Department of Parks
Director’s Report
Thursday, July 26, 2012
HIGHLIGHTS
 Storm Damage and Clean-up
 Park Activity Building Leases
 Time Team America Filming at Josiah Henson Special Park
 Projects in parks
 Major events in the parks
TOP TOPICS
 A second round of storms (following the derecho) caused several Enterprise facility closures last week
including the Splash Playground at S. Germantown Rec. Park and Wheaton Ice. Brookside Gardens
Visitor and Brookside Nature Centers lost power.

Extensive damage from June 29 Derecho is heartbreaking to see. Major trees are down and our crews
are exhausted as they tackle what appears to be the most damaging storm for our parks in decades.
Cabin John Family Picnic Shelter destroyed by June 29 storm.
 Most parks and facilities are now open thanks to the hard work of our staff who spent many hours
in very challenging situations. Storm-related closures, cancellations and losses included:
o Cabin John and Rock Creek Regional Parks were closed for two weeks.
o
Black Hill Regional Park was closed for one week. When power was finally restored on July 5,
unfortunately, a power surge damaged the grinder pump, 3 computers and 2 telephones at
the Visitors Center. Without the grinder pump the bathrooms at the VC could not be used.
Unrelated to the grinder pump, the Northern Parks administrative staff was without phones
and computers for nearly two weeks following the storm.
o
Storm damage and power outages affected most of the Enterprise facilities. Two trees landed
on Woodlawn Manor; Wheaton Ice lost its compressors and was closed for over a week while
Cabin John Ice lost power and had to refreeze their ice; and Cabin John Train and Lake
Needwood Boat House were closed for over two weeks. There were seven weddings planned
at the Event Centers, along with the AT&T Golf Tournament Child Care scheduled at Rockwood
Manor; all weddings were held with various accommodations and lot of back-breaking work by
Parks Staff. Refunds for courses and camps that were not able to be held are $11,470, while
losses for adjusted rentals approach $7,300.
o
Many local parks, such as beautiful Johnson LP, suffered heartbreaking damage and major tree
loss.
o
Stewartown Local Park was closed for one week but was restored in time for the 30th annual
community celebration on July 14 (attended by 700 people) thanks to Shady Grove
Maintenance staff.
o
Park Police assisted in staffing critical intersections and checking on critical resources during
the storm. Sworn and civilian personnel stepped up to work additional hours/shifts, to answer
calls for service, phone calls from citizens or other tasks.

Park Activity Building (PAB) Leases: We held public meetings for the Clarksburg PAB and Ken-Gar PAB
to introduce the community to potential tenants leasing those sites in the near future. The Clarksburg
meeting was very successful with full support from the community, and the Ken-Gar meeting was last
night. I attended a public meeting Tuesday night on the North Four Corners PAB with the community,
but three other public meetings for leases were canceled when YMCA withdrew their proposals (for all
four buildings) citing a lack of time to prepare the buildings for fall programming. The YMCA declined
our offer to delay the leases for a year and start their contracts in 2013. We will approach other
interested parties who submitted proposals as part of the RFP to lease these buildings. Several
community members have expressed interest in being alerted of potential leases at these buildings in
advance of public meetings; we will be incorporating this feedback into our notification process.

Members of our cultural resources team met with producers from the PBS series Time Team America
on July 10 at Josiah Henson Special Park, selected for a fall 2013 episode. Time Team America is an
archaeological show in which experts spend 72 hours exploring and excavating historic sites around
the country. The crew will be filming at Josiah Henson August 13 -16.

Park Police and Montgomery County Police jointly responded to clear a large underage drinking party
at Little Bennett Golf on July 13, 2012, that was advertised on Twitter drawing a crowd of more than
250 people. Over 45 citations were issued.

Park Police are continuing to assist Montgomery County Police investigating a July 9 rape that took
place at Green Farm Conservation Park. Fliers have been distributed with a description of the suspect.
OTHER NEWS
 We hosted the monthly statewide steering committee meeting for the Maryland Department of
Natural Resources and Department of Education “Partnership for Children In Nature” at our
Saddlebrook facility when a PEPCO power outage forced a last-minute change of location from a dark
Brookside Gardens. It was followed by a Leadership Team meeting that focused on funding.

Montgomery Parks and Prince George’s County held their second joint FAM tour to highlight rental
centers for business clients. An estimated 25 people toured Rockwood Manor and Brookside Gardens
in Montgomery County, and Laurel-Beltsville Senior Center, Show Place Arena, and Oxon Hill Manor in
Prince George’s County.

Governor O’Malley, Senators Cardin and Mikulski and Congressman Harris are requesting a Harriet
Tubman National Monument be established in Maryland, at Cambridge. We are working to tie this in
with Montgomery Parks Underground Railroad Trail and interpretive efforts at Woodlawn Manor Park.

The Greater Olney Civic Association is dedicating the Norbeck Meadows Neighborhood Park
Playground in honor of longtime Olney civic activist Ron Berger, with ceremony in the early fall.

PDD and Cultural Resources teamed up for a “focus group” discussion on the interpretation of Josiah
Henson Special Park during the Facility Planning phase. The project goes again to the Planning Board
and will have wider public audience in 2013.

Cultural Resources trained ten docents and program assistants for the Underground Railroad
Experience Trail and Oakley Cabin. A follow-up session will take place on the trail itself.

