Montgomery County firefighters respond to a building fire on Chevy Chase Street.

Eleven fire rescue units responded to the blaze at 3:17 p.m. on September 8.

“The fire originated on the exterior deck of 166A,” said Gaithersburg Fire Marshal Ivan Humberson. “It extended up the exterior wall of 166A to 166B where it extended into the kitchen area of the dwelling.”

According to Humberson, the residential fire sprinklers activated inside 166B limiting the fire damage to “mostly exterior” but, he said, “there was water damage in both units so the occupants were displaced.”

Montgomery County Assistant Fire Chief Scott Graham said damage is estimated to be around $20,000 to the exterior and $50,000 to the interior of the residential units. No one was injured in the blaze, according to Graham, and the cause of the fire remains under investigation.

The city did not assist in relocating the displaced residents.

“That is typically handled by the Red Cross,” Humberson said. “City staff will be following up as necessary with the reconstruction/repairs,” he added.

Mike Hutchison shows off Sonic Solutions, a sonar machine used to kill algae in ponds.

Gaithersburg city officials are considering using an ultrasonic algae control device to kill the filamentous algae growing in the lake at the entrance to the Lakelands community. The battle against the algae in that lake has been ongoing with city officials trying solutions such as hay bales to keep it under control.

This new sonar-emitting device is one of the only solutions left before trying an aerator in the lake.

“Lake Varuna is the entry feature for this large community and that is the reason we are looking at it,” said Gaithersburg Public Works Director James Arnoult. While other lakes in the city have a similar issue with algae, Arnoult said Lake Varuna is a high visibility lake.

In Kentlands, Inspiration Lake suffers from a similar algae situation; however, Arnoult said he believes that lake includes a mix of filamentous algae and pondweed. The SonicSolutions will not kill pondweed, he said. Filamentous algae are quickly reproducing algae that cling to the surface of the pond.

Mike Hutchison, president of SportsAggregates (the seller of the sonar device), met with city officials lakeside September 3. Hutchison took water and an algae sample from the lake to test to be sure the algae was treatable by the device. The test cost $150.

The SonicSolutions works by emitting ultrasonic waves that fan out and inhibit the growth and spread of algae by destroying the algae’s cellular structure. It is safe for plants and fish operating on a floating platform just below the surface of the water. Results can be seen within two weeks of installation, according to SonicSolutions.

City officials are considering using a version powered by solar panels to avoid the added cost of running power into the lake.

The SonicSolutions device costs about $4,000 each, and Lake Varuna would require two of them. The solar panels to run them will cost about $4,000.

In comparison, an aerator used in Lake Lynette costs about $10,000 but another $30,000 to power, according to Gaithersburg Environmental Specialist Gary Dyson. Hutchison said the solar power sonar devices would cost in one year what a fountain would cost to run for half of a day.

SonicSolutions has been in business since 2003 and has sold the majority of its units to golf courses.

In June, city officials seemed ready to try a copper sulfate spray used to mitigate algae blooms in Lake Varuna. Dyson said while the spray can work in many lakes, Lake Varuna’s water level most likely would make the spray ineffective.

“We are starting to think that it is not going to work,” Dyson said.

To be effective the spray must remain in the water for seven days. Getting the water to remain in that pond for that period of time isn’t possible, he said.

“When you apply it you have to make sure the water doesn’t leave the pond for a certain number of days. We must drop the pond to have storage space for seven days and that would almost drain the pond,” he said.

Dyson said the city is looking to explore the sonar option before moving forward with aerators in that lake.

“This seems like the best solution to kill the algae. The aerators just push it to the sides of the lake,” he said, adding that cleaning up the trash at Lake Varuna is a priority whenever he has volunteers looking for community service hours.

Lake Lynette already has an aerator; however, Lake Helene does not. Neither of those lakes has filamentous algae, according to Laura Sarno, project manager for the Department of Public Works. Lake Nirvana has an aerator and “looks fine,” Sarno said.

All three of those lakes feed the larger Inspiration Lake.

“Algae by no means means the lake is not healthy, but people don’t see it quite that way,” Sarno said. “It is difficult to change people’s minds. It is good that they are concerned about their community.”

