Residents pan new Montgomery County snow plow tracker, fake news on sidewalks

The new Montgomery County "snow portal" touted by County Councilmember Hans Riemer and other officials got a failing grade from residents I spoke to, and on social media, after yesterday's storm. Not only is there no longer a map to view snow operations countywide, or even in your area, but the consensus opinion was that the time estimates were no more useful than the old map. Not to mention that switching to a primitive text format, instead of a graphic map, was like going from iPhone to DOS.

Constituent gives Councilmembers
Hans Riemer and Roger Berliner his
blunt assessment of their new "snow portal"
on Facebook

Riemer provided some additional fake news about his sidewalk shoveling bill, which cost taxpayers $6,458,000, but came up even shorter than the snow portal. In a blog post, he boasted that since the bill passed two years ago, "I find that the County is doing a much better job clearing snow from sidewalks where the County (or Parks) is the responsible party as well as helping clear snow from sidewalks where there may be a public safety concern."

"It's just as useless

as past versions. #FAIL"

This is simply not true, as I well-documented last winter. On Westbard Avenue alone, sidewalks fronting both Montgomery County (Little Falls Library) and Montgomery County Public Schools (Westland Middle School) property remained unshoveled a full month after the largest storm. Embarrassingly, Riemer himself passed by these very sidewalks after the storm on a carpetbagger's bus tour for the Westbard sector plan, and took no action to get them cleared.

What happened?

Riemer's claim earns him the Four Pinocchios/Pants-on-Fire awards.

Asbestos project underway at Beall's Grant apartments in Rockville (Photos)

An asbestos remediation project has quietly begun at the Beall's Grant apartments in Rockville. No details are available except a notice stating that the project will be completed this Saturday. Beall's Grant is owned by Montgomery Housing Partnership, and is located at 254 N. Washington Street. I don't know if there's a connection, but MHP recently closed financing on the property from Enterprise Community Partners, including $8.75 million in "construction financing."

Salvation Army Family Store opens in Rockville (Photos)

Rockville's newest thrift store is now open for business. The Salvation Army Family Store opened on Saturday in the former Pier 1 store building at 1590 Rockville Pike. There's something for everyone at the Salvation Army store.

UPS Store coming to Wintergreen Plaza in Rockville (Photos):

A UPS Store will be the latest addition at Wintergreen Plaza in Rockville. The store will be located near Paisano's.

New small business group to host networking event for MoCo restaurant owners March 22

The Montgomery County Small Business Action Network, a new organization encouraging Montgomery County small business owners to be proactive on county government actions that impact their businesses, is concentrating on restaurant owners this month. SBAN will host a networking event for restaurant and bar owners on Wednesday, March 22, from 5:30-7:30 PM, at Hunter's Bar and Grill, located at 10123 River Road in Potomac.

The guest speaker at the event will be Bob Dorfman, the newly-appointed Director of Montgomery County's Department of Liquor Control. Dorfman will remain after his presentation to answer restaurant owners' questions one-on-one. The cost to attend is $25. For $35, you can attend and also become a member of SBAN. There will be a cash bar during the event.

RSVP by email, as space is limited for the event.

Matchbox launches year-long effort to raise funds for child hunger

There's one more reason besides pizza and sliders to dine often at Matchbox in Rockville this year. From today until March 8, 2018, matchbox American Kitchen + Spirit and Ted's BULLETIN will donate 10 cents from every matchbox pizza, and 10 cents of every Ted's BULLETIN Ted's Tart, sold (up to $75,000) at all locations to raise money to fight against childhood hunger.

Chief Executive Officer of matchboxfoodgroup Peter D'Amelio said, "matchboxfoodgroup is grateful for the opportunity to partner with No Kid Hungry, and give back to the community in which we serve and live. Childhood hunger is an important issue for all of us here at matchboxfoodgroup and we're humbled to contribute to the fight against childhood hunger."

Matchbox is located at Congressional Plaza on Rockville Pike, and Ted's BULLETIN is at Downtown Crown in Gaithersburg.

Proposed new Rockville neighborhood could have 1900 housing units (Photos)

The Rockville Planning Commission will be briefed tonight on the Shady Grove Neighborhood Center, a mixed-use project proposed by applicant Lantian/1788 Shady Grove 31 II, LLC. City staff says that caveats in the submitted Project Plan could wind up allowing 1900 housing units to be constructed on the 31 acre property. The site is located along Shady Grove Road, between Choke Cherry Road and Gaither Road.

Map showing locations of
green space at the proposed
development

Other elements of the plan include 850,000 SF of retail, office, hotel and institutional uses, such as a nursing home. A "central green" and other small park sites will be located around the 330 townhomes at the development. Maximum building heights will be 85', according to a letter from the applicant's attorneys. A hotel and grocery store are shown on the plan map at the top of this article.

Tonight's meeting will begin at 7:00 PM in the Mayor and Council chambers in City Hall. It will be televised on Rockville Channel 11.