Montgomery Blair sent the following message to the Blair community at 2:19pm: “All students will dismiss at 2:30 today using their regularly scheduled transportation. Students with a 9th period will dismiss to our stadium and shuttles will take them to Eastern MS. They will board buses with middle school magnet students to go home. All athletic programs, clubs, and RecZone are canceled until further notice. Athletic games will be reevaluated at 4:30.” We will provide an update if additional information becomes available.
To maintain a safe environment, we made the decision to dismiss all students at 2:30 p.m. Ninth period students were directed to the stadium until they could be safely transported to Eastern Middle School where they will board buses to go home. As a result of this threat, all after-school activities and athletics have been canceled this evening until further notice. We are working closely with the authorities to investigate the threat and take appropriate measures to ensure the ongoing safety of our school community.
The Gaithersburg Mayor and City Council will hold its Policy Discussion on the annexation of the Walnut Hill shopping center tonight (Monday, October 16, 2023 at 7:30 p.m. at City Hall– virtual participation will also be available). The Annexation Plan proposes several changes to the existing Walnut Hill Shopping Center, including bringing in Aldi to take most of the grocery store space, constructing a new freestanding Sheetz convenience store with accessory gasoline pumps, demolishing an existing small freestanding building on the south side of the property, renovating the exterior of the main shopping center building, and making improvements to the parking lot and landscaping.
Gaithersburg Staff previously recommended that the Mayor and City Council hold their record open until 5:00 p.m., September 29, 2023, with the Policy Discussion and Final Action on October 16th. Staff is supportive of the annexation petition that would annex the Walnut Hill Shopping Center into the City of Gaithersburg.
Holly Agouridis started “The Catalina Haunt” (video below) at her Kensington home back in 2015. The haunted house, located on Catalina Terrace, is now in its 9th year with a growing audience each year. “Between October 1st and Halloween night I have about 500-600 people stop by. The last Halloweens I have been on the news and we have about 300+ come on Halloween night.” Agouridis told us in 2022.
She started really getting into decorating in 2015- initially using small props and homemade scarecrows and pumpkins. Then, she found the store Spirit Halloween and it took off from there. Agouridis has lived in MoCo for nearly 20 years, since 2003. When she was trying to figure out a name for her haunted house, a neighbor’s child who was 7 or 8 and would sit on her driveway everyday to watch her work on the house said “Ms. Holly, we live on Catalina Terrace so let’s call it the Catalina Haunt Yard” and the rest was history.
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Back in March we let you know that the 100-year old building that is home to the Olney Ale House was sold to Two Sibs LLC, led by Selim Kantar, for $1.45 million. Olney Ale House, located at 2000 Olney Sandy Spring Rd (Rt. 108 and Doctor Bird Rd.), operated in the space until a kitchen fire caused the restaurant to shut down in 2019. We spoke with new owner Selim Kantar today, who told us that they are still chipping away and anticipate a spring 2024 opening.
The restaurant will keep the Olney Ale House name and operate with an updated menu and new cocktails. Kantar tells us that work is just getting started and that there is a lot of it that has to be done before the restaurant is ready to open, so a 2024 opening is the most likely scenario. We will have updates for you as the restaurant continues with renovations and moves closer toward opening. Below we share with you the restaurant’s rich history, courtesy of the previous Olney Ale House website:
Join Us for StoryBox Comics Fair, a two-day festival celebrating local and independent comics authors!
Day 1 – Saturday, June 27th, 11-5pm @ DwightMess compound (805 Silver Spring Ave): Events are open to the public, admission is FREE. Featuring Special Guest Artists, gallery exhibitions, workshops, artist talks, a modeling session (suggested donation) and exhibitors, you can dig in to indie comics and also tour the compound, which features an extensive comics collection, a rare video collection, Risograph and screenprinting studios.
MICHELIN Guide Inspectors spend all year on the road uncovering the best restaurants to recommend. In a sneak peek of the 2023 MICHELIN Guide Washington D.C.— the inspectors have added 10 new restaurants to the guide, spread across the nation’s capital. The previous 24 DC/DC Area Michelin Star restaurants can be seen here.
