March 2020 Issue of the Crier

The March 2020 Issue of the Crier is now available online. Click here to view it.

UPDATE: MCPS Continues Boundary Study to Explore the Reassignment of Students from Somerset Elementary School to Westbrook Elementary School

- Five Proposed Options; Second Online Survey Ends March 5 -

As we reported earlier this month, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) has determined that Somerset Elementary School is over capacity and they have begun a boundary study process in an effort to relieve the capacity pressure. MCPS reports that Somerset Elementary is currently operating approximately three classrooms over capacity. This enrollment rate is projected to moderately increase over the next five years. Westbrook is operating approximately five classrooms below capacity, which includes a portion of the building that has not been finished. Capacity at Westbrook is anticipated to increase over the coming five years.

The boundary study will evaluate how to relieve the capacity pressure at Somerset by transferring some of the school’s feeder zones to Westbrook Elementary School, located west of River Road and south of Little Falls Parkway. Any reassignments would begin with the 2021-2022 school year (subject to Board of Education authorization, current students are expected to be grandfathered and allowed to remain at Somerset through their fifth grade year).

UPDATE 2/27/2020: At an information meeting on February 26, MCPS provided an overview of the five staff-generated reassignment options that are under consideration. The presentation can be viewed here: http://gis.mcpsmd.org/boundarystudypdfs/SomersetWestbrook_PIM2Presentation.pdf

Included in the five reassignment options are two that would reassign Village households to Westbrook Elementary School. Option 1 would reassign a portion of Chevy Chase Village to Westbrook Elementary. This includes homes west of Cedar Parkway between Oliver Street (to the north) and Western Avenue (to the south). Option 4 would reassign all Village households located west of Cedar Parkway to Westbrook Elementary School. Under this option, no Village households would be assigned to Somerset Elementary School.

The remaining proposed options would not impact the current assignment of students within the Village: options 2, 3 and 5 would have no impact on Village households (those currently assigned to Somerset Elementary School would maintain their current assignment).

All five options will be studied and a recommendation will be presented to the Superintendent this summer. The Superintendent will release his recommendation in October with review, Public Hearing and a final decision to be made by the Board of Education in November 2020.

Anyone interested in this matter is encouraged to visit the boundary study page at: https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/planning/SomersetWestbrookBoundaryStudy.aspx for more information.

Residents—regardless of whether you currently have a student in MCPS—are encouraged to respond to the survey at https://mcpsweb.wufoo.com/forms/somerset-es-westbrook-es-boundary-study-round-2/.

The deadline for responses is Thursday, March 5 at 11:00 p.m.

Montgomery Planning Will Hold Historic Preservation
Tax Credit Open House on March 4

Montgomery Planning staff will explain the tax credit programs for home
improvements and answer residents’ questions at the event

The Montgomery County Planning Department, part of The Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, will hold a Historic Preservation Tax Credit Open House on Wednesday, March 4 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the Department’s auditorium (8787 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, MD). A brief question-and-answer session will follow the presentations.
Montgomery Planning is currently accepting applications from county property owners who may be eligible for a one-time, 25 percent property tax credit for restoring the exteriors of their historic structures during 2019. To be eligible for the Montgomery County Historic Preservation Tax Credit, the property must be listed in the Montgomery County Master Plan for Historic Preservation. Properties located within the Chevy Chase Village Historic District may be eligible to participate. Search here to determine if your property is listed.
Owners must file an application, including documentation of the repairs that were done, with the historic preservation staff of the Planning Department by 5 p.m. on Wednesday, April 1, 2020. The Montgomery County Historic Preservation Commission will then evaluate the applications to determine whether the scope of the work meets the eligibility requirements for the program. The work must have been completed on or before December 31, 2019.
View a short video about the Historic Tax Credit program offered by the Historic Preservation Office. Download the tax credit application here.

Repairs, restoration or preservation of exterior features of designated structures are considered for the Montgomery County Historic Preservation Tax Credit. New additions and interior work are ineligible.

