relay: Richard Montgomery 400 freestyle relay: Walt Whitman 1-meter diving: Joseph Canova, Quince Orchard

THE GAZETTE

Page B-4

Wednesday, March 12, 2014 s

Springbrook returning to Comcast Center Paint Branch gets back to states

Blue Devils defeat Dulaney to win 4A North Region championship n

Girls’ basketball: Panthers win first region title in five years over Catonsville

n

BY HARVEY VALENTINE SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE

BY JENNIFER BEEKMAN STAFF WRITER

BILL RYAN/THE GAZETTE

Springbrook High School’s Isaiah Eisendorf shoots against Dulaney during Friday’s Class 4A North Region title game. trips and Andrew Robinson capped the 8-0 run with a layup. The Lions closed to within 10-6, but Springbrook scored the final 10 points of the quarter, the final six on another pair of threes from Aaron Robinson.

“They were in a zone and when I saw that they were in zone I knew we had shooters. I looked for my shot,” Aaron Robinson said.

Early in the second quarter, Dulaney lost 6-foot-8 Jon Simms to foul trouble, and the Springbrook lead was soon 16.

The Lions never found their shot consistently, missing a variety of jump shots, layups, foul shots and even a dunk.

“We (played) a sag and man-to-man,” Crowell said. “Play off and don’t let them penetrate. Make them shoot. In our scouting reports we saw that they really weren’t that great a shooting team.”

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Dulaney scored the first four points of the third quarter to pull within 10, making Springbrook’s six missed free throws in the second quarter seem relevant momentarily, but they got no closer.

Alex Evans and Andrew Robinson keyed a 12-2 run that pushed the lead to 19 late in the third quarter.

Leading 55-34 after three, Springbrook scored the first 13 points of the final quarter, including nine by Andrew Robinson and briefly doubled the Lions, 68-34, and the only question remaining was when Crowell would empty his bench.

“It’s amazing,” Andrew Robinson said.

“This is my dream. I wanted to go out on top in my senior year. Hopefully we can finish it off and put another banner on the wall.”

Barely one minute had passed following the Paint Branch High School girls’ basketball team’s 73-37 victory in the Class 4A North Region over visiting Catonsville when a step ladder was pushed under the basket at the far end of the court.

Senior guard Kiara Colston cautiously climbed to the top, scissors in hand, and once the net was within reach looked to the school’s athletic director, Heather Podosek, and asked, “Like this?”

Colston was questioning the proper technique with which she should cut the netting from the basket’s rim; it was the only thing the Panthers (23-2) seemed unsure of during an afternoon of complete dominance against their Baltimore County opponent.

One by one Colston’s teammates and coaches followed her to the top of the ladder, each cutting off a piece of the net until both baskets were detached, a testament to just how much Saturday’s win meant to them.

Paint Branch has won four state championships and was dominant for much of the 2000s.

But no member of the current team has been to the state tournament. Saturday’s region title marked the Panthers’ first since winning three straight from 2007-09. Their last state title came in 2008.

Third-year coach Rochelle Coleman was a member of Paint Branch’s 2001 championship run and said she has had her sights set on helping the Panthers return to the tournament since she took over the program in 2011-12.

The Panthers will face perennialstatepowerEleanorRoosevelt from neighboring Prince George’s County in Thursday’s state semifinal scheduled for 5 p.m. at Towson University.

“Last year was the first class [inrecentyears]nottohave[won a region title],” Coleman said.

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Springbrook High School senior Aaron Robinson put Dulaney High School in an early hole in the 4A North championship game Friday night.

After halftime, his brother Andrew completed the burial.

The Robinson brothers combined for 43 points in their final home game as the Blue Devils advanced to the state semifinals with a 76-46 rout of Baltimore County-based Dulaney.

“It’s a great night for Springbrook,” coach Thomas Crowell said. “The kids played great, played good defense, played hard.”

Aaron Robinson scored 15 of his 18 points in the first half, including 12 in the first quarter.

“It feels great that we were both able to go out with a bang,” he said. “The first half I was carrying the load and second half (Andrew) picked up the load and carried it.”

Andrew Robinson, who scored 19 of his 25 points after intermission, said he and Aaron knew they had to play big roles against Dulaney.

“Me and my brother, before the game we said that if we were going to win, it was going to be me and him, we had to take it over. My shot wasn’t falling in the first half, so we relied on him, and I was trying to finish it,” Andrew Robinson said after helping cut down the Springbrook nets.

“When the twins are on, we’re pretty tough. We’re really tough,” said Crowell, who was quick to note however, that the Blue Devils are more than two-man team as they head to the Comcast Center.

“We’re a different ball club,” Crowell said comparing the team now to earlier in the season. “(Point guard Tavon Ngangum) is good, Alex Evans has played tremendously, rebounding inside, and Isaiah Eisendorf (11 points). It’s a team, believe me.”

One night after a close win against James H. Blake, the Blue Devils trailed only once in winning their third game in as many days.

“I’ve been coaching over 40 years in this county,” Crowell said. “This is the toughest three days of my entire life. And the kids also.

Three games in three days. Two of the games against rivals.”

The opening minutes featured a scrum in which most of the players on the court ended up diving after the same loose ball.

“There must have been eight guys diving on that ball,” Crowell said. “I’m a football coach too [assistant coach for Our Lady of Good Counsel]. That got me so fired up. I knew we couldn’t be beat from that moment on.”

With Dulaney leading 3-2, Aaron Robinson then hit three-pointers on consecutive

“One of the things when I took over was wanting to make sure we held up that [winning] tradition. All the time when alumni come out, they talk about winning [region titles].”

Paint Branch possesses all the tools necessary to win a state championship: athleticism, speed,size,sheerbasketballskill.

Within that the Panthers boast individually versatile players, allowing them to play a variety of different styles based on what is thrown at them.

Evident in their performance Saturday, Paint Branch is capable of putting up big numbers — Colston and junior guard Dasia Harris average 18 points per game, Tyra Sinclair another 10 points — and does so quite often. But it was the Panthers’ defensive effort from the start against Catonsville that impressed Coleman most, she said.

Paint Branch jumped to a 21-6 first-quarter lead; four of the Comets’ six points came from the free throw line. The Panthers held Catonsville scoreless for the first four minutes of the second quarter in building a 39-16 halftime lead. While the Panthers have benefitted this season from a much improved presence inside the paint — Nicola Ekuban and Sofilia Ngwafang made it very difficult for the Comets to do anything aroundtherim—itwastheirperimeter shooting that propelled them Saturday. Led by Harris (25 points), Colston (19) and Sinclair (15), Paint Branch netted 12 3-point shots Saturday.

The game was all but clinched by halftime but it was important for the Panthers to keep up their intensity, Harris said. That wasn’t hard given the opportunity they were faced with.

“We know we all kind of play the same position so we just share the ball,” Harris said.

“It means so much to us to get backtostates.Weknewwehada chance and we took advantage.”

FILM FEST

&

ALL AFRICA

New African Films Festival opens with Ejiofor’s latest, “Half of a Yellow Sun,” on Thursday.

The Gazette’s Guide to

Arts & Entertainment

Page B-7 www.gazette.net | Wednesday, March 12, 2014

BY

VIRGINIA TERHUNE

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Page B-5

STAFF WRITER

Folksinger, activist Peggy Seeger visits her old neighborhood n

Tenor Rolando Sanz.

WHOLE

Folk singer, songwriter and activist Peggy Seeger will visit Chevy Chase Village Hall on Saturday for a discussion

PEGGY SEEGER IN CONVERSATION WITH MARY CLIFF

before performing that evening in Washington, D.C.

n When: 4 p.m. Saturday

PHOTO BY URSY POTTER

n Where: Chevy Chase Village Hall, 5906 Connecticut Ave., Chevy Chase

F

lying back and forth across the pond is nothing new for longtime folk singer, songwriter and activist Margaret “Peggy” Seeger, who lived in Chevy Chase as a teenager before marrying and raising her family in England.

Half-sister of the late Pete Seeger, Peggy Seeger is back in the states for her two-week “I Just Can’t Stay Away” tour of concerts and lectures at venues on the East Coast and in the Chicago area.

One of her first stops is Chevy Chase, where she will chat in-person with radio host Mary Cliff on Saturday afternoon at the Chevy Chase Village Town Hall, near the house on Kirke Street where she once lived.

ROLANDO SANZ

n Tickets: Free; first come, first served n For information: 301-656-6141, chevychasehistory.org

CONCERT n When: 8 p.m. Saturday

Cliff hosts the “Traditions” radio show, which previously aired on American University’s WAMU 88.5 and is now heard on Saturday nights on Bluegrass Country at 105.5 FM. Sponsored by the Chevy Chase Historical Society, the late afternoon talk is free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis.

See ROOTS, Page B-7

n Where: Washington Ethical Society, 7750 16th Street, N.W., Washington n Tickets: $15; free for FSGW members n For information: 703981-2217, fsgw.org, peggyseeger.com

Adah Rose Gallery to share ‘Deepest Feeling’ ON VIEW

BY CLAUDIA ROUSSEAU

PAT GOSLEE

Both abstract and organic, Pat Goslee’s “Enigma of the Eternal Now” engages the viewer by its inscrutable forms that often seem on the edge of representation.

Adah Rose Bitterbaum loves art.

Just being near her you can sense the excitement she feels when talking about art. Her tiny gallery on Howard Avenue in Kensington brings to mind Alfred Stieglitz’s famed Gallery 291 which, though physically small, was hugely important in introducing modern art to New York viewers and supported an important group of artists in the early twentieth century.

So too, Adah Rose’s enthusiasm for contemporary art in our region also supports a wide range of artists working in an equally broad range of media. On view there now is a

modest but captivating show of two artists who are both working with pattern. Its title, “The Deepest Feeling Always Shows Itself in Silence,” is taken from “Silence,” a poem by American poet Marianne Moore.

Pat Goslee has been working with abstract patterns for some years, always looking for different ways to express that interest. In this group of five paintings, her shapes tend to be organic, her palette tending toward the pastel, with lots of pink and light blues. One work, “Falling Upward” appears from a distance like a wreath of pink flowers.

On closer inspection, the forms are complex; including transfers of lace and mesh that Goslee has been doing for some time. She began doing

See ON VIEW, Page B-7

NEW

WORLD Tony Award-winning composer to guest conduct at Winston Churchill High n

BY

WILL C. FRANKLIN STAFF WRITER

By all accounts, Rockville native Rolando Sanz has made a name for himself.

