THE GAZETTE
Wednesday, March 4, 2015 s
SKATES
Continued from Page A-1 emy program when he was 7. Skaters in that program also train under top-level coaches at the Cabin John Ice Rink and Rockville Ice Arena. Carpenter and McNamara, 16, who joined the academy when she was almost 5, paired up and began competing almost a decade ago. They finished fourth in the 2008 U.S. Junior National Championships and third at the nationals in 2012 and 2013. Last year, they won a silver medal at the nationals, then finished fourth at the World Junior Championships. In 2013, they placed ninth in the world championships and third in nationals. Along the way, they won numerous competitions, such as at the Lake Placid Ice Dance Championships. “We try not to focus so much on winning a competition,” said Carpenter, who graduated high school while being homeschooled and attends Montgomery College. He plans to major in mechanical engineering. “We just want to improve and do the very best we can every time we compete.” McNamara, a sophomore at Connelly School of the Holy Child in Potomac, said she particularly enjoys the performance aspect. “I love being on the ice with the music and putting on a show for the crowd,” she said. The Parsonses, who also train through the Wheaton Ice Skating Academy program, competed with other partners before pairing up several years ago. They won the novice-level ice dancing competition at the 2011 U.S. National Championships during their first year of skating together. Then in the first Winter Youth Olympic Games in Austria in 2012, the Parsonses finished fourth in the 12-team ice dancing field, behind two duos from Russia and one from the Ukraine. Last year, they placed eighth at the World Junior Championships after winning the bronze medal at nationals. There can be pressure in such competitions, but the
TRAFFIC
Continued from Page A-1 vard, Piney Branch Road and Philadelphia Avenue to try to keep them out of residential neighborhoods. The other, for cars and light trucks, will use Old Carroll Avenue, Sligo Creek Parkway, Maple Avenue, Maplewood Avenue and Flower Avenue. Work on the Carroll Avenue bridge, which is more than 80 years old, will include replacing the bridge deck, beams and columns above the arches, railings and ornamental lights.
skaters try to keep relaxed and focused. “We talk to each other,” said Michael, 19, a Magruder High graduate who attends Montgomery College. “Sometimes I do visualization exercises to stay focused on our routine before we compete.” Listening to music also can help relieve pressure, said Rachel, 17, a junior at Magruder. Carpenter said he also does visualization exercises before competitions. Beyond the pressure of the competition, they try to realize how far they have come and enjoy being in new places. “We get to travel all over the world,” Rachel said. Other skaters who train with the Wheaton academy won medals in different levels at the national championships in Greensboro. Those included Caroline Green, 11, and Gordon Green, 13, first place in novice dance; Emma Gunter, 13, and Caleb Wein, 13, third place in novice dance; and Elizabeth Tkachenko, 9, and Alexei Kiliakov, 9, first place in juvenile dance. Last year, the duo of Luca Becker, 14, and Gigi Becker, 13, won the gold medal in novice dance at the nationals. Eliana Gropman, 14, and Ian Somerville, 14, won the silver medal in novice dance at that same competition. The ice dancing competition in Estonia is run by the International Skating Union, one of the oldest international sports federations that governs competitive ice skating events. The field is a little different this year, with some skaters from last year moving to the higher level, Carpenter said. The skaters have aspirations to get to the Olympics, perhaps in 2018, but have to jump from the junior to senior circuit at some point. “Making the Olympics has always been a dream of mine,” Carpenter said. “It’s important to make your move to the senior-level competitions at the right time.” kshay@gazette.net
There also will be a new sidewalk along the east side of Carroll Avenue between Old Carroll Avenue and the bridge, as well as upgrades to existing sidewalks and ramps to meet Americans with Disabilities Act standards. The state plans to advertise for bids on the project in April and have preparation work, including installing a temporary pedestrian bridge, moving utility poles and putting up temporary signals, start in August. kshay@gazette.net
FORUM
Continued from Page A-1 Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, demonstrators gathered outside before the forum, holding signs and shouting their support for the project. The project will bring economic stimulus and environmental benefits, said Nick Brand of Chevy Chase Section 3, who wore a purple scarf around his neck to fend off the March wind as he waved a sign along Colesville Road. Brand said he believes that if the state takes a fair and honest look at the project, it will decide that it’s crucial to Montgomery County’s future. The forum featured a debate between Rich Parsons, vice chairman of the Suburban Maryland Transportation Alliance, and Randal O’Toole, a visiting fellow with the Maryland Public Policy Institute and a senior fellow with the Cato Institute. Parsons favors the
CENTERS
Continued from Page A-1 house’s care since his mother, who uses a wheelchair, moved there. “No one ever said anything verbally to us that there was a possibility they would close when we moved my mom there,” said Greenberg, a copywriter in the creative services department of The Washington Post. The move to Springhouse from Edith Greenberg’s previous residence in an independent living senior building in Rockville cost about $3,500, he said. “And now we are being forced to pay to move again just a few months later,” Greenberg said. The Silver Spring facility has 42 residents and the one in Bethesda has 53, said Eileen Bennett, a long-term care ombudsman for Montgomery County. That program advocates for the rights of residents in such facili-
PROJECT
Continued from Page A-1 tem to improve its water quality. Just getting to Mangi can be challenging, with a 24-hour plane ride from the D.C. area and a two-day vehicle ride over bumpy roads. The EWB D.C. chapter started planning the project in 2012, and members made several trips to assess conditions, test systems and perform other functions in 2013 and 2014. They started implementing the water system in January. EWB members generally visit for two weeks at a time, with most using vacation days from work. A big challenge is to develop projects that last a long time, Mead said. The group teaches local people how to use and maintain the system, and uses
Page A-11