Examples of eligible exterior projects include, but are not limited to:

Painting
Repairing roofs or replacing them in-kind
Repairing windows, architectural trim or ornament
Uncovering and repairing original siding
Repointing brick or stone foundations or chimneys
Restoring a documented feature, such as a dormer or porch that was previously altered or removed
Repairing and maintaining outbuildings, such as barns and garages.

For more information, to determine what projects are eligible, and to file a tax credit application, please contact Michael Kyne, Planner Coordinator of the Historic Preservation Office at the Montgomery County Planning Department (telephone: 301-563-3403); email: Michael.Kyne@montgomeryplanning.org.

The Environment and Energy Committee Presents: Healthy Lawns Without Synthetic Fertilizers or Pesticides

Thursday, March 12, 7:30 - 8:30 pm
at the Chevy Chase Village Hall

Please join Mary Travaglini, Sustainable Landscapes Manager for the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection, to learn about healthy soils and tips for maintaining your lawn without synthetic fertilizers or pesticides. This presentation will include information about the Montgomery County Healthy Lawns Act, now en force, which restricts the use of non-essential pesticides on lawns/turf in public parks and on private property. The talk is part of the Environment and Energy Committee’s Sustainable Living Lecture Series and will be open to Village residents and neighboring Chevy Chase, MD communities.

2020 Board of Managers Election

Three Board seats will be up for election this spring. The current Board members whose terms are expiring in June are Robert Goodwin, Jr., Elissa Leonard, and Nancy Watters, they all have indicated that they intend to seek reelection.

Any Village resident may run for a seat on the Board provided he/she is a qualified voter in Montgomery County, has resided in Chevy Chase Village for at least one year prior to the election and files the required Certificate of Candidacy and Financial Disclosure Statement in proper form. Board members serve two-year, staggered terms. If the number of qualified candidates equals the number of available seats, the candidates will be declared elected at the Annual Meeting on Monday, April 20, 2020 (the meeting begins at 7:30 p.m.). If the number of candidates exceeds the number of available seats, a contested election will be held on Saturday, May 2, 2020.

The Village Election Supervisors oversee Village elections, including receiving nominations to serve on the Board of Managers. Residents interested in running for a seat should please contact Election Supervisors Chair Mary Sheehan by email at msheehan246@aol.com so that the Elections Supervisors can begin to plan for the election.

To qualify as a candidate, an individual, including sitting Board members, must submit to the Village office a completed Certificate of Candidacy along with a Financial Disclosure Statement, at any time after February 2 (90 days prior to Election Day), but no later than April 2 (30 days prior to Election Day). Upon receiving both completed forms, the Village Manager will submit the Financial Disclosure Statement to the Village Ethics Commission, which will review the form within 10 days of filing for compliance with the provisions of the Public Ethics Code. Please note, however, that candidates are not certified to appear on the ballot until the Certificate of Candidacy and Financial Disclosure Statement have been reviewed and determined to be filed in proper form.

Forms are available in the Village office or by email request to the Village Manager, Shana Davis-Cook, at shana.davis-cook@montgomerycountymd.gov. For more information regarding Board elections, please visit the dedicated page on the Village’s website by clicking on “Board of Managers Elections” under Quick Links on the homepage.

Board of Managers: Financial Disclosure Q & A

In 2012, the State’s financial disclosure requirements for elected officials were extended to include municipalities like the Village. If you are considering serving on the Board, you may have questions about those requirements. I’ll try to anticipate and answer some of them here, and we also encourage you to contact any Board member or the Village Manager for any additional questions or discussion. You can find the disclosure form on the Village web site by selecting Government / Board of Managers / Board of Managers Elections / Candidate Financial Disclosure Form.

What do I have to disclose? The disclosures are annual and are due in April. All of the following disclosures are for the previous calendar year, like your tax return. You need to disclose the following:

Some details about any property you own, including your home.
Ownership or interests in corporations or partnerships. This includes holdings of stock in public corporations.
Purchases or sales of stock or other interests in corporations or partnerships.
Sources of earned income
Any involvement (ownership, employment, gifts, debt) with the Village or any entity doing business with the Village, for yourself or your immediate family.

How public is this information? It’s public but not published. Anyone may request a copy of your disclosure forms, but you may choose to be informed of any such requests. Your home address will be redacted when the disclosure form is provided.