A graduate of the Yale University School of Music, the tenor has landed leading roles with the Washington Concert Opera, Lyric Opera Baltimore, Annapolis Opera and the Cathedral Choral Society and has performed in numerous productions all over the United States.

In 2011, along with his brother, Kristofer, Sanz took on a bigger production — creating an educational organization in Montgomery County for students who wanted to learn more about, and perform with, full orchestras and large-scale works. Young Artists of America was born.

“It’s been a real pleasure over the past three seasons to see not just the kids rise to the occasion for the performances that we present, but also to really get turned on by this repertoire that they really wouldn’t get a chance to experience otherwise,” Sanz said.

One of those experiences arrives on Saturday and Sunday when 87 area high school students, five professional vocalists, a Broadway pianist and one incredibly busy Tony Award-winning composer descend upon Winston Churchill High School in Potomac to perform “Songs for a New World.”

See WORLD, Page B-7

SONGS FOR A NEW WORLD n When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday n Where: Winston Churchill High School, 11300 Gainsborough Rd., Potomac n Tickets: $20-$35 n For information: 301-272-8604, youngartistsamerica.org

THE GAZETTE

Page B-6

Wednesday, March 12, 2014 s

Sting, Paul Simon to play fundraising concert tonight in North Bethesda Rock luminaries lend a hand with Duke Ellington School benefit at Strathmore n

BY SAMANTHA SCHMIEDER SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE

On Thursday, Sting and Paul Simon will take over the Verizon Center. But the night before, the duo will help to raise money for the Duke Ellington School of the Arts with a concert at the Music Center at Strathmore in North Bethesda.

Currently on tour together, the pair are taking time out of their busy schedules to be a part of the Duke Ellington’s Perfor-

mance Series of Legends, which is now in its seventh year and has become the school’s signature fundraising event.

Rory Pullens, CEO of the Duke Ellington School, explained that he and the school are grateful that the music icons were willing to participate in the concert and give them their “opening night” in the Maryland area. Pullens thinks that people will be drawn to the show because the money goes to a good cause and that Strathmore is much more intimate venue than the Verizon Center.

“Now that the Performance Series of Legends is in its seventh year, people follow the brand, they look forward to it and love supporting the Duke Ellington

School of the Arts,” Pullens said.

This year, student singers and dancers will open the show by performing two Sting pieces choreographed by Charles Augins, the director of the dance department at the school and a former choreographer for Sting himself.

Augins met and worked with Sting on the music video “Spread a Little Happiness,” from the soundtrack to the 1982 film “Brimstone & Treacle.”

Following that collaboration, Augins worked with Sting periodically as a dance instructor throughout the early ’90s, also working with David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney during that time.

Because of his connection to Sting, Augins decided to reach out and request the rock star’s assistance.

“I know he is a kind and giving spirit, and [as he’s grown older] he is a cool teacher who is very concerned with the youth of today and giving back,”

w No ing! w Sho F.

Scott Fitzgerald Theater

Rock icons Sting and Paul Simon will join forces on stage Wednesday for a concert benefiting the Duke Ellington School of the Arts at the Music Center at Strathmore.

PHOTO BY FRANK OCKENFELS

has worked with in the past, he says his students aren’t really fazed.

“We’re talking about another generation,” Augins said with a laugh, explaining that most of his 14- and 15-year-old students are just figuring out who these big names are.

The event begins at 8 p.m.

at the Music Center at Strathmore. Tickets range from $250 up to VIP tickets for $1000, and are partially tax deductible. The event will also feature another mystery guest.

“We do have a special artist who will be coming, whose name I can’t reveal at this juncture,” Pullens said.

IN THE ARTS DANCES

603 Edmonston Dr. Rockville, MD 20851

240-314-8690

www.rockvillemd.gov/theatre

“Global Warmth” 1910843

Augins said.

Tickets for the event start at around $250 — obviously making it difficult for students to attend. In the past, artists have made stops at the school while in town to lead a masterclass and to discuss the industry and answer students’ questions.

However, this year, because the show is happening in the middle of their tour, Sting and Simon are unable to have a master class.

“It’s a little deviation from what we usually do because their time is much more in demand,” Pullens said.

Students performing in the opening act and their parents are able to attend the show, and there were also some more reasonably priced tickets set aside for parents and students to purchase, Pullens explained.

Previous artists who have played at the Performance Series of Legends include Stevie Wonder, Patti LaBelle and Earth, Wind and Fire.

Although many people would be impressed with the people and projects that Augins

The National String Symphonia

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David A. Fanning, Conductor March 22 at 8 pm Tickets $10 to $37.50

Carpe Diem Contra Dance, March. 13, Steve Hickman, John Devine and the Major Minors, DeLaura Padovan, caller, 7-7:30 p.m. contradance workshops, 7:30-10 p.m. Contras & Squares, second Thursdays, Great Hall, Silver Spring Civics Center, One Veterans Plaza, Silver Spring, $10 for general admission, $8 for members, $5 for students and those without income, www.carpediemarts.com.

Hollywood Ballroom, March 12, “step of the evening” East Coast Swing at 8:15 p.m., Social Ballroom at 8:30 p.m.; March 14, drop-in lessons from 7:30-9 p.m., West Coast Swing Dancing with Dance Jam Productions at 9 p.m. ($15); March 15, Shamrock Ball with Christina Drapkin Jazz Group, East Coast Swing at 7:30 p.m., Jazz Group

from 8:30-11:30 p.m., DJ from 11:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. ($25 in advance, $30 at door); March 16, free Tango lesson at 7 p.m., Social Ballroom Dance at 8 p.m. ($16); March 19, “step of the evening” Samba at 8:15 p.m., Social Ballroom Dance at 8:30 p.m.; March 20, Tea Dance from 12:30-3:30 p.m. ($6), 2126 Industrial Highway, Silver Spring, 301-326-1181, www.hollywoodballroomdc.com Scottish Country Dancing, 8-10 p.m. Mondays, steps and formations taught. No experience, partner necessary, T-39 Building on NIH campus, Wisconsin Avenue and South Drive, Bethesda, 240505-0339.

Glen Echo Park is at 7300 MacArthur Blvd.

Blues, Capital Blues: Thurs-

days, 8:15 p.m. beginner lesson, 9-11:30 p.m. dancing to DJs, Glen

Echo Park’s Spanish Ballroom Annex, $8, www.capitalblues.org.

Contra, March 14, Ann Fallon and the Glen Echo Open Band, 7:30 p.m. lesson, 8:30 p.m. dance, Glen Echo Park Spanish Ballroom, $10, www.fridaynightdance.org.

Contra & Square, March 16, Bev Bernbaum with Coracree; March 23, Tom and Myra with Tunescape; March 30, Nils Fredland and Figment, 7:30 p.m., Glen Echo Park Spanish Ballroom, $12 for general, $9 for members, $5 for students, www.fsgw.org.

English Country, March 12, Stephanie Smith; March 19, Melissa Runnin; March 26, Bob Farrall, 8 p.m., Glen Echo Town Hall (upstairs), www.fsgw.org.

Swing, March, TBD, lesson at 8 p.m., dancing at 9 p.m., Glen Echo Park, $15, www.flyingfeet.org.

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THE GAZETTE

Wednesday, March 12, 2014 s

Made in Africa

ON VIEW

Continued from Page B-5 it with wax or encaustic, but abandoned that a few years ago for oils and spray paint with which she continues to work.

The results are densely formed compositions with botanical forms that layer over each other in ways that produce an illusion of deep pictorial space. A good example of this is her “Enigma of the Eternal Now,” clearly a title that invites a metaphysical interpretation. Again, the floral comparison comes to mind: the forms look like a bouquet pushing upward. Yet, there are large white plastic forms on the left of the painting that defy that interpretation, and the tiny curling forms that make up much of this “bouquet” don’t actually look floral at all. This is what makes Goslee’s paintings so intriguing and delightful. They seem to reflect something in nature because of their organic richness, but they are actually quite abstract in the end. The freshness of the colors and the strangely inscrutable formations in her paintings make Goslee’s works both visually attractive and compelling in that they encourage looking and wondering. The artist has commented on this aspect of her work in an interview with Isabel Manalo published in 2011: “One thing that excites me is how pattern and layering represent how we store ‘stuff’ (information, emotional baggage, awareness) … What layers need to be removed or rearranged, in order to change? There’s a lot of back and forth the when I work.

Foreground changes to background … I can get lost in the patterns … The most important thing is to try and stay open … We are all energy conduits … My paintings are a way of visualizing that energy.”

Jessica Van Brakle’s work has taken on a clear identity in the past few years because of her signature use of crane and construction metaphors drawn with fine black lines often paired with organic forms. The work now on exhibit is from a series of drawings she titled “Flatland.” Limiting herself to those lines and flat black forms, and continuing to work with shapes derived from the construction crane, each of these exquisitely rendered works adds a different shade of blue to the black and white, along with tiny “gems” (the artist’s word) of bright colors highlighting certain points in the image. As the artist has said, here she uses “the twodimensional plane to explore the multidimensional possibilities of human perception.” In addition, the theme of nature versus man-made, which has been fundamental to her work, is very much in evidence here where the nature component is far more evident than in previous works, as well as a spiritual dimension that expresses itself in mandala-like wheels and shapes reminiscent of fractals and crystals.

For example, in “Compass Flower” Van Brackle confines the crane forms to petals around a black organic shape that resembles a snowflake. Black petals surround the inner “flower” with tiny linear projections at certain points around it. This extra material is reminiscent of the fractal drawings of early twentieth century scientists, before computer renderings were possible. It is visible in a number of these works where the forms, drawn with geometric and symmetrical exactitude, are extended, or enhanced around the edges; pulled outward in seemingly random ways. These linear extensions also give the drawings a handmade quality that belies the impression that these are prints — something which, according to Adah Rose, is the frequent mistake of many visitors.

Van Brakle’s interest in the crane form rises from her family background.

Her grandfather and father were in the construction business, and worked particularly on big projects with cranes.

Her studio is full of plastic crane toys in different sizes and colors like bright red and yellow. Her transformation of these into elegant ink drawings executed with a little squeegee with a metal nib and a small brush is nothing less than fascinating. The clean lines of the crane forms are contrasted with plant forms in compositions that often seem kaleidoscopic or blossoming in character.

