gaithersblog.net

Montgomery County Council President Michael J. Knapp is skeptical that the county will be able to borrow $274 million needed to advance County Executive Isiah Leggett’s plan to buy and sell six properties to relocate more than a dozen county agencies.

Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Ronald B. Rubin ruled the county plan to record conversations in police cruisers does not violate the state’s wiretap laws or infringe on the privacy of police officers.

A late surge of applications kept the county’s elections board busy last week as residents rushed to meet the Oct. 14 deadline for registering to vote in the Nov. 4 general election.

Banks are getting their bailout, but local charities aren’t sure anyone is coming to rescue them.

Note that if you have the ability to donate money, time or other resources, contributing to Gaithersburg Help is a great way to help out the needy in our community.

In Gaithersburg, the city-sponsored Halloween Fest runs from 6:30 to 8 p.m. on Oct. 31 at City Hall Concert Pavilion, in front of City Hall, 31 S. Summit Ave. Wear a costume and walk in the parade! The evening for children kicks off with a juggling act that runs from 6:30 to 7:15 p.m., followed by a fun-tastic magic show from 7:15 to 8 p.m. Balloon artists, face painters and plenty of popcorn will help to provide fun throughout the evening. For more information call 301-258-6350 or e-mail

cityhall@gaithersburgmd.gov.

Blast the trumpets, sound the horns. Gaithersburg’s Quince Orchard High School Marching Cougars beat five other bands on Saturday to win their division at state championships.

Oprah Winfrey made a surprise appearance in Rockville Saturday as hundreds of people gathered to dedicate the Mattie J.T. Stepanek Park, bringing the boy’s mother to tears.

Oprah also recently visited Gaithersburg High School and interviews with some students appeared on her show.

North- and southbound traffic along Needwood Road in Derwood will be shifted onto a temporary adjacent road beginning at 9 a.m. Monday as construction continues on the Intercounty Connector.

The state Board of Public Works approved an agreement Oct. 15 that allows a Germantown man to continue restoring a 19th century farm on state-owned land as a museum depicting life on a slave plantation.

The Board of Public Works on Oct. 15 also approved spending […] $100,000 for landscaping at the Gaithersburg International Latitude Observatory Park.

The Gaithersburg International Latitude Observatory Park consists of an observatory built in 1899, a caretakers house and garage, monuments used to take geographic measurements and a pagoda like object used to align the observatory telescope. The federal government operated the observatory until 1915 to study variations in latitude caused by the Earth’s wobble on its axis. It reopened from 1932 to 1982. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985 and conveyed to the city of Gaithersburg in 1987.

Note that the caretaker’s house (and maybe the garage, I don’t recall for sure) were recently torn down.

• Village shopping center moves ahead

  The 27,000-square-foot shopping center planned for the site of the former YMCA pool in Montgomery Village is back on track after county planners decided not to make the developer pay more than $2 million called for by revised traffic impact regulations.

• City police at full staff

  Effective Monday, the Gaithersburg Police Department is at full staff for the first time in recent memory. A recruiting push by Chief John King and his staff, coupled with pay hikes, has helped the department to reach its authorized strength of 54 officers.

• Archstone project on schedule, developer says

  Plans for the future Archstone development on East Diamond Avenue in Olde Towne Gaithersburg are on schedule despite market downturns and the current credit crunch, according to the developer.