Solutions to the crosswalk-safety situation outside Urbana Middle School were discussed in an Urbana community meeting on Jan. 18.

Frederick County Public School Superintendent Dr. Theresa Alban, Assistant Transportation Manager Tom Buckley and Sheriff Chuck Jenkins, asked for ideas and input from the more than 70 attendees. Sam DeLaurence, an engineer with the Maryland State Highway Administration, and Frederick County Sargeant, Mark Landahl, were also on hand to answer questions. Others in attendance included UMS Principal Gwendolyn Dorsey, Vice Principal Stacey Hiltner, FCPS Middle School Director Tracey Lucas, BOE President Brad Young and Board members Donna Crook and April Miller.

UMS sixth grader Francesca Testen read a short speech she had prepared asking for increased safety measures for her fellow students, and Jessica Ristau, a second-grader from the Urbana Elementary School magnet program read a prepared statement encouraging safety and efficiency. Students “have a chance to get killed,” she said. “The crossing guard can’t stop the cars, and the cars go fast on Route 80. Even traffic lights won’t stop it. I’ve seen one go past before.”

The option that seemed most popular among parents — actually garnering applause when first suggested — was reducing the current distance requirement for students to be bussed to the school. Currently, children must live at least 1.75 miles from the school to receive bus service; otherwise, they walk or receive rides to school.

According to Buckley, more than 350 students usually walk to school “on a good weather day.” He said reducing the minimum mileage requirement was financially unfeasible, especially given recent budget cuts in the county and the state of Maryland.

Other suggestions offered during the almost two-hour meeting included:

Returning the shuttle service that was offered during the 2010/2011 school year, but, according to Buckley, rarely used. New options, which could pick up students at the two community centers in the Villages of Urbana and one in the Urbana Highlands, would entail purchasing and maintaining either two or four new buses, at a cost in excess of $200,000 – $400,000 respectively;

Increasing or restricting turn lanes or signals onto Route 80;

Constructing at least one overpass or tunnel across Route 80, which Jenkins said was studied three years earlier and found to cost in excess of $1 million dollars;

Adding sidewalks to extend eastward on Route 80, alongside the Urbana Highlands and newer construction in, and/or on the south side of the road, next to both Urbana Middle and High schools;

Implementing a two-tiered schedule, whereby both schools start and end at the same time, possible to increase bus usage;

Adding another crossing guard and/or sharing services with staff working outside of Centerville Elementary;

Adding speed enforcement mechanisms, or monitoring and enforcing current measures more strictly; and

Increasing safety education programs in the school.

After the December accident, Jenkins, Police Department staff and FCPS officials closely monitored school traffic for two weeks.

“Speed is not the biggest issue,” said Jenkins, “and I’m concerned about the kids not paying attention and being safe.”

Three new safety measures have recently been implemented:

Extending the traffic light walking time across Route 80 by 15 seconds during school arrival and dismissal times;

A crossing guard to administer the extension and monitor student traffic; and

Adding a second lane in the UMS parking lot, to reduce lines on the main road.

Sheriff Jenkins assured parents at January’s meeting that these new measures would be continued at the department’s expense.

Margie Simpson, whose son, Erik, is in eighth grade at UMS, suggested adding sidewalks near the school. “When we lived in Montgomery County,” said Simpson, “several parents successfully advocated for safer traffic patterns at Northwest High School, so I’m hoping to help improve the situation here.”

Jenkins agreed. “We need the voices of parents and residents. We need your advocacy to communicate with the governor, delegates and other representatives at the county and state level to protect and support education funding for Frederick County.”

Input from residents is still being taken by FCPS to present to the Board of Education at the next meeting, on Feb. 8. Suggestions can be sent to superintendent@fcps.org.

Community conversations surrounding the two garage fires in Urbana on Dec. 26 and the four arrests that followed include both compassionate and angry tones.

The four arrests were made around 11 p.m. on Dec. 27 in conjunction with fires at two separate garages in the Villages of Urbana. The four youths, three of whom live in the Villages of Urbana and the fourth of whom lives in the greater Urbana area, were charged with second degree arson, conspiracy to commit arson and theft. The fires occurred on Dec. 26, causing damage to two garages on the 3700 block of Singleton Terrace and 3900 block of Addison Woods Road in the Villages of Urbana.