Among the most striking of the pieces in this exhibit is “Alcove,” a small drawing where the primary shape is recognizably a tree, its form mirrored on two sides against a blue background resembling a corner. The crane forms fill the negative space where the branches separate, dotted with a pink “gem.” The leaves and branches extend in delicate curving line drawings outside of the geometric containing blue form as if connoting the way nature will usually, or at least ultimately, prevail over the man-made. This Romantic idea is also suggested in the piece called “Spurt” in which a large black form resembling a house is topped by crane forms in two layers. Yet “spurting” out from the center is a flowering plant, a mystical pink “gem” at its top against the pale blue sky.

“The Deepest Feeling Always Shows Itself in Silence,” Pat Goslee and Jessica Van Brakle, to March 23, Adah Rose Gallery, 3766 Howard Ave., Kensington, 301-922-0162, adahrosegallery.com.

Page B-7

n

AFI Silver presents 18 movies from a dozen countries BY

VIRGINIA TERHUNE STAFF WRITER

Anyone who appreciated the Oscar-nominated performance of British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor in “12 Years a Slave” will soon also be able to see him in “Half of a Yellow Sun.” Filmed in Nigeria in 2013, it is based on a 2006 book of the same name by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

The movie is one of 18 entries in this year’s New African Films Festival.

Shot in countries all over the continent, the movies will be screened Thursday through March 20 at the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center in Silver Spring.

“It’s definitely a window into the world of sub-Sahara Africa and the people living there today,” said AFI festival director Todd Hitchcock.

“That’s what international film festivals make possible for us,” he said.

Now in its 10th year, the festival is presented by the American Film Institute in Silver Spring and two Washington, D.C.-based organizations.

One is TransAfrica, which educates the public about issues and cultures of Africans and the African diaspora, and the other is afrikafé, a regional networking group for Africans and friends of Africa.

Hitchcock said this year’s festival is the biggest, and probably the best, in its history.

“There are some terrific films and some high-profile titles. .... We’ve got the strongest line-up ever,” he said.

“Half of a Yellow Sun,” which opens the festival on March 13, is about two sisters living through the 1967-1970 Nigerian-Biafran war. One is Kainene (Anika Noni Rose) and the other is Olanna (Thandie Newton), who becomes involved with a professor named Odenigbo (Ejiofor).

Adichie, whose most recent book is “Americanah,” will be present between the movie’s two screenings on Sunday, March 16, for a Q&A and booksigning. The first screening at 1 p.m. is sold out and ends at approximately 3:15 p.m. The second screening

ROOTS

Continued from Page B-5 Later in the day, Seeger will perform at the Washington Ethical Society on 16th Street in Washington, D.C., not far from the Silver Spring MARC station. The concert is sponsored by the Folklore Society of Greater Washington based in Cabin John.

“I’ll be singing half traditional and half new songs,” said Seeger, who has recorded 23 solo CDs and plans to release her next, “Everything Changes,” in August.

Still to come in the pipeline is “Love Unbidden,” an album of love songs and poetry.

Traveling with her on the tour will be one of her nine grandchildren, Alex MacColl, 23.

“My grandson will be driving me around — he’s my roadie and companion, and he’ll be singing one or two songs,” Seeger said.

“He’ll [also] be lifting everything,” joked Seeger, who turns 79 in June.

NEW AFRICAN FILMS FESTIVAL n When: March 13-20 n Where: AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, 8633 Colesville Road, Silver Spring n Tickets: $7-$12 n For information: 240-672-1854, afi.com/silver

begins at 5:30 p.m.

Also featured in the festival is the Ethiopian movie “Difret,” which tells the story of a true ground-breaking court case in the mid-1990s in which a 14-year-old girl shot and killed an abductor practicing the centuries-old tradition of telefa.

Still seen in parts of rural Ethiopia, telefa allows a would-be husband to abduct, hide and rape a young woman until she becomes pregnant. As the future father, he can then negotiate with her family about marrying her.

The movie, which won audience awards at the Sundance and Berlin film festivals, was written and directed by filmmaker Zeresenay Berhane Mehari, who grew up in Ethiopia and now lives in Alexandria, Va., with his wife, Mehret Mandefro, who co-produced the movie.

Mehari said a chance meeting with the brother of the lawyer who defended the young woman led to the making of the movie.

“I’m always going back to Ethiopia looking for stories,” he said. “One foot is still there ... I’m a product of that culture.”

Actress Angelina Jolie also recently signed on as one of the executive producers of the film.

Mehari and Mandefro will be present for a Q&A at the Saturday screening of “Difret.”

“It’s such great luck,” Hitchcock said. “It’s an interesting film festival with multiple local connections.”

Also from Ethiopia, and recommended for children 8 years and older, is “Horizon Beautiful.”

Swiss soccer mogul Franz comes to Ethiopia hoping to boost his image as a humanitarian and runs into AdSister of the late Michael Seeger and half-sister of the late Pete Seeger, Peggy Seeger and her late husband, Ewan MacColl, helped drive the folk revival in England in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. They preserved traditional songs and worked with Charles Parker on their groundbreaking BBC show, “Radio Ballads,” a series of radio documentaries featuring music and the recorded voices of working people.

Two of Seeger’s most best-known songs are the feminist classic, “I’m Gonna Be an Engineer” and “The Ballad of Springhill” about a 1958 mining disaster in Nova Scotia.

Music in the making Seeger grew up in a musical household. Her father was folklorist and musicologist Charles Seeger, and her mother was his second wife, Ruth Porter Crawford, a modernist composer.

Seeger went to Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School and spent two years in Radcliffe College in the early 1950s

AFI SILVER

Filmed in Ethiopia, “Difret” is based on the true story of a lawyer who fights for the life of a teenage girl (played by Tizita Hagere) who shot and killed an abductor intent on raping and marrying her. The movie is one of 18 screening during the 10th annual New African Films Festival running from Thursday to March 20 at the AFI Silver Theatre. massu, a 12-year-old boy who wants to catch his attention so he can become a professional soccer player.

The boy cooks up a fake kidnapping and rescue of Franz so he can make himself look like a hero to the visiting soccer king, but things go awry, and the two end up in the Ethiopian countryside trying to get back to the capital, Addis Ababa.

“It’s family friendly, which is not always the case [with some of the movies],” Hitchcock said For the first time, the festival is also showing an animated film. From the Ivory Coast, “Aya of Yop City” is based on a series of graphic novels by husband-and-wife team Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie.

It’s the story of a 19-year-old girl who wants to study medicine but runs into opposition from family and friends who think she should get married.

“There’s some adult material. ...

It’s very, very funny,” Hitchcock said.

Film partnerships In recent years African film makers have partnered with Europeans to produce movies made in Africa, Hitchcock said.

“Something Necessary,” directed

by Judy Kibinge, is a joint Kenyan/German movie co-produced by German director Tom Tykwer, who directed the 1998 thriller, “Run Lola Run.” The story is about a victim and her perpetrator who meet in the aftermath of a post-election conflict in Kenya in 2007.

Anne (Kenyan actress Wanjiru) is a before moving to Holland and then to England where she met MacColl.

Seeger was the inspiration for MacColl’s song, “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,” recorded in 1973 by Roberta Flack.

She and MacColl also performed at venues around Great Britain for 30 years.

“We had a little van and could go anywhere in two to three hours,” she said.

Following her husband’s death in 1989, Seeger moved to North Carolina in 1994 and continued to perform, driving to venues in the eastern U.S. in a small motor home, until she returned to England in 2010 to be closer to family.

Steeped in traditional folk music and still politically active, Seeger continues to write new songs about global issues, including the ongoing — and in her view, possibly irreversible — degradation of the natural environment.

“It’s an ecological disaster,” she said. “What we do affects everything — all human beings need to be all work-

widow struggling to rebuild her farm.

One of the construction men working on her house is Joseph (Walter Lagat), a gang member who took part in raping her and killing her husband.

This year AFI is partnering with the French embassy in Washington to cross-promote the New African film festival and the annual Franchophonie Cultural Festival running to April 15, which celebrates French culture in France and the regions it colonized.

French-influenced movies in the AFI festival include “Burn it up Djassa” and “Aya of Yop City” from the Ivory Coast; “Le President” and “Ninah’s Diary” from Cameroon; “Under the Starry Sky” from Senegal and “GriGris” from Chad.

“GriGris” is about a young man with a paralyzed leg who dreams of becoming a professional dancer but who instead turns to smuggling oil to pay his stepfather’s hospital bills.

Along the way he meets a prostitute named Mimi, and they try to make a life together.

Also in the festival are films from southern Africa, including “The Forgotten Kingdom” about a man who travels from Johannesburg to the mountains of Lesotho to bury his father.

Another is the psychological thriller “Fynbos” about a real estate developer facing bankruptcy who travels with his wife to a lavish glass house in the fynbos, a remote area of shrub land in the Western Cape region of South Africa.

“It was a very good year as far as choices available to us,” said Hitchcock about the 2014 entries. “It’s wonderful to see it grow year to year.” ing at the same issue, or we’re sunk.”

Related for her is the issue of population growth.

“It has tripled in my lifetime,” she said. “There’s so much space in the U.S., but in Europe you really notice it.”

Also a committed feminist, Seeger said one organization that helps women around the world is Women for Women International, a nonprofit with offices in Washington, D.C., and London.

By contributing, individuals can directly support one woman, enabling her to learn to read, write and become financially independent.

“It can take women out of abusive situations,” she said.

Seeger said she’s glad to be returning for a visit to Chevy Chase and its familiar neighborhoods, which she said haven’t changed much since she knew them as a teenager.

“I’m looking forward to seeing old friends that might turn up,” she said. vterhune@gazette.net

WORLD

Continued from Page B-5 Jason Robert Brown, who wrote the show, will be the guest conductor. Brown’s latest Broadway show, “Bridges of Madison County,” just opened recently. He’s also working on the film adaptation for his show “The Last Five Years,” which is set to star Anna Kendrick of “Pitch Perfect” fame. As if that wasn’t enough, Brown is putting the finishing touches on the Broadway reimagining of “Honeymoon in Vegas,” which is supposed to open next year.

Sanz said “Songs for a New World” is “one of the iconic musical theater pieces,” for anyone who came up with musical theater in the 1990s.

