MoCo

Annual Montgomery County Ride On Bus Food Drive to Run from May 15-22

By MCS Staff

Montgomery County Ride On bus riders can donate non-perishable food to the County Department of Transportation’s (MCDOT) Ride On food drive from May 15-22. Non-perishable food items can be dropped off on all Ride On, extRa, Flex and Flash buses. A food donation bag will be available next to the farebox.

“We must ensure that no one in Montgomery County goes hungry,” said Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich. “Food insecurity was prevalent before the pandemic hit—and COVID-19 made it even worse. So many people lost jobs and higher food prices continue to make it exceedingly difficult for families to make ends meet. I am grateful to MCDOT and Manna Food Center for this important effort and encourage residents to donate non-perishable food items on all of our buses between May 15 and May 22.”

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Maryland

Reminder: Civil Penalty Waiver Grace Period For Video Tolls Until November 30

By MCS Staff

In February, MDTA started a civil penalty waiver grace period for tolls paid in full and has ceased referring toll bills to the Central Collection Unit (CCU) and MDOT Motor Vehicle Administration (MDOT MVA) temporarily. The grace period will end at 11:59 p.m. on November 30, 2022, and the MDTA will resume referrals of unpaid toll bills and civil penalties to CCU and MDOT MVA on December 1.

If you have unpaid Video Tolls and/or Civil Penalties, the MDTA will waive the Civil Penalties if your toll balance is paid in full between Feb. 24 and 11:59 p.m. on Nov. 30, 2022. After the grace period ends, customers will remain responsible for all unpaid tolls and civil penalties and referrals will resume.

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Education

MCPS: Special Education Summit Set for June 4

By MCS Staff

MCPS parents, staff and community members are invited to the 8th annual Special Education Summit, Leading the Way Today, Partnering for a Better Tomorrow. The summit will be held virtually from 9 a.m.–noon on Saturday, June 4.

The keynote speaker is Patricia Crain de Galarce, Ed.D., director of the Center for Inclusive and Special Education, and associate dean in the Graduate School of Education at Lesley University.

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Kensington

Mezeh to Open New Kensington Location

By MCS Staff

Mezeh Mediterranean Grill will be opening a new location in the upcoming Kensington Crossing development at 10619 Connecticut Avenue (at Plyers Mill Road). The restaurant has signed on to take over a new 2,350SF space with plenty of outdoor seating.

Mezeh is a fast-casual eatery with a buffet-style of offerings that include rice and salad bowls, wraps and a variety of sauces and toppings. Mezeh currently has MoCo locations in Gaithersburg and Germantown. Buffalo Wild Wings GO and M&T Bank are the other two tenants that have signed on for the upcoming development. Opening dates for any of these locations are not currently available. Update: College Park staple Marathon Deli has also signed on at Kensington Crossing.

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Kensington

New Buffalo Wild Wings Concept to Open First MoCo Location

By MCS Staff

Buffalo Wild Wings opened its first ‘Buffalo Wild Wings GO’ location– a scaled-down version of the restaurant that focuses on the to-go and delivery format in Georgia back in 2020. Now, the company will open its first ‘Go’ location in the upcoming Kensington Crossing– a new retail development that will be located at 10619 Connecticut Avenue (at Plyers Mill Road) in Kensington.

Kensington Crossing previously announced that M&T Bank, which currently has a Kensington location on Howard Avenue, signed on as its first tenant to take over its largest space (2,635 SF). No word yet on if this will be a second Kensington branch, but the likely scenario would involve the current branch moving to the new space.

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Downtown Crown

Signage Up at Doki Toki Dessert Shop in Downtown Crown

By MCS Staff

A couple weeks back we let you know that Doki Toki, a dessert shop that will offer Japanese desserts, including ice cream, mochi donuts, milk tea, and a “lot of other desserts”, will be opening in Gaithersburg’s Downtown Crown neighborhood. Signage is now up at the dessert spot, which has been aiming for a May 15th opening according to a representative we spoke with a couple weeks ago.

