Trachtenberg Staff Tours Rural Montgomery

Trachtenberg staff toured Montgomery County's Agricultural Reserve on a beautiful fall day, visiting White's Ferry, Dickerson, Poolesville, Bealesville, Barnesville and Sugarloaf Mountain.

Montgomery County's Agricultural Reserve is an important environmental resource for future farm enterprises. A strong agricultural heritage provides a diverse business community and a strong economic base. Combining these strengths with the commitment for farmland preservation makes Montgomery County an attractive place to live and work.  Agricultural activities occupy about one-third of Montgomery County's land area. Over half of the 93,000-acre Agriculture Reserve is preserved through transfer of development rights or easement purchase initiatives.  The County's diverse agricultural industry's 577 farms and 350 horticultural enterprises produce more than $251 million in economic contribution from agricultural products and operations. The majority of Montgomery County farms are family-run operations, many reaching back several generations, which employ more than 10,000 residents. The County has 577 farmers, of whom 50 percent work full time in farming.

For more information on Rural Montgomery, click here, for information about the Montgomery Countryside Alliance, click here

Trachtenberg Office Tours Department of Technology Services Facilities

On August 11th, the Trachtenberg Office toured several facilities of Montgomery County's Department of Technology Services (DTS). Michael Knuppel, Chief Technology Officer of DTS, was our tour guide and coordinated all aspects of the tour. The first stop on the tour was the Council Office Building (COB) data center. Dieter Klinger, Division Chief of the Enterprise Systems & Operations Division (ESOD) and Max Stucky, Division Chief of the Enterprise Telecommunication Services Division (ETSD) provided information to us regarding maintenance issues. We discussed the need for cooling systems and temperature controls to keep the data center working at its maximum efficiency.

The DTS tour second stop was the Shady Grove tower site, a small and narrow gated facility. The following people guided us through the tower site: Bobby Johnson, Manager of Radio Communication Services; Joe Sabolic, Radio Technician Supervision; Alex Tsai, Senior IT Specialist and Robert Gould, Motorola on-site contractor. We learned about the public safety radio system and how it works throughout our County. The magnitude of radio systems in one small area was impressive. All radio communications in the County flow through the tower site.

Finally, we toured the Public Safety Communication Center (PSCC). Bill Ferretti – MCPD/Deputy Director of 911 Operations provided the tour. We had an opportunity to view the room in which emergency 911 calls are fielded. Mr. Ferretti explained the in-depth and lengthy training for a 911 call-taker. In addition, we visited the “situation room” in which heads of departments gather during an emergency situation such as this winter’s Snowmaggedon.

Alan Bowser, Chief of Staff to Councilmember Trachtenberg, and Laurie Mintzer Edberg, Director of Management and Fiscal Policy for Councilmember Trachtenberg, represented the Trachtenberg office. For more information, please contact Laurie Mintzer Edberg at 240-777-7948 or Laurie.Edberg@montgomerycountymd.gov.

For more information on the County's Department of Technology Services, click here

Trachtenberg Office Attends Countywide National Night Out Celebrations

I was pleased to join in Montgomery County’s annual “National Night Out” (NNO) celebration. I attended the Olney’s popular NNO parade and celebration, while members of my staff fanned out across the County to support the community’s efforts to promote public safety and crime awareness. In addition to Olney, we visited with neighbors in the Indian Spring neighborhood at the Indian Spring Terrace Recreation Center, the Lyttonsville-Rosemary Hills community at the Coffield Recreation Center, in South Four Corners at the Forest Glen-Dallas Avenue Neighborhood Park, in Northwood and North Four Corners at the Forest Knolls Pool, and in the Park Hills neighborhood in East Silver Spring. We were pleased to see County Executive Ike Leggett, Police Chief Tom Manger, State’s Attorney John McCarthy, and Congressman Chris Van Hollen visiting our communities as well.

National Night Out is an annual event sponsored by the National Association of Town Watch (NATW). It is designed to generate neighborhood support and participation in crime prevention efforts and to enhance police and community relations.

