Lake Frank, just east of Rockville, Maryland in October.
It’s fall in Rockville and if you haven’t enjoyed it enough, head out to Lake Frank east of town. Created by Montgomery County to control flooding along Rock Creek in the 1970s, it’s an off-the-beaten path destination for those who love nature, walking, birdwatching, and dog walking. Today was especially nice because the trees are at their peak and their colors are reflected in the water–and we only ran into a half dozen people in the hour we were there.
Enter from Avery Road (near Southlawn) and you’ll find a small parking lot leading to a paved path that goes around about a third of the lake. If you’re walking or on a bike, you can also enter from the Rock Creek Trail just north of Norbeck Road.
Max for Rockville 
Nice post to get our minds off “Election Shenanigans Encourage Unethical and Illegal Behavior” (next post), where Pierzchala and Moore ended up with egg on their faces. Everyone should make sure to read ALL the comments to get the whole pathetic picture. Folks should also go to http://rockvillemd.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=2 and click on “Mayor and Council Meeting, October 28, 2013 (31-13)” “Video” or “MP4Video” then click on item 10 – Citizens Forum. How sad it is for Rockville that we (currently) have elected officials attempting to intimidate citizens’ Right to Freedom of Speech. Nice photo of Lake Frank though.
It am disappointed that The King farm woman who spoke at the Myor and Council was used by partisan folks at ing farm? Moore and others did the appropriate thing by going to the Elections Board with this anonymous handout. We have had too much of this illegal stuff in the past just before the election. This phony charge of being anti- freedom is not in keeping with good democratic processes.
all I can say is wake -up Rockville and speak out against these phony charges.
Just watch the video (URL above) and come to your own conclusions.
Not that it matters, but Lake Frank is not part of the City of Rockville (still, nice photo).
Also, even though it may look nice, according to the Montgomery County Parks web site, “Visitors [are] Urged to Use Caution and Avoid Ingesting Water at Lake Needwood and LAKE FRANK Due to Elevated Microcystin Levels,” which can be fatal to humans. (see: http://www.montgomeryparks.org/facilities/regional_parks/rockcreek)
This kind of reminds me of five monolithic candidates, which at first glance look nice, but are actually Teaming with toxins, that can be fatal to our quality of life.
Months ago, the county posted signs all around Lake Frank warning people of the toxicity of the water, and yet I see people fishing or playing with their dogs in the water. Despite the warning signs, people insist on doing what they want to do because changing habits and beliefs (e.g., natural water is clean and healthy) is very difficult.
Had it been an anonymous flyer endorsing Team Rockville, or criticizing the platform of the West End candidates, the situation would have been handled with hysteria and chaos. An angry mob would have descended on City Hall demanding that the Board of Elections stay open all night to condemn the culprits. They would have descended on the police station demanding a task force to identify and arrest the culprits, and subpoenas and threats of lawsuits would have been flying around like confetti.
Do you hear yourself? “hysteria and chaos,” “angry mob,” “”condemn the culprits,” “descended on the police station,” “arrest the culprits” and “subpoenas and threats of lawsuits would have been flying around like confetti.”
Regarding what really happened with “an anonymous flyer” and the response by team Rockville candidates; I have watched the Citizens Forum video, read the Gazette and Sentinel articles and most interestingly, I have read the account provided on this blog.
Here are the facts:
1.) Someone handed out some unsigned, black and white, copy-paper flyers in King Farm “on or about October 20, 2013.” It is unclear how many flyers were handed out. It could have been as few as several dozen or as many as 300. The flyers had multiple grammatical errors and did not tell voters to not vote for any candidates. In addition to a lengthy discussion about Rockville’s APFO and development issues, the flyer recommended that voters vote for Newton for Mayor, and Hadley and Whitaker for City Council. The flyer only mentioned Hall, Moore and Pierzchala in the context of their positions and their actions regarding the APFO/APFS waivers proposal. The flyer also spoke to Mr. Pierzchala’s fondness for Crystal City (as he mentioned yet again in a recent debate). The APFS waivers proposal was ultimately withdrawn after the September 30th Public Hearing, where there was a 10 to 1 ratio of those citizens opposed to the waivers compared to others, who testified for waivers (mostly developer attorneys). Other team Rockville candidates were not mentioned at all in the King Farm flyer.
2.) A formal complaint to the Board of Supervisors of Elections (BOSE) was filed by Max van Balgooy (Mark Pierzchala’s campaign manager) protesting the fact that the flyers were anonymous. The complaint then attempted to connect the King Farm flyer to a grammatically perfect, professionally printed, mailed, color postcard, which appeared, not in King Farm, but a different community, the West End. And concluded that this type of behavior was, according to the complaint “Dirty and underhanded campaigning…” Max has done a service to us all by posting his complaint with the anonymous flyer and postcard attached in their entirety (please take the time to read: https://maxforrockville.files.wordpress.com/2013/10/bose-complaint-2013-10-22.pdf)
3.) Mr. Moore, another team Rockville candidate, attended a Board of Supervisors of Elections meeting (Oct 24) soon after the complaint was filed and added his allegations to Max’s complaint. Although he had no proof, he attempted to connect the aforementioned West End postcard and King Farm flyer. Now that they were connected in his mind, he then suggested that more the $500 must have been spent by the perpetrators (on both the mailed West End postcard and copier paper King Farm flier) and therefore this constituted a campaign violation, one that the BOSE must investigate and, if at all possible, condemn and possibly fine. Of course the press (at least Gazette and Sentinel) were called by team Rockville folks in advance of this spectacle, so they could report on the “Election Shenanigans” and “Unethical and Illegal Behavior.” Mr. Moore suggested that members of the King Farm Citizens Assembly might be involved and clearly stated that non-slate candidates, Newton, Hadley and Whitaker were involved, all of which had to be found in violation of Rockville election code. Again, he had nothing to base any of this on.
4.) At Citizens Forum on October 28, 2013, a very brave and somewhat scared first-generation Chinese American woman, Ms. Echo Lin, was first to testify. She took ownership for the anonymous flyers. She did not know that not signing them may by an issue with Rockville election code (which may or may not be Constitutional). She testified that she acted alone and spent almost no money (the flyers were from her home printer from materials she had on hand). She promised to sign any future flyers.
5.) Max then did the right thing. He apologized to Ms. Lin, albeit with a caveat, “I’m sorry I put her through this, but our election code states that anonymous literature can’t be distributed by a campaign committee (that’s two or more people) and a couple people informed me that they saw a couple people distributing the flyers.” (BTW, who were these “couple people [that] informed” Max? If not identified, it’s just hearsay.) Max concluded with, “If there’s a silver lining