No official announcement was made to Urbana High School (UHS) students or parents since the crimes did not occur on school property. Due to privacy laws, UHS Principal Kathy Campagnoli was unable to comment on the arrests or whether the youths are enrolled at UHS. She said that according to BOE Regulation No. 400-60, the issue was being appropriately addressed.

“When a school is informed of a student charged with a violent offense off campus … ‘Frederick County Public Schools personnel seriously consider and review cases when police reports are brought to the attention of school officials,’” said Campagnoli, quoting the BOE regulation. “The assessment team will consider the student’s past history, the charges involved, and the likelihood of an impact upon the school community. The outcome may range from no action to a recommendation that the student be placed in an alternative setting.”

Urbana resident Rich Terselic said the community reaction has included a large amount of traffic on the Villages of Urbana neighborhood message board.

“It was a mix of anger, fear and compassion,” Terselic said. The posts included anger, as well as “fear — early on before the arrests — as to whether more fires might occur. [And] compassion toward the families of the youths involved regarding the implications for them.”

While no one was hurt by the fires, according to officials, the damages on the property is estimated at $50,000 on Singleton Terrace, and on Addison Woods Road at $80,000. The Addison Woods fire damaged both the detached garage and two vehicles parked inside.

After speaking with staff at area retail stores and watching surveillance footage from the Walmart on Guilford Drive, officials determine the acts were arson and started by marine flares. The footage showed the teens shoplifting a significant number of flares.

Jim May, fire chief at the Urbana Volunteer Fire Department for about 12 years, said that these are the first garage fires he recalls in Urbana.

“They were set on fire, so there is nothing you can do about something like that,” he said, explaining that arson is not easily prevented

May said that both garages were total losses upon arrival because the fire had made its way to the attic in both cases. He also said he and his staff noticed something else.

“We noticed right away [in both cases] that the firewalls were intact,” he said. “Basically, these garages burnt down within their firewalls and did not spread beyond that, which proves that the fire codes and the construction codes in this case worked well and they were built properly.

“That made the job a lot easier. … That kept the damage as low as it was even though it is still significant.”

Cpl. Jason West of the Frederick County Sheriffs Department is investigating this case. Neither he nor May were aware of the status of the damage repair to the homes.

“We did what we did and left, and the investigators and property owners’ insurance companies are all doing their own thing now,” May said.

The names of the arrested boys cannot be legally released by the Frederick County Sheriff’s Department since they are minors, according to Cpl. Jennifer Bailey, spokesperson for the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office.

“As far as anything being done to prevent it [in the future], I think the police will do their best to take care of that,” May said.

Bailey and West both reported that there was no new information to be released on this fire case.

For updates on this story and more before the next Town Courier monthly edition, visit www.towncourier.com/urbana.

Minda Metz bakes up a delicious storm at Monrovia’s cafe, The Buzz. Metz said she can’t recall a time she was not passionate about food.

Metz owns The Buzz, a cafe-and-bakery fusion that holds a comfortable, coffee-shop vibe and draws locals to Monrovia, Md., in hoards.

Her cooking is dubbed here as unusual — because it’s unusual that Metz is even in Monrovia. Here’s why: Metz worked for four years as Ralph Lauren’s personal chef, first in Telluride, Colo., and then in Manhattan in New York City. She also quadrupled the sales of Knife & Fork Caterers, a catering company in Rockville, developing the menu and working as head of catering. Among other culinary pursuits, Metz owned Crescent City, a restaurant in Alexandria, which closed in 1996.

All that is to say Metz is a 56-year-old foodie extraordinaire — but in 2009 she decided to debut and establish her talents in a small shopping center in Monrovia. And she said she’s here to stay.

“What I love … is that I always envisioned having a place that has a lot of community camaraderie, and we have attained that,” said Metz, whose warm and hospitable nature brings a contagious spirit to the cafe. “Young people [come and] don’t want to leave. There is a good vibe [here].”

Metz said she’s been obsessed with food since she was a child, beginning in the kitchens of the farm she grew up on in Minnesota. She said her mom never forced her into the kitchen — she has just always been passionate about it.

“I don’t recall a time I wasn’t interested in food,” said Metz, who lives in Mt. Airy with her husband and two sons. “I wake up thinking about food; I go to bed thinking about food.”

The Buzz opened in June 2009. Leading up to that point, Metz said she had just been let go from Knife & Fork Caterers due to the economy and was discouraged about her career. It was her nail technician at Green Valley Center (just a few doors down from what is now The Buzz), who prodded her to consider a space that was up for sale — and it was her nail technician who made her an appointment to look at the space, three years ago this month.

