Monday, August 10, 2009

what's up the pike: bridge to nowhere

New Bridge Over Old Columbia Pike

- State Delegate Herman Taylor (D-Dist. 14) wants to name the bridge that'll eventually carry Old Columbia Pike over the InterCounty Connector (above) after local activist Stuart Rochester, who passed away last month, but SHA representatives say they're unsure if a state road can be dedicated to him. Fellow civic activist Wayne Goldstein, who died in April, will be memorialized (warning! PDF file.) with a plaque next to a playground in Kensington.

- Planning Department director Rollin Stanley is under investigation for so-called "personal" expenses made with a government-issued credit card, most of which included meals for his staff and Planning Board members at restaurants near their headquarters in Silver Spring. Stanley argues that they earned it. "We produced more work in the past year than any year in the commission's history," he told the Post. "The staff deserves to be rewarded for this."

- Councilmember Valerie Ervin (D-Silver Spring) has proposed turning Sligo Creek Golf Course into a therapeutic facility for veterans. Modeled on the American Lake Veterans Golf Course near Tacoma, Washington, the course would be run by volunteers and open to the public - but priority would be given to active and retired members of the military. Ervin made the proposal in a letter to the state Department of Veterans Affairs, which you can read at Maryland Politics Watch.

- Also on MPW: contributor Rocky Lopes remembers the National Capital Trolley Museum on Bonifant Road, which is relocating to another part of their site due to construction of the InterCounty Connector. As we reported last month, the trolley museum plans to reopen later this summer.

- To celebrate the state's endorsement of the Purple Line, the Action Committee for Transit is swapping their monthly meeting for a celebration. It's at 7:30pm this Tuesday at the Silver Spring Center on Georgia Avenue at Ballard Street. For more info, check out their website.

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