Check out the following National Night Out photos from around the County:

Aunt Hattie’s Place: Trachtenberg Office Attends Ribbon Cutting and Grand Opening.

The Trachtenberg Office was represented at the Ribbon Cutting and Grand Opening of Aunt Hattie’s Place in Sandy Spring. Sandy Spring is the third foster home created by Dr. Hattie N. Washington, the founder and president of the facilities and a full-time professor at Coppin State University in Baltimore. Dr. Washington, known as “Aunt Hattie,” established the first Aunt Hattie’s Place in Baltimore City in 1997 when she was assistant school superintendent and witnessed the need for good homes for foster children. The second home was opened in Baltimore County in 2003, and this third location is on Norwood Road in Sandy Spring.

Aunt Hattie’s Place, Inc. is dedicated to providing a safe, stable, nurturing, and long-term home, if needed, for abused, abandoned, and neglected children in foster car. Though started in Dr. Washington’s own home in 1994, AHP strives to rear these deserving children to become productive, responsible, successful adult citizens who will live fulfilling lives and benefit our communities and our nation.

County Executive Ike Leggett, members of the State legislative, the County Council, and many friends for the business and civic community were on hand for the ribbon cutting. Alan Bowser and Naomi Bloch represented Councilmember Trachtenberg at the inspirational program.

Indian Spring Celebrates America’s Independence

The Trachtenberg Office was proud to be represented at the Independence Day Parade and Celebration. The Indian Spring Citizens Association serves over 800 homes, just inside the beltway in Silver Spring, east of Colesvile Road (Route 29). In 2005, the community was listed in the Washingtonian as one of the “Best Places to Live.” According to the magazine, "This is the kind of inner-Beltway suburb that downtown Silver Spring was revitalized for. The professionals living here may have families, but they’re not so suburbanized that they don’t enjoy the art films, live music, and trendy food that are trademarks of the new Silver Spring."

Silver Spring Declared “Capital for a Day”

Silver Spring joined the ranks of several Maryland cities, towns, and communities, in being named “Capital for a Day” on Thursday June 17th by Governor Martin O’Malley. The “Capital for a Day” program was launched in 2007 to “bring the State Capital to every corner of Maryland through a series of monthly events.”

Accompanying Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett in extending welcome to the municipality, were interim Montgomery College President Hercules Pinkney and several members of the Montgomery County Council and the Maryland State delegation. Governor O’Malley’s official Cabinet meeting was held in the early afternoon at the Montgomery College Performing Arts Centre, where members of the Executive Cabinet publicly briefed the Governor and Lieutenant Governor on their respective meetings with local counterparts throughout the day. Governor O’Malley declared, “Silver Spring is such a great example of the type of revitalization that is possible when we come together as One Maryland to rebuild and restore our economy, helping our businesses create and save jobs, and improving the conditions under which business can create or save jobs. That’s why strengthening our local partnerships is absolutely critical...”

During the Cabinet meeting, the County Executive emphasized the $900M plus gap that was recently closed for the FY11 budget, and appealed for respite from any further cuts from the State to County funding as they would significantly impact operations and cause greater difficulty in providing needed service to residents and the most vulnerable. Senator Jamie Raskin, who represents Silver Spring, joined Mr. Leggett in celebrating the visible changes and economic developments that have made Silver Spring an entertainment and cultural center destination, and noted that it was only possible because of the impetus and collaboration between the State and the County through supportive funding. An underlying message to the Cabinet was the dire need to fund and grow transportation infrastructure in Silver Spring and parts of Montgomery County; and for the inclusion of business owners, large and small, in the Governor’s recently created Commission on Small Business.

The Governor’s Cabinet Meeting for the Silver Spring’s “Capital for a Day” ended on two high notes: the first being an elaborate unveiling and demonstration of the Visit Maryland Interactive Map (www.visitmaryland.org)—which portrays Heritage Areas, Main Streets, Arts and Entertainment Districts, Civil War Trails, agri-tourism businesses, state and national parks, historical and cultural museums, interpretive signs along the Star-Spangled Banner Byway, and several other highlights under the banner of One Maryland—and the second was a Proclamation reading and plaque presentation. The Proclamation will hang at the Silver Spring Civic Building at One Veterans Plaza.

