By Allen Etzler, Frederick News Post
Monday, April 10, 2017
Lisa Howard’s search for an Easter egg hunt led her to Hillcrest Elementary School.
Howard, her husband, Anthony, and her children — Jody, Riley, Lily and Aslan — joined more than 40 kids gathered on Sunday in the cafeteria at Hillcrest Elementary School in Frederick to take part in an early Easter celebration put on by the Golden Mile Alliance.
Youths participated in egg races, an egg toss, face painting, coloring and hula-hoop contests. Last year’s event featured an Easter egg hunt, but the Golden Mile Alliance decided to focus this year’s event on other Easter-based activities, said Deb Reynolds, president of the organization.
The Howards attended the event last year, and the children had such a good time that they chose to go again, she said.
“They have such a blast,” Lisa Howard said. “It’s such a great time for the kids, and they all get along well, so that’s why we came back.”
The event allowed children to take part in a community celebration a week before the family celebration takes place on Easter Sunday.
“Next week is going to be really busy for everyone, so it would have been hard to have it next Sunday, or even next Saturday,” Reynolds said.
Alderman Josh Bokee dressed as the Easter bunny for the event — posing for photos with youths and taking part in a dance competition and the egg race.
“He did such a great job,” Reynolds said. “Last year he said he wanted to do it for us, but we had already hired someone. So we had him do it this year, and it has gone really well.”
Riley Howard said his favorite part of the event was getting his face painted. He had the artist paint half of his face as a rabbit and the other half as a fox.
His brother Jody said he most enjoyed the lollipop tree. Children could choose a lollipop from a plastic tree and find a prize along with each.
Jody’s selection won him an Easter basket that included a flying disc, a yo-yo, a paddle ball and more activities for him to play at home.
“It was my favorite because I got to win all of this stuff,” Jody said. “Plus you get a lollipop.”
By Mallory Panuska, Frederick News Post
Saturday, April 1, 2017
City officials’ vision for the Westside Regional Park at Hargett Farm seems to finally be coming together.
The proposed park is slated for a large piece of vacant, city-owned property along Butterfly Lane known as Hargett Farm. City leaders in 2009 paid $18 million for the land, which has since accrued roughly $1.5 million in annual debt service with little to no progress toward development.
Until now.
It may not seem like much, but the mayor has included $2 million toward infrastructure, design and construction funds in his fiscal 2018 budget. And a group of community members are appointed and ready to tackle fundraising and other efforts to move the project forward.
Mayor Randy McClement said Wednesday the investment would be the biggest one the city has proposed for development costs since the city bought the land.
The first meeting of the Westside Regional Park Task Force has also been set for 7 p.m. April 19 at the city’s Municipal Annex. Officials said the public is encouraged to attend and offer comment.
The task force will be made up of 14 people representing education, regional recreation, economic development, user groups, and neighborhood/other groups.
Members appointed thus far are:
Paul Lebo — Frederick County Public Schools
Chuck Mann — higher education
Bob Hicks — Frederick County Parks & Recreation
Joe Baldi — City Parks & Recreation Commission member
Deb Reynolds — Golden Mile Alliance
TBD — Chamber of Commerce
Melissa Muntz — tourism
Rob Fox — aquatics
Bo Eskay — soccer
Shauna Tunder — Neighborhood Advisory Council 5
Lance English — Neighborhood Advisory Council 8
Frank Strakonsky — resident
Ed Hinde — resident
Alderman Michael O’Connor — aldermanic liaison
City-hired consultants prepared a $98.5 million plan for the park and presented the intricate details to aldermen in August. The aldermen balked at the price and scope, which specifically called for a sports complex with multi-use fields and a stadium, a water park, an indoor swimming center, festival grounds and associated park facilities, among other developments. The plan was sent back to city staff members for tweaking and a new “bubble plan,” was presented and approved in January. The new plan identifies sections, or bubbles, and lists facilities, amenities and infrastructure that could go in each one.
Members of the task force are tasked with guiding development of the park as funding becomes available and soliciting private donors to help pay the cost. The project is slated to be funded through a public-private partnership.
Frederick may have only had one major snow storm this winter, but that did not stop the city from getting statewide recognition for a newly initiated app designed to track snow removal efforts.