“Kristofer and I reached out to Jason over a year ago when we got the idea of doing ‘Songs for a New World,’” Sanz said. “We had heard Jason had written a fully orchestrated version. … We told him we were looking for information about renting the orchestra part.”

Brown responded almost immediately, Sanz said. Not only was Brown pleased they wanted to do the show, but he wanted to be a part of it.

For someone who is so incredibly busy to stop by and help the Young Artists of America is tremendously exciting, according to Sanz.

“Just to have Jason coming and to mentor our students to perform alongside them is, we think, a very unique experience,” said Sanz. “Not just for our students, but for students everywhere. This is not something he does often, but he made it very clear in the

MICHELLE DRUMHELLER

Young Artists of America will work with professional singers on Broadway composer Jason Robert Brown’s classic “Songs for a New World.” Brown will be the guest conductor for the shows. beginning that he feels very strongly about youth music education.”

“Songs for a New World,” isn’t a typical Broadway musical. The production features a series of songs that are all connected by one central theme. The show features four singers who sing alone and with each other. For this particular staging, four professional performers — Broadway actress Tracy Lynn Olivera, Helen Hayes Award winner Nora Y. Payton, Catholic University Voice Faculty Professor Dr. Rachelle Fleming (sister of renowned soprano Renee Fleming), and Young Artists of America alumnus Michael Mainwaring — will sing with

support from students.

Sanz knows the experience will be phenomenal for the students, but that Brown will also be able to benefit from the performances. “[Brown] is one who actually laments the reducing of orchestrations in Broadway musicals,” Sanz said.

“He’s always fighting for that. So I think the fact we have a 52-piece orchestra to offer him to do his piece is rare for him as well.”

“Songs for a New World” has a really poignant message, according to Sanz, and he hopes audiences take the words of the show to heart.

“The beauty of the show is that after everyone goes through the 90 minutes of music [and] has gone through their ups and downs and their goods and their bads, the show doesn’t end happily and it doesn’t say that the world is a beautiful place,” Sanz said. “The last words of the show are, roughly, no matter what you go through, we’re going to be OK. We’re going to be fine.

“It’s rather inspirational and it’s not sugar-coating anything. It’s looking at life just as it is.” wfranklin@gazette.net

Page B-8

THE GAZETTE

Wednesday, March 12, 2014 s

Wednesday, March 12, 2014 s

Classifieds

Page B-9

Call 301-670-7100 or email class@gazette.net

SILVER SPRING

Randolph Village Senior Apartments

1 BR SPECIAL

"Affordable Independent Living For Seniors 62+."

Income Restriction Applies

WEDNESDAY OPEN HOUSE COFFEE SOCIAL 11AM-1PM AMENITIES: *Health Care Facility *Physical Fitness Center *Sun Filled Solarium *Community Media Room *Plenty of Parking

877.907.5577 (Office)

Randolph Village Apartments

531 Randolph Road Silver Spring, MD 20904

*Library *Resident Socials *Beautifully Landscaped Grounds

X

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ROCKVILLE

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301-948-1908

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DON’T WAIT APPLY TODAY!

Senior Living 62+

• Emergency Response System • 24 Hour Maintenance • Transportation Via Community Van • Pet Friendly • Full Size Washer & Dryer

www.PinnacleAMS.com/GardensOfTraville

Se Habla Espanol

X

It’s BRAND NEW at Amber Commons 7 McCausland Place, Gaithersburg, MD 20877

The New Taste OPEN OPEN Saturday from of Churchill 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

“If you are looking for the distinctive, the uncommon, the out of the ordinary then welcome home to Amber Commons where we have the perfect blend of tradition: brick, mature landscaping, and gracious space combined with the best of brand new: GE clean steel appliances, energy efficiency and more!”

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• Minutes away from I-270, Metro, and MARC Train

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Call today: 301-355-7111 www.ambercommons.com

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SILVER SPRING

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STRATHMORE HOUSE APARTMENTS kNewly Updated Units

and reach over 206,000 homes!

kSpacious Floor Plans kSmall Pets Welcome

Contact Ashby Rice (301) 670-2667

DISCOVER DELAWARE’S RESORT LIVING WITHOUT RESORT PRICING!

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Brochures available 1-866-629-0770 or www.coolbranch.com

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Award-winning stacked townhomes w/garages ready for summer move-in, priced from $284,990.

LIMITED OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE! Call Betsy and Penny at 301-916-5194.

11964 Little Seneca Pkwy, Clarksburg, MD 20871.

A Beazer Homes community, MHBR No. 93 G560723

GERMANTOWN:

Townhouse for rent 3Br, 2.5Ba, $1700/mo Off Clopper Road.

Close to Schools Mike 301-706-4654.

MOUNTAIN LAND BARGAIN. 9.68

$69,900 MTN / VALLEY/RIVER VIEWS Level mountaintop land with forever views and park-like hardwoods waiting for you to enjoy. Close to charming country town like Mayberry! Camp or build - no time frame to build. General warranty deed, all mineral rights convey, new survey & perc make this worry-free!

Best financing in years with low down payment. Rare opportunity to own at bargain price. CALL NOW TO SEE 1-800-8881262, 7 days

ACRES only $47,777 BEST VIEWS TO BE SEEN. CITY WATER /DRIVEWAY IN Rare DAMASCUS: 3BR chance to own ridge $1400/ 2BR $1150 top parcel with gor+util NS/NP, W/D New geous mix of open Carpet, Paint, Deck & land, oaks & black Patio, 301-250-8385 walnut trees. Endless mountain & valley DAMASCUS : TH, views on this park-like newly renov, 3 Br, parcel. Town is 5 2.5Ba, fin basmt, miles away & river with deck, NS/NP, $1450 + boat launch only 3 util , 301-916-1196 miles away. CITY WATER, perc apGAITH/AMBERFLD proved, all mineral Lux 3lvl EU/TH, Gar, rights included, war2MBR, 2.5BA, LR DR, ranty deed. Excellent FR, FP,EIK, Deck financing. Call owner $1800. 301-792-9538 now 800-888-1262

GAITHERSBURG:

2 lvl TH End Unit 2 lg BR, 1.5BA, W/D, fenced yard. $1350/m 301-916-1279

to advertise call GAITHERSBURG: 301.670.7100 4Br 3Ba, 3lvl TH, or email Spacious, W/O Bsmt, class@gazette.net Deck, W/D nr Mid Cty & I370. $1700 + utils Call: 240-780-1770

GAITHERSBURG:

TH, close to MVA,3 BR,finish bsmt with 2 xtra rooms.W/D, HOC ok.Avail 4/1, $1,900. 202-257-0184.

GAITH: Nr Rio/Metro

TH, 3br 2.5ba wlk/out bsmt, New Kitchen W/D. $1800 + Elec.

301-512-4529

GBURG: Spacious 3

bd 2.5 ba TH w/ garage & deck. Near shops, metro & 270 $2000 301-330-1177

N.POTOMAC ROCKVILLE: 1 BR

Apt. $1150 incl util, CATV, Free Parking Avail now.

NS/NP CALL: 301-424-9205

ROCKVILLE: 3BD,

2BA. $1700 util included. 12205 Braxfield Ct. #5, 20852. 240353-8500 TAKOMA PARK: Unfurn 2Br 1Ba Apt. W/D $1600/mo or best offer, nr Metro, off street Prkng Please Call 301-559-3006

GERMAN:

3Br, 1.5Ba, HOC welcome, ceramic tile floors, nr 270 & shops, nice area 410-800-5005

GE RMA NT OWN :

3BD 2BA TH. Near 355, 270, shops.

W/D. Avail now. Hoc ok. 240-383-1000

ROCK: 3BR, 3.5BA

TH, Remod, pool., fin bsmt, nr Metro HOC welcome $2k/month Francis 301-570-0510

ROCKVILLE- SFH

4brd 2.5 bath living/dining & family room, $2100 credit check(301)294-8555

SILVER

SPRING:

4bd / 3ba EOG $2200 month many upgrds, avail immed. Call 410781-7339

SILVER

SPRING:

SFH, 3Br, 2Ba, fin bsmt, CAC, nr Metro, bus/school, $1700 + SD/util 301-252-4399

GERMANTOWN

3bd 2.5 ba 2 lvl condo new carpet, freshly paint upgd windows $1600 240-426-7852

GE RMA NT OWN :

Lge 2Br 2Ba, W/D, p o o l , exercise rm storage, Avl 04/01 $1350/mo, Please Call: 301-972-2493 GERM: Lrg 2 Br, 2 Ba, laundry rm, near 270/Middle Brook Rd $1300/mo 240-3057913 or 301-455-8440

(301) 460-1647 3004 Bel Pre Rd., Apt. 204, Silver Spring, MD 20906

BETHESDA: 1BD in

2BD Apt. Near Medical Center Metro. Near 270/95. $650 util incl.

240-669-4115

w/ba,Fam RM w/FP NSTH $730 + utils avail Mar.3016747928

GAITH: 2 Rooms in TH: both shr Ba $600 G E R M A N T O W N : In TH each plus shared 1Br shr bath Male Only NS/NP utliities Please call: $425 + 1/4 utils, nr 240-305-6331 transp, 240-481-5098 GAITHERSBURG:

1BD in Apartment.

Share Bath & Kitchen. $530 + util. Wifi avail.

240-406-6694

GAITHERSBURG:

Lrg room w/priv BA & Entr. Close to shops, bus & metro. $700 incl utils & int. N/P, N/S. Se habla espanol.