Carrie Dietz is the new director of the Kentlands Community Foundation.

Dietz replaces Bridget Ryder, who served in the post for seven years. Ryder resigned last month to take a new job.

“The Foundation is all about ‘facilitating community’ and Carrie’s commitment to community service mixed with her organizational, writing and leadership skills proved to be the perfect blend for us,” said John Schlichting, KCF Chair.

According to Schlichting, over 32 people applied for the job shortly after it was advertised last month. He said the KCF board narrowed the search down to ten qualified candidates, all of whom were interviewed on the phone.

“From the ten, we chose five extraordinary finalists, all of whom could have done a great job for us,” said Schlichting. “We spent the holiday weekend debating the decision and ultimately came to a vote at a full board meeting on Monday night at my home.”

“I am absolutely thrilled to join the foundation as director and believe the job will be a very rewarding new challenge for me,” Dietz said.

The director works alongside the Foundation’s board of directors and committee chairs to provide the administrative framework and management support for all foundation-sponsored programs and events such as the Kentlands/Lakelands 5K.

“The Foundation is always looking for new ideas as well as ways to improve on its existing programs. An area I would like to see expanded is educational outreach on new urbanism,” Dietz said.

Dietz may be a familiar name to Town Courier readers as she is employed by the paper as the editor of the Urbana issue and serves as a reporter and columnist in Gaithersburg. She is resigning from the Courier to take the KCF job but may continue writing for the paper as an occasional columnist.

“My many years with The Town Courier has made me appreciate all the Kentlands and Gaithersburg has to offer,” Dietz said. “I will use that insight in my new role serving the community through the KCF. On the flip side, I will greatly miss working with my wonderful colleagues at The Town Courier.”

For more information about the KCF, visit www.kentlands.org.

Quince Orchard High School students show off their excitement as they walk the halls on the first day of school.

“We have a busy and exciting year ahead at MCPS,” said Jerry Weast, MCPS superintendent of schools. “We have the best staff in the nation, a highly supportive and engaged community and exceptional students who I know will continue to build upon the tremendous progress we’ve made over the past 11 years.”

Our back to school coverage, including reports from Rachel Carson Elementary and Lakelands Park Middle, begins on page 19.

“It was excellent,” she said. “Staff and students were excited to return.”

In her second year as at LPMS Higdon said she and the staff will continue to build a purposeful, measurable and successful school by focusing on critical thinking, student discourse and student use of technology.

The 884-student school was also selected to be a part of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) technology grant. “The grant is to increase student use of technology to positively impact achievement,” said Higdon. “It is supplying seven classes with wireless laptops for students use. These classes are also getting video cameras to document student use of technology. A team of our teachers are being trained on the latest technology and will train the other staff.”

In addition, students in Kirsten Corprew’s contemporary communication are getting a lesson in what technology like Twitter and texting means in today’s world. “It [UDL] is an incredible opportunity for teachers to build their repertoire of strategies for using technology to engage students in learning their content,” she said. “As such, we will be trying out a lot of new things and receiving constant support. Students will benefit greatly from this.”

The class will also do on a field trip to the Newseum to sit in on the museum’s photo ethics class as part of a unit on photojournalism, explained Corprew.

For Higdon the grant is an extra boost to help the school move in a forward direction. “We are committed to closing the achievement gap using equitable classroom strategies,” she said.

Montgomery County Public Schools Superintendent Jerry Weast has announced he will retire at the end of his contract next June.[

Dr. Weast is one of the nation’s longest-serving school district superintendents.

“It has been an incredible honor to serve this system as superintendent and I will be forever grateful for the opportunities I have had here,” said Weast, who first joined MCPS in July 1999.

“This is a very bittersweet day for Montgomery County Public Schools,” said Board of Education (BOE) President Patricia O’Neill, after receiving Weast’s retirement news.

“Over the past 11 years, Dr. Weast has provided this district with unwavering leadership, vision and passion. Working collaboratively with the board, the community and our employees, he has guided us through one of the most comprehensive and successful school reform efforts in the nation, the results of which will have a positive impact for generations of children and adults,” O’Neill said.

Gaithersburg Mayor Sidney Katz said he was not surprised by the news, and he recalled Weast’s work for area schools alongside the Board of Education.

