Beyond MoCo

Beginning Monday, May 9, Metro will close the north entrance at L’Enfant Plaza Station at Maryland Ave and Seventh St to replace the three entrance escalators. The entrance will remain closed for approximately seven months. The work is part of a seven-year, $179 million escalator replacement project to install 130 new escalators by 2028. The project will replace the current escalators with brand-new ones that are more durable and reliable. Construction will require Metro’s contractor, Kone, to close the entrance to remove all three escalators at once and install a new support beam.

During this time, people will still be able to access the station from the two remaining entrances and elevator located at:


Kensington

POSTPONED AGAIN until Saturday, May 21, 2022, at 11am.

Due to the inclement weather, the Edith Throckmorton Neighborhood Park opening that was scheduled for Saturday, May 7, 2022, at 11 a.m. has been postponed until Saturday, May 14, 2022, at 11 a.m.


Montgomery Planning

Montgomery Planning’s Historic Preservation Office staff briefed the Planning Board on preliminary research findings and ongoing work to identify historically and culturally significant sites to the county’s AAPI communities

Wheaton, MD – The Montgomery County Planning Department provided an update on the county’s first Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Projectto the Montgomery County Planning Board at its May 5 meeting. During the presentation, which was held in AAPI Heritage Month, staff from Montgomery Planning’s Historic Preservation Office highlighted the necessity of the project due to a critical underrepresentation of AAPI heritage in local, state, and federal inventories of historic resources.


Bethesda

Todd Boehly, a 46-year-old businessman from Bethesda, is leading the group who had come to a deal to become the new owners of the Premier League’s Chelsea Football Club, the team confirmed in a statement yesterday. He is also part-owner of Major League Baseball team Los Angeles Dodgers and minority owner of the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers and the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks.

While there are conflicting reports as to whether he was born in Connecticut or Maryland, Boehly spent his formative years in Bethesda, where he attended the Landon School and graduated in 1991.  According to the Sporting News, he’s “from Bethesda, Maryland, the grandson of German immigrants made his money in investments and was the president of Chicago financial services firm Guggenheim Partners. Today he is the co-founder, CEO and chairman of Eldridge Industries, a private investment firm which makes investments across many different sectors. He has connections to the U.K., having attended the London School of Economics in the mid-90’s and worked for Citibank in the English capital.”


Event

Beautiful venue; great art, gifts and hand-crafted items; refreshments; and meet the award-winning painters, photographers, mixed media artists, ceramicists, fiber artists, and more – some 40 artists in all. It’s an extraordinary array of framed wall works, 3-d media including sculpture, ceramics, jewelry, and fiber pieces, and unframed prints.

Among them, you’ll see:


Brookeville

Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Services (MCFRS) responded to a call of one person stranded in/on their vehicle Saturday morning at the 1900 block of Brighton Dam Road in Brookeville, according to MCFRS PIO Pete Piringer.

Rescue units were able to successfully rescue the person who was wet, but uninjured. Brighton Dam Rd remained closed in the area due to rising water. The area where the car got stuck does have a flood warning sign. Piringer also warned of rising water at “Hawlings River & tributaries, Brighton, Brookeville, Sunshine, Laytonsville area(s).” A flood warning was issued by the National Weather Service early Saturday morning.


White Oak

On Friday,  22-year-old Andy Panton was sentenced by a Montgomery County Judge to two life sentences without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 60 years. Panton was convicted by a jury on September 9th, 2021 on two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of 23-year old Jordan Radway of Laurel and 24-year old Christian Roberts of Silver Spring, along with several other charges including robbery with a dangerous weapon and use of a firearm during the commission of a crime of violence.

The incident occurred on January 28, 2019 when the two victims were shot to death execution style and found inside a crashed car in White Oak. Dontaye Jamahl Hunt and Noah Foster Barnett, both 18-years-old at the time, were also arrested in connection to the murders. Barnett was sentenced to 42 years in prison for his role as an accessory after the fact in October and Hunt is scheduled to be sentenced later this month, according to Bethesda Beat.


Gaithersburg

Permanent signage is up at Burtons (109 Commerce Square Pl) at the Kentlands in Gaithersburg.  The restaurant is scheduled to open in “late May” according to its website. Management at the location tell us that they are currently in the process of hiring and training staff, and the interior of the restaurant is almost finished.

Menu items will include braised short ribs, filet mignon, chicken risotto, and market fresh seafood.  You can view the Riverdale Park location’s menu here.


Crime

U.S. District Judge Paul W. Grimm sentenced Francis Arthur, age 35, of Silver Spring, Maryland on May 2, 2022, to one year and a day in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for a money laundering conspiracy and for money laundering in connection with a scheme to defraud victim account holders at a credit union.  As part of his sentence, Arthur has been ordered to pay $339,000 in restitution.

Per the Department of Justice, District of Maryland: The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Erek L. Barron; Special Agent in Charge Matthew R. Stohler of the U.S. Secret Service Washington Field Office; and Chief Marcus Jones of the Montgomery County Department of Police.


Education

MCPS has launched a resources webpage with helpful information for LGBTQ+ students, parents and staff. Per MCPS: The webpage includes emergency hotline numbers; resource sections for students, staff and parents, as well as a calendar of upcoming awareness holidays and visibility days.

Staff resources include information on supporting LGBTQ+ students at home and in the classroom, informational handouts for sharing and a glossary of terms supported by MoCo Pride Center. The student resource section includes links to MCPS policies, support meeting information, the curriculum and resources in relation to athletics. Parental resources include educational resources and bullying report forms.


Education

The Montgomery County Board of Education has announced its recipients for the 25th Annual Awards for Distinguished Service to Public Education. The awards were established by the Board of Education to recognize and show appreciation for exemplary contributions to public education and to MCPS. Nominations were received from the general community, as well as community organizations, businesses, the superintendent and Board members. More information on the awardees will be shared in the next few weeks.

This year’s Distinguished Service Award winners are:


MoCo Government

The property, located at 2035 Harlequin Terrace, Silver Spring, held its grand reopening celebration Friday. This is APAH’s first property in Montgomery County, as well as the State of Maryland. “Here at Snowden’s Ridge, the County supported preservation of existing affordable housing,” said Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich. “To expand affordable housing efforts, I proposed $140 million housing budget – the largest in County history – including a dedicated $40 million NOAH fund to preserve affordable housing. Preserving affordability preserves communities and protects families from displacement. We need the $40 million NOAH Fund to protect more residents, as we did here at Snowden’s Ridge.”

The County provided a $1.5 million CDBG loan and $1.25 million HIF loan in 2019 to support the acquisition. When the initial HIF loan was repaid, the property retained the existing CDGB loan and the County provided a new $5 million HIF loan for recapitalization and renovation, along with a Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) agreement.  The loans and PILOT provided by Montgomery County support affordability, with all 87 apartment units utilizing project-based vouchers targeting families at 30 percent AMI. The property includes 12 one-bedroom units; 21 two-bedroom units; and 54 three-bedroom units. Five units were converted to be fully accessible.