Please email Christian cvalie1@comcast.net

GAITHERSBURG:

Male, 1 Br $299 & 1 master BR w BA $399. Nr Metro/Shops NP/NS. Avail Now. Call 301-219-1066 GAITH/FLWR HILL: 1BR Bsmt Apt. in SFH, 3/acres, prvt entr. all utils, CATV & I-net $1,100. 301-869-1954

kFull Size W/D in every unit kSwimming Pool

ROCKVILLE: Fem,

1Bd apt, in SFH, priv entr & bath, full kit, W/D, w/closet, NS/NP, $850 util inc, avl 03/15, 301-309-3744

SILVER

SPRING:

SILVER

SPRING:

NEW 1BR Apt 1st floor priv entrance, kit, Ba & parking $1100 quiet & sunny! 301-879-2868

GERM: Male 1Br in TH Share bath & kitchen $450 ut inc Nr MARC/Buses, Ref’s Req. 240-370-2301

White Oak area, Male, 1Br w/priv Ba, $730 util inc + $365 SD Avl 03/16 240-543-0141

MV: Bsmt for rent in TH, New carpt/paint priv ba, catv, int., no kitchen. $500 utils incl. Female

Shared Kit & Ba, Nr Forest Glen Metro/HC Hosp, utl/cbl/intrn inc CALL: 240-389-8825

only. 301-466-4118

ROCK/OLNEY:

Room in SFH $450 util incl., Cable, int. Fem only. References. call 240-476-9987

ROCKVILLE: 1Br

share bath in SFH. Male $550 utils cable incl. Near Metro/ Bus NS/NP 240-483-9184

to advertise

S S : Rms in SFH,

TAKOMA

PARK:

Rooms for rent $665 each, WIFI, util incl. All furn! Near metro. 240421-6689

to advertise call 301.670.7100 or email class@gazette.net

Realtors & Agents call or to advertise Rentals & for sale by owner call 301.670.7100

GAITH/LAYTNSVL : Lrg Rm in SFH, full

privlgs all amenities, pool ,beautiful country setting, NS. $600 301482-1425

ADELPHI: 1 furn lg GAITH: M ale/Fem to BR in 2BR Apt shr BA New paint/carpet, nr Bus. $550+ utils, cable incl. 240-273-8744

share 1 BR in TH. Near bus line. N/s, N/p. $450/m Util incl.

301-675-0538

ASPEN HILL: 1Br

GAITH:M BRs $435+ 440+475+555+ Maid Ns/Np, nr 270/370/Bus shops, quiet, conv.Sec Dep 301-983-3210

w/BA, shared kit & living rm , NS/NP, $600/mo + sec dep req call 301-962-5778

GAITH/MUDDY BRANCH: M/F only for LG lwr Lvl suite

kFamily Room G560362

or pricing and ad deadlines.

kBalcony Patio

or email class@gazette. net

Page B-10

Wednesday, March 12, 2014 s

TOP CA$H PAID FOR OLD ROLEX, PATEK PHILIPPE & CARTIER WATCHES! Daytona, Submariner, GmtMaster, Explorer, Milgauss, Day Date, etc. 1-800-401-0440

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301-948-3937

#5205 Look on Auctionzip.com

Request for Proposals Maryland Family Network, Inc. (MFN) is in search of a local partner to operate a Family Support Center in Montgomery County, Maryland. MFN will fund one lead agency through a competitive Request for Proposals (RFP) process. Family Support Centers are community-based programs that provide free services to pregnant women, and parents with infants and toddlers to help them raise healthy children and build productive futures. Successful applicants will need to secure a facility of at least 4,000 sq. ft. accessible to prospective participants in a neighborhood setting. Private and/or public non-profit agencies who are interested in applying may request a copy of the RFP document. Please write or fax Virginia Harris at Maryland Family Network, 1001 Eastern Avenue, 2nd Floor, Baltimore, MD 21202, vharris@marylandfamilynetwork.org; FAX (410) 783-0814.

MFN will not accept phone call requests for a copy of the RFP. Proposals will be due to MFN on May 5, 2014.

(3-12, 3-13-14)

GARRETT PARK:

March 14-16, 8-5, LR MY COMPUTER BR Office furn, Antiq, WORKS Computer art, computers, TVs, problems? Viruses, vintage topeak spyware, email, printer sqooter, 2012 Fiat, issues, bad internet books, records, rugs, connections - FIX IT electronics, primitives, NOW! Professional, old tools, clothes, jew- U.S.-based technielry, HH items, milita- cians. $25 off service. ry, china, camera and Call for immediate more! 4001 Oxford help 1-800-681-3250 Street 20906

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You choose the family for your child. Receive pictures/info of waiting/approved couples. Living expense assistance. 1-866236-7638

Indoor Flea Market

GP2407

Saturday, March 15th, 8am-1pm 20021 Aircraft Drive, Germantown, MD

APPLIANCE REPAIR - We fix It no matter who you bought it from! 800934-5107

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Interviews will be conducted at Westat’s Rockville office and will last approximately 90 minutes.

We are interested in adults at least 18 years of age or older.

All participants receive $50 dollars for their time.

Call 888-963-5578 and say you are calling about the Health Information Study. Please leave a name, telephone number, and a good time to reach you.

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TO $25/BOX for ER . Starting at Speaks English unexpired, sealed $19.99/month (for 12 HIGH SCHOOL 301-357-0557 DIABETIC TEST mos.) & High Speed DIPLOMA FROM STRIPS! 1 DAY PAYInternet starting at HOME. 6-8 weeks, MENT & PREPAID $14.95/month (where ACCREDITED. Get a shipping. BEST PRIavailable) SAVE! Ask Diploma. Get a Job! CES! Call 1-888-389About SAME DAY InNo Computer Needed. 0695 stallation! CALL Now! FREE Brochure. 1800-278-1401 800-264-8330. BenjaLIVE-IN/LIVE-OUT MEDICAL GUARDI- P/T: Hskpr Spanish min Franklin H.S. HOST A FRENCH ONE CALL, DOES AN - Top-rated medi- preferred. Cleaning, IT ALL! FAST AND www.diplomafrom S T U D E N cal alarm and 24/7 home.com good cook, Bethesda.

T! CCI Greenheart is RELIABLE ELECmedical alert monitor301-767-0696 TRICAL REPAIRS currently seeking voing. For a limited time, & INSTALLANURSING CAlunteer host families in get free equipment, no TIONS. Call 1-800REERS begin here the DC Area to host a POTOMAC FAMILY activation fees, no 908-8502 Get trained in months, French exchange stuASSISTANT: Suncommitment, a 2nd not years. Small dent from Aug. 1st- ONE CALL, DOES waterproof alert button Thurs 1-9pm. Drive, 21st. If inter-ested IT ALL! FAST AND classes, no waiting list. for free and more Clean & Care for FamFinancial aid for qualicontact Jim Hogue at RELIABLE ELEConly $29.95 per month. ily. Some overnights, fied students. Apply (240)772-0948, or TRICAL REPAIRS Legal. 301.887.3212 800-617-2809 now at Centura ja m e s . p . h o g u e @ g - & INSTALLACollege Richmond mail.com TIONS. Call 1-800877-205-2052 908-8502

NCCF is currently seeking foster parents. An orientation will be held on March 18, 2014 from 6pm - 8pm at 1438 Rhode Island Ave., NE Washington, DC 20018.

Please call 240-375-6407 for more information. www.nccf-cares.org.

Treasure Hunt It’s

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Need A Personal Asst?

I am available now to help!

Companion, errands, doc appts and daily organizer.

Email Evette:

assist.you@aol.com

Looking for a Tutor for Adult with Autism

To work PT w/ young adult male in his home in Darnestown MD. The person should be able to work 2-5 days a wk in 3-4 hr increments. The candidate should have documented work exp with autistic children and adults: academics, arts and/or physical fitness. Perfect position for a retired teacher or a current/former one-on-one aide in a school system. Must have own trans.

Send resume to:

office.assistant.20854@gmail.com

To Advertise Realtors & Agents

AND Rentals & For Sale by Owner Call 301.670.7100 or email class@gazette.net

Daycare Directory

FOSTER CARE

If you have room in your home, give the gift of family to a child in foster care. We pay a generous stipend. Call Carerite TFC 301-326-1357 today!

GP2398 GP2398

FLEA MARKET March 15 & 16 8am - 4pm Montgomery County Fairgrounds 16 Chestnut St. Gaithersburg, MD Vendors Wanted 301-649-1915 johnsonshows.com

Children’s Center of Damascus Damascus Licensed Family Daycare Elena’s Family Daycare Debbie’s Daycare My Little Lamb Daycare Kids Garden Day Care Reflections Daycare My Little Place Home Daycare Nancy’s Day Care

Lic#: 31453 Lic#: 139094 Lic#: 15-133761 Lic#: 15-127060 Lic #: 1551328 Lic#: 139378 Lic#: 160613 Lic#: 131042 Lic#: 25883

301-253-6864 301-253-4753 301-972-1955 301-540-6818 240-351-8888 240-601-9134 240-506-5343 301-947-8477 301-972-6694

20872 20872 20876 20876 20877 20886 20886 20886 20874

DEADLINE: MARCH 31ST, 2014

Careers 301-670-2500

class@gazette.net

Administrative

BILLING CLERK

Clinical Care

FT w/benefits. Must be detail oriented & computer literate. Possess prof degree, acctg pref (1 yr min exp). resumehomecare@gmail.com

CNA’S/Activities Coordinator

(GNA & Med Tech a plu$) Asst. Living in a rural home enviroment, Brookeville, MD. Must have own transp.

Please send resume: brookevillehouse@aol.com or fax to: 301-570-1182

GC3252

Overseeing the clinical care of our residents at Bartholomew House Assisted Living, a 35 bed level 2 home in Bethesda. Send resume and salary reqs to Sister Irene Dunn at idunn@victoryhousing.org or fax to 301-493-9788. EOE For details job description visit www.gazette.net

Dental/ Medical Assistant Trainees Needed Now Dental/Medical Offices now hiring.

No experience?

Job Training & Placement Assistance Available 1-877-234-7706 CTO SCHEV

Wednesday, March 12, 2014 s

Page B-11

Careers 301-670-2500

class@gazette.net HEALTHCARE

Provide non-medical care and companionship for seniors in their homes. Personal care, light housework, transportation, meal preparation.

Must be 21+. Must have car and one year professional, volunteer, or personal experience www.homeinsteads.com/197 Home Instead Senior Care To us it’s personal 301/588-9023 Call between 10am-4pm Mon-Fri

DINING ROOM SUPERVISOR Supervisory & cooking experience required, Non-Profit Retirement Community Send resume to: office@homecresthouse.org to advertise call 301.670.7100 or email class@gazette.net

GC3205

CONSTRUCTION

Effective immediately, M.T. Laney Co., Inc. a site/paving contractor will be accepting applications for the following positions: ∂ Paving Foreman ∂ Bobcat/Milling Operator ∂ Heavy Equipment Operator ∂ Sweeper Truck Driver ∂ Heavy Equipment Mechanic û Must have experience Top wages and a great working environment. EOE. Please email resume to info@mtlaney.com OR call 410-795-1761

CONSTRUCTION

Effective immediately, M.T. Laney Co., Inc. a site/paving contractor will be accepting applications for the following positions: ∂ Paving Superintendent ∂ Estimator û Must have experience Top wages and a great working environment. EOE. Please email resume to info@mtlaney.com OR call 410-795-1761

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VETERANS NEEDED

GC3233

Drivers Mon-Fri, 20-30/hrs. week.

