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Area favorites Fink and Marxer throw a musical pajama party in Takoma Park. A-15
The Gazette SILVER SPRING | TAKOMA PARK | BURTONSVILLE
DAILY UPDATES ONLINE www.gazette.net
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
25 cents
A nontraditional tree
It took one week to assemble display in downtown Silver Spring n
BY
ALINE BARROS
Alcohol measures on tap for upcoming General Assembly
STAFF WRITER
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Decorations for this Christmas tree read like a list from the “12 Days of Christmas” song, swapping sports balls for the lords-a-leaping. But if Christmas is about giving, then this 35-foot tall nontraditional Christmas tree in downtown Silver Spring is all about the holiday spirit. Decorated with 58 disk sleds, 10 sports balls, 18 rackets, 19 chairs and stools, four tables, five xylophones, 89 tub sleds, 12 helmets, seven bats, two crayon coin banks, two plastic brooms and several downtown Silver Spring frisbees, the tree has sparked conversation among Silver Spring residents. “It is art. It is something different...And it is going to spark conversation and that’s fantastic,” said Laurie Yankowski, regional marketing director for downtown Silver Spring. Created by Karl Unnasch, a Minnesota architectural artist, the tree, called Playtime Jubilee, is a holiday art installation that has hundreds of toys arranged in rows forming a Christmas tree that will be dismantled in January. The toys will be donated to A Wider Circle, a local nonprofit that helps low-income families. “First and foremost I like smiles...I anticipated the toys when I was a kid... [and] I had a vision looking quite like this,” said Unnasch. According to a press release, downtown Silver Spring and the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County held a public call to artists this summer, selecting Unnasch based on his charitable concept and clever approach to public art. Artists submitted proposals
See TREE, Page A-11
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Maryland General Assembly to consider measure in January n
SARAH SCULLY STAFF WRITER
Takoma Park wants to continue the to-go beer and wine sales it now allows in restaurants. Two years ago the Maryland General Assembly passed a bill permitting restaurants to apply for Class B licenses to sell closed containers of beer and wine to customers to take home, with a
NEWS
READY FOR WINTER’S WORST
KATE S. ALEXANDER STAFF WRITER
A Montgomery County lawmaker will try again to give archery hunters more room to help cull the county’s growing deer population. Del. Eric Luedtke again has proposed a local bill to shrink the safety zone around Montgomery County buildings from 150 yards to 50 yards for bow hunters. Current state law prohibits shooting any firearm or deadly weapon, like a bow, within 150 yards of an occupied home, church or other building or camp. Around schools, the safety zone is 300 yards. Under Luedtke’s proposal, Montgomery County would be lumped with Carroll and Frederick counties, which have a 50-yard safety zone. With the exception of Harford County, which has a 100-yard buffer, the rest of the state must follow a 150yard safety zone. Luedtke (D-Dist. 14) of Burtonsville proposed a similar bill in the 2013 legislative session that became
See HUNTING, Page A-11
Leggett to sign wage increase bill on Thursday Will raise minimum wage to $11.50 an hour by 2017
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BY
RYAN MARSHALL STAFF WRITER
“There are beer and wine sales on every edge of the city, so we’re denying opportunities for our businesses in not allowing it to happen here, and it’s not really clear to me for what benefit,” he said. With the opening of a new Busboys and Poets restaurant in Takoma, Washington, D.C., planned for spring 2014, council members were concerned about Takoma Park, Md., businesses having the opportunities they need to compete with the looser
Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett is scheduled to sign a bill Thursday that will raise the county’s minimum wage to $11.50 an hour by 2017. The County Council passed the increase 8-1 after a sometimes contentious discussion on Nov. 26. Councilman Phil Andrews (D-Dist. 3) of Gaithersburg, who expressed a desire to wait for a vote to see whether the General Assembly will take action on a statewide minimum wage increase from the current rate of $7.25 an hour, opposed the measure. The vote will gradually raise the county’s wage by October 1, 2017, a year later than in the original proposal sponsored by Councilman Marc Elrich (D-At Large) of Takoma Park. The first increase in the rate will be Oct. 1, 2014, when the minimum wage rises to $8.40 an hour. The bill doesn’t tie the wage to a consumer price index that would allow it to keep pace with inflation, unless the state passes an increase that’s indexed. After the vote, Elrich said he still considered the vote a victory, despite the extra year to implement it. “It would have been a victory whatever we passed,” he said. The bill’s supporters said it was necessary to allow workers to survive Montgomery’s high standard of living, while its opponents argued that minimum wage jobs are meant to be entry-level jobs and that almost all
See ALCOHOL, Page A-11
See INCREASE, Page A-11
DAN GROSS/THE GAZETTE
A nontraditional Christmas tree, made from toys to be donated to children in need, is on display in Veterans Plaza in Silver Spring.
Bill would continue restaurant to-go alcohol sales BY
Bill would free up extra land for deer hunting
two-year expiration on the bill. Now that the legislation is expiring, the City Council is asking the Maryland General Assembly to pass a bill making the law permanent. Although no restaurants have actually applied for this license in the two years it has been available, council members decided in a 6-1 vote during a Nov. 25 meeting to recommend that the option remain available indefinitely. Only City Councilman Terry Seamens did not support the permanent change. He suggested extending the license with a new expiration date in several years.
There are no liquor stores in Takoma Park, nor are grocery stores allowed to sell alcohol. But alcohol is allowed to be sold in restaurants. Councilman Tim Male said the issue had come up two years earlier because some restaurants had expressed interest in the ability to sell to customers, for example, a bottle of wine to take home after they had enjoyed it at dinner. “We don’t know whether they just don’t really care about that license, they don’t feel that it’s something valuable to have,” or if restaurants are simply unaware of it, said Councilman Fred Schultz.
HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL PREVIEW
At the annual snow show, SHA officials show off the latest snow-fighting equipment.
Region becoming a hotbed for schools that specialize in developing top college basketball players.
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