Don’t miss Whalen Commons being transformed into a winter wonderland! Many of our traditional activities will return, including the lighting of our holiday tree, visits with Santa, musical performances, the Holiday Express Train, ice skating rink, Frozen moon bounce, artisan vendors, food trucks, the WUMCO Basket Auction, Gingerbread Cookie decorating (sponsored by PACC) and Polar Express wagon rides through town (sponsored by Calleva). Additional information below:
Whalen Commons:
Service to Washington Dulles International Airport and Loudoun County
Per WMATA: Opening day is set for the Silver Line Extension – Tuesday, November 15 – connecting Metrorail customers to Washington Dulles International Airport and Loudoun County for the first time. The announcement came from Metro Board Members and employees in a video touting “We’re Ready,” marking the opening for customers and culmination of the largest expansion of Metrorail since the system’s inception.
Your favorite charcoal-broiled chicken is just a few clicks away. Fresh out of the oven and delivered straight to your door! Order online at WeLoveThisChicken.com or call 301-942-4419. Also available through the UberEats app
Per WMATA: Metro Transit Police officers will begin issuing fare evasion citations on Tuesday, November 1, following a monthlong awareness and warning campaign. Citations with associated fines may be issued to anyone jumping fare gates, improperly using emergency gates, or not tapping fare boxes on Metrobuses.
Fare recovery is a major issue and has been mentioned as one of the top concerns of customers when talking with Metro staff and Metro Board Members. Revenue from fares allows Metro to keep buses, trains, and MetroAccess serving our community.
Back in June we let you know that a Nike Unite store is coming to Downtown Silver Spring, taking over the location that was formerly home to DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse location at 910 Ellsworth Drive. The store has now pushed back its opening to “2023” after previously setting an opening date of November 3rd on its Google listing, which has since been scrubbed, according to a report by Source of the Spring.
An employee at the Nike Unite store told us that the pricing and products offered at a Unite store are similar to that of a Nike Factory store (often found at outlets), with a slightly different layout and a specific return section for items purchased on Nike.com. Nike describes the Nike Unite concept as:
This is a 2 day Celebration of Culture Through Art, Fashion, Business, Wellness, and Community
Step into a weekend where culture, creativity, entrepreneurship, and community come alive.
Beginning November 3, 2022 (weather permitting), concrete and asphalt work for the MDOT SHA MD 108 safety and resurfacing project will begin at the Olney Shopping Center (3414-3484 Olney Laytonsville Road) on weekdays, sunrise to sunset through mid-November 2022.
Store owners and employees should add extra commute time for intermittent parking lot impacts. Work may also impact store deliveries. Customers may be directed to alternate plaza entrances and exits during this work.
Annual Meeting: The Council, sitting as the Board of Health, will receive its annual update from the Commission on Health. Crystal DeVance-Wilson, chair of the Commission on Health, will inform the Council about the commission’s annual report for fiscal year (FY) 2022 and public health priorities, including two priority areas related to communicable disease and school health.
At the conclusion of the playoffs we will post a final top 10.
1. Quince Orchard 9-0 (LW 1): The Cougars shutout Clarksburg 65-0. QO finishes the regular season undefeated for the 5th time in school history. With that they earned the #1 seed in 4A West and the #2 seed overall in 4A. Quince Orchard will rematch with Clarksburg in the 1st round of the playoffs at the CougarDome on Friday.
Montgomery Parks, part of The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, has opened two of the four lanes of Little Falls Parkway for recreational use between Arlington Road and Dorset Avenue seven days a week. The space was created by reconfiguring the lanes on Little Falls Parkway so that two of the four lanes—on the east side of the median—are used for traffic with the two lanes west of the median being used for recreation. “Our goal is to repurpose a portion of this roadway for people to exercise and enjoy the outdoors,” said Mike Riley, director of Montgomery Parks. “In the spring, when it warms up, we will make it even better by creating a pilot linear park and adding activities and events.”
The linear park coming in the spring is part of a pilot project being developed in phases. During phase one, Montgomery Parks implemented a road diet from May through October 2022 and shut two of the four lanes of the parkway to vehicles to conduct traffic studies. The studies concluded that Little Falls Parkway functions well with just two lanes for vehicles. During October 2022, phase two of the project eliminated vehicles on the west side of the median and routed all traffic to the two lanes on the east side of the median.
A police pursuit ended on Monday after a Montgomery County Police vehicle collided with a suspect’s vehicle that had just crashed into a Metrobus on Georgia Ave near Downtown Silver Spring. Northbound Georgia Ave is closed at Burlington Avenue and 13th Street as a result of the collision. According to MCPD, “At approximately 2:41 p.m., 3rd District officers responded to the 9300 block of Piney Branch Rd. for an armed robbery. Officers located the suspects at the White Oak Shopping Center. The suspects drove off and officers pursued the suspect vehicle, until it crashed into the rear end of a Metro bus. A Montgomery County Police cruiser subsequently crashed into the rear of the suspect vehicle.
On Thursday, May 5, 2022, at approximately 9:50 p.m., Davee Mannah Kromah was driving north on Columbia Pike in a dark gray 2014 Ford Fusion when he ran a red light and struck an adult male, who was in a marked crosswalk at the intersection of Columbia Pike and Prelude Drive.
Responding officers were able to identify the make and model of the suspect vehicle and conducted a search of the surrounding area. The damaged Ford Fusion was found on Heather Hollow Circle, close to Kromah’s home and officers identified him as the possible driver. Collision Reconstruction Unit detectives interviewed Kromah, and during the investigation, discovered items of evidentiary value connecting him to the hit and run.
The project was completed through a partnership between the County’s Department of General Services (DGS) and AlphaStruxure, a leader in Energy as a Service (EaaS) solutions. It is the third microgrid in the U.S. that will use solar power to charge buses for public transportation. The project was delivered at no upfront cost to the County through an EaaS contract, a long-term agreement ensuring predictable operating expenses and guaranteed performance without upfront capital expenditures.
“This project has been garnering attention nationally because it is innovative, groundbreaking, and will help us achieve our ambitious climate action plan to reduce all carbon emissions by 2035,” said County Executive Elrich. “Transportation is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas. We are leading by example by going emission-free. We are the third nationally to have solar-powered charging stations for our buses and we are the largest so far. We should be able to fill these charging stations with 70 electric buses by 2026. We have already got a good start of 14 and expect to order another 30 or so next year for a total of about 44 buses. We are well on our way to our goal of an emissions-free fleet by 2035 and improving the County’s resilience. I want to thank DGS, MCDOT, and AlphaStruxure, along with their parent companies Schneider Electric and Carlyle, for working together with us to make this project a reality for Montgomery County.”