College Gardens Civic Association
Wednesday, November 8, 2017
Meeting minutes

(Download CGCA-MeetingMinutes-Fall-2017)

32 attendees, including the board members and speakers

Welcome and Board Updates

Meeting called to order by board president, Tom Miner.

Directory update: $1400 was raised from homeowners who paid $5 per directory, $1425 was raised through advertising. Special acknowledgements to Naomi Miner for selling the ads, and Karen Carp and Jerry Callistein for their help and expertise in data management and design and layout of the directory. The cost to print the directories was $973, which netted CGCA $1852.

Miner’s Note: All Directories have been distributed to the Block Captains who will be delivering them to residents who ordered a copy. Extras are available for $5. Contact Tom Miner.

Bob Mills, treasurer, shared the details of the civic association’s finances. The association’s current balance is $5992.44. The costs for National Night Out (NNO) totaled $839, less a $200 donation from the Woodley Gardens West Civic Association (WGWCA). Therefore the NNO event cost CGCA $639.

John Mosely Hayes, vice president, recapped National Night Out. He provided a detailed recap of the NNO and its expenses. WGWCA was a co-sponsor of the event. The civic association rented a grill, purchased burgers, hot dogs and Carmen’s Italian ice, and had children’s activities. The Water Store donated water. And the Rockville Robotics club and the Rockville German band donated the entertainment. Neighbors brought numerous side dishes and salads to share. John Mosely said that without the help of many individuals and the special leadership and constant help of Tom Miner, the NNO would not have been a success. Over 200 people attended, and shared food and friendship.

BRT CAC Update (Bus Rapid Transit Corridor Advisory Committee)

Darcy Buckley gave an update on BRT in our area. BRT can offer reliable, dedicated lanes, off-board fare collection, level boarding, intersection improvements, enhanced stations with real-time transit information, and frequent stops. The long-term vision is a network of corridors in Montgomery County: 355, US 29, MD 586 Veirs Mill, CCT.

They are now in Phase 2: alternatives analysis (2018), identify one recommended alternative, document environmental, cultural, and property impacts, get public involvement, develop a BRT and local bus service plan

• Options for the BRT could include any of the following: no additional lanes added to the roadways, Ride On, mixed traffic operations, special lanes, medians, or dedicated lanes.
• Outreach and engagement open houses in Jan/Feb ’18 and Fall ’18, community meetings, focus groups, stakeholder meetings, corridor advisory committee (CACs), pop-ups will also take place. More Rockville representation is needed!
• Darcy.Buckley@montgomerycountymd.gov 240-777-7166
• Ride-On Extra 355: this new route is 22 miles long and runs from Bethesda to Clarksburg Link here to Handout

Stream Restoration Update, John Hollida, principal civil engineer

John offered thanks to Tom Miner, Lou Marinelli, and Paul O’Brien, all residents of College Gardens, for five years of dedication to helping plan the restoration. The Upper Watts Branch is actually 8 different projects in one. Before the restoration 500 tons of sediment were being lost annually, along with the streams and trees. Princeton Place outfall was in the most urgent need of fixing. Outfalls have been fixed near Carnation, Azalea, Aster, Princeton, behind Princeton, and an exposed sewer has been repaired. The goal is to plant 150 trees per acre to replace trees that had to be removed. Planting won’t take place until the spring or fall 2018, depending on the plant. The Princeton repair site by Columbia should be completed by December, and approximately another three months remains for the Princeton/Fordham location. The remaining work is being done simultaneously, so the entire restoration will likely be completed in March, even though the contractor has until June. The main environmental goal of all this work is to get water out of the channel and onto the flood plain. Trails will be restored to pre-repair conditions. No enhancements are being done to the trails. Rocks will be placed in the stream to allow for safe crossing.

• Click here for project overview.
• Click here for project Virtual Tour. (Great resource, well done by the City)

“Deer in da Hood”, Steve Mader, superintendent of parks and facilities

In January 2010 a white-tailed deer task force was established. Rockville typically has 133 deer collisions annually, resulting in an average repair cost of $4000. Coyotes are natural predators to deer, but not necessarily an ideal predator in a suburban setting. There are many costs to having a burgeoning deer population: estimated cost to Rockville drivers is $500,000, damage to habitat, and Lyme disease. Cover up to protect yourself.

The options to deal with the deer are exclusion methods, population reduction (lethal) and non-lethal reduction. All options have pluses and minuses ranging from length of time to see results to cost, to area covered.

The Rockville City Council has a meeting scheduled for February 13 to discuss lethal management of the deer population. Mark Pierzchala, city council member, is trying to drum up support for Rockville to take lethal action to trim the deer population.

Click Here for Handout: Steve Mader provided a multi-page handout which provides an extensive listing of deer-resistant plants.

One of the attendees mentioned that the Garden Club also sells deer-resistant plants as part of their annual spring plant sale. Click Here to join or learn more about the Garden Club.

School Boundary Update, by Mark Pierzchala, Rockville councilman

Elementary school boundaries are changing due to a 5th elementary school under construction on West Edmonston. Overcrowding at CGES started one year after the remodel. King Farm south of Redland and Falls Grove developments feed into CGES. The school system is wrestling with updating the school boundaries for the Richard Montgomery (RM) cluster. Under some proposals, students from Woodley Gardens will go to Beall ES. The city council is unsure on whether to step into the fray by supporting one option over another. Mark is in favor of keeping the Woodley Gardens neighborhood within the CGES boundary. A hearing is scheduled for November 16 with a decision to be announced by the end of November.

