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GETTING AMPED UP!
Strathmore announces new music venue for White Flint. B-5
The Gazette GAITHERSBURG | MONTGOMERY VILLAGE
DAILY UPDATES ONLINE www.gazette.net
City awards turf field contract
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
25 cents
Property owner, developers sued in drowning
Thousands flock to Kentlands Day
Attorney: Parents don’t want the same thing to happen to anyone else
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Construction is slated to take place this summer n
BY JENN DAVIS STAFF WRITER
BY JENN DAVIS STAFF WRITER
It’s game time at Lakelands Park ... almost. The Gaithersburg City Council voted unanimously at a meeting Monday to award Hellas Construction Inc. a contract to install the synthetic turf field at Lakelands Park, 1368 Main St., Gaithersburg. “The soccer field at Lakelands Park is heavily used by the city’s recreation programs and by the Lakelands Park Middle School, creating a need for surfacing that will support the required use schedule,” said Ollie Mumpower, the acting director of the city’s Public Works department. The company, based in Austin, Texas, will be using a type of organic infill called CoolFill, according to Sean Stevens, project manager for the Public Works department. The product contains 100 percent organic coconut fibers, rice husk and cork, Stevens added. The bid also includes a 1,100-foot chain link fence that will surround the field, Stevens said. City staff previously estimated the cost of the project to be $950,000, according to online documents. Hellas Construction submitted a bid for just over $1.14 million this past winter. It was the only company to submit a bid proposal for the project to the city during the month-long solicitation period, which ran from Feb. 7 to March 13, acting Public Works Director Ollie Mumpower said at the meeting. To bring the bid price more in line with the city’s estimate, staff worked with the company to locate savings, according to Mumpower. After shaving off some unnecessary costs, the new bid came in at $942,599. A 12-year warranty comes with the installation, Mumpower said. Construction on the field is slated to begin at the end of this school year and wrap up by the end of summer, according to Stevens. “Lakelands Middle School uses the site for school activities during the week, so we are trying to avoid or minimize any possible disruptions for the school,” Stevens wrote in an email to The Gazette. A fee schedule has already
The parents of a 10-year-old boy who drowned in a Gaithersburg sediment control pond in January are blaming the owner, site manager and contractor of the property that contains the pond for failing to prevent their son’s death, according to a lawsuit filed April 30. Nicole Bode and Felix McMullen, the parents of D’Angelo Jayvon McMullen, are suing several companies involved in the development of Neighborhood One — which includes the pond — in the mixed-used community of Crown. The lawsuit claims that the companies did not ensure that a required safety fence around the pond was fully constructed and properly maintained. Those named in the lawsuit are owner/developer Westbrook Partners of New York, site manager Warner Construction Consultants of Rockville and contractor Metro Earthworks of Lorton, Va., a division of Shirley Contracting Co. Montgomery County Fire and Rescue officials have said that when D’Angelo fell through the ice on the pond on Jan. 13 and died, there was only partial fencing surrounding the pond. “[D’Angelo’s parents] want answers and they want to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else,” said Andrew G. Slutkin, the attorney who filed the case. He is a partner at Baltimore law firm Silverman, Thompson, Slutkin and White. Claiming negligence and wrongful death in the suit, D’Angelo’s family is seeking damages exceeding $75,000, although Slutkin said the actual amount
See TURF, Page A-12
Above, Keira McGuire, 4, of the Kentlands marches with peers from the Bella Ballet dance studio during the Kentlands Day celebration parade on Saturday morning in Gaithersburg. At right, Kerry Hamilton blows bubbles from the window of the Barnesville School and Camp bus during the Kentlands Day celebration. Hamilton’s wife is an instructor at the school. PHOTOS BY TOM FEDOR/THE GAZETTE
Stedwick Elementary students prepare to debut original opera n
Third-graders produce work as part of yearlong project BY JENN DAVIS STAFF WRITER
Stedwick Elementary School in Montgomery Village is being transformed into an opera house, as one thirdgrade class prepares to take to the stage and debut their very own masterpiece. The 23 students in Mary Ruth McGinn’s class founded the Lightning Strike Droplets Kids Opera Company at the beginning of the school year, and have since spent much of their time at school developing an original opera. Under the guidance of their teacher, the students have worked together to create their work of art from scratch. The students came up with a theme, created the plot and characters, wrote the dialogue, designed the set and composed the music. Each student applied and interviewed for a role in the production, McGinn said. The jobs include stage manager, set designer, production
BILL RYAN/THE GAZETTE
Destiny Gordon (lying down), Ashley Wentzel and Elliot Swander rehearse Mary Ruth McGinn’s third-grade class opera, “Back on Track,” at Stedwick Elementary School in Montgomery Village on Tuesday. manager, composer, public relations specialist, composer and other important positions. McGinn weaved the yearlong project into the classroom curriculum, using it as a way to teach required lessons and foster life skills, like collaboration, risk-taking, problem solving, public speaking and cooperation. “It becomes the vehicle through which to teach all academic, emotional and social skills,” she said.
NEWS
SPORTS
Guests turn out for tour, performance in Gaithersburg’s Bohrer Park.
Raptors scheduled to begin Region XX tournament Friday.
A TEA PARTY FOR HOSPICE CARING A-3
“Back on Track” is the name of the 30-minute performance, which was written completely by the students. “Everybody is on a track and there are different kinds of tracks, but all the tracks lead to reconnection,” said Angel Daniels. The 10-year-old is the opera’s production manager, charged with keeping everyone on task and focused. Reconnection emerged as
See OPERA, Page A-12
BAD WEATHER, STRONG BONDS B-1
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awarded could be very high. “It’s a multimillion-dollar case,” Slutkin said. D’Angelo was playing with his brother and another boy on the iced-over pond Jan. 13 when the ice suddenly gave way. The pond is behind Harris Teeter grocery store in the Crown community. Fire and rescue personnel quickly rescued two of the boys, but the search for D’Angelo took longer, predicting that he could have been submerged for up to half an hour. He died at a local hospital that evening. The following day, the city of Gaithersburg issued a notice of violation to Fran Speed, a representative of Warner Construction. The notice required a 42-inchhigh safety fence to be reinstalled on all open sides of the pond pursuant to the sediment and erosion control plan, according to Wes Burnette, division chief of the city’s Permits and Inspections Division. While there is not a city or state code requiring safety fencing on sediment ponds, a fence was required there as part of the planning approval process during
See DROWNING, Page A-12
Rape sentencing set n
Mack entered Alford plea in the case BY
TIFFANY ARNOLD STAFF WRITER
It’s been nearly a year since a Gaithersburg woman was awakened in the middle of the night by a masked man rubbing her leg — a prelude to her rape. The stranger, Kadeer Malik Mack, lived less than a half-mile away. He sliced through the home’s kitchen window screen with a razor blade that police
later found sitting on the victim’s bedroom dresser, prosecutors said during a recent court hearing. Mack threatened to harm the woman’s 4-year-old son if she did not comply. The entire ordeal lasted 15 minutes, according to court testimony. Soon, Mack — who is listed in court records with Gaithersburg and Rockville addresses — will be sentenced for those crimes, offenses that carry a maximum penalty of life in prison.
See RAPIST, Page A-13
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FAMILY OF D’ANGELO MCMULLEN
D’Angelo McMullen drowned Jan. 13 after falling through the ice on top of a sediment control pond in Gaithersburg’s Crown development.
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