Per the MICHELIN Guide: “From Three Star and Green Star The Inn at Little Washington (one of only 14 American eateries with Three MICHELIN stars) to One MICHELIN Star Bresca and Two MICHELIN Star Jônt (home to one of Washington’s buzziest hospitality directors), Washington, D.C is home to some of the most fabulous MICHELIN Guide restaurants. But with our Inspectors, fabulous isn’t enough. That’s why in spite of the delicious flavors within the nation’s capital, check out these 10 tasty additions.” The 10 additions can be seen below:
Per the State of Maryland: Governor Wes Moore today announced $69 million in federal funding for two new programs to help more Marylanders access high-speed, affordable internet. Administered by the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development’s Office of Statewide Broadband, the two programs, Home Stretch for Public Housing and Home Stretch for Difficult to Serve Properties, are expected to provide internet access to an estimated 15,000 unserved Maryland households.
“Getting all Marylanders online is crucial in a society where internet access can determine your job or your child’s education,” said Gov. Moore. “We are grateful for the support of the U.S. Treasury in our efforts to close the digital divide and create a more equitable Maryland.”
Detectives from the Montgomery County Department of Police – Special Victims Investigations Division (SVID) are asking for the public’s assistance in locating Ziaera Janae Russel, a missing 15-year-old from Germantown. Russell was last seen on Sunday, October 15, 2023, at approximately 11:30 p.m. in the 20200 block of Shipley Terrace in Germantown. She is 5’4″, 205 lbs., with dyed reddish brown hair, brown eyes, and was last seen wearing black pants and a black zip-up hooded sweatshirt. Russell may be driving a silver 2015 Mitsubishi Outlander bearing VA registration TRY8582.
Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of Ziaera Janae Russell is asked to call Montgomery County Police Non-Emergency (301) 279-8000 (24-hour line).
A property in Rockville, known as the Rockville Metro Center, will be auctioned online beginning on November 13, 2023. The property consists of a vacant office building comprised of approximately 145,491 square feet, located on approximately 2.5 acres at 255 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Maryland 20850 adjacent to the Rockville Metro station. The starting bid is $2.5 million.
The property provides optionality for many uses, including the ability to redevelop the site as a residential building or convert the existing structure into life science space. The PD-RCI zoning has a wide range of applications, including the opportunity to redevelop the site into a mid-rise or high-rise residential building.
The Silver Spring Ice Skating Rink at Veterans Plaza (One Veterans Place) in Downtown Silver Spring is open for the season. Reservations are required to skate and can be made at www.silverspringiceskating.com/. Additional information, including pricing and house, below courtesy of the Silver Spring Urban District:
The rink is open seven days a week. Skating sessions are for 1 hour and 20 minutes. Reservations are available two weeks in advance, and staggered every five minutes. To purchase tickets, please visit https://www.silverspringiceskating.com/. The rink has over 400 pairs of skates available for rent, sized from toddler to adult.
AT&T and Gallaudet University, the global leader in bilingual education for deaf and hard of hearing students, have collaborated to create the first 5G-connected football helmet—making the game more inclusive by enhancing on-field communication for student-athletes who use American Sign Language. The helmet was used for the first time in NCAA Division III competition during Gallaudet’s home game against Hilbert College, on Oct. 7.
”As a staple of college sports, we’re always exploring ways to use our expertise in connectivity to advance the way coaches, athletes and fans experience the game. When it came to developing the helmet, we saw an opportunity for 5G technology to make sports more inclusive—and there was no better partner to take possibility to reality than Gallaudet.” AT&T said in a press release.
With the first “early decision” college-application deadline looming on Nov. 1, and tuition and room and board at a four-year college costing $27,940 – $57,570 per year, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its 2024’s Best College & University Rankings report and top 10 colleges and universities in Maryland (full list available below).
To help college-bound seniors make the most informed school choices, WalletHub compared over 800 higher-education institutions in the U.S. based on 30 key measures grouped into seven categories, such as Student Selectivity, Cost & Financing and Career Outcomes. The data set ranges from student-faculty ratio to graduation rate to post-attendance median salary.