Two weeks later, Metz owned the space. From late February 2009 through its opening in June — what was formerly an ice cream shop — she transformed into a chic space for The Buzz. More electric lines were added, the kitchen was expanded, walls painted a warm shade and a mahogany slab was installed at the coffee bar — acquired during a home restoration in Georgetown. Now, the walls are splattered with framed, colorful art, all done by Urbana-area students.

The Buzz’s first year was tough, Metz said., Metz said.

“Every day, I wondered if we were going to make it to the next,” she said. The Buzz also offers catering, and as that picked up and business continued to increase, the business began to thrive. Now, a weekend barely goes by where The Buzz doesn’t have at least one event to cater, Metz said.

Last year, Metz was named entrepreneur of the year in the Start-Up Business category by the Entrepreneur Council of Frederick County. Metz, who said she was stunned, said the award was a huge affirmation and encouragement for her work.

What stands out about The Buzz, Metz said, is simply that it’s good.

“It stands out in this area because it is so unusually good,” she said. “When people come in here the menu is unusual enough that we can always find something that they like.”

The menu not only has unique food items, but it changes every week and carries a different theme. For example, last year one week was dubbed Psychology Week, where she offered dishes including the breakfast item Attitude Adjustment Frittata. Each week, Metz said, there is a breakfast sandwich on the menu, a french toast or a waffle offering for breakfast and for lunch, always a specialty sandwich and two salads — one with meat and one vegetarian option.

One week in December, a cajun-shrimp salad sandwich was offered, served warm, topped with melted cheese and avocado. This month, Metz said she will be offering Mardi Gras with a New Orleans-themed menu, as well as Valentines dishes and baked goods.

Everything on the menu is made from scratch and is fresh daily, Metz said, including the salad dressings, soups and aiolis, which are used on the paninis. As far as baked goods go, Metz said the baked goods and icings are made with real butter — not Crisco or shortening, but the real stuff. That’s part of why the baked goods go fast every day.

This month she’s baking up specialty Valentine’s Day treats including themed cupcakes, painted sugar cookies, brownies and sweetheart pies, available all month and on Feb. 14.

As far the future, Metz said she would love to expand the location but fears it could lose part of its charm. “I think it’s a lot of fun to have that line out the door,” she said.

When making a visit to The Buzz, note that it’s closed on Mondays. The Buzz is located at 11801 Fingerboard Road in Monrovia, and can be reached at 301.865.4900, thebuzzgreenvalley.com or on Facebook; Metz posts weekly updates and photographs about the foods she is making on her personal page.

Concerned and active citizens have voiced opposition to the project and are continuing to fight against the proposal.

Sugarloaf Estates resident Gary Thuro got involved more than a year and half ago. He said he has some major concerns with the proposed incinerator:

Pollution of air, land and water with dioxin (a group of toxins that could be a possible by-products from waste incineration), mercury and other toxic carcinogens;

Financial liability for the county;

• Impact on 13 schools in the immediate area (within three miles of the site);
• Lost opportunity for future enhancements as county will be tied to this facility for possibly 30 years;
• Major increase in traffic on Md. 85; and
• Destruction of the way of life “as we know it” in Frederick.

Thuro also believes the need to push so much trash tonnage daily into the incinerator to keep it viable and producing energy will hamper the county’s progress in recycling efforts.

Sally Sorbello, who lives on Motter Avenue in Frederick city, is a strong proponent of recycling. “Because of recycling efforts, trash consumption has gone down” in Frederick County, Sorbello said. However, “they claim our goal is 60 percent recycling, but there is no plan for that.

“If you mix it, it is trash. If you separate it, it is resources,” she said.

Ellis Burruss, of Brunswick, strongly opposes the incinerator. “The trend for recycling is only going to get stronger,” he said. “Industry is responding with the green effort.”

John (Lennie) Thompson Jr., president of the Frederick County commissioners during many of the planning years leading up to the actuality of a WTE facility being built in the county, agrees with the need for more and vigorous recycling.

“While we consistently meet our state-mandated recycling goals, our program is almost entirely voluntary and is simply not enough,” he said. “In order to divert enough trash from the waste stream into recycling to have any hope of avoiding the need for a WTE facility, we will need to change the way we do business.