Morning/Afternoon passenger van route. Montgomery County, Germantown/Silver Spring area.

Good driving record required.

Retired applicants welcome.

Call Stacy Thomas at 240-686-0866 Ext 237

Accounting Admin

Pharmacies/ hospitals now hiring.

No experience?

Job Training & Placement Assistance Available 1-877-240-4524

Restaurant Staff ∂ Waiter’s/Waitress’s A la Carte And Banquet Positions available. Full & Part Time.

Display Advertising Sales Representative

We are looking for a specialist who has a documented history of driving new business. Post Community Media provides local news and information to communities in the Maryland and Virginia. We are seeking a skilled sales professional to assist small businesses in marketing their products and services.

This is an outside sales position. You will develop and understanding of print, online and mobile advertising. Previous sales experience needed, enthusiasm, great work ethic and a strong desire to succeed.

We offer a competitive compensation and comprehensive benefits package including pension, 401(k) and tuition reimbursement.

If you believe this is the right position for your skills, talent and abilities, please forward your resume to DHayes@Gazette.net. EOE

Med Tech for Cardiology Practice in Rockville/Germantown area Must have strong skills and the ability to lead a team Fax or email resume to 301-947-2811 or resumestowork1@gmail.com

Real Estate

Local companies, Local candidates

Need to re-start your career?

MECHANIC

Work with the BEST! Must R.S.V.P.

Call Bill Hennessy

Gazette.Net

CTO SCHEV

Silver Spring

Be trained individually by one of the area’s top offices & one of the area’s best salesman with over 34 years. New & experienced salespeople welcomed.

Get Connected

FRONT DESK

301-990-8435

Career Training

Apply In Person: Normandie Farm Restaurant 10710 Falls Rd, Potomac 301-983-8838

Top wages and a great working environment. EOE. Please email resume to info@mtlaney.com OR call 410-795-1761

426 E. Diamond Ave., Gaith. or email:

Send resume to 240-449-1193 (f) or heartworkresumes@aol.com

Pharmacy/ Phlebotomy Tech Trainees Needed Now

Send clips, resume and salary requirements to dtallman@gazette.net.

We offer a competitive compensation & comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, pension, 401(k) & tuition reimbursement.

No phone calls.

EOE

Effective immediately, M.T. Laney Co., Inc. a site/paving contractor will be accepting applications for the following positions:

English/Spanish with experience. Apply at:

Friendly, energetic individual with Exp. at Front Desk and Medical Records for Large Cardiology Practice in Mont. Co. FT/Benefits offered

Call Now 1-888-3958261

At The Gazette, we have built a newsroom that values curiosity, creativity and tenacity. Each week in print and each day online, we not only cover the news but uncover the stories that describe a county of 1 million people. Most of our reporters and editors are launching their careers, and our goal is to harness their determination and develop their talents. Several of our staff members are seasoned journalists committed to mentoring the next generation.

We have an immediate opening for a general assignment reporter who will be expected to file a minimum of five stories per week for use in print and online.

Candidates should be able to write in an engaging, lively manner. Some of the stories will involve arts & entertainment in Montgomery, Prince George’s and Fairfax counties. Some will involve community features and news coverage in Montgomery County.

Candidates should be able to work some nights and weekends, and need their own reliable transportation. Candidates should be able to interview most any subject, and have clips that show the range of their talent. They should be able to manage their time to meet rigorous deadlines. And they should have innate curiosity to pitch story ideas to editors. They should be web savvy with a thorough knowledge of social media (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Vine) and should have an eye for appealing visuals.

Some photography possible. Candidates should have a broad interest in entertainment topics (theater, music, movies, books and dining), and have his or her finger on the pulse of pop-culture, both local and national.

PT, Germantown MD entry-level candidate to assist w/clerical accounting & admin operations.

Resp: Entry of contracts & invoicing, AP/AR, maintain files, some reception duties. Req: 3-5 yrs clerical accounting exp, knowledge of MS Office, Word, Excel & Outlook, Exp. w/BST accounting software a plus.

Salary TBD, 25+/- hrs/wk. Send cover letter and resume to careers@rodgers.com

DENTAL OFFICE Bilingual

Front Desk

Use your GI Benefits NOW for training in Healthcare.

JOB PLACEMENT ASSISTANCE Offered.

General Assignment Reporter

GC3046

WE’RE HIRING WEEKEND CNAS, GNAS, AND HHAS!

301-388-2626 301-388-2626

bill.hennessy@longfoster.com • Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc. EOE Sales

ASSISTANT MANAGER

For gym. Sales experience required. Salary depends on experience. If interested please email your resume to: tykf@verizon.net

∂ Heavy Equipment Mechanic û Must have experience

Recruiting is now Simple!

Get Connected!

Local Companies Local Candidates

Office Manager Rockville Dermatology Practice seeking FT Office Mgr. Previous exp. req. Excellent computer skills req. Prev. EMR exp. pref.

Excellent benefits.

Email resume to Office2983@aol.com or Fax to 301-216-2982

On Call Supervisor

Great job for students, retirees and stay at home moms. Work from home! Answer and handle phone calls from 5pm to 9am two evenings twice a month for staffing agency or one weekend a month. Must have Internet access, and a car. Fax resume to 301.588.9065 or email to cc2439@yahoo.com

House Maid

An immediate opening for 1 FT (30-40 hrs per week) House Maid to join our Company for Residential Cleaning. Mon-Fri. 8am-5 pm. Must have Drivers License, excellent cleaning exp, must speak some English and be legal to work in U.S. Pay $10.00/hr. 301-706-5550.

Sales

Business Development Specialist Media Sales

We’re looking for a Specialist who has a documented history of driving new business. Post Community Media provides local news and information to communities in Maryland and Virginia. We are looking for a skilled sales professional to assist small businesses in marketing their products and services.

This is an outside sales position based in the Laurel office with a Prince George’s territory assignment. You would develop an understanding of print, online, mobile advertising with a focus on retail and service business segments. Previous sales experience needed, enthusiasm, great work ethic and a strong desire to succeed.

We offer a competitive compensation & comprehensive benefits package including pension, 401(k) & tuition reimbursement.

If you believe this is the right position for your skills, talents and abilities. Please email resume to Doug Hayes at DHayes@gazette.net or call 240-473-7532. EOE

Search Jobs

Find Career Resources

Page B-12

Wednesday, March 12, 2014 s

Careers 301-670-2500

Stocker Bell Nursery, a nationally recognized grower/vendor is looking for hardworking people to stock our products at a garden center near you.

Must be flexible for weekend work.

For job descriptions, locations & to APPLY visit www.bellnursery.com/careers

KENNEL HELP

For a busy veterinary hospital located in Potomac, Maryland FT, must love working with animals AND people. Must be a hard working and reliable individual who doesn’t mind getting dirty. Weekend and holiday work required. Reliable transportation a must. Good pay and benefits. Experience preferred. Call: 301-983-8400 or email your resume to fallsroadvethosp@aol.com.

class@gazette.net Veterinary Hospital

Receptionist Immediate opening for a full time receptionist for a busy veterinary hospital. Must have strong communication and computer skills. Full benefit package offered.

Fax resume w/cover letter to: 301-570-1526 or mail to: Brookeville Animal Hospital 22201 Georgia Avenue, Brookeville MD 20833 NO PHONE CALLS OR WALK-INS PLEASE!

HEALTHCARE

MEDICAL TECHNICIAN

PART TIME/JOB SHARE. For a busy solo ophthalmology practice in Bethesda. Mature person who enjoys dealing with patients. Detail oriented, computer literate and willing to share office responsibilities.

Will train. Fax resume to

301-657-2532 OR call 301-657-3022.

Montgomery Hospice-Cook Casey House, our 14 bed inpatient facility, has a part time opening for an experienced cook to prepare meals for our patient’s and visitors. The schedule is every other weekend, 6:00am-2:30pm.

Must be a certified food manager and have previous experience cooking in an institutional setting.

Healthcare experience preferred. Please call Michelle Bentzel at 301-637-1877, stop by for an application, or visit our website at www.montgomeryhospice.org 1355 Piccard Drive, Suite 100 Rockville, MD 20850 EOE Healthcare

Massage Therapist Part-Time

Work From Home

National Children’s Center Making calls. For more info please call Weekdays between 9a-4p No selling! Sal + bonus + benes.

Call 301-333-1900

Skilled nursing facility is in search of a Massage Therapist to join the team! Experience, respectful attitude for seniors, patience, and an appreciation of a holistic model of care is a must.

Apply at 1235 Potomac Valley Rd., Rockville, MD 20850. EOE

Recruiting is now Simple!

Get Connected

Wednesday, March 12, 2014 s

Automotive

Page B-13

Call 301-670-7100 or email class@gazette.net

TIFFIN ALLEGRO BUS 2002: N o n smoker. Well kept up with up to date maintenance. 40ft.

Diesel engine.

Must sell fast! Asking $38,000. Call 443-355-4226

2002 TOYOTA 4RUNNER SR5: 104,729 mi, 4x4 V6, loaded, Sunroof, CS, non Smoker, recently serviced looks & runs GREAT! $2,900 443-267-7806

CA H

FOR CAR !

ANY CAR ANY CONDITION

WE PAY TOP DOLLAR-FAST FREE PICKUP! SELL YOUR CAR TODAY! CALL NOW FOR AN

INSTANT CASH OFFER

(301)288-6009

MERCEDES 2001 C240 4 DR, 6 spd manual, MD inspect only 73K miles $5999 301-3403984

VOLVO 2004 SUV XC90 T6 awd 7 pass, MD inspect, 1 owner $5999 301340-3984

95’ LEXUS ES 300: 85k, well maintained, orig owner, tan/tan, garaged, w/service records, moonroof $3,800 Call: 301-947-8925

Deals and Wheels

YOU ALWAYS GET YOUR WAY AT OURISMAN EVERYDAY WINTER

OURISMAN VW

2013 MODEL SALE

to advertise call

301.670.7100

or email class@gazette.net

Any Make, Model or Year. We Pay MORE! Running or Not. Sell Your Car or Truck TODAY. Free Towing!