The City of Frederick Snow Removal Application won first place in the professional category at the Towson University GIS Conference on March 20. Application designer Bill Adkins demonstrated the app during the conference and accepted the first-place award.
Mayor Randy McClement recognized staff members from the Geographic Information Systems and Public Works departments, who were responsible for developing the app, Wednesday during a workshop with the Board of Aldermen.
The application, which city officials launched March 13 and 14 during a storm that dumped between 6 and 8 inches of snow across the city, provides citizens and staff the ability to track snow removal progress after a winter weather event.
The app displays a map of all the streets in the city and updates which ones are cleared as crews plow them. Similar to an online utility map, it shows information such as road conditions, road classifications and snow removal regions. The road conditions have colors designating they are unplowed, treated, started or cleared and the colors change as crews tend to them.
Staff members spent about six months creating the application in-house to use this winter.
The app had about 1,100 hits during the storm.
A banner initiative
The Golden Mile Alliance is — presumably — just a few months away from putting up banners around the Golden Mile.
Economic Development Manager Bobby Baumler told alliance members at their regular monthly meeting on March 21 that only a few loose ends are left to tie up before 50 30-foot, by 60-foot banners are on display.
The banners, which are similar to ones set up around Everedy Square and Shab Row in downtown, are part of a new beautification and branding initiative.
Baumler said he has pretty much finalized a memorandum of understanding with Potomac Edison to put up the banners and is nearly ready to give the go-ahed to begin the work. He was leery about giving a set timeline, but said it would be soon.
Group members plan to give plenty of notice before putting them up so business owners and the public are aware when it happens.
Baumler said he is trying to work it out so all of the banners are put up around the same time.
By Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, Frederick News Post
Thursday, March 23, 2017
A new elementary school in west Frederick, meant to ease overcrowding at area schools, won’t completely erase the problem.
The proposed attendance boundaries for Butterfly Ridge Elementary School, as endorsed by the superintendent, were presented to the Frederick County Board of Education Wednesday.
Superintendent Terry Alban’s recommendation comes after months of extensive meetings in which district officials sought public comment.
The district will pull students from Hillcrest, Waverley and Orchard Grove elementary schools to fill Butterfly Ridge, and shift students at other elementary schools around to balance enrollments. A little more than 1,200 elementary students will move from one school to another.
The new attendance area border starts with U.S. 40, separating it from the Waverley Elementary district. Some previous Hillcrest neighborhoods were pulled into Butterfly Ridge, as well as some rural, open areas down to Mount Zion Road.
Butterfly Ridge, along with a second new elementary school, Sugarloaf in Urbana, is planned to open in the fall of 2018.
Even with the new school, district staff members believe that in 2018-19, at least five elementary schools will be over capacity, which is determined by the state: Orchard Grove, Tuscarora, Valley, Waverley, and Whittier elementary schools.
Waverley in particular is estimated to be quite crowded after Butterfly Ridge opens, at 157 percent of its state-rated capacity. The district plans to renovate Waverley, possibly building an addition within five years.
Board member Colleen Cusimano said during the meeting she was surprised that Butterfly Ridge would open far below capacity — about 82 percent.
Several county-approved developments are underway in the attendance area for Butterfly Ridge, Beth Pasierb, the district’s supervisor of facilities planning, said. The district wanted to leave wiggle room for future students, she said.
Staff members could have shifted more neighborhoods from Waverley to Butterfly Ridge to help bring down overcrowding at Waverley, said Chief Operating Officer Paul Lebo. But that would have sharply bumped up the percentage of impoverished students who would attend Waverley.
A temporary move from some Waverley students to Butterfly Ridge was suggested until a Waverley addition is constructed.
Parents were adamant that the district, in redrawing, attendance lines not exclude low-income students or create pockets of poverty, a point with which district officials agreed.
“I think it’s a disadvantage to continue to run a school that’s at 157 percent capacity in the hopes of watering down the poverty impact,” Cusimano said. “It’s not even a struggle for me, if there’s some way to relieve the numbers. I think it creates some safety issues. I think it creates educational challenges to pack that many students into a building that isn’t made for that many people.”
The district anticipates that about 58 percent of students attending Butterfly Ridge will use free or reduced-price meals at school, a mark of poverty.
Butterfly Ridge will likely join the county’s Title I schools, which enroll a high percentage of students on free and reduced-price meals and are entitled to additional federal dollars for initiatives like after-school activities or more teachers.