Am I revealing my net worth to the world? No. Some forms of wealth and income (see next question) are not reported. For ownership and transactions you do have to report, you can use ranges for percentage of ownership (less than 1%, 1-5%, 6-10% or over 10%) or number of shares (0-100, 101-250, 251-500, over 500).

What about CDs, mutual funds, and exchange-traded funds? You are not required to report bank interest or certificates of deposit, publicly traded mutual funds, or exchange-traded funds.

How hard is this? The annual report is due at roughly the same time as your income taxes, and the information you’ve gathered for your taxes covers almost all of what you need for the financial disclosure. Some Board members have their accountants complete the disclosure documents, and some fill them out themselves. If your finances aren’t too complicated it should only take an hour or two per year.

Help Village Staff Keep the Community Safe and Beautiful

Report Areas for Repair and Maintenance

Village staff prides itself on being responsive and working hard to ensure that the Village remains a safe, beautiful and welcoming community—but we cannot do it alone. While we are constantly on the lookout for areas that need to be addressed, we need the support of residents serving as our eyes and ears throughout the community:

Sidewalk Repairs

The Village maintains brick paver sidewalks throughout the community. The brick pavers are not mortared and are set on a bluestone base to allow the sidewalks to gradually move as adjacent tree roots grow. Compared to the former concrete sidewalks, the dry-laid brick pavers are much easier for Public Works staff to repair by removing and resetting sections that have shifted. This is ongoing maintenance that our crews perform throughout the year as trip hazards are identified by staff or are brought to our attention by residents.

Tree Maintenance

There are well over 2,500 “public” trees located within Village parks, greenspaces and public right-of-way. The Village’s consulting Arborist and our Director of Public Works perform a quarterly assessment for tree maintenance needs including areas for pruning, removals or treatments to improve a tree’s health. These quarterly assessments supplement our ongoing response to observations made by staff and residents.

How to Report an Issue or Concern

Residents can use the Village’s online form system to report any number of issues/concerns, by visiting:

https://www.chevychasevillagemd.gov/RequestTracker.aspx. From this page, residents can report sidewalk trip hazards and streetlight outages, and request public tree maintenance and recycling toters.

As always, residents may also call the Village’s 24-hour Communications Center or email requests/concerns to the Village’s main email address at ccv@montgomerycountymd.gov (emails are then routed to the appropriate department).

Thank you for helping us to continue addressing the needs of the community!

Local Farmer's Market

Section 3 of the Village of Chevy Chase hosts a Farmers' Market every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (rain or shine) on Taylor Street, just off of Brookville Road. Ample parking is available at La Ferme restaurant.

New Morning Farm, a Pennsylvania organic farmer features organic citrus fruits, apples, farm fresh eggs, mushrooms, apple cider, sweet and spicy greens mix, some lovely lettuce, honey, maple syrup, cheeses and lots of other organic veggies. The farmers also can arrange to deliver firewood to you.

Most Saturdays there is a food truck, Crepes Parfait, serving up delicious hot coffee and crepes of all types and a vendor selling fair trade wire baskets in bright beautiful colors. Bring your own bags to shop at the farmers market, have breakfast and stop by some of the local merchants along Brookville Rd. too.

Montgomery Planning Invites the Community to
Consider Big Ideas for the Future

The Montgomery County Planning Department is hosting a three-part “Big Ideas Series” held in January, February and March 2020 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at the Planning Department Headquarters (8787 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring, MD). The series will feature speakers who will discuss ideas for planning for the future. The speakers’ series is part of Montgomery Planning’s effort to update the county’s General Plan, known as Thrive Montgomery 2050.

RSVPs are encouraged but not required. The sessions include:

~~The Future of Food: January 14, 2020~~
~~Multimodal Transportation and a Healthy Economy: February 11, 2020~~
Housing for All: March 3, 2020

“Sweeping changes are occurring now in our county, climate change, the rise of the sharing economy, increasing population diversity, autonomous vehicles, new technologies and so much more,” said Planning Director Gwen Wright. “We need to think outside of the box for solutions, the Thrive Montgomery 2050 effort is a chance for the community to consider how our county can be prepared for the future so we can continue to thrive.”

