WUSA9: Asbestos found at school building site in Montgomery Co.

WTOP: MCPS Halts Construction at BCC Middle School #2 Site

...A spokesman for MCPS says that construction has been temporarily halted because the excavation has uncovered the asbestos floor tiles from the demolished school.
“We have coordinated with the required state agencies and intend to start the abatement process,” MCPS spokesman Derek Turner said in an email.
The hazardous materials operation is scheduled to begin Monday, Turner said.
Meanwhile, neighbors say they wish the school system would provide more information about the construction project and some say posting an asbestos project sign on the site’s chain link fence appears to them to be the minimum requirement.
“The original school was buried under the ground here, and it would have been good for MCPS to let us known that that school originally had asbestos,” says Laura Dennis, a neighbor...

 http://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2016/01/kensington-residents-concerned-over-asbestos-warning-sign-at-middle-school-site/

MCPS Digs Up Asbestos and Former Building at BCC Middle School #2 Site #RockCreekHillsPark

MCPS apparently did not bother to do an Environmental Impact Study on the Rock Creek Hills park site before they began digging for construction of the new BCC Middle School #2.

Did MCPS' construction department simply not want to think about the fact that the lower part of the former school that was on part of this site had simply been covered up by dirt?  

The construction crew has now excavated part of the former school building and found asbestos.
  
What will this added asbestos abatement project and excavation of the former school building add to the cost of this middle school construction project?

Bullies on MCPS Central Office Staff

When I first heard about MCPS staffers taking pictures of observers at MCPS Board and Committee meetings, I thought I heard the information incorrectly.  Surely, a world class school system run by the pre-eminent Dr. Joshua Starr did not really engage in activities to intimidate a member of the taxpaying public?

Or was this true?

Imagine my dismay to learn that this is not a new practice.

Here is a video clip from a 2011 meeting concerning the feasibility study for BCC Middle School Number 2.  Watch this clip, its short, and you will see Mr. Dennis Cross, who was at the time the project manager for BCC MS #2, snap a picture of a member of the audience after the individual asked a question.

I am intimidated just watching the clip - and its over three years old.

Fortunately for those of us still involved in various aspects of building new school facilities, Mr. Cross is no longer with the school system.  Thank goodness for small miracles.   (See page 10).

Remember the following:

Illegitimi Non Carborundum.

A rough translation?  Don't let the bullies get you down.

Rock Creek Hills School Opponents Prepared To Go To State’s Highest Court

http://www.bethesdanow.com/2014/04/14/rock-creek-hills-school-opponents-prepared-to-go-to-states-highest-court/

Starr Talks Curriculum, Brickyard Farm, Rock Creek Hills Park

Starr quotes from Bethesda meeting:

...“We’ve not determined what we’re going to do with it. There’s no excess space to be had in the county. We need schools and we need sites for schools,” Starr said. “People want ballfields and tennis courts and a whole bunch of things and I’m not prepared at this time to commit any parcel of land to anything outside of a school purpose, if it is deemed appropriate it should be used for that purpose.”...

...We are the first district to get to the Moon, now we have to get to Mars.”

 http://www.bethesdanow.com/2013/07/16/starr-talks-curriculum-brickyard-farm-rock-creek-hills-park/

County transfers Kensington park for new middle school

http://www.gazette.net/article/20130711/NEWS/130719465/1007/county-transfers-kensington-park-for-new-middle-school&template=gazette

$695,000 to Reclaim Rock Creek Hills Park

From Save Rock Creek Hills
 Park Facebook page

Montgomery County is asking the public to comment on a proposal to reclaim the Rock Creek Hills Park for use as a school.

The Parks Department wants $695,000 for the park.  A sign posted at the site asks for comments from the public about this plan.  Apparently, the County only takes comments for 10 days so the comment period ends at the close of business on June 6th.

Note: The cost of acquiring this site is the kind of important information that is never included in MCPS site selection reports.

Here is the contact information for the person that is taking comments on behalf of the County Executive.

Bernie Fitzgerald

Real Estate Specialist

Department of General Services

Office of Real Estate.

101 Monroe Street, 9th Floor

Rockville, Maryland 20850

240-777-6076

240-777-6011 Fax

Bernie.Fitzgerald@montgomerycountymd.gov

Citizens Appeal to State, Seek to Protect Park

Seeking to preserve an important county asset, citizens of Kensington’s Rock Creek Hills community have filed an appeal with the Maryland State Board of Education, asking the State board to overturn the Montgomery County school board’s recent decision to take the site of Rock Creek Hills Park to build a middle school...continues at link below

 http://savekensingtonpark.blogspot.com/2012/06/citizens-appeal-to-state-seek-to.html

"...chilling effect on public participation"

Below is the text of the letter that was sent to the Montgomery County Planning Board concerning statements made by the Planning Director in a local magazine article.  