This redistricting will reduce or remove portable classrooms at some schools, a peeve of parents who say outdoor classes pose safety concerns for students.
Hillcrest Elementary will no longer need any of its current 20 portable classrooms.
Lebo said fencing is being constructed at Waverley around the existing portables, a response to community feedback.
The school district is trying to cope with soaring populations in some areas, like Frederick and Urbana, while schools remain underused in others. There was an unexpected influx of more than 650 students this year. The district has accounted for nearly 500 more in the next school year.
Vice President Liz Barrett has called for a more comprehensive countywide study, including a look at vastly underused schools.
The idea hasn’t gained traction with board members before, but some seemed to warm to it Wednesday night. Board member Mike Bunitsky wholeheartedly agreed with many of Barrett’s points. Others, including the student member, went along Bunitsky, but with caveats.
“I certainly will not make the mistake I made my first year on the board and talk about closing schools, but I will talk about how we can use the space that we have,” Barrett said.
Cusimano said in a later interview that she supports a countywide redistricting. However, she said the process is complicated by new regulations on students who want to attend schools other than where they’re assigned. She said students should be allowed to attend other schools, so wiping the map clean and redrawing all of the lines is almost a “suggestion.”
In the Butterfly Ridge redistricting, contractor Cropper GIS Consulting assisted the district, specifically in developing and analyzing maps. Cropper was paid about $30,000, Pasierb has said.
Representatives from Cropper will appear at a school board meeting in May — the same month the board is due to decide on new attendance areas.
The district will hold three more public hearings on the redistricting proposal in March and April.
By Jeremy Bauer-Wolf, Frederick News Post
Saturday, February 25, 2017
The new elementary school in western Frederick will be constructed with a large gym and recreation center operated in part by the city’s parks and recreation department.
Members of the Frederick County Board of Education favored including in the plans for Butterfly Ridge Elementary School such a center, which often functions as a hub for the community. Similar centers are dotted around Frederick County at other public schools, but the board said it has struggled with surging costs of constructing schools, and so it was unclear whether it could add the oversized gym.
Brad Ahalt, senior project manager with the school district, told board members that the school system had found cost savings because the design of Butterfly Ridge had been replicated before, like the new North Frederick Elementary School, and built.
“The contractors have performed the work before,” Ahalt said.
Ahalt noted that bids for Sugarloaf Elementary School — the new elementary school being constructed in Urbana, with the same design — had been distributed right before Butterfly Ridge. Contractors were able to adjust their bids when they lost out on Sugarloaf Elementary, Ahalt said. In some cases, the contractors who bid the highest on Sugarloaf bid the lowest on Butterfly Ridge — winning the contract, he said.
The gymnasium and recreation center will be managed by the city of Frederick Parks and Recreation Department and school administrators. Other centers are run through a partnership with the county’s parks and recreation department. The total expected cost of the center is $668,703.
The center, a 7,233-square-foot space, includes additional gym space and an activity room.
City Alderman Josh Bokee (D) had particularly pressed for the center and the oversized gymnasium. He said in a Friday interview that such a recreational facility doesn’t exist on the west side of the city, and so “it’s great news” it is being built.
“It’s going to be a great resource for the community,” Bokee said.
Both new elementary schools are due to open in 2018. Butterfly Ridge is expected to ease overcrowding in west Frederick.
The district doesn’t intend to use Sugarloaf as a new school right away, rather the plan is for Urbana Elementary School students to transfer into the new building while the school system knocks down and reconstructs Urbana Elementary.
The school district has estimated that Butterfly Ridge will cost roughly $46 million, and Sugarloaf will be about $40 million.
On Wednesday, the board approved seven contracts related to Butterfly Ridge, totaling a little more than $28.5 million. Of those contracts, $517,000 is dedicated to construction of the oversized gymnasium.
By Mallory Panuska, Frederick News Post
Saturday, February 25, 2017
The Frederick Towne Mall site has sold to a local company.
The West Frederick Center LLLP, a limited liability limited partnership that formed Jan. 26, purchased the 37.35-acre, Golden Mile site with plans to “revitalize the property,” according to an email a representative of the company sent Friday.