“The county government has no authority to implement mandatory recycling, excise taxes on product packaging, solid waste collection franchises, etc., all things we will need to do if we are to substantially increase the rate of recycling. Most folks want someone to pick up the items they don’t want anymore and take those items somewhere else. They are not particularly concerned about the issue unless the ‘somewhere else’ is in their vicinity.”

While the proposed WTE facility may create electricity the area can use, byproducts such as dioxin and ash raise concerns among opponents.

“What are they going to do with the ash from the incinerator?” asked Burruss. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), he said, permits incinerator ash used as landfill cover. It partially oxides and then seeps down to the liner and leachate area, he explained.

Ironically, he said, “If they use the incinerator as for landfill cover, that counts as recycling.”

Thompson noted that the EPA sets the standards for allowable emissions from municipal waste incinerators. “The Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) can establish standards that are stricter than those set by the EPA. To the best of my knowledge, the current MDE standards for municipal waste incinerators mirror the standards set by the EPA,” said Thompson. “I have encouraged those who believe the emission standards for municipal waste incinerators are too lenient to take advantage of their right to petition for a change in regulations promulgated by the EPA, MDE or both.”

Burruss said, “Fifteen percent of the waste stream is food and/or wet paper, [and] the plan is to put food scraps into the incinerator,” which he theorized could actually dilute the generated energy.

There was also some discussion that the incinerator could burn tires to generate energy. “Tires burn cleaner than coal,” said Burruss.

Aside from the pollution issues, health concerns loom large with the threat of mercury contamination, said Thuro. Even very small amounts can do significant damage. According to the EPA, he said, one teaspoon of mercury can poison a lake with a surface area of 300 acres so that the fish are unsafe to eat.

With the citizens’ concerns about the incinerator’s byproducts and toxins, Thompson addressed concerns about what happens if Frederick County doesn’t have the facility.

“Unless and until the county has the authority (and the will) to dramatically increase recycling efforts to the extent necessary to avoid the need for a WTE facility,” he said, “we have little choice … in the absence of the ability to dramatically increase recycling, our choices are:

“Bury trash in the ground here. This would require citing another landfill. Those who oppose waste-to-energy have yet to identify a specific location for a new landfill.

“Bury trash in the ground somewhere else. This is pretty much what we are doing now, in the mega-fills in Pennsylvania and Virginia. As those mega-fills begin to close, the next likely mega-fill locations will be in the Carolinas or on the other side of the Appalachians. At some point, the financial costs and environmental disadvantages of having an endless series of 30-plus tractor-trailer loads per day traveling nearly a 1,000 miles will eclipse the financial costs and environmental drawbacks of a WTE facility.

“At this point, a WTE facility appears to be the least undesirable of the options,” he said.

Thompson concluded, “I based my decision on which of several undesirable alternatives was the least undesirable. Public opposition to the alternatives [is] something I took into account, but was not determinative. There is and will continue to be public opposition to anything we do concerning solid waste, even if we choose to do nothing.”

Editor’s note: For the history on how trash has been handled in Frederick County, visit www.towncourier.com.

Yemi stands in front of a large installation, Pillars of Frederick, which he created and installed on the side of McCutcheon’s Factory and Store in downtown Frederick. He also compiled a book with details about each of the people illustrated in the display.

All of these questions and more are answered in, “Pillars of Frederick,” a new book compiled by Yemi, an artist based in Frederick city. A friend came up with the idea and encouraged Yemi to pursue a monumental task — honor great Frederick residents, post-mortem, through a large installation on the side of McCutcheon’s Factory and Store in downtown Frederick. Yemi then spoke with Vanessa and Bob McCutcheon about the idea and they loved it; they also suggested he put together a book to tell more about the people and why they were chosen.

He created each image in Illustrator, a computer program, by using tools in the program like a digital airbrush. Using Illustrator made it possible for him to blow up the images so none would look pixelated.

Yemi worked with several writers in the area and included his original graphic art of each person in the book. Plus there are photos of places, buildings or signs associated with the person.

“If you have to pin me down and ask, ‘Who are your favorites?’ I look more at … two different things — the art and the history,” Yemi said. “When it comes to the art, [some] of my favorites [are] Margaret Hood, Dr. John Tyler and Joseph Henry Apple. I particularly like [Apple’s] because it was kind of like a cheeky thing that I did, that I put him in this white suit. The photograph that was my reference material for that particular portrait of him, he was wearing a dark suit, but I liked him in a white suit because he had this nice white hair. So I took a lot of liberties with the dress, tie and everything else when I did the artwork.