“He’s been truly a positive influence on us,” said Katz, noting MCPS’s partnership with the city to build Lakelands Park Middle School and the current effort to get construction of a new Gaithersburg High School underway.

Weast’s contract expires on June 30, 2011. For more on his legacy and retirement plans, visit www.mcpsmd.org.

A play date for new kindergarteners was held at Billy’s Playground at Lakelands Park before the first day of school.

Traditionally students get postcards mailed to them letting them know who their teacher will be for the coming school year. This year mailboxes were empty. Principal Lawrence Chep decided to hold off mailing out teacher assignments, instead waiting to see if Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) would allocate additional teachers to his school.

“From our original allocation we gained a kindergarten, first and second grade class,” Chep said after a successful opening day at RCES. “Half of the students in kindergarten, first and second grades would not have had the right teacher on their postcard. We didn’t think that was right to do.”

Instead, students arrived at the August 27 sneak peek event to find class lists posted by grade on the pillars outside the school. Crowds gathered at the pillars but quickly dispersed to head to their classrooms.

PTA acting president Mark Ezrin said the process caused some “anxiety” from parents and students.

“It was truly down to the 11th hour for the classes to hit the numbers to get MCPS approval. When we explained to parents what was going on, most were pretty understanding,” Ezrin said.

RCES administration had parents registering their kids up until Thursday, August 26. Chep said he even had two more students enrolled on the first day of school.

Early numbers had this year’s kindergarten class at 120 students and had the school down a classroom. To adjust, Chep moved one of the kindergarten teachers to a third grade classroom. That’s when the numbers started rolling in again, Chep said, bringing the kindergarten back to about 135 kids.

With the numbers in place, the kindergarten teacher moved back to her original classroom, leaving a gap in the third grade team. Chep filled it just a day before the sneak peek event when he offered Dena Muaket the job. Muaket, who served as a long-term substitute teacher for Rachel Lubkin last year, had just a day to get her room ready for her students.

Other new RCES teachers include Will Medina, teaching ESOL, and Chris Lyons, working as a part-time physical education teacher.

“People are happy they have a job, and they really enjoy working at Rachel Carson Elementary School,” Chep said of the last minute adjustments.

In first grade, two teachers are splitting one job, the first job-share arrangement at Rachel Carson. Mary Boerboom and Regina Ausherman are co-teachers, meaning each will teach half days.

“Both are great teachers, and I didn’t want to lose either one,” Chep said of his decision to allow the job share.

The average class size in kindergarten is 22 – 23 kids; in first grade, 23; in second grade, 23 – 24; in third grade, 25; in fourth grade, 25 – 26; and in fifth grade, 25 – 26 students. In all, enrollment totals 880 students.

Ezrin said the classroom switches threw off his organization’s ability to get the School ToolBox supplies to the student classrooms in time for the Sneak Peek event. Parents had the opportunity to preorder school supplies, which were then shipped directly to the school.

“We had the ToolBoxes, but we weren’t sure where they went,” he said.

Ezrin said the PTA at RCES continues its membership drive through October and is still in need of a president and several committee members.

“I think the economy made it harder for a number of PTAs when it comes to volunteers. I see more of my friends where one parent stayed at home before [and] that parent is going back to work full-time or part-time. That manifests sadly in the leadership and the committees,” Ezrin said.

With students settled in their correct classrooms, they faced one other major change this year to their schedule. Instead of having recess follow lunch, Chep decided to flip those two periods.

“I read research that having recess first cuts down on behavior issues and has the students more calm as they head back to class,” Chep said.

Students will be able to use any of the four hand sanitizer machines located on the playground before coming in to eat their lunch. Chep said cutting out the need to wash hands after the playground in the classroom adds about 10 minutes of instructional time to the day.

The Quince Orchard High School marching band greeted students at the front entrance on the first day of school.

The sale will be held rain or shine. For more information, please contact Gloria Nehemiah at glola924@aol.com, Tina Winters at winters.tina@gmail.com, or Nathan Kahl at nathan.ka@gmail.com.