“The West Frederick Center, LLLP, is currently exploring ways to revitalize Frederick Towne Mall and service the broader Frederick community,” the email said.
Dr. Mohammed Mohiuddin, a Frederick urologist, is listed as the resident agent. Several partners, both general and limited, are part of the company.
An attorney representing The West Frederick Center said Friday he did not have time until Monday to comment on the sale or answer questions about plans for the site.
Dave Severn, an attorney representing property owner Rockwood Capital, said the property sold a week ago Monday for more than $6 million.
Members of the Golden Mile Alliance, a community organization created to foster growth and development in west Frederick, discussed the sale at a meeting Tuesday. The subject also came up at a Neighborhood Advisory Council 5 meeting Thursday.
Deb Reynolds, co-president of the Golden Mile Alliance, said Friday that she contacted Mohiuddin to welcome him to the area and offer him any assistance he and the other partners may want or need.
“I left a message that we were the advocacy group and welcomed him and said I’d like to talk to him about ideas,” Reynolds said.
She added that the group does not really have an opinion about what is developed at the site. She said members are just excited about everything happening in and around the Golden Mile and plan to help the new owner in any way they can.
“It’s a private property. I think people tend to forgot that,” Reynolds said. “I don’t really think we have a preference of what we would like to see go there, not to say we don’t care what goes there, because we do. It’s just so new in the process we really don’t have a comment about that right now.”
Richard Griffin, the city’s director of economic development, said Friday he was aware the property had been sold and knows who the new owner is but has not had any conversations with him or seen any plans.
The mall has sat vacant since 2013, but Boscov’s and Home Depot continue to operate at the site.
Rockwood Capital had planned to demolish the former mall at 1301 W. Patrick St. and construct a four-building shopping center with a 155,000-square-foot Wal-Mart anchoring the project. But Wal-Mart pulled out of the deal at the beginning of September, and the owner put it up for sale in December in an online auction. The minimum bid was $2.5 million.
By Mallory Panuska, Frederick News Post
Friday, February 24, 2017
The vacant Frederick Towne Mall site has officially sold.
Dave Severn, an attorney representing property owner Rockwood Capital, said his client told him the Golden Mile property sold a week ago Monday to Dr. Mohammed Mohiuddin.
Mohiuddin is a urologist with a practice in Frederick.
Severn said he believes the property sold for more than $6 million.
Members of the Golden Mile Alliance discussed the sale at a meeting Tuesday. The subject also came up at a Neighborhood Advisory Council meeting Thursday.
The property has sat vacant since 2013. Rockwood Capital officials planned to demolish the former mall at 1301 W. Patrick St. and construct a four-building shopping center with a 155,000-square-foot Wal-Mart anchoring the project. Wal-Mart pulled out of the deal at the beginning of September.
Boscov’s and Home Depot continue to operate at the site.
By Brandi Bottalico, Frederick News Post
Friday, January 27, 2017
Frederick County Public Schools staff members are considering two options for who will attend Butterfly Ridge Elementary when it opens in the fall of 2018.
The options would affect about 15,600 students.
Option 9 would move almost 1,500 elementary, middle and high school students from one attendance area to another. Option 10 would move almost 2,100 elementary, middle and high school students from one attendance area to another. While the latter option affects more students, it would better address overcrowding at Waverley Elementary.
District staff members have hosted several public meetings before making a recommendation to Superintendent Terry Alban at the end of February. Alban will present the recommendation March 22 to the school board, which will vote on a final plan in June.
Facilities Planning Supervisor Elizabeth Pasierb said the district could recommend either option, a combination of both or a new idea.
Almost 20 colorful maps were taped to folded-up cafeteria tables at Orchard Grove Elementary on Thursday night in the fourth meeting on the two options. The maps outlined how the 10 elementary, five middle and four high schools included in the study could be affected in each option.
The staff anticipates Butterfly Ridge Elementary School students would be primarily from the current Hillcrest, Waverley and Orchard Grove elementary schools. But the study area also includes schools in adjoining areas, Pasierb said.
Parent David Simon said Option 10 was better than the other because it was more comprehensive and would address more than just overcrowding at Hillcrest, Waverley and Orchard Grove elementary schools. The purpose of the study was to look at overcrowding at those three schools.
“My driving factors are equitable distribution of students and broad-based redistricting,” he said.