project, while O’Toole opposes it. About 75 people attended the forum, said Christopher Summers, president of the nonprofit Maryland Public Policy Institute, which sponsored the event and cost $45 to attend. Most of the questions from the audience were directed at Parsons, challenging his assertions. The Purple Line will be good for transportation and the environment, plus bring economic benefits, and any could damage the viability of the project, said Parsons, a former CEO of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce. “We literally are on the 1-yard line and ready to score here,” he said. The line will lead to more transit riders and faster trips, and take nearly 16,800 vehicle trips per day off the region’s crowded roads, he said. The line also will connect Montgomery, Maryland’s most populous county, with the state’s flagship university in College Park
and let businesspeople travel from Silver Spring to New York via the Acela train in New Carrollton without having to drive their cars, he said. Parsons argued that the public-private partnership also will lead to redevelopment around its 21 stations, with 31 projects somehow tied to the Purple Line already underway. If the state doesn’t move forward with the project now, it will be missing out on $1.8 billion in investments, and every year it’s delayed will add significantly to the cost, Parsons said. O’Toole argued that light-rail projects virtually never achieve what they’re projected to and often cost significantly more than expected. Buses can move more people than trains because they can run more frequently than trains, he said. The Washington region has some of the least-used buses in the country, averaging just more than 10 passengers apiece, he
said. “If you can’t fill your buses, why do you need trains?” he said. Parsons argued that the Washington region is different from other regions that might have capacity on their roads to run more buses, while this region’s roads are already crowded. He cited maintenance issues on the Metrorail system, including ones that led to an incident in January in which a passenger died from smoke inhalation in a tunnel and a 2009 crash on the Red Line that killed nine people. A region shouldn’t build more rail when it can’t maintain what it has, O’Toole said. He also argued that light rail doesn’t stimulate economic development, pointing to the struggles of Portland, Ore., to attract development around its system. Investments in development around Metro stations has worked out well for the Washington area, Parsons countered.
ties. For a closure last year involving about 30 residents of Springhouse of Westwood — another Bethesda assisted living center — residents were offered moving expenses if they transferred to another HCR ManorCare facility, Bennett said. She did not know what HCR would offer this time. Irvine, Calif.-based HCP and Toledo, Ohio-based HCR ManorCare “jointly agreed to market for sale certain non-strategic assets,” HCP officials said in the company’s recently released 2014 annual report. The list of locations was not made public, Rump said. “It is very early in this process,” he said. HCP owns numerous other properties in Montgomery County, including Arden Courts of Silver Spring and Arden Courts of Kensington. State regulations require assisted living centers and similar facilities to give residents and
family members at least 45 days’ notice when closing a facility. To Greenberg, 90 days’ notice was not sufficient, he said, since it takes time to research and visit potential new centers in person to review what they provide. “I don’t know if we will be able to find a similar facility for about the same rate that is as close to where we live,” Greenberg said. He wondered about residents who may not have family members to help them. Bennett said part of her program’s duties was to help residents in such cases, including those without family members nearby. Such closures involving large assisted living or nursing centers of at least 30 residents were unusual in the county, she said. The last closure of a similarsized facility before Springhouse of Westwood was in 2005, Bennett said. The county office didn’t get any additional notice of the closures, she said. “This was unex-
pected to us, too,” Bennett said. A forum hosted by HCR ManorCare for residents, family members, independent and assisted living providers and geriatric care managers is scheduled at 5 p.m. March 10 at Springhouse of Bethesda, 4925 Battery Lane. Another is slated at 5 p.m. March 12 at Springhouse of Silver Spring, 2201 Colston Drive. Bennett said she thought there were enough vacancies in county assisted and independent living facilities to absorb residents now looking for new homes. But the problem would be finding a similar center at comparable rates, she said. Some Westwood residents last year moved to facilities that are to be closed, she said. “So they will have to move twice in about a year,” Bennett said. “That is a big deal.”
local materials so they can be easily replaced by residents, he said. “We put a lot of thought into these projects,” said Mead, a Hyattsville resident. Ashley Reives, a systems engineer who lives in Washington, D.C., returned in late January from an implementation trip to Cameroon. “There was a great response from the community,” Reives said. “People were carrying equipment, digging ditches, cooking for us. They really wanted to learn about the system.” Besides implementing the system, there is an educational component, said Rahul Mitra, a seasoned international development program manager and D.C. resident. For instance, cows and other animals were using and contaminating the village’s human drinking water.
EWB members recommended they keep animals away from water meant for people, he said. The Mangi clean-water project’s budget is about $64,000, said Rachel Rath, a program associate with Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute in Washington, D.C. EWB, whose members are from a wide range of fields, not just engineering, will do other projects in Cameroon, she said. “We are looking at being there for a decade or so,” said Rath, who has a master’s degree in public health. Colesville Presbyterian has a goal of raising $50,000 for EWB by the end of the year, with some funds going to the next phase after the Mangi project, Clapp said. “We are looking at this as a long-term partnership,” she said. “We are disbursing funds to them as they need them, and
as we see them successfully implementing their solutions.” Church members also are contacting corporate sponsors and others to obtain more funding. They have helped draft the engineering design and a safety manual for the Mangi project and provide a pipeline construction trainer. On Sunday, EWB members praised members of the Silver Spring church for their widespread support. Cameroon members sung songs of praise for them. The project “creates a powerful experience for everyone involved,” said Mead, who is leaving Saturday on a system implementation trip to Cameroon. “It has definitely changed my life,” he said.
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