“As far as the history is concerned, my favorite, probably of all of them, is Dr. John Vincent Atanasoff. He is the man that I wish I had met, is the one who invented the computer. I would have really enjoyed talking to him and asking him questions about his mindset and how did he come up with this idea.”

Atanasoff was a physics professor at Iowa State University who eventually moved and lived out his days on a farm near New Market. He had a long list of accomplishments. Among them: He developed a prototype for the first computer before World War II, suggested the Postal Service’s ZIP code system, developed USPS’ robotic packaging, and automated Sears-Roebuck’s warehouses.

Bringing all of the pieces for the book together was sometimes difficult.

“It was seven parts joy and three parts challenge,” Yemi said. “It was one of those things that I felt intuitively, that this was a very important thing to do. At the same time, it was a challenge because I really had to set aside my normal work for a good year and a half.

“The joy was that I could see the future. It’s one of those things that I could feel. Kind of like you are in a dark room, it’s completely dark, and you feel the plush carpet, really plush, soft and luxurious, but you can’t see it. So I could feel that this was a really wonderful thing to do, even though I couldn’t see exactly what the shape of it was or what it would bring.”

Travis Kraft

But 26-year-old Kraft didn’t set out to teach math because it came naturally. Instead, he decided to take up studying math during his years at Pennsylvania State University — because he was quite horrible at it.

“I thought I could do something that I am kind of good at or do something that I am not good at and get better at it. So I picked the thing that I am the worst at and tried to get better at that,” Kraft laughed. “I did not have the mind to be meticulous — but I improved!”

Kraft said that it was during his sophomore year at Penn State that he decided he wanted to teach.

“It wasn’t really enough for me just to do mathematics; I wanted to give something back to the community and to kids in general,” he said.

Kraft, who grew up in the Washington, D.C., metro area, graduated with a degree in secondary education with a mathematics specialty and applied to schools across the Maryland/D.C. region. He was offered a job at UHS, where he has taught for three years.

In addition to teaching the accelerated algebra class, Kraft teaches contemporary mathematics, a senior class for students who need another math credit. He also works one-on-one with struggling students — a role that’s dubbed high school assessment teacher specialist. His role is “making sure kids get the mediation they need to pass their tests,” he said.

One period per day and after school, Kraft tutors students who have difficulty passing their HSA tests. Of course, he tutors in math, but he also tutors students in basic biology and government.

Kraft said that teaching and tutoring are both fulfilling jobs.

“Anytime that I feel like I have made a difference in a child’s life, it is important to me,” Kraft said. “Tutoring allows me to see the leaps of knowledge in a specific student.”

In particular, Kraft mentioned a student he tutored last year. The student started out with a low school on their HSA, about a 1450, which is a large amount shy of passing. After tutoring him four times a week for six to eight weeks — his score was brought up to passing or close to it, Kraft said.

“I felt pretty good about that,” he said. “That was a good day.”

UHS Principal Kathy Campagnoli said Kraft is not only a talented teacher, but also earns his students’ respect.

“Kraft is successful with the students because he wins their respect while building strong relationships so that he can skillfully meet the learning needs and styles of all students through the use of differentiated instruction,” Campagnoli said. “He relentlessly follows up with struggling students with personal attention to enable them to reach proficiency on the state tests.”

This past year proved to be Kraft’s most challenging year of teaching yet, he said due to his severe spinal stenosis. While he does not know what caused it to begin bothering him this past year, he began to experience shooting pains down his back. It began to interfere with his teaching duties. He had surgery in early August, where doctors removed part of his L4L5 disc out of his lower spine.

“I was 25 and I thought, ‘I am invincible. [This surgery will be] no problem right?’ That was absolutely not true,” Kraft said, chuckling. “I am glad I got some time off. The administration at my school has been very supportive.”

Kraft said the doctors discovered his nerves in his lower back had been constrained for so long that they “looked like angel hair pasta popping out” when the surgery was conducted. Kraft took two weeks off, and still his recovery time meant early afternoons going home to lie down.

“Campagnoli is one of the best bosses I have ever had. She has allowed me to take early days before the rush of the kids and get some sleep,” he said.

As a teacher, Kraft said the surgery made him more seasoned in the way he handles the classroom.

“It has made me mature a little bit about how I teach,” he said. “I was like the go-with-the-flow guy and very relaxed when I am teaching. I am not more uptight now. I just feel like I am more steadfast.”

