Earthbound Trading Co. to open Wheaton Plaza store

Earthbound Trading Co. is coming to Wheaton Plaza. This is quite a get for mall operator Westfield and mall patrons, as the closest existing Earthbound stores are in Salisbury, Maryland and Richmond, Virginia, and there are none in the D.C. region according to Google Maps. Founded in 1994 as a small mineral and rock shop, Earthbound today is a fair-trade retailer of Bohemian fashion, gifts and home decor from around the world. Earthbound will be located between Foot Locker and Spencer's Gifts.

MoCo Planning Board to discuss 6-month pilot allowing ebikes/scooters on trails

The Montgomery County Planning Board will discuss a proposed six-month pilot program that would allow e-bikes and electric scooters to operate on some County trails at their meeting this Thursday, May 9, 2019. Montgomery County is still working out an agreement with four dockless e-bike companies for the pilot. If approved by the board, the pilot could begin as early as this month.

Only bikes powered by rechargeable battery will be allowed on the trails during the pilot. The trails selected are the Matthew Henson Trail (Aspen Hill/Silver Spring), Sligo Creek Trail (only the Montgomery County section), Long Branch Trail, Rock Creek Trail, and the paved sections of the Northwest Branch Trail within Montgomery County. Signs will be posted at the selected trails, and public announcements will be made by County government agencies, at least two weeks prior to the start of the program, County officials say.

Paved surface trails where e-bikes
and e-scooters could be used during
the six-month pilot program

Planning staff says that the trails selected are more often used for longer distance trips through stream valleys. The Parks Department wants to evaluate the results and user feedback before allowing the electric bikes on busier trails like the Capital Crescent Trail in Bethesda. They'll be examining conflicts with other trail users, rules violations, safety, logistics, and personal vs. commercial use.

Gas scooters and electric hoverboards and skateboards will remain illegal on all County trails during the pilot. Bikes cannot have throttle assist mechanisms.

The groundwork for the pilot was laid by a related park directive approved two years ago by the board. Staff are recommending approval of the pilot program.

Purple LIne updates for Silver Spring, Lyttonsville

Watch out this month for temporary lane closures on Wayne Avenue between Dale Drive and Sligo Creek Parkway for truck deliveries to Silver Spring International Middle School between 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM on weekdays and weekends. Crews will also be clearcutting trees and performing utility work along Wayne Avenue, between Fenton Street and Sligo Creek Parkway.

Purple Line contractors will be installing fencing and drainage systems along Talbot Avenue toward 16th Street on the edge of downtown Silver Spring. This work will be conducted during business hours on weekdays and weekends. There may be night work in the Lyttonsville Bridge area on any night this month, except on holidays.

Envirobarrassment: Biggest industrial pollution regulation violator is in MoCo Council's backyard

Even while clearcutting forests for the Purple Line and campaign donors' housing developments, the Montgomery County Council touts themselves as environmental warriors. Embarrassingly, the WSSC has tagged a business not far from the Council's notorious lair in Takoma Park as the only industrial polluter to not comply with federal and WSSC regulations in Montgomery County last year.

The water utility cites the Coca-Cola Bottling Company facility at 1710 Elton Road in Silver Spring as being in "Significant Noncompliance with the United States Environmental Protection Agency's National Pretreatment Standards and/or WSSC's Industrial and Special Waste Regulations." Coca-Cola "failed to notify WSSC within 24 hours of becoming aware of a violation," WSSC said in a statement. The utility says it issued the business a Notice of Violation and a Compliance Directive.

VA named State of the Year by corporate relocation mag, MoCo loser in Halo Labs HQ move

This is another humiliating week for the Montgomery County political cartel. Just as the latest statistics show office vacancies rising higher in Montgomery, Business Facilities magazine named Virginia "State of the Year" for corporate relocations and economic development. Amazon announced that the first several hundred employees are being hired for their HQ 2 in Crystal City, one of the deals that helped Virginia win the award. Virginia also won the contest for the first U.S. manufacturing facility for Canada's Flow Alkaline Spring Water, which will bring a $15.5 million investment in the state. And just yesterday, Halo Labs announced they are relocating their corporate headquarters from Philadelphia to Burlingame, California, skipping over moribund Montgomery County.

Once again, MoCo officials were caught asleep at the switch in the competition for Halo Labs. The company should have been a natural fit, as Montgomery County's biotech sector is the only bright spot in the County's moribund economy - Halo Labs is a life sciences instrumentation company. Their Horizon system allows subvisible particle analysis for pharmaceutical research. How Montgomery officials could have slept through such an opportunity is beyond imagination.

“Virginia snared more than $5.5 billion in capital investment for its top two projects, and its top five job-creation efforts netted nearly 28,000 new jobs in a diverse and well-executed growth strategy that has made VA a high-tech force to be reckoned with,” Business Facilities Editor-in-Chief Jack Rogers said Wednesday. Rogers declared that Virginia isn't just a top player in the tech sector, but is "dominating the field." Montgomery County hasn't even made it out of the locker room. They're too busy getting stuffed into a locker by Ralph Northam.

Virginia has shown it can not only soundly beat Montgomery County in the region's traditional sectors, but also quickly conquer new frontiers. In fact, it is already on the verge of erasing Montgomery's thin advantage in MoCo's only successful sector, biotech. Virginia "can walk and chew gum at the same time—which in this case means they’re upgrading traditional industries while accelerating emerging growth sectors,” Rogers said yesterday.

One of the least-discussed of Virginia's many advantages in attracting Amazon was its cutting-edge efforts in the exploding field of unmanned aerial vehicles, one of great interest to Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos. Just days ago, it was announced that Virginia will be the first state in the nation where drones will deliver packages, as the FAA cleared Wing to operate a pilot program in Blacksburg.

No wonder Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan is spending his week tilting at presidential windmills, and signing hundreds of radical far-left socialist bills into law in Annapolis. He has no economic development news to tout. Montgomery's elected officials spent the week arguing about whether taxpayers should give County government employees a 6% or 9% raise, after raising Council salaries to $137,000 and promising you a 4.8% property tax hike to pay for all that - but continue to take no action on our economic development and traffic congestion crises. Heckuva job, Brownie!

Access restrictions proposed for two Olney streets - public hearing tonight

Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich is holding a public hearing tonight, May 1, 2019 at 7:00 PM at the Executive Office Building at 101 Monroe Street in Rockville regarding proposed access restrictions on two residential streets in Olney. The two streets are Hillcroft Drive and Fox Valley Drive, located just north of the InterCounty Connector.

Fox Valley Drive in Olney

Both streets can be accessed from Emory Lane, and Hillcroft can also be accessed from Georgia Avenue. The hearing announcement does not specify from which of those roads access would be restricted from under the proposal. No contact information regarding the project is given, either.

Montgomery County police respond to call for more security at mosques during Ramadan

Montgomery County Councilmember Will Jawando released a letter to acting Montgomery County Police Chief Russ Hamill Monday, in which he requested the department "increase security" at mosques in the county during the holy month of Ramadan. Ramadan begins the evening of Sunday, May 5, and ends the morning of Wednesday, June 5. The department last night issued a statement saying they have received Jawando's letter, and many inquiries about it from unidentified individuals.

In the statement, MCPD says they will continue to work closely with faith communities in the county, but will not ever publicly announce or disclose specific security plans. A public discussion of strategies and tactics "may diminish – not enhance –  the safety of our residents," MCPD says.