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From the City Police recent crime summary:

Armed Robbery
On 03/20/07, at approximately 6:44 p.m., police responded to the area of South Frederick Avenue and Education Boulevard for an in-progress assault and battery. Two Hispanic males were reportedly fighting near the bus stop on the northbound side of South Frederick Avenue. The victim was ultimately located at South Frederick and South Summit Avenues. He advised that the suspect took his chain and his watch, and that he was cut during the fight. Injury was minor and the victim refused medical attention.

Suspect: Hispanic male, mid 20’s, 5′08″ to 5′10″, dark curly hair, clean shaven, wearing blue jeans.

also note, from last Sunday,

Burglary Arrest

On 03/18/07, at 12:53 a.m., police responded to the 400 block of Woodland Road for a trespassing. Upon arrival the homeowner advised police that an individual broke into his home through a basement window. The homeowner provided police with a description of the suspect who was later found walking in the unit block of S. Summit Avenue. The homeowner positively identified the suspect who was then arrested for burglary.

Arrested was 21 year old Pedro Ponce, Hispanic male with an address of 49 W. Diamond Avenue in Gaithersburg.

Woodland Road is behind City Hall, and connects to E Deer Park back a bit from MD 355.

• Chris Robinson (who once again has been very busy) writes, Historic Gaithersbug district waits for a revamped future:
  

  When Alex Zeppos co-opened Growlers brewpub in Gaithersburg last summer, he was hopeful for the promise of revitalization presented by the Olde Towne Master Plan.

  But about nine months later, development in the historic district remains stalled, there’s nothing to encourage after-hours walkabout traffic and the specter of violent crime continues to haunt the area, Zeppos said.

  I think that this is a growing, major issue, and it is going to take not just money, but some real vision and courage to turn things around. Where the courage is going to come in to play is that I actually don’t see how a major turnaround of the sort envisioned in the Olde Towne Master Plan is going to come to pass unless there are significant changes in the Olde Towne housing stock. The walkable downtown, with a vibrant retail environment that stays open well into the evening, is only going to happen if there are customers for those establishments. Jim Clifford’s proposed project is a great start, and I hope that it actually happens. But if the revitalization is going to happen, there will be increasing pressure to redevelop, for example, up the North Summit corridor, potentially creating a swath of new development going all the way up to the Hidden Creek project. Such redevelopment would likely come under a great deal of fire from affordable housing advocates, and likely some Council members.

  And just as a side note, although the article calls the old downtown a “historic district”, that area has no historic designation. The major exception to that is the building that houses Mr. Zeppos’ business, the Belt Building — that is one of four properties in the City of Gaithersburg on the National Register of Historic Places; the other three are the B&O Train Station and Freight Shed, the Thomas Cannery, and the Gaithersburg Latitude Observatory — the last of which is also the only property in the City that is listed as a National Historic Landmark.

• Sebastian Montes writes, April 9 is target date for new day-labor center:
  

  ‘‘We expect Casa to be in services on or near April 9,” said Catherine Matthews, director of the Upcounty Regional Services Center in Germantown, which will monitor the center’s progress.

  A key part of getting the word out has also been to convince the Derwood community that the employment center — two trailers on a half-acre lot — will not be a burden on the nearby community.

  ‘‘We want to prove that … day-laborer centers have good workers and are good neighbors,” Tona Cravioto, head of Casa’s employment program, said last week at a forum hosted by the Greater Shady Grove Civic Alliance.

• C. Benjamin Ford and Sebastian Montes write, Police worry about growing distrust among immigrants:
  

  Sister Cathy McConnell of St. Camillus Catholic Church in Silver Spring, who works with immigrants, called the loss of trust in the police ‘‘a very sad turn of events.”

  ‘‘A whole class of people are going to be driven underground and we’re all going to pay,” she said. ‘‘People do crazy things out of fear.”

  While the police department has not changed its policy on ignoring the immigration status of crime victims and witnesses, police did pick up 65 people last year after discovering during routine traffic stops that they were wanted for failing to appear at immigration hearings. The police did not track the number of incidents before last year and have not compiled how many immigration detainers have been served so far this year.

• Chris Robinson writes, City pays thousands for spouse travel:
  

  Gaithersburg may revise its travel policy after questions were raised about the city’s longstanding practice of paying for spouses to join elected officials on business trips.

  This is a story that was broken a couple of weeks ago by Sonya Burke in the Town Courier newspaper. Unfortunately, that paper has no effective online presence, so I can’t link to her original article, and it may well be gone from the stands at this point. The Gazette, in this article, to their credit did acknowledge the Town Courier’s lead on this.

  In the Gazette story, Chris Robinson appears to have some difficulty finding people who are upset about the issue, and I guess I’m going to have to be one of those who isn’t going to get all up in arms over it. I will say a couple of things, however. First, I expect that many people are ambivalent about the issue because they know that the Mayor and Council are under-compensated for what they do, and if they get a little bit extra this way it isn’t all that big a deal. What we really need is for this compensation issue to be addressed in a formal manner, and perhaps start paying these people something close to the value of their considerable time. The City is putting together a committee to study compensation (the deadline for application to be on the committee was, unfortunately, yesterday). In Rockville, a recent study concluded that the elected officials there should receive dramatic increases in their pay.

  The second point I will make is that I’ve heard that the City has a comparatively stingy record when it comes to providing travel funding for staff and the few volunteers who are required to attend some sort of training. Perhaps the staff travel policy should be reviewed as well.

• Chris Robinson writes, Study: Costly repairs needed at Senior Center:
  

  More than $2.5 million in improvements are needed at the Upcounty Senior Center in Gaithersburg to accommodate the anticipated surge in use in the next decade, according to a report the city released last month.

  I reported on this earlier. Note, however that:

  A public work session is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Monday at City Hall, 31 S. Summit Ave. in Gaithersburg, to discuss the report’s findings.

• Chris Robinson writes, Meet the city’s prospective new police chief next week:
  

  After thorough resume reviews, background checks and telephone interviews, the three-months search for a new Gaithersburg police chief recently narrowed from about 50 applicants nationwide to six candidates.

  Extensive interviews and city tours with the six are planned for next week. The candidates will attend a public reception at 7:30 p.m. March 28 at the Activity Center at Bohrer Park, 506 S. Frederick Ave., Room A.

  I’m sorry, but this just seems so, well, overly public; I’m glad I’m not applying for this job.

• Steve Mocarsky in the Times-Leader: Expert lists immigrant statistics
• Wade Malcolm in the Times-Tribune: Chief fires back in Hazleton trial
• Kent Jackson in the Standard-Speaker: Expert says city has up to 3,400 illegals
• Kent Jackson in the Standard-Speaker: Chief: ‘Aliens’ cause crime
• Update: Digger’s Realm: Police Chief And Immigration Expert Take Stand In Hazleton Case, Citizens Rally [Day 7 Recap]