For example, Kraft said, previously he might have just dealt with a student acting out in the classroom or done all the work himself of handing out papers, etc. But now that he’s a bit less mobile, he involves students in handing out papers and sends them out of the classroom, if necessary, when they act up.

When not in the classroom, Kraft is commuting back and forth to his home in Silver Spring — and spending time with his fiancé, Laura Mills, whom he met while participating in an acapella group at Penn State. Speaking of acapella, both Kraft and Mills said they are pursuing parts in Six Degree Singers, an a capella group that performs in the Washington, D.C., metro area and includes 35-young adult performers.

Kraft is also an avid reader and recommends “The Hunger Games” as one of his favorite, recent reads.

For questions or to speak with Kraft, please e-mail him at Travis.Kraft@fcps.org.

From August to mid-January, Lisa Lessin has helped to recruit more than 130 operational volunteers for county fire and rescue organizations. The personnel assistant-recruiter is seen here at her desk with a new recruiting website, gearupfirerescue.com, on her computer screen.

Since last August, the organization has used new recruitment initiatives to bring in more non-paid personnel to the 26 county fire and rescue companies. From that time to mid-January, more than 130 operational and 25 non-operational volunteers were recruited.

The county received a Staffing for Adequate First Emergency Response (SAFER) grant in August from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The grant, which totals almost $550,000, requires the county’s volunteer fire and rescue services bring in 100 new volunteers per year over the next four-year period.

“Volunteering in the Fire Rescue Service provides great satisfaction for the person involved,” said Doug Orner, director of the county’s Volunteer Fire and Rescue Services. “It is a way of giving back to the community, meet new people, learn valuable skills [and] even earn college credits. … It can also lead to a great paying career.”

Lisa Lessin was hired in August as a personnel assistant-recruiter. She attends career and community service fairs and is helping to plan a recruitment event at the Great Frederick Fairgrounds in April to show residents what goes into being a volunteer.

Advertisements have been placed with Comcast cable company, along with posters and flyers set up throughout the county.

“Now the volunteers have funding to help advertise our need and encourage members of the community to get involved,” Orner said. “This is fantastic. The volunteers have never had the opportunity to ‘sell’ themselves before.”

A website, GearUpFireRescue.com, was launched in mid-December offering testimonials, a video describing the benefits of being a volunteer and details on the county’s training program. This is the first time the Fire and Rescue Services has had a website dedicated solely to recruitment.

“We are getting a very, very good response from the website,” Lessin said. “It allows us to reach areas we haven’t before.”

Their efforts are paying off. Orner guessed during the same time period a year earlier that 20 to 25 volunteers were recruited.

The new volunteers are a mix of young and older individuals. Some will train to go to fires, vehicle crashes or medical emergencies while others give their time to raise money through bingos or community events.

“We don’t turn anyone away,” Lessin said. “There is a place for everyone.”

County fire and rescue companies, made up of paid and volunteer personnel, ran around 25,000 EMS and 7,000 fire calls last year.

Those who choose to be first responders will have to complete 130 hours of training before being allowed to go on emergency calls.

“It’s a huge commitment,” Lessin said. “It takes time, but it is well worth what you put into it.”

Training is important for the volunteers because of the potential life and death situations they will face. A resident would not want someone who is inexperienced or ill-equipped to be handling a water hose at a house fire or taking vitals on a very sick patient, Lessin said.

Though Fire and Rescue Services has reached the goal set in the grant for this year’s quota of volunteers, Lessin is not stopping her recruitment efforts. “I want to push and see how many I can get the first year,” she said.

Orner hopes they are able to continue to meet the requirements of the grant each year and look for other opportunities for grant funding.

“It would be great to continue being able to support staff for the recruitment of volunteers,” he said.

Alex X. Mooney

The head of the state’s Republican party will not run for the 6th Congressional District seat.

Urbana resident Alex X. Mooney announced at a news conference the day before the Jan. 11 filing deadline that he will instead be supporting Republican incumbent Rep. Roscoe Bartlett.

As a former staff assistant to the congressman, Mooney, 40, decide not to run against Bartlett if he sought reelection.

Since filing for an exploratory committee in December, Mooney was able to raise more than $100,000. He announced the money will be saved for a future campaign.

Mooney, a former state senator for the 3rd District, could not be reached for comment.