Saschane Stephenson and Alan Bowser represented Councilwoman Trachtenberg at the Governor’s Cabinet meeting in Silver Spring.

For more information highlighting state investments in Silver Spring, quotes, and the day’s activities, see the official press release Governor O’Malley Declares Silver Spring Maryland’s ‘Capital for a Day’ here.

Dale Music Co. Celebrates its 60th Anniversary

The Trachtenberg Office was proud to be represented at Dale Music Co.’s 60th Anniversary Celebration in Silver Spring. In these difficult economic times, Dale Music has stood the test of time with a strong commitment to service that wins customer loyalty and keeps them returning for generations. A sense of nostalgia and uniqueness permeates the store that sells musical instruments, sheet music and fine violins – something that has not changed much since it was founded by David and Rhoda Burchuk 60 years ago. The store sells band and orchestra instruments, guitars, fine violins and all kinds of sheet music. It is still a family business, managed by Carol Warden who is a cellist by training.

An awesome collection of sheet music, which is not found in very many stores in the world, is available for sale in the store. The choral and organ department is renowned throughout the United States for its enormous selection for church and school choirs. The band and orchestra department caters to professional bands and orchestras, jazz bands and ensemble music. The store has a staff of music teachers — some of whom were students at Dale when they were growing up. There is a repair shop on the premises for band and orchestra instruments and guitars. Dale now serves the third generation of musicians, as grandparents recall nostalgically where they came to rent an instrument and for music when they were children. Over the years, Dale has had their share of celebrities including Arthur Fiedler, Goldie Hawn, Stacy Keach, and Mama Cass.

Over and around files and shelves of sheet music, Civil War-era brasses, a hurdy-gurdy, 19th century wood-winds, and folk instruments from around the world are displayed. As part of the anniversary celebration on June 17, Carol Warden talked about the antiquarian musical instruments. The day of celebration was a day of music as employees, students and customers made music throughout the day.

Silver Spring Regional Service Director Reemberto Rodriguez presented a proclamation from County Executive Isiah Leggett to Carol Warden recognizing Dale Music’s years of service to Montgomery County. Our Chief of Staff Alan Bowser represented Councilmember Trachtenberg at the ceremony.

For more information, visit http://www.dalemusic.com/ or contact Carol Warden dale@dalemusic.com.

District 18 Breakfast Club

Councilmember Duchy Trachtenberg was the guest speaker at the District 18 Breakfast Club that met at the Tastee Diner on Cameron Street in Silver Spring at 7:30 am on Monday, June 14th.

The Councilmember spoke with the group about the formidable work ahead regarding the county’s budget and the need for Montgomery County to significantly re-structure how the county does business moving forward. She talked about the various reasons for the challenging budget conditions facing the county; from the historic downturn in the over all economy to the unsustainable growth in government that was taking place in previous years when the county’s revenue situation was not the concern it is today.

Councilmember Trachtenberg also talked about the challenge of increasing the county’s reserves to 10% from the previous levels of 6% which is the recommendation from the Bond Rating Agencies and must be accomplished in order for our county to maintain its AAA Bond Rating in the years ahead.

She took several questions from the audience that touched on a range of topics from economic development to the huge portion of the county’s budget for Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) to the future of some of the county’s non-profits and the future of the Costco development proposal for Westfield Mall in Wheaton.

Naomi Bloch and Alan Bowser of the Tracthenberg staff attended the breakfast with Councilmember Trachtenberg.