Instant Offer: 1-888-545-8647

CARS/TRUCKS WANTED! Top

$$$$$ PAID! Running or Not, All Makes!

Free Towing! We’re Local! 7 Days/Week.

Call 1-800-959-8518

G559758

CASH FOR CARS!

2014 GOLF 4 DOOR

2014 BEETLE 2.5L

#7380482, Power Windows, Power Locks, Keyless Entry

#30001704, Automatic, Power Windows/Power Locks, Keyless Entry, Heated Seats, Bluetooth, Cruise Control

#1693378, Automatic, Power Windows/Power Locks, Keyless Entry, Sunroof

BUY FOR

ALL APPLICATIONS REVIEWED WE HELP EVERYONE! EMAIL US AT BUILDMYCREDIT@JIMCOLEMANAUTO.COM OR CALL

1-866-464-1618

MSRP 21,085

MSRP 17,810

4 NEED AUTO FINANCING ASSISTANCE? 4 TIRED OF HASSLES? 4 WANT A FRESH START?

Your donation helps local families with food, clothing, shelter.

Tax deductible.

MVA licensed.

LutheranMissionSociet y.org 410-636-0123 or toll-free 1-877-7378567.

2014 JETTA S

14,999

$

2014 PASSAT S #9009449, Power Windows, Power Locks, Keyless Entry

MSRP $22,765 BUY FOR

MSRP $24,490

$

$

G559747

DONATE AUTOS, TRUCKS, RV’S. LUTHERAN MISSION SOCIETY.

SALE!

18,999

$

OR 0.9% for 60 MONTHS

BUY FOR

17,995

$

BUY FOR

18,795

$

2013 GTI 4 DOOR

2013 BEETLE CONVERTIBLE

#4116048, Automatic, Power Windows/ Power Locks, Keyless Entry

#2824647, 2.0 Turbo, Power Windows/ Locks, Power Top

MSRP $26,960

MSRP $30,365

BUY FOR

22,955

$

OR 0% for 60 MONTHS

BUY FOR

23,933

$

2014 JETTA SE HYBRID

2014 PASSAT SE TDI

2014 TIGUAN S 4WD

#7229632, Automatic Power Windows, Power Locks, Sunroof

#9009850, Automatic, Power Windows, Power Locks, Sunroof

#13543457, Automatic, Power Windows, Power Locks, Keyless Entry

MSRP $28,350

MSRP $29,465

BUY FOR

23,999

$

BUY FOR

24,998

$

MSRP $28,936

BUY FOR

24,999

$

OURISMAN VW WORLD AUTO CERTIFIED PRE OWNED 20 Available...Rates Starting at 2.64% up to 72 months

2012 Jetta SE...............#VPR6113, Silver, 34,537 miles.................$12,594 2010 Jetta LTD...........#VP0037, White, 56,195 miles................$12,991 2011 Toyota Corolla....#VP0020, Black, 30,992 miles................$13,494 2012 Mazda 6..........#VPR0023, Black, 44,340 miles...............$13,494 2010 Toyota Prius...#V658032A, Gray, 65,455 miles..............$15,491 2007 BMW Z-4.......#V006539B, White, 69,522 miles.............$15,993 2012 Nissan Juke..#V257168A, White, 57,565 miles.............$17,992 2011 CC.....................#VP0032, White, 36,116 miles................$18,493 2013 Jetta SE...........#VPR0027, White, 6,101 miles...............$19,492

2013 Jetta SE............#VPR0030, Silver, 4,340 miles................$19,592 2013 Passat S...........#VPR0026, Black, 6,891 miles................$20,492 2011 CC.....................#VP0035, White, 38,225 miles................$20,992 2014 Passat Wolfsburg. .#VPR0041, White, 2,878 miles................$21,991 2014 Passat Wolfsburg...#VPR0040, Grey, 5,227 miles.................$21,991 2014 Passat Wolfsburg...#VPR0039, Silver, 5,447 miles.................$21,991 2014 Passat .............#V002004A, Black, 4,287 miles...............$23,991 2014 Passat SE........#VPR0036, White, 5,965 miles...............$24,391 2012 Nissan Maxima. .#V073708A, Gray, 47,457 miles..............$24,991

All prices exclude tax, tags, title, freight and $200 processing fee. Cannot be combined with any previous advertised or internet special. Pictures are for illustrative purposes only.

See dealer for details. 0% APR Up To 60 Months on all models. See dealer for details. Ourisman VW World Auto Certified Pre Owned financing for 60 months based on credit approval thru VW. Excludes Title, Tax, Options & Dealer Fees. Special APR financing cannot be combined with sale prices. Ends 03/31/14.

Ourisman VW of Laurel

Looking for a new convertible?

1.855.881.9197 • www.ourismanvw.com Online Chat Available...24 Hour Website • Hours Mon-Fri 9 am-9 pm • Sat 9 am-8 pm

Selling Your Car just got easier!

Log on to

Gazette.Net/Autos to place your auto ad!

As low as $29.95!

G559757

Search Gazette.Net/Autos

3371 Fort Meade Road, Laurel

Page B-14

Wednesday, March 12, 2014 s

MARCH MARCH I IN N AND SAVE!!

AND SAVE!!

DARCARS VOLVO OF ROCKVILLE 2002 Volvo V70

04 Toyota Highlander LTD #462007B, $ 4 Speed Auto, Vintage $ Blue, Sport Utility

8,800

07 Toyota Camry LE $$

10,900

#472397A, 5 Speed Auto, 1-Owner, Aloe Green

35K Miles, 1-Owner

12,900

11 Scion XB $$

13,500

#472126B, 1-Owner, 4 Speed Auto, 24K Miles

11,200

6,980

$

#422051B, 121K Miles

13 Kia Rio LX $$

#453017A, Auto, 2K Miles, 1-Owner

14,400

9,980

#426047A, 78kMiles

$

2007 Jeep Wrangler X

11 Toyota Camry LE $$

#P8918, 6 Speed Auto, 33k Miles, Silver Metallic

16,500

14FordFocusSE $$

#472144A, Auto, 4k Miles, 1-Owner

16,700

13 Toyota Corolla S $$

#364525A, 4 Speed Auto, 22k miles, 1-Owner

17,700

12,980

#3258118A, 111k Miles

$

2008 Mazda Miata MX5 Grand Touring

12 Hyundai Genesis Coupe #464070A, 2.0T, $ 5 Speed, 13K Miles, $ 1-Owner

18,900

13 Toyota RAV4 LE $$

#364547A, 6 Speed Auto, 8K Miles, 1-Owner, Sport Utility

2004 Toyota Corolla LE.......... $8,800 $8,800 #R1737A, 4 SpeedAuto, Desert Sand Mica

2012 Nissan Sentra 2.......... $15,499 $15,499 #P8858A, CVT Trans, 13k Miles, Bright Silver 2011 Chevrolet Traverse LS. . $17,900 $17,900 #363442A, 6 SpeedAuto, 1 Owner, Sport Utility, Blue Metallic 2008 Mercedes-Benz C-Class $18,700 $18,700 #457003B, 7 SpeedAuto, Luxury Car, MArs Red 2011 Toyota Sienna Mini Van $18,700 $18,700 #460082A, 6 SpeedAuto, 43k Miles, 1-Owner, Cypress Pearl 2011 Nissan Juke S............ $18,985 $18,985 #450094A, 1-Owner, 36K Miles, CVTTrans, Black Station Wagon

22,700

12ToyotaSiennaLEMiniVan #472179A, 6 Speed $ Auto, 1-Owner, $ 28K Miles

23,800

2011 Toyota Tacoma........... $18,900 $18,900 #467046A, Ext. Cab, 5 Sp Manual, 32k Miles, 1-Owner

$21,700 2013 Ford Escape SE.......... $21,700 #377732A, 6 SpeedAuto, 22k Miles, 1-Owner, Sterling Grey Metallic 2012 Mitsubishi Outlander GT. $22,700 $22,700 #363225A, 6 SpeedAuto, 5k Miles, Sport Utility, Rally Red $23,595 2008 Toyota Sequoia SR5..... $23,595 #472234A, 6 SpeedAuto, Black Sport Utitity $23,700 2012 Toyota Highlander....... $23,700 #364584A, Sport Utility, 6 SpeedAuto, 35K miles, 1-Owner, Black 2013 Toyota RAV4 XLE........ $23,900 $23,900 #363424A, 1-Owner, 17K miles, Sport Utility, Barcelona Red

G559756

See what it’s like to love car buying

1-888-831-9671 1-888-831-9671 15625 Frederick Rd (Rte 355) • Rockville, MD | OPEN SUNDAY

V ISIT U HE W VISIT US S O ON N T THE WEB EB A AT T w www.355.com ww.355.com

16,980

#325094A, 21k Miles

$

7,980

#E0259A, 137k Miles

$

#422048B, 96k Miles

2007 VW Passat

2006 Lexus IS 250

10,980

#426006A, AWD With Navigation, 176k Miles

$

2009 Volvo XC-90

15,480

#P8834, w/Navigation, 106k Miles

$

#327213B, With Navigation, 87k Miles

$

2008 Ford Expedition L

21,980

10,980

$

#N0294, 89k Miles w/Navigation

11,480

$

2010 Lincoln Town Car

#422037C, 71k Miles

16,980

$

2009 Chevrolet Silverado LTZ Crew Cab

#327217C, 63k Miles

23,980

$

1999 Ford F-150 XLT 4x4.............................$8,480 2011 Lexus ES350.....................................................$23,980 #N0295A, 118k Miles

#P8876, 39k Miles

#G0002, 47k Miles

#P8828, Entertainment System, 47k Miles

#426010A, 58k

#P8827, Navigation, 32k Miles

#422055A, 90k Miles

#422036A, 37k Miles

2006 Ford Fusion SE............................................$9,980 2010 Volvo XC-90.........................................................$23,980 2007 Volvo S60................................................................$11,980 2011 Volvo XC-90..................................................$30,980 2011 Volvo XC-60.........................................................$19,980 2012 Volvo XC-60 R-Design Platinum..........$32,980

DARCARS

VOLVO

15401 Frederick Rd, Rockville, MD

355 3 5 5 TOYOTA TOYOTA PRE-OWNED P R E - OW N E D DARCARS

2007 Honda Accord EX-L

11 Nissan Versa 1.8S $$

#464060A, 6 Speed Manual, 30k Miles, Black, 1-Owner

2003VolvoS60

10 Toyota Corolla LE #P8919, $ 4 Speed Auto, $

2005 Ford Escape Limited

www.darcarsvolvo.com

1.888.824.9165 DARCARS G559754

See what it’s like to love car buying.