Under Option 10, Simon’s daughter, who is in kindergarten, would stay at Orchard Grove Elementary. In Option 9, she would move to a new school.
While looking at the options, the district has to consider factors outlined in a Frederick County Public Schools policy that include educational welfare of students, frequency of redistricting, walkers, student demographics and feeder patterns.
The number of students who would be within walking distance of their schools is almost even in the options. Option 9 shows that about 3,069 students live within walking distance, defined as a mile and a half. Option 10 shows that about 2,966 students would be within walking distance.
There were more changes to the elementary school level in Option 10. Middle schools also saw more shifting. The idea was to keep as many elementary school students together as possible in the same middle school, Pasierb said. No recommendation can address all of the factors equally.
“We want to try to eliminate as many split feeders as we can,” she said during the presentation.
Hillcrest Elementary School had 1,139 students in its attendance area in 2016-17, but has a capacity recommended by the state of 670 students. In Option 9, about 794 students would live in the area zoned for Hillcrest Elementary School. In Option 10, about 729 students would live in the area that is zoned for the school.
About 726 students lived in the Orchard Grove Elementary School attendance area this school year, but it has a capacity of 639. Option 9 would reduce the number of students living in the Orchard Grove attendance area to 542. Option 10 would reduce the number to 602.
About 731 students lived in Waverley Elementary School’s attendance area. The school has a capacity of 416 students. Option 9 would reduce the number of students living in its attendance area to 600. Option 10 would reduce it to 588.
Simon, a former Frederick News-Post editor, said it would have been better to bring more schools into the study. The construction of a new school is an opportunity to look at how attendance areas are drawn overall and address issues that have been happening for a while, he said.
“If you don’t look more broadly, you just kick the problem down the road,” he said.
The district did take into consideration housing developments that will affect student enrollment later and the planned addition to Waverley Elementary School.
Pasierb said the district also has to consider what is allowed for bus times for students if it were to consider schools farther away.
Having a study on a larger scale would have taken longer, maybe even a year, she said, and the district needed to have Butterfly Ridge open in the fall of 2018.
The district will need one year to plan for the opening after the final option is chosen.
Orchard Grove Elementary School Principal Shirley Olsen said that through the whole process, the district has been thoughtful. Nothing is final, so parents at the school haven’t had many questions about what it will mean, she said.
“I think a lot more questions will come,” she said.
Orchard Grove Elementary School parent Rene Shuler said she prefers Option 9. Her child wouldn’t have to change schools in that case. Because he receives special education services, it would be more difficult to switch to another staff that doesn’t know him, she said.
“We have a different set of circumstances,” she said.
Shuler said she went to a meeting in October before the options were narrowed to what was presented Thursday. She thinks the school system has done is handling the process well.
“They have done a great job of communicating,” she said.
By Brandi Bottalico, Frederick News Post
Wednesday, November 23, 2016
Frederick Towne Mall is up for auction online.
A live auction runs Dec. 6 through 8 on the internet auction site Ten-X.
The minimum bid is $2.5 million.
There is an undisclosed reserve price, said Mike Besack, a spokesman for Ten-X’s commercial division. In general, a seller agrees to sell a property when bidding reaches the reserve price and does not have to sell the property if the reserve is not met.
The Frederick Extra first reported news of the auction.
Frederick Towne Mall has sat vacant since 2013. Property owner Rockwood Capital planned to demolish the former mall at 1301 W. Patrick St. and construct a four-building shopping center with a 155,000-square-foot Wal-Mart anchoring the project. Wal-Mart pulled out of the deal at the beginning of September.
Rockwood Capital considered selling the property or continuing with the project if another retailer stepped forward to replace Wal-Mart, but there was no interest in a replacement project, said Dave Severn, attorney for Rockwood Capital. The decision to auction the property was made about 30 days after Wal-Mart pulled out.
“I think we’ve known from the get-go that Wal-Mart was really the only tenant possibility,” he said. “[The online auction] is a nationwide approach to selling property,” he said.
After investing what Severn estimates is likely millions of dollars in the property, Rockwood Capital has made it clear it is very interested in selling the property, he said.
“We’re hopeful that someone buys it who is willing to move forward to get it redeveloped,” Severn said. “I think everybody wants to see something positive happen there. The current owners — I think they’re just exhausted at this point.”
