gaithersblog.net

Six months on the job, Gaithersburg City Manager Angel Jones is taking a sharp look at processes and preparing for upcoming budget talks.

Neighbors of the Webb Tract near Montgomery Village and the GE Tech Park in Gaithersburg are increasingly frustrated by what some say is a lack of community leadership on a county proposal that would move or build several county operations to the properties.

Gaithersburg is poised to ask a judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by an Olde Towne land owner who claims her property was damaged by water running from a city parking lot.

Five weeks after the brutal stabbing of a Langley Park teen in Gaithersburg’s Malcolm King Park, police say they are pursuing whether his death is connected to MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, a violent street gang whose origins run to Los Angeles.

Chevy Chase municipalities are expecting cuts of up to 30 percent in revenue sources for 2010 fiscal year budgets, and long-term projects ranging from street paving to private property purchases could be put on the backburner.

Chevy Chase Village officials preparing to fight a class-action lawsuit against its speed camera program could file a motion to dismiss the case, but also believe the recent changes to the community’s speed camera program will be helpful if the case is heard.

Chevy Chase Village attorney David Podolsky said the lawsuit, which was allowed to proceed by a county Circuit Court judge last week against Montgomery County, Gaithersburg and the village, could not be pursued by a group of private citizens because it was a matter between the state and local governments.

A man charged with stealing vehicles told police he stole them after finding the ignition keys inside, according to charging documents filed in Montgomery County Circuit Court.

Testifying to Congress last week on a federal program that empowers local officers to enforce immigration law, Montgomery and Frederick counties’ top law enforcement officials offered starkly contrasting assessments of the program’s effectiveness in fighting crime.

The worsening economy is taking its toll on Maryland’s tax collections.

The state treasury can expect to receive $1.2 billion less over the next 15 months.

Maryland should buy three new medevac helicopters each year for the next three fiscal years to replace the choppers in the state’s aging fleet, a legislative work group said Tuesday.

The delegates, in their 36-page report, also suggest a study of flight requests, with an eye toward eliminating one of the eight bases the helicopters use.

The study would be conducted at the end for 2010 after medevac use has normalized, Bohanan said. Before the crash, state police were flying about 5,000 missions a year. Since then, the number has slipped to about 1,700, he said.

Since the crash, state police have been unable to keep all eight bases open, and the Norwood base in Montgomery County has been dormant.

The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission won’t know until late this week whether state environmental officials will recommend it for federal stimulus money to shore up its drinking water pipes that ruptured at a record rate last year.

County police are altering the way they write some alcohol citations following a recent case in which a judge ruled the defendants not guilty of the charge against them, but suggested different charges might have changed the outcome.

County residents will soon have a new way of getting to and from the Shady Grove Metro station in Rockville.

The county plans to begin construction in the early fall on a pedestrian and bicycle path from Redland Road to Shady Grove Road.

If all goes to plan, it will still be decades before a “Science City” emerges between Gaithersburg and Rockville, but business and biotech leaders are forging partnerships to harness the sky-high hopes unleashed by the county’s blue print for catapulting the Shady Grove Life Sciences Center to the leading edge of scientific research.