YOUR GOOD CREDIT RESTORED HERE

Wednesday, March 12, 2014 s

Page B-15

DARCARS NISSAN DARCARS

2005 Toyota Matrix XR #441031A, 5 Speed Manual, 1-Owner

See what it’s like to love car buying.

8,977

$

2009 Toyota Corolla LE #P8913, Automatic

9,977

$

2014 NISSAN VERSA S +CVT MSRP: Sale Price: Nissan Rebate: NMAC Bonus Cash:

$

#11124 2 At This Price: VINS: 856614, 854353

2014 NISSAN VERSA NOTE MSRP: Sale Price: Nissan Rebate: NMAC Bonus Cash:

13,995

$

11,995

#11614 2 At This Price: VINS:410790, 413202

$

2014 NISSAN ALTIMA 2.5 S MSRP: Sale Price: Nissan Rebate: NMAC Bonus Cash:

17,495

$

2011 Nissan Versa 1.8 S

#P8912, Automatic, 1-Owner

12,977

$

#446147B, 4WD, Automatic

$14,995 -$500 -$500

12,977

$

2008 Mercedes-Benz C-Class

16,977

$

#470267D, 3.0L Sport, RWD, 1-Owner, Auto

13,995 2010 Cadillac DTS w/1SC

$23,940 $19,495 -$1,000 -$1,000

#374548A, Auto, Sunroof, Heated/ Ventilated Seats

16,977

$

2010 Volkswagen New Beetle

16,977

$

#442018A, Auto, Convertible, Final Edition

With Bluetooth, Rearview Monitor #13114 2 At This Price: VINS: 190413,190601

2013MSRP: NISSAN ROGUE S$22,795 AWD Sale Price: Nissan Rebate: NMAC Bonus Cash:

#22213 2 At This Price: VINS: 665621, 665708 G559753

10,977

$

2003 Toyota 4 Runner SR5

2013 NISSAN SENTRA SV MSRP: $18,360

#12113 2 At This Price: VINS: 788738, 797494

choices?

2008 Chrylser Sebring #441039A, Automatic, Touring, FWD

$17,515 $14,995 -$500 -$500

Sale Price: Nissan Rebate NMAC Bonus Cash:

Selling for Looking Your Car just economical got easier!

$14,770 $12,995 -$500 -$500

$

2006 Nissan 350Z Touring

$18,995 -$500 -$500

#432035A, 6 Speed Manual, Leather, 22,288 Miles

17,995

Prices include all rebates and incentives. NMAC Bonus Cash requires financing through NMAC with approved credit. Prices Pricestax, include rebates incentives.

NMAC Bonusand Cash requires financing through NMAC with approved credit.with exclude tags, all freight (carsand $780, trucks $725-$995), $200 processing charge. *Lease payments are calculated Prices exclude tax,$200 tags,processing freight (cars $810,and trucks $200 processing charge. valid only onthrough listed tax, tags, freight, charge first$845-$995), payment dueand at signing, and are valid withPrices tier one approval VINS. See dealer for details.

Offer expires 03/18/2014.

NMAC. Prices valid only on listed VINS. See dealer for details. Offer expires 10/22/2012.

2012 Nissan Murano SV #P8835, AWD, 1-Owner, Automatic, Pano-Roof, Camera

20,977

$

www.DARCARSnissan.com

DARCARS NISSAN of of ROCKVILLE ROCKVILLE 15911 Drive • • Rockville, Rockville, MD MD (at (at Rt. Rt. 355 355 across across from fromKing KingFarm) Farm) 15911 Indianola Indianola Drive www.DARCARSNISSAN.com 888.824.9166 •• www.DARCARSNISSAN.com

18,977

$

DARCARS NISSAN of ROCKVILLE 15911 Indianola Drive • Rockville, MD (at Rt. 355 across from King Farm)

888.805.8235 • www.DARCARSNISSAN.com

BAD CREDIT - NO CREDIT - CALL TODAY!

Search Gazette.Net/Autos

2014 NEW COROLLA LE ECO

36 $

NEW2 2014 COROLLA LE AVAILABLE: #470467, 470335

2 AVAILABLE: #470361, 470474

99/ MO**

MARCH MANIA SALE

4 DR., 4 CYL., AUTO

NEW 2014 VENZA 4X2 2 AVAILABLE: #474502, 474515

24,590

$

15,990

4 DR., AUTO, 4 CYL., INCL.

NEW 2014 SCION XD 2 AVAILABLE: #453028, 453031

$

4 CYL., AUTO

AFTER $1,000 REBATE

$

169/mo.**

4 CYL., 4 DR., AUTO

NEW 22014 RAV4 4X2 LE AVAILABLE: #464026, 464063

NEW 2014 PRIUS PLUG-IN 2 AVAILABLE: #477437, 477438

$

4 DR., 4 CYL., AUTO

NEW 2014 PRIUS II

21,690

AFTER $750 REBATE

4 CYL., AUTOMATIC

NEW 2014.5 CAMRY LE

2 AVAILABLE: #477432, 477417

$

21,790

2 AVAILABLE: #472229, 472245

0% FOR

HATCHBACK 4 DR., AUTO, 4 CYL.,

60

DARCARS

MONTHS+

On 10 Toyota Models

See what it’s like to love car buying

$

19,690

AUTO, 4 CYL., 4 DR

AFTER TOYOTA $1,000 REBATE

1-888-831-9671

15625 Frederick Rd (Rte 355) • Rockville, MD n OPEN SUNDAY n VISIT US ON THE WEB AT www.355Toyota.com

G559755

159/ MO**

$

PRICES AND PAYMENTS INCLUDE ANY APPLICABLE MANUFACTURE’S REBATES AND EXCLUDE MILITARY ($500) AND COLLEGE GRAD ($500) REBATES, TAX, TAGS, DEALER PROCESSING CHARGE ($200) AND FREIGHT: CARS $795 OR $810, TRUCKS, SPORT UTILITY AND SIENNAS $810, $845 AND $995. *0.9% APR & 0% APR FINANCING UP TO 60 MONTHS TO QUALIFIED BUYERS THRU TOYOTA FINANCIAL SERVICES. TOTAL FINANCED CANNOT EXCEED MSRP PLUS OPTIONS, TAX, AND LICENSE FEES. 0% APR 60 MONTHLY PAYMENTS OF $16.67 FOR EACH $1000 BORROWED. 0.9% APR 60 MONTHLY PAYMENTS OF $17.05 FOR EACH $1000 BORROWED. APR OFFERS ARE NOT VALID WITH ANY OTHER CASH BACK OR LEASE OFFER. NOT ALL BUYERS WILL QUALIFY.**LEASE PAYMENTS BASED ON 36 MONTHS, 12,000 MILES PER YEAR WITH $995 DOWN PLUS $650 ACQUISITION FEE, NO SECURITY DEPOSIT REQUIRED. SEE DEALER FOR COMPLETE DETAILS. 2014 COROLLA LE ECO & PRIUS PLIG-IN LEASES ARE FOR 24 MONTHS WITH $995 DOWN. EXPIRES 03/31/2014.

Page B-16

Wednesday, March 12, 2014 s

00 Ford F-150 XL

$4,998

04 Ford Freestar Limited

#KX71474, SUPER NICE! $944 OFF KBB, “HANDYMAN”

11 Nissan Versa 1.8SAT $10,435

11 Ford Econoline SLT

#KP11537B, DVD/LEATHER, $945 OFF KBB

$17,970

12 Dodge Charger SE

#KN03615, 12 PASS, $1,999 OFF KBB

#KA33911, PW, GREAT TERMS!!

UNDER $10,000

MORE VEHICLES

03 Toyota Prius 4DR........................$8,895

09 Dodge Journey SXT..................$11,988

99 Honda CR-V LX 4WD...................$3,488

02 BMW 330Ci...............................$10,488

12 Hyundai Accent GS..................$12,988

#KP39663, “GAS-SAVER” BEST BUY!!, “HANDYMAN”

06 Acura RSX ..................................$3,988

#KP78236, HYBRID! PW/PLC, REAL GAS SAVER

#92501KP, CNVTBL, LTHR, P/OPTS, SWING INTO SPRING

07 Pontiac Grand Prix GXP...........$10,945

#KX50985, NICE! 3RD ROW, HTD SEATS, RAC, P/OPTS

08 Toyota 4Runner SR5..................$17,990 #KP34550, MNRF, NAV, DVD’S, LTHR, BEAUTY!

13 Toyota Corolla LE......................$15,435

#KP88029, SHOWROOM COND, 8K! PW, CD, ABS

#KP33163, AT, PW/PLC, CC, CD, SHARP!

#KP64214, IMMACULATE, 28K!! PW/PL, CC, CD

#KP78723, PRISTINE, 30K!! FAC WARR! P/OPTS, CD, CC

G559752

#FP50592, SHARP!! NAV, HTD/COOLED LTH SEATS, CAM #KP26594, 4WD, MNRF, SPLR, RNG BDS

#KG23022, “PERFORMANCE SEDAN!”, LTHR, PSEAT

09 Kia Rondo EX............................$10,988

07 Infiniti M35...............................$17,970

#KP13203, SHOWROOM COND, 22K! ABS, PW/PLC, CD

#KP19587, PW/PLX, CD, DON’T MISS! “HANDYMAN”

04 Mazda Mazda6 S........................$7,980

$18,945

#KN58308, REDUCED!! $1,003 OFF KBB

00 Toyota Solora SE Coupe.................$2,980 #KP09958, V6, MNRF, SPLR, ALLOYS, “HANDYMAN”

$7,970

11 Hyundai Sonata GLS................$15,990

08 Chrysler Twn & Cntry LTD.......$17,990 13 Chrysler 300.................................$20,988 #KD47988, GORGEOUS! DVD, BACKUP CAM, LTHR, CO DEMO!