The property is 46.1 percent leased by local and national tenants, according to the Ten-X listing. Boscov’s lease expires in November 2023. The second-largest tenant, Ollie’s Bargain Outlet, has a lease that expires in August 2021.
Home Depot is an anchor tenant.
The property is listed as having about 639,000, with nearly 520,000 rentable. The parcel is 37.35 acres.
Justin Kiska, president of the Golden Mile Alliance, said the sale is just the next step and they had been expecting it after news of Wal-Mart pulling out.
“It was just a matter of when and how,” he said. “This just means that somebody with fresh ideas will come in.”
He said real estate auction sites seem to be the way many big properties are sold now. The alliance will wait to see if it’s a national or local buyer.
“I would hope it would be somebody who isn’t just looking for a tax break but somebody who is going to come in and recognize the potential of what that type of land has,” he said.
The Maryland Department of Transportation’s State Highway Administration (SHA) will begin a $3.5 million project to replace the deck (driving surface) of the eastbound US 40 Bridge/ramp over the westbound US 40 ramp to I-70 in Frederick County beginning early September. The project should be complete by spring 2017, weather permitting.
As construction begins, SHA will close the bridge/ramp and shift travel lanes in both directions of US 40, allowing eastbound and westbound traffic to use the westbound roadway. SHA’s contractor will place a concrete barrier between opposite direction traffic. Two temporary traffic signals at Kehne Road will provide local access to US 40.
Additionally, SHA will close the westbound US 40 ramp to westbound I-70 between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. for two nights after the Labor Day holiday. Crews will detour traffic from westbound US 40 to southbound MD 17 (Main Street) to westbound I-70. The temporary closures allow crews to safely remove the bridge deck surface.
Traffic Will Be Detoured During Construction; Motorist Advised to Slow Down and Stay Alert.
As summer approaches, Justin M. Kiska, President of the Board of The Golden Mile Alliance, released the following statement addressing misperceptions about crime along the Golden Mile:
“From the very beginning, those of us on The Golden Mile Alliance knew one of our greatest hurdles would be overcoming misperceptions and misinformation about the Route 40 Corridor. Over the last year, it has become clear the thinking that the Golden Mile is “dead” and nothing is happening simply isn’t true. With the construction underway on the former State Police Barrack’s site and the imminent demolition of the Fredericktowne Mall to make room for the new Frederick Towne Center, along with a number of other projects moving through the planning stages, it is clear things are happening on the Golden Mile. In just a few years, the area will look very different, as many saw at the GMA’s Golden Mile Development Expo last fall.
“Even with the physical changes going on, there is still a mindset that the Golden Mile area is unsafe. Some people even say they won’t come to Route 40 because of the crime. The facts however, point out the reality of the situation. The Golden Mile Corridor, which is broken down into NAC 5 & 8 when the Frederick Police Department is talking about crime statistics, is no better or worse than any other area of Frederick. Unfortunately, that is not the kind of news that gets reported.
“In 2013, almost half the calls logged by the police in NAC 5, the north side of Route 40, were non-criminal or traffic related. In 2014 that percentage increased and then in 2015, non-criminal and traffic incidents became the majority of calls for which the police responded. The statistics for NAC 8, the south side of Route 40, look almost identical.
“More specifically, crimes like assaults and thefts have dropped each year from 2013 to 2015. Again though, information like this doesn’t always make it out to the general public and people end up relying on anecdotes or rumors as facts.
“Unfortunately, people are not always interested in the facts and details. The Route 40 Corridor has the highest concentration of residents in the entire city. Naturally, that means reports of crime will look higher simply because there are more people. Downtown Frederick and the Golden Mile cannot be compared on a one-to-one basis. It would be the same as comparing an apple to an orange.
“The Golden Mile Corridor has no more or less crime than the rest of the City of Frederick. The Frederick Police Department deserves a great deal of credit for what they do to help keep our streets safe. And what they do is obviously working because we are seeing a drop in crime throughout the city.
“There is no way to change people’s perception of the Golden Mile overnight. As it has taken a great deal of time for new development to come to Route 40, it will take time for everyone to realize crime is not running rampant. The Golden Mile Alliance will continue to work to spread the word and provide accurate information about Route 40. Right now that is to let everyone know the Golden Mile is a safe place to work, shop, dine, and live.”