Gaithersburg Community and Public Relations Director Britta Monaco saw her salary jump nearly $10,000 midway through the 2010 fiscal year budget because of an increase in duties and a promotion, according to city officials.

Monaco is now making $109,023 a year, or 10 percent more than she was making before City Manager Angel Jones reclassified her job from a division head (public information director) to a department head (community and public relations director) in July 2009.

Before the raise, Monaco was earning $99,112 a year. In addition to the salary hike, Monaco also received an additional week of accrued annual leave.

The Town Courier learned about Monaco’s raise after requesting a list of employee salaries for the 2010 fiscal year. Jones said the pay hike was a result of Monaco’s reclassification as part of an internal reorganization of a few city employees.

“This practice is consistent with any employee who assumes additional responsibility and/or the market analysis warrants an increase,” Jones said.

Jones evaluated Monaco’s performance six months after she took on the new duties and formally informed Monaco of the salary increase in a memo dated January 19, 2010.

“I greatly appreciate the enthusiasm with which you handled the new tasks and challenges you faced during the last six months,” wrote Jones. “Your willingness to take on more duties and responsibilities positioned our organization to move forward effectively.”

She also praised Monaco for spending “considerable time” learning more about the Community Services Division’s programs and services “without neglecting management of the Public Information Division.”

As the director of community services and public relations, Monaco supervises 12 full-time employees, 16 part-time employees, one intern and one volunteer.

The Town Courier has also learned that City Attorney Lynn Board has received more benefits following her June 22 annual review. Board celebrated her second anniversary with the city on April 28.

According to a memo written by Gaithersburg Mayor Sidney Katz and dated June 23, Board is now receiving an additional two weeks of annual leave per calendar year (an increase from two weeks to four weeks per calendar year), an additional 5 percent employer contribution to the city retirement plan (provided that Board contributes a minimum of 2 percent to a city retirement plan) and guaranteed severance compensation of six months’ salary (except if Board is terminated from employment with the city of Gaithersburg for cause).

All of the benefits were approved unanimously by the City Council and were effective retroactively.

“[The] city attorney’s hard work and dedication are greatly appreciated by the City Council,” wrote Katz in the memo.

Board earned $144,999.92 during fiscal year 2010, according to salary records obtained by The Town Courier, and is one of the city’s highest wage earners following Jones, Public Works Director James Arnoult and Police Chief Mark Sroka. She received a $25,000 plus raise following her first review by the city’s elected leaders.

The meeting began with dozens of elected leaders who testified on behalf of the residents they represent, including U.S. Congressman Chris Van Hollen, State Delegate Kumar Barve and Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett.

Gaithersburg Mayor Sidney Katz said he was concerned about communication problems with Pepco after the July 25 storm, and he wanted to know why some city neighborhoods lose power more frequently than others.

“Lest there be any confusion, the lack of responsibility from Pepco extends far beyond the response to recent storms,” Katz said.

Katz noted he was “pleased that our Quince Orchard community is identified in Pepco’s recently unveiled reliability plan as one of the communities whose substations will undergo substation hardening.”

But he said the city respectfully requests that the improvements take place over the next two years and not the five-year process Pepco recently outlined in its timeline for improvements.

City Council member Ryan Spiegel also testified at the hearing and noted “some of our leaders have likened the county’s electric system to that of a third world country.” Spiegel said the repeated power problems send “a very bad message to the rest of the country and to potential investors in our state.”

“I urge the Commission to think boldly, to do more than just fiddle around the edges of this problem, and to keep in mind the hundreds of thousands of rate-paying, and tax-paying, individuals and businesses who have been repeatedly victimized by the staggering shortcomings of Pepco’s system,” Spiegel said.

Montgomery County’s Legislative Information Officer Neil Greenberger said more than 350 people attended the meeting, which stretched over six hours. He said the last speaker did not finish until after midnight. Greenberger said the entire meeting will soon be available on the county’s website for viewing, and it will be rebroadcast on County Cable Montgomery.

After being inundated by complaints from Pepco customers, many of whom were left without power for days following summer storms, the PSC launched a formal investigation into Pepco’s reliability at an August 17 hearing in Baltimore. Since that meeting, the PSC has ordered Pepco to produce a list of documents and has scheduled an October 12 status conference.