Alert: the Julius West Middle School field lights will be tested on September 26th starting around 7:30 pm and will run as late as 10:00 pm. The test is to check operations and light levels.

Alert: the Julius West Middle School field lights will be tested on September 26th starting around 7:30 pm and will run as late as 10:00 pm. The test is to check operations and light levels. @Rockville411 @james4rockville @RockvillePatch

— Lyda Astrove (@LydaAstrove) September 26, 2019

BOE Shuts Down Mont. College Parking Lot, Finds $1.7 Million to Temporarily Park 100 Buses

Fortunately, money grows on trees here in Montgomery County!

Unable to find a permanent solution for County Executive Ike Legget's plan to boot 400 school buses from the MCPS Shady Grove Bus Depot, the Board of Education will temporarily park 100 of the buses at 850 Hungerford Drive in the parking lot that is currently used by Montgomery College.

For Montgomery College students, that's Lot 13.

Developers NVR and LCOR want the land the MCPS buses are currently using, so the buses will be moved even if there is no permanent location for them.

The cost to temporarily park 100 school buses at 850 Hungerford Drive will be over $1.7 million.

Neighbors impacted by the noise shown in yellow.

That's $17,250 per school bus for a temporary parking spot.

MCPS is going to need to find at least another $5 million to pay for temporary parking for the other 300 school buses that will be booted from the Shady Grove Bus Depot.

Next, MCPS will have to find the money to pay for a permanent solution for parking the 400 school buses at the Shady Grove bus depot.

A note to the neighbors of 850 Hungerford Drive: Get ready to fill out lots of Montgomery County Noise Ordinance Complaint forms.
The MCPS school buses will be violating the Noise Ordinance. 

   FY16 Supp Approp Depot Interim Sol CESC(1) by Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland

Leggett Wants to Park 400 MCPS Buses on Rt. 355 to Appease Developers #NOtrafficstudy #noiseordinance #ikeleggett #eya

Leggett and Council to move buses to red area.

"It is likely that an interim relocation solution will include use of the lot in front of the Carver Educational Services Center."








On Monday, July 13, 2015, the Montgomery County Council will vote to hand $27 million to County Executive Ike Leggett for a mystery solution for the relocation of the MCPS Shady Grove bus depot.

The Council packet (shown below) prepared for the Monday meeting announces that it is likely that the 400 school buses will first move to 850 Hungerford Drive, the parking lot shown in the image to the left.  This lot is currently used by Montgomery College and is located right in front of the Board of Education and MCPS main offices. The lot is also right on Rt. 355 in Rockville.  

County Executive Ike Leggett asks the County Council for $27 million dollars, but does not detail what that amount represents.  

Leggett does not ask for a traffic study to determine if the intersection of Rt. 355 and Mannakee Street can handle the addition of 400 school buses.

Leggett also does not mention that the placement of 400 buses at 850 Hungerford Drive will violate the Montgomery County Noise Ordinace.  See the yellow highlighting in the image above for the location of homes that will be impacted by Leggett's plan.  (But there are only a few dozen homes and those homeowners probably can not take on Leggett and the developers so the impact on these citizens can be ignored.)

This is what we call "planning" in Montgomery County.  Do what makes developers happy, throw a dart to deal with the rest, and be really, really shocked and indignant when citizens protest your "plans."

   20150713_GOED1 by Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland

Fact Check: MCPS Dir says it is "erroneous" that MCPS pays more for same FieldTurf product #artificialturf

At Minute 11:00 of the video below from today's County Council Education Committee MCPS' Director of Construction James Song declares that it is "erroneous" information that MCPS pays more than other school systems for same FieldTurf product.  

The new definition of "erroneous" must be factual.

All of the field prices below are for the FieldTurf Revolution product: 

2012    Gaithersburg High School   $ 424,967.44

2012  Paint Branch High School     $ 413,153.59

                                          2012      AISD Stadium                     $  369,350

Also, in this video James Song tells the Council's Education Committee that MCPS can't shut down artificial turf field use at 9 PM (minute 7 of video below) because it won't allow the hours of use that are needed for a partnership agreement for one of these fields.

However, Montgomery County's Noise Ordinance sets 9 PM as the time when noise levels must decrease, but what is a Montgomery County Ordinance to MCPS?