The 2019 Big Ideas Series will feature three moderated discussions on ideas about the evolving nature of food production and farming, how economic health relates to multimodal transportation and how to provide housing for all. The series is free and open to the public and planning professionals. Credit for certification maintenance (CM) for members of the American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP) attending the series is pending.

New Session of Chevy Chase@Home
Tai Chi Classes

Join the Crew; The Compost Crew

Food-waste recycling--otherwise known as “composting” is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint and greenhouse emissions while returning nutrients to our soil and food system.

The Village has partnered with The Compost Crew to provide low-cost household collection of food-waste. The Compost Crew provides each household with an airtight bin and compostable bags; all you have to do is separate your organic waste and leave the bin by your trash and recycling receptacles for collection on the designated day for weekly pick-up. The collected waste is processed at a composting facility in Maryland and, after six months of service, households can request that a portion of your contributed waste be returned in the form of rich, finished nutrient-rich soil.

For more information regarding the household composting collection service, including current rates, please visit the “Food Waste Recycling Program” page on the Village website under Quick Links on the homepage. The more households that sign-up,the cheaper the service is for all, so sign up today!

Are You Prepared?

As we have experienced during various seasonal events, it is important to be prepared for local weather emergencies. In order the assist residents in their preparedness, the Village in partnership with the Montgomery County Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security (OEMHS) offer a number of helpful tools, plans and free alerts to assist and keep you informed.

Village Website and Blast Email System – Have you signed up for the Village’s blast email system? This is the Village's primary method of communication with residents. The Village has 2 email lists you can sign-up for:

Urgent News Alert – include messages such as criminal activity, neighborhood disruptions such as water main breaks, power outages and road closures and major weather events.

General News Alerts – include messages about Board and committee meetings, community events, changes in public services such as refuse/recycling collection schedules and upcoming road closures.

To sign-up for the blast email system visit the Village website at www.chevychasevillagemd.gov and click on the tablet icon at the top of the Village’s homepage.

Alert Montgomery – Alert Montgomery is the official emergency communications service for Montgomery County, MD. During major crisis, emergency or severe weather events, Montgomery County will send event updates, warnings and instructions directly to you on any of your devices. To sign-up for Alert Montgomery please visit the OEMHS website www.montgomerycountymd.gov/oemhs and click on the “Alert Montgomery” link at the top of the page.

Family and Community Preparedness Information – Emergencies can take many forms and occur with or without warning. By taking a few simple steps now, you can ensure that you, your family and your community are better prepared to handle emergencies. To assist in your family planning, please visit the Village’s emergency preparedness page, www.chevychasevillagemd.gov/emergencyprep for helpful tools and links. Another important tool the Village has created to assist you in your preparedness efforts is our House Check Program. Always request a House Check when you are leaving town and ensure that your emergency contacts are up to date with the Village office.

For additional information please visit the Village’s website at www.chevychasevillagemd.gov and click on the “Are you prepared? – Emergency Preparedness Tips” link listed in the Quick Links on the homepage.

Emergency Contact Sheet

EMERGENCY - 911

Chevy Chase Village Police
Non Emergency/24hrs - 301-654-7300

Montgomery County Police
Non Emergency/24hrs - 301-279-8000

Bethesda - Chevy Chase Rescue Squad - 301-652-0077

Chevy Chase Fire Dept
(Opposite Columbia Country Club) - 240-773-4707

Bethesda Fire Dept
(Wisconsin Ave and Bradley Blvd) - 240-773-4706

National Capital Poison Center
(George Washington University Hospital) - 800-222-1222

Utilities

Potomac Electric Power Company (PEPCO)

Emergency-Live wires down, power failure - 877-737-2662

or visit the website at Pepco.com/Outages/ReportanOutage
to report their outage and receive restoration information.

Customer Service - 202-833-7500

Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission

Emergency - 301-206-4002

Complaints, Leaks, Information - 301-206-4001

Washington Gas

Emergency - 703-750-1400

Information & Customer Service - 703-750-1000

Comcast - 800-934-6489

Verizon - 800-837-4966

**A cut out sheet is also located on page two of the January 2019 Crier.

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