With park planners Brooke Farquhar and Rachel Newhouse, plus Prince George’s staff, I attended the
urban parks educational conference “Greater & Greener” in New York City last week. It was superb we learned a lot to apply to our new transit-oriented developments, Mayor Bloomberg personally
attended as well as hosted the closing event Tuesday night and was featured in the New York Times.

Montgomery Parks hosted 22 youth participating in the Maryland Department of Natural Resources
Summer Youth Conservation Program for a special enrichment day learning about stream ecology and
conservation. The six-week program provides full-time, paid employment for at-risk youth and is a
collaboration between the state, county and M-NCPPC.

A crew of seven high schools students and one adult leader from the Maryland Conservation Job Corps
performed natural surface trail maintenance on two eroded sections of Blockhouse Trail for the last
three weeks. In addition, the crew helped remove tree debris from the trail after the late June storm.

Volunteer Services staff joined the Friends of Sligo Creek to weed and mulch one of the bioretention
areas on Sligo Creek near the park activity building north of Dennis Ave, filling 13 bags with weeds and
invasive plants.

Park Police recently participated in the Smooth Operator Program, a program aimed at addressing
aggressive driving, and stepped up enforcement of traffic laws on park property during this wave of
the Law Enforcement Challenge.

We are offering staff new telephone and video conference options to help reduce travel time and
expenses for meetings.
 We welcome to our staff three seasonal park rangers and a new barn assistant for Park Police horses.
PARK PROJECTS REPORT:
 Black Hill Trail Renovation is expected to be complete in August.

The ICC issued a notice to proceed with construction of the Northwest Branch Recreational Park
athletic fields. Four rectangular and one full size diamond field will be constructed, replacing those lost
at the Layhill Local Park and former Wheaton Boys and Girls club field in NBRP. The project will also
include approximately 40-50 acres of additional maintenance, parking, trails and lots of stormwater
management. Work is anticipated to begin this month and be completed next summer.

The facility planning process for the North Branch Hiker-Biker Trail has begun. This project will connect
the Lake Frank Trail to the ICC bikeway. The trail will also connect to a developer-built trail at the
Preserve at Rock Creek that ends at Bowie Mill Park. A public meeting to look at trail alignments is
scheduled for September 19, 2012 at the Shady Grove Maintenance Yard.

Darnestown Square Heritage Park is expected to be complete in early September.

The Montgomery TennisPlex at S. Germantown Recreational Park is scheduled to open September 10
and a grand opening event is being planned for September 15.

Facilities Management, HFEE, and Northern Parks staff is meeting this week with County staff on the
POR for the combined maintenance service park that will replace our current Shady Grove facility.
UPCOMING PARK EVENTS
July 27, 7:30 – 8:30PM: Magical Mystical Storytime at Brookside Nature Center
July 28, 6-11AM: Catching Fire 5K Fundraiser at Rock Creek RP
July 28, 8AM – 5PM: Potomac River Heritage Kayak Trip at Black Hill Regional Park Visitor Center
July 28, 9AM – 7PM: Lanka Lions Annual Cricket Tournament at Strawberry Knolls Local Park
July 28, 10AM – NOON, Weed Warriors at Rachel Carson Greenway Trail
July 28, 10AM – NOON, Underground Railroad Experience Trail Free Guided Hikes at Woodlawn Manor
July 28, Noon – 4PM: Free guided tours of Oakley Cabin at Oakley Cabin African American Museum and Park
July 29, 6AM – Noon: MoCo MoJo Kids Triathlon at MLK Regional Park
July 29, 7AM – 11AM: Set Up Events- Fairland Aquatic Complex Sprint Triathlon at Fairland Regional Park
July 29, 7AM – 5PM: Foundation For PSP, CBD and Related Brain Disease, Cure PSP- Walk at Black Hill RP
July 31, 10AM – 12:30PM: Family Geocaching Adventures at Ag History Farm Park
August 1, 6 - 8PM: Park Police 2011 Awards Ceremony at Brookside Gardens
August 1, 10:30AM – 1PM: Hike Along Hawlings River in Rachel Carson Park
August 1, 11AM – 11:30AM: Raptors of Rock Creek Live at Meadowside Nature Center
August 3, 8PM – 10PM: Teen Sk8 at Wheaton Ice
August 3, 8:30 – 10:30: Curiosity and the Cosmos at Black Hill Regional Park
August 3, 11AM – 3PM: KidsCo Summer Camp Carnival at Strawberry Knoll Local Park
August 3 -5, ALL DAY: UMD Dynamic Baseball Tournament at Blair H.S.
August 4, 8AM – 10AM: Weed Warriors at Little Falls Trail
August 4, 10AM – NOON, Underground Railroad Experience Trail Free Guided Hikes at Woodlawn Manor
August 4 -5, 9AM – 8PM: MD Warriors Baseball Club-Way of the Warrior Baseball Tournament, Columbia LP
August 4, Noon – 5PM: Annual Tom Munyama Foundation Basketball Tournament at Martin Luther King Jr. RP
August 5, 6AM – Noon: Riley’s Rumble Half Marathon at S. Germantown Recreational Park
August 5, 1 – 4 PM: Kingsley Schoolhouse Free Guided Tours at Little Bennett Regional Park
Mary R. Bradford
Director