Last year, the Maryland General Assembly passed new Congressional District lines set forth by Gov. Martin O’Malley’s redistricting panel. The new districts are a result of the data collected from the 2010 Census.

The 6th Congressional District lost a portion of Frederick County, which has historically voted Republican. The lines moved further south adding a northwestern portion of Montgomery County, which has favored Democrats in the past.

Bartlett, who has held the seat for 20 years, will face serious competition in the April 3 primary. Eight candidates will be on the Republican ballot including State Sen. David Brinkley (Frederick) and Del. Kathy Afzali (Frederick).

Democrats have five contenders including State Sen. Rob Garagiola (Montgomery).

The general election is set for Nov. 6.

Christine Van Bloem instructed cooking students on how best to chop ingredients during a recent class.

Her recent class on winter soups and stews piqued my interest. With the cold weather, my husband and I have been eating a lot of stews. My only really successful effort was coddle, a Dublin stew that is also a family recipe. And when I tried to make beef stew a couple of weeks ago, I burned it so badly that I almost ruined my cherished Dutch oven.

So I figured if we are going to make any more good stews, I should take a class and learn some of the basics from a professional.

Chef Van Bloem has an easygoing style, and she mixes some important basics along with humor and lots of great conversation. For example, she showed us some tips on how to properly handle a knife. It starts with having the right standing position. You don’t want to be pretty when cooking — you want to be safe, she said. So spread your feet a little so you are comfortable, bend your knees a little, hold your knife a little higher, and don’t stick out your first finger over the top of the blade. Instead, curl your first finger and grip the knife from the bottom of the blade to the handle. No, you aren’t cutting your finger on the blade; it’s more of a relaxed position then that.

Can’t picture what I’m explaining? I understand. You should probably see Van Bloem do it in real life, and then you’ll see what I mean.

There is a little bit of science with her cooking. She gave us six different recipes, and groups of people worked together to prepare each stew. But it’s also part art. When it was time to taste test and season each pot, she had groups of people taste a pot and then determine how to best season each.

“How much salt is too much,” many of us asked. The answer? Build on it. Throw some in, stir, and taste again. “Does it taste right? No? Add more.”

I didn’t think the carrot-ginger soup would be one I’d like. I mean, carrots are fine and there’s nothing like a good ginger snap cookie, but ginger and carrots combined? Hmm. I’ll try it, but can’t promise anything.

Wow. I think it was my favorite. But I can’t be sure because I enjoyed two of the soups quite a bit, including the French onion soup.

That was another big surprise for me. I’m not an onion girl. It’s less about the flavor and more about the texture for me. I have no problem cooking with onions or preparing them, but I just don’t like to bite into an onion. It’s always reminded me a little of eating a segmented worm. No, I didn’t eat worms as a child. Rather, it’s what I imagine it to be like, and that image has never left me.

However, slowly caramelized onions that are soft and sweet in a really great broth and topped with toast and grated Gruyere cheese may be my new favorite. Plus the best part is that the carrot and French onion soups are super inexpensive to make, and who doesn’t love that?

Culinary Classes

Kitchen Studio offers a number of classes, ranging from Cooking 101 to knife skills to specific types of food and also ones for youngsters. In fact, she specializes in working with teens and tweens. For details, visit KitchenStudioFrederick.com or call 301.663.6442.

But it isn’t the only place to go for classes. Gina Stipo, an Italian-American chef is in the United States for a little while and is teaching classes on how to cook different types of Italian food. Though she is American, her home is in Italy, and she runs the Ecco La Cucina near Siena. For details on her U.S. classes in February, visit CulinariaCookingSchool.com or call 703.865.7920.

If you are looking for culinary classes that are more about drink than food, there’s Alex Strange’s courses. He is the mixologist at Shab Row Bistro and Wine Bar on East Street in downtown Frederick. He hosts cocktail seminars the first Sunday of each month, and topics range from the science of citrus and infusions to barrel-aging cocktails and bitters, and choosing the right type of ice. For details or to reserve a spot in one of his cocktail seminars, call 301.631.8102.

The former carnival grounds were cleared last summer to prepare for construction of the new building, he said, which will alternately serve four congregations, including Clarksburg and Frederick. The building is scheduled for completion in early April. Meetings are usually held 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays and 9:30 a.m. Sundays, and are open to the public.

For details, contact the Clarksburg congregation of Jehovah’s Witness, at 301.947.4330, or www.watchtower.org.