Miner’s Note: This is a quickly evolving topic about school boundaries. For the latest updates I suggest you check with the College Gardens PTA.

Meeting adjourned

The meeting was adjourned at 8:58.

College Gardens Civic Association
Spring 2017 Meeting Minutes

(CGCA-MeetingMinutes-2017-05-17)

 Meeting called to order 7:05

Tom Miner, CGCA President, started the meeting by introducing the board members present, and introducing our guests. By the end of the meeting we had 22 neighbors in attendance.

City of Rockville Reports

John Hollida, Principal Civil Engineer, Department of Public Works

Upper Watts Branch Stream Restoration
A new construction project was awarded in January 2017 for eight sites to be reconstructed or repaired. Work that involves either one of the streams cannot be conducted from March 1 – June 1. During one of the repairs Native American artifacts were found. A phase 2 study was submitted, the findings though have not been made public in an effort to prevent people from disturbing or deteriorating the site. Any trees that need to be planted will be wrapped in wire cages to protect them from deer. The dam beavers had built at Nelson Street and College Parkway several years ago killed acres of mature trees. The repair of that site will include 100 trees per acre to be planted Progress on these projects can be tracked here http://www.rockvillemd.gov/index.aspx?NID=1107.

Jenny Kimball, Deputy City Manager

Information regarding Hometown Holidays can be found in the current issue of Rockville Reports and online at http://www.rockvillemd.gov/index.aspx?NID=665 .
Friday, May 20 was Bike to Work day with pit stops hosted by Smoothie King and Dawson’s Market.

On Thursday, May 26 the public works department will host a display of construction equipment at the outdoor poo from 11 – 4:30 for young children. More information can be found here http://rockvillereports.com/big-trucks-coloring-books-and-kids-at-the-public-works-week-equipment-show/.

The following is a list of current construction projects going on around the immediate area of College Gardens:

Beall Ave. + Washington Street = apartment building
Brightview location opening
Regal Cinema parking lot will be replaced by a mixed-use development
Middle Lane + 355 = office building
Gude Dr. + 355 = NW location is expecting changes to 80 townhomes
Application for large development for upper Shady Grove

The city hosted a diversity forum in February. One of the outcomes of that meeting was to put up flags in Rockville Town Square that represent the many countries from which the people of Rockville have come.

Bob Mills, CGCA treasurer

Our current balance is $8,070.77. Of this $4000 will be returned to Karen Carp. She made the donation to the community for an environmental study of the then-new pond that has fallen by the wayside.

We spent a total of $719.49 for National Night Out. Woodley Gardens West contributed $125 to NNO, and joined us for our celebration.

The directory update is underway. The goal is to make contact with all neighbors by the end of the month to get current information for the neighbors in order to print an updated directory. Directories can be purchased for $5/each.

Lt. Brian Paul, RPD police officer

Body-worn camera system will be worn by RPD. The new cameras should be received some time next month. All marked cars have video cameras, but they’re old. The new system will marry the in-car cameras with the body cameras. Cameras can be turned off for privacy reasons, but that occurs rarely. Cameras are activated when the police car’s sirens get turned on. Form will be live to get access to videos taken by officers’ body cameras.

“How’s the crime in our area?” Most crimes are ones of opportunity. Lock car doors, don’t leave cell phones, GPS, laptops, or the garage door opener in plain view. Leave porch lights on. Look out for neighbors. And if something odd is seen or heard call the police.

The opioid crisis is here in Rockville. Heroin is a lot more potent that it once was. It is getting mixed with fentanyl, or animal tranquilizers. We might not see users on every corner, but it is happening here in Rockville. The police department is prepared.

Mark Pierzchala, Council Member

At the council meeting on January 23 the deer population was discussed. Contraception, a hard winter, nor a one-time cull would be effective in controlling the deer population. In order to get a handle on the deer population approximately 60% of the herd would need culling annually. However such a move would require a change in city ordinance since it is illegal to discharge a firearm within city limits unless one is a police officer.

Boundary redistricting

The new elementary school opens in September,2018. Mark has attended all but one of the redistricting meetings. Of the many options discussed Mark is in favor of Option 6, keeping the Woodley Garden neighborhood at CGES. A decision will be announced in November 2017. The representatives from Woodley Gardens explained their position for favoring Option 6, and why they would like the support of our neighborhood. Click here to read their letter.

Vote regarding support for Option 6: in favor =  20. Not in favor = 0

Background on the new elementary school boundaries can be found here:
http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/planning/rmes.aspx

Councilman Pierzchala also provided a list of Mayor and Council priorities. Click here.

Tom Miner, President

National Night Out will take place Tuesday, August 1.  Volunteers are need with set-up, clean-up, and kids’ activities.  Please send Tom Miner a note if you can help out. (tom.miner@LongandFoster.com)

Dog waste has been noticed being left behind. Always pick up after your dog, and maybe another neighbor’s dog. An attendee asked about getting the City to install poles that hold disposable bags. Unfortunately those cost too much to install and maintain. The City is considering installing a couple of signs as reminders to pick up after our pets.

Lighting from the parking garage on the west side of Montgomery College has been an issue for some of the homeowners since work began on the parking garage. Tom has been in communication with the college to find a better resolution to the lighting problem.

Saturday, June 3 – Community Street Party featuring The Digits!, sponsored by Hard Times. Click here for details.

Meeting adjourned: 8:49