Trachtenberg Office at Leadership Montgomery’s 21st Annual Celebration of Leadership

The Trachtenberg Office was represented at Leadership Montgomery’s 21st Annual Celebration of Leadership held at the Marriott Bethesda North Hotel & Conference Center in North Bethesda. Almost 500 of Montgomery County's leaders in business, community, nonprofit, and government service attended and celebrated the the commencement of the Core and Senior Classes of 2010, and honored Hercules Pinkney, Interim President of Montgomery College, and an ’02 graduate of the Leadership Montgomery. Dr. Pinkney was the recipient of the Sandy Spring Bank Outstanding Leader Award

At the event, five outstanding high school seniors received the Shulman Rogers Youth Community Leadership Awards. Leadership Montgomery created the Youth Community Leadership Awards in 1997 to identify, reward and promote outstanding community service efforts and demonstrations of leadership by high school students in Montgomery County, Maryland.

AWARD RECIPIENTS:
Natalie Astor, Thomas S. Wootton High School
Unheh Ok, Thomas S. Wootton High School
Meghan Quinn, Stone Ridge of the Sacred Heart
Philip Smith, Sherwood High School
Jigisha Srivastav, Poolesville High School

HONORABLE MENTION:
Holland Broadus, James Hubert Blake High School
Jamie Burke, Thomas S. Wootton High School
Deicy Campos-Carlos, Northwood High School
Benjamin Constantinides, Damascus High School
Samantha Lint, Montgomery Blair High School
Elizabeth Pelletier, Richard Montgomery High School
Allison Post, Colonel Zadok Magruder High School
Melissa Von Wald, Northwest High School

For more information about Leadeship Montgomery, visit their website at http://www.leadershipmontgomerymd.org/

The Northwood Chesapeake Bay Trail Dedication

The Trachtenberg Office was represented at the dedication ceremony for the new Northwood Chesapeake Bay Trail. On Saturday, June 5, 2010—National Trails Day—we joined with the Northwood Chesapeake Bay Trail project sponsors—Chesapeake Bay Trust (CBT), Northwood High School (NHS), Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC), Friends of Sligo Creek (FOSC), Neighbors of Northwest Branch (NNWB), and MD State Highway Administration (SHA), to celebrate the land restoration project completion with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and a 5k Bay Fun Run and Hike. Leaders from each partnering organization officially opened the new green space and the new, nature interpretive Northwood Chesapeake Bay Trail at 10:00 am.

American Hiking Society’s National Trails Day was the opportune time to celebrate the completion of the eight month project to restore fifteen acres of SHA property adjacent to Northwood High School and the Kemp Mill and Northwood Four Corners’ neighborhoods which will give these communities new green space for recreation, physical fitness, wilderness watching, and environmental education. More than fifty years ago, the state purchased this land to potentially build a road on it. A road was not built and instead it became an unofficial, community landfill. With the help of a $7,500 grant from the Chesapeake Bay Trust, 272 community members, 227 of them students, volunteered 675 hours to create and design eight nature interpretive signs, build a half mile trail, remove 50 pounds of invasive plant species, grow 300 native plant seeds, plant 160 native meadow plants and nine trees, and clean-up 11,000 pounds of trash. After eight months of dedicating hundreds of hours of work by many volunteers, it was time to celebrate the community’s success in creating a new dual ecosystem park, deciduous forest and meadow. We wanted to especially recognize the vision and hard work of Jennifer Chambers for this local success story.

Our Chief of Staff, Alan Bowser, represented Councilmember Trachtenberg at the dedication ceremony.

Gandhi Brigade Launches Teen Pregnancy Awareness Campaign

The Trachtenberg Office attended the launch of the Gandhi Brigade’s "Youth Moving Forward" Campaign in which Latino/a youth address the issue of teen pregnancy. The program was held at the City Place Mall and included introductory presentations by Carlos Pinto of the National Campaign and Susan Cruz of the University of Maryland, as well as the much anticipated debut of the campaign video and poster unveiling.

The Gandhi Brigade is a youth voice project that was started in Silver Spring, Maryland. Inspired by the vision of Mohandas Gandhi to create local peace brigades, the project uses the media arts as a tool for connecting youth to their community and to critical issues in their world. The mission of Gandhi Brigade is to prepare the rising generation to become whole leaders in a broken world. Adults with experience working with youth or media coach teens and young adults how to use video and graphic arts to explore a variety of social justice issues. Since its beginning the Gandhi Brigade has created dozens of social justice media pieces and is recognized in the Washington DC metropolitan area as a leader in the field of youth led social change.