Doki Toki Dessert Shop is taking over the location formerly occupied by Mango Mango at 202 Ellington Blvd next to Burger IM. Mango Mango was an Asian dessert spot that opened its first restaurant in New York’s Chinatown in 2013 and served traditional Hong Kong style sweet soup dessert, modern fusion sweets, and pastries. It was in the location from October 2019 until April 2021.

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North Potomac

Quickway to Open Next to Trader Joe’s in Travilah Square Shopping Center

By MCS Staff

Quickway will be opening its 7th Montgomery County location right next to Trader Joe’s in the Travilah Square Shopping Center. The regional chain recently opened its 6th location in Olney and its 5th MoCo location in Stone Mill Square (Korean Korner shopping center). Quickway, which can now be found in 10 different counties across the DMV since opening its first location in 2012, will be joining Hangry Joe’s Hot Chicken– another new fast casual restaurant coming soon to the shopping center.

Per the Quickway website, “we bring the Teppanyaki (teppan, Japanese for griddle: yaki, grill, broiled) cooking technique to a quick service restaurant setting. The proteins are prepared fresh on the open grill in your full view, a true cooked to order signature dish. We offer choices of salads, sides, and sushi, all prepared from All Day Fresh ingredients and homemade sauces. Plus, we really care if you have a cool place to eat. We build our space to be clean, convenient and modern. Of course, our food is healthy, with reduced salt, no trans fat, and no MSG.

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Germantown

(Located) Detectives Ask for Assistance in Locating Missing Germantown Woman

By Patrick Herron

Gladys Beltre was last seen on Monday, May 9, 2022, at approximately 9:45 a.m., in the 12500 block of Hawks Nest Lane. Beltre is approximately 5-feet, 2-inches tall and approximately 120 pounds. She has brown hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing a black North Face rain jacket and blue jeans.

Police and family are concerned for her welfare.

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Germantown

Opening Date for Naz’s Halal in Germantown

By Patrick Herron

Representatives from Naz’s Halal (13025 Wisteria Drive) in Germantown have told us that the restaurant will be opening on May 14. Naz’s offers rice platters, sandwiches, gyros, wings, salads, and more, and is located in the former site of the Water Factory, near Planet Fitness. In December we told you Naz’s would expanding to Germantown, Rockville (1040 Rockville Pike), Takoma Park (7653 New Hampshire Ave) and White Oak (11209 New Hampshire Ave). We will post opening information for those locations as soon as it becomes available.

The first location outside of New York was also in MoCo, at the Burtonsville Town Center, next to Tropical Smoothie Cafe. That location opened in August 2020 and has become a local favorite with late night hours, remaining open until 2am Sunday through Thursday and 4am on Friday and Saturday. Since the Burtonsville opening, Naz’s Halal has expanded to California and Rhode Island.   Five additional Maryland restaurants will be opening in the upcoming year. Those will be located in Baltimore, Bowie, Denton, Ellicott City, and Waldorf.

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Business

Gaithersburg’s Homespire Mortgage Donates $20,000 To World Central Kitchen To Provide Meals For Ukrainian Refugees Through New Health And Wellness Program

By MCS Staff

Gaithersburg-based residential mortgage lender, Homespire Mortgage, announced last week its support of $20,000 for World Central Kitchen (WCK), a not-for-profit organization founded by renowned Chef José Andrés. WCK provides meals for people impacted by natural disasters and other crises around the world. The $20,000 donation was made possible through the success of Homespire MOVE, a new company health and wellness campaign that encourages employees to record their physical exercise, like hiking, biking, swimming and walking. Reaching a combined goal of 100,000 minutes of physical exercise meant the company would contribute financial aid to WCK.

Per the press release: Employees tracked and recorded their total minutes of activity from April 8-29, with the company donating $0.10 for every minute tallied. Homespire’s donation supports WCK’s #ChefsForUkraine response to distribute much needed meals to refugees throughout the nation’s war-torn communities as the organization continues to provide 250,000 daily meals and food kits through its 2,000+ distribution sites in Ukraine.

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