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ALL HAIL
SLAYER The Gazette Fillmore welcomes the enduring sound of metal royalty. B-5
GAITHERSBURG | MONTGOMERY VILLAGE
DAILY UPDATES ONLINE www.gazette.net
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
25 cents
Star Diner looks for the right fiscal recipe Kentlands eatery files for bankruptcy, remains open
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BY
SARAH SCULLY STAFF WRITER
The Star Diner in the Kentlands may have hit a rough patch, but coowner Marty Kobrin says the popular eatery will continue serving up burgers, fries, shakes and other traditional diner fare. The business filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week, as high rents are squeezing his bottom line, Kobrin said Tuesday. He said he expects the restaurant to emerge from bankruptcy soon. The bankruptcy filing shows the Gaithersburg restaurant is $262,180 in debt, including $180,360 owed to the landlord, Beatty Management of McLean,
Va. Other creditors are mostly food providers and Pepco. The filing also lists assets of $50,000 or less. This isn’t the restaurant’s first brush with bankruptcy. It was briefly in Chapter 11 protection in 2002 when, Korbin said, his former business partner was running the restaurant’s day-to-day operations. Together, Kobrin and his wife, Sharon, own 90 percent of the business, which includes an outdoor tiki bar during warmer months. The business also provides catering services. Kobrin said all his vendors are behind him in working out repayments and continuing service. Kobrin and his attorney, Merrill Cohen of Cohen, Baldinger & Greenfeld, plan to meet soon with a representative of Beatty Manage-
See DINER, Page A-12 TOM FEDOR/THE GAZETTE
Mary Parsons from the Gaithersburg Safe Haven shelter reacts to the haircut she received from a Gaithersburg High School cosmetology student at last week’s resource fair, designed to help the county’s homeless people with services and assistance.
Gaithersburg resource fair aims to get homeless
BACK ON THEIR FEET
Hundreds of people come out for health counseling, legal assistance, other services n
DAN GROSS/THE GAZETTE
BY JENN
Star Diner in the Kentlands has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
DAVIS
STAFF WRITER
Critics protest budget cuts to favored school projects Many make passionate funding pleas; second hearing to be held Thursday n
BY
LINDSAY A. POWERS STAFF WRITER
Damascus High School senior Morgan Johnson held up a green fragment of tennis court surfacing to show the Montgomery County Board of Education on Monday night. “Tonight, I brought a piece of Damascus High School with me,” said Johnson, the school’s student government president. “Tonight, we have a symbol of what is happening outside and inside of my school.” Johnson was one of a slew of speakers at the first of two public hearings before the school board on Superintendent Joshua P. Starr’s proposed $1.55 billion Capital Improvements Program budget
for fiscal years 2015 to 2020. The speakers included students, local government officials and parent-teacher association leaders who called on the board to address immediate needs at schools they described as old, deteriorating, overcrowded and unsafe. Many testified against delays to revitalization and expansion projects in the proposed program, including a large group protesting the delay of a new Poolesville High School building. Starr recently said his program addresses the school system’s ongoing, significant enrollment growth with a recommendation for 14 new classroom addition projects. The plan also maintains schedules for other previously approved capacity projects, including five new schools. The plan, however, pushes back the timeline of 20 revitalization/expansion projects.
See PROJECTS, Page A-12
Just six months ago, Peter Atkinson lived a comfortable lifestyle, complete with a home, car, job and money to
Cougars romp over Wootton
See FAIR, Page A-12
Teacher: MSA tests are waste of time, money Hundreds sign her petition, but state officials say exams will go on BY
LINDSAY A. POWERS STAFF WRITER
TOM FEDOR/THE GAZETTE
Senior quarterback Mike Murtaugh of visiting Quince Orchard High School in Gaithersburg prepares to pass during Friday’s game against Thomas S. Wootton High School of Rockville. Murtaugh’s Cougars shut out the Patriots 40-0, putting them atop the 4A West Region. See story coverage online and playoff previews on Page B-3.
SPORTS
Treasury Secretary Jack Lew visits Gaithersburg’s Patton Electronics Co.
Clarksburg football returns to the playoffs for the first time since 2008.
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assistance. Free haircuts, manicures, massages and sandwiches from Subway also were offered. Atkinson said he came to the event to learn how to sign up for health insurance since his medical coverage was taken away when he lost his job. He currently lives in a treatment facility in Rockville. “One of the biggest problems I had
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NEWS
‘CHANGING THE WAY BUSINESS GETS DONE’
spend. But after spiraling into drug addiction, Atkinson said, he lost everything and became homeless. On Thursday, he was one of more than 500 homeless Montgomery County residents who flocked to Bohrer Park in Gaithersburg to attend Homeless Resource Day. Homeless individuals and families were given free medical screenings, legal services, financial and health counseling, employment help and tax
PAST STRUGGLES JUST THAT B-1
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A petition started by a Montgomery County Public Schools teacher calling for the state not to administer the Maryland School Assessment tests this school year has gained hundreds of signatures from around the state. Tiferet Ani, a social studies teacher in the Quince Orchard cluster, said that with the county — and state — implementing the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness of College and Careers test and no
See MSAS, Page A-12
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