In January 2010, the Gandhi Brigade convened a group of youths and launched a 13-week, youth generated, teen pregnancy prevention video production and graphic design project. For two hours every Friday afternoon through May, Heather Kubo and Hawa Touré from the Gandhi Brigade worked with at-risk teens from the community to produce three posters for print and three 30-second public service announcements (PSAs) for television. The target audiences for the posters and PSAs include Latino parents, youths, and community leaders. Susan Cruz, from the University of Maryland's School of Social Work, is responsible for initiating the project. Recognizing the need for Latino teen pregnancy prevention messages in Montgomery County, Ms. Cruz brought together the Gandhi Brigade and the Latin American Youth Center, located in Washington, DC, as core partners. Together, each of these organizations was responsible for providing the youths with the knowledge and resources necessary to complete the project at hand.

For more information call: (301) 588-1399 or email heather@gandhibrigade.org or visit the Gandhi Bridge on the web at http://www.gandhibrigade.org/.

Trachtenberg Office Tours PEG Network

On Tuesday, June 1st the Trachtenberg Office visited several members of the PEG (Public, Education, and Government) cable television network. The PEG network is an essential organization in the creation and dissemination of important TV programming and emergency information to our community. In addition to providing live and taped television programming, the PEG network provides video streaming, closed-captioning, and web casting of important Montgomery County events.

Our tour included Montgomery County Public Schools Instructional TV, Access Montgomery and Montgomery College. We viewed the three physical facilities including the studios, equipment and editing rooms. Moreover, we spoke with many of the engineers, editors and supervisors at the PEG channels. Some highlights include learning about the Homework Hotline at MCPS Instructional TV and the hands-on training for students at Montgomery College. Also, we had an opportunity to view several of the sets used for news and educational programs.

Alan Bowser and Laurie Mintzer Edberg attended the PEG tour on behalf of the Trachtenberg Office. Mitsuko Herrera, Cable Communications Administrator for Montgomery County, arranged the PEG tour. If you have any questions regarding the PEG network, please contact Laurie Mintzer Edberg, Director of Management & Fiscal Policy, at 240-777-7948 or laurie.edberg@montgomerycountymd.gov.

Watch the PEG channels at http://www.watchlocaltv.org/.

For additional information:

Access Montgomery
(301) 424-1730

Montgomery College Television
(301) 251-7160

Montgomery County Public Schools Instructional TV
(301) 279-3141

Trachtenberg Office Attends Aspen Hill Civic Association

The Trachtenberg Office was represented at the May General Meeting of the Aspen Hill Civic Association held at the Aspen Hill Library. At the meeting, Association members heard presentations from State representatives Lennett, Manno and Kramer about accomplishments from the last legislative session in Annapolis. Cris Bombaugh, President and CEO, Montgomery County Humane Society, discussed the mission of the Humane Society as well as recent developments concerning the Aspen Hill Pet Cemetery. Tom Hogue from the County’s Department of Transportation discussed the “Renew Montgomery” program and noted the selection of the Wheaton Woods neighborhood as a program participant. Our Chief of Staff, Alan Bowser, represented the Trachtenberg Office and made comments on behalf of Councilmember Trachtenberg who could not attend due to her participation in a budget meeting in the Council Office Building.

For more information, check out http://www.aspenhillcivicassociation.org/.

The Laytonsville Community Parade

The Trachtenberg Office was proud to participate in the Laytonsville Community Parade which was held on Saturday, May 15, 2010. We were pleased to join with the local school children, scouts, and the Gaithersburg High School Marching Band for the parade along Route 108 in the brilliant Spring sunshine. This year’s parade saluted “Our Agricultural Heritage.”

For more information about the Town of Laytonsville, check out http://www.laytonsville.md.us/.