Rockville city staff member to join MoCo Council panel discussion on Rockville Confederate statue

The absence of Councilmember Tom Moore at last night's Mayor and Council meeting resulted in little argument over the next steps the City of Rockville will take regarding the controversial Confederate statue at the Red Brick Courthouse. In fact, the Mayor and Council ended up voting unanimously on the next communication that will be sent to the Montgomery County Executive and Council on the matter. That email will thank County Executive Ike Leggett for his decision on the statue, and quickly removing the graffiti that defaced it last week. It will also name a city staff member to serve on the County Council task force that will discuss the ultimate fate of the statue beginning August 11.

Leggett's decision was to remove the statue from the courthouse grounds. What remains undecided, is where it will be relocated to.

Councilmember Virginia Onley addressed her decision to withdraw her support for Moore's aborted letter to Leggett, and sign on to a new letter with Mayor Bridget Donnell Newton and Councilmember Beryl Feinberg. Onley said two specific points influenced her choice. First, Moore's letter implied the Mayor and Council had voted on issues they had never actually taken a vote on. Secondly, Moore's suggestion of moving the statue to the Beall-Dawson House was actually impossible, Onley noted. The house is owned by the city, but is rented by the Montgomery County Historical Society.

Resident Joe Jordan criticized Moore's media attacks on the mayor in recent days. In remarks made during the Community Forum segment of the meeting, Jordan took Moore to task for his inflammatory language, in which Moore described Newton as "lawless and unprofessional." Such attacks were "just wrong," Jordan said, and asked that the bickering stop.

The staff member who will represent the city in the discussions will be selected by the City Manager.

Mustache Cafe and Hookah Bar opens in Rockville (Photos)

You won't have to wait for Movember to go to the Mustache Cafe in Rockville. The cafe and hookah bar is open now at 1 Dawson Avenue, right off N. Washington Street. Their website at mustache.cafe is only a mustache as of press time.

The main draw here is hookah more than as a cafe, adding another lounge hangout alternative for tobacco aficionados to the existing Sam's Hookah Bar & Cafe and Vape Ink in Rockville.

Rockville Confederate statue walled in by Montgomery County (Photos)

Montgomery County has "boxed up" the controversial Confederate statue on the grounds of the Red Brick Courthouse, placing wooden walls around it. Only the soldier's head is now visible. This is ostensibly to prevent further vandalism of the statue before it can be relocated.

The future of the statue is expected to be discussed by the Mayor and Council at their meeting Monday evening. However, the city's Historic District Commission must weigh in on the matter, and they are not scheduled to meet until September 17.

John Moser to be recognized at Rockville Mayor and Council meeting this Monday, August 3

The late John Moser, a longtime volunteer and familiar face to residents of Rockville, will be formally recognized by the Mayor and Council Monday night for his years of service to the city. Among his many roles, Moser served as chair of the Rockville Arts Commission.

Moser was a major proponent of ensuring public art be a prominent aspect of future development in the city, including in its revitalized town center. That is probably his most obvious legacy to the city.

Conspicuously missing from the agenda for Monday's meeting, is a formal agenda item for discussion of the Confederate statue, which is expected to be a topic that evening.

Rockville construction update: Renaissance Street (Photos)

Here's an updated set of photos from the newest street in Rockville Town Center, temporarily known as Renaissance Street. As you may recall, Choice Hotels has asked the city to consider renaming the street, which has a moniker uncomfortably similar to a competing hotel brand.

The Rockville Planning Commission is expected to act on the request at next week's meeting.

No apologies: Rockville Planning Commission responds to Councilman's query regarding Pike Plan

Rockville Planning Commission
Chair Don Hadley

Rockville Councilmember Tom Moore wrote to the city's Planning Commission to request an update on when the Mayor and Council might expect the Rockville Pike Plan back from that body. That letter was brought up at the commission's last meeting. According to commission chair Don Hadley, Moore expressed a strong interest in receiving the plan in time for the current Mayor and Council to act on it prior to Election Day in November. Should this not happen, Hadley said, Moore implied that the work of residents, staff and elected officials would be wasted.

Commissioner John Tyner noted, jokingly, that Moore "didn’t thank the members of the Planning Commission of our 4 years of work on this project." Overall, none of the commissioners expressed any concurrence with Moore's choice of timing, and several referred to it as an "artificial deadline."

To the idea that any further delay would have wasted time and effort, Commissioner David Hill responded that the commission had taken great time and effort to obtain citizen feedback on the plan, and said "I don’t think that’s a wasted effort in any manner."

Commissioner Jack Leiderman argued that it was the Council majority that overturned the city's Adequate Public Facilities Standards for school overcrowding that was actually to blame for the holdup.

"When the Mayor and Council unilaterally changed the apes standards, it sort of changed the groundwork upon which our plan had been developed," Leiderman said. "We did warn them in advance that it would be disruptive to the planning process for the Mayor and Council to move precipitously in that area. They chose to go ahead and do that."

 "I don’t make any apologies to anyone on the council 

who’s asking why is there a delay, because the council majority

 is actually the cause of the delay."

"I think this commission reserves the right to reassess the plan in light of what now needs to be discussed," Leiderman continued, "because the [Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance] and APFS are repeatedly referred to in the plan. And so I don’t make any apologies to anyone on the council who’s asking why is there a delay, because the council majority is actually the cause of the delay."

After getting feedback from commissioners, Hadley said he would compose a letter representing their thoughts on the matter. "We’re not a political body, we’re not playing politics," Hadley said, stressing that the commission is committed to updating the plan under the new APFS standards in the best interests of residents.

"The easiest way to put it," Tyner suggested, "is that when we’ve completed our deliberations, and have come up with a plan that’s in the best way for the needs of the citizens of all of Rockville, then we’ll send it forward."

Another Dunkin' Donuts coming to Rockville - this time in Twinbrook

The latest addition to the growing Dunkin' Donuts empire in Rockville will be at The JBG Companies' Galvan development at 1800 Rockville Pike. Near the Twinbrook Metro station and the Hilton hotel, the mixed-use project will be anchored by a Safeway grocery store.

Meanwhile, construction continues inside another Dunkin' Donuts store in the Mallory Square development further north at 15251 Siesta Key Way. Boris Lander, principal of the Luis Group that owns the franchises, says he expects the Mallory Square location to open in late August. They plan to have a free coffee giveaway to celebrate that opening, so stay tuned as the time approaches.

Lander says the Galvan Dunkin' Donuts will open in 2016. The Galvan building is still under construction.

Photo: Boris Lander