The Montgomery County Planning Board did, in fact, make a statement regarding this incident on March 8, 2012.. 

March 4,2012

Chairman Francoise Carrier and Planning Board Members, Montgomery County Planning Board,  8787 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20901 

Dear Chairman Carrier and Members of the Montgomery County Planning Board: 

We are writing to provide you with a copy of a letter that we sent to Steve Hull, editor of Bethesda Magazine, on March 2, 2012, in which we take strong exception to statements made by Rollin Stanley, the Director of Planning, that appear in the article “The Future is Looking UP” in the March/April 2012 issue. Mr. Hull has already agreed to publish our letter to the editor in its entirety in the May/June issue of his magazine. 

In this letter, we ask the Board to take certain actions in light of these statements by Mr. Stanley. In the article, Mr. Stanley is clearly speaking in his capacity as the Director of Planning, and he appears to bespeaking on behalf of the Planning Board itself when he characterizes us as “rich white women,” who “spread fear” and “sow discord”, who “stalk” him in his appearances before community groups, and who describe ourselves as members of a “coven.” 

Through these remarks, Mr. Stanley has impugned our integrity,attacked our credibility, and damaged our personal and professional reputations. We ask the Planning Board to publicly disavow his remarks.We also ask that the Board additionally state in open session its policy—as well as the policy it has adopted for its employees—with respect to Board and staff comments about the public and the public’s participation in matters before the Board.

Further, we believe that these remarks raise a serious question as to Mr.Stanley’s fitness to continue to serve as Director of Planning in this County, inasmuch as a substantial part of his job is interfacing with County residents who have concerns about their own property, or about what is going to happen to properties near them. 

We believe that his printed remarks are wholly inconsistent with his responsibility to treat all citizens of Montgomery County with respect,and to recognize that in Montgomery County—unlike other places—there is a strong tradition of public participation in land use issues. Mr.Stanley’s job is to foster public participation, not to work actively to discourage it by using his position to verbally abuse County residents in public simply because they have the temerity to question current efforts to “urbanize” the County. 

We are very concerned that Mr. Stanley’s remarks will have a chilling effect on public participation. They suggest there is a culture that is developing within the Planning Board staff in which citizen participation is neither welcome nor even tolerated. Even in a welcoming environment it is difficult for the uninitiated citizen to plunge into the world of land use, and to testify and/or write with questions and concerns. When citizens must be concerned about personal attacks or dismissive contempt for different points of view when participating before the Planning Board, they will think twice before participating. 

Finally, what message is Mr. Stanley sending to the planners who work under him in terms of how Commission employees should treat the public? What kind of training are young planners receiving in terms of answering questions from the public, providing materials to the public,and explaining to the public the processes of the Planning Board to the residents of Montgomery County?
All of these are matters of great gravity if the Planning Board is to maintain the public’s trust in the integrity of Montgomery County’s land use processes. 

We thus respectfully ask the Board to address the issues publicly, and specifically Mr. Stanley’s comments in the Bethesda Magazine article, at your earliest convenience. It is critical that this matter be put behind us, so that all County residents can once again feel free to voice their views on critical land use planning issues to the Planning Board and its staff. 

Sincerely,
Pat Baptiste 

Meredith Wellington 

Julie Davis 

Jenny Sue Dunner

Board of Education denies open meeting violations in B-CC middle school decision

Friday, July 15, 2011
Board of Education denies open meeting violations in B-CC middle school decision
Attorney defends process to select site for Bethesda-Chevy Chase middle school
by Sarah Gantz, Staff Writer

Montgomery County’s Board of Education has denied improperly conducting a site selection process for a new Bethesda-Chevy Chase middle school.

The board sent a letter July 6 to the Maryland Open Meeting Compliance Board in response to accusations filed in early June by a neighborhood association. The association claimed the board did not give sufficient notice about plans to select a Kensington park as the preferred site for a new middle school, among other violations.

and:

"It is clear that the Rock Creek Hills Citizens’ Association was unhappy with the selection of the Rock Creek Hills [Local Park] as the site on which a feasibility study would be conducted for construction fo a second middle school in the B-CC area. As a result the Citizens Association has attacked the process that led to selection of the site by alleging violations of the [Open Meetings Act] and it has attacked the result by lodging an appeal to the Maryland State Board of Education,” Judith S. Bresler, an attorney for the board, wrote in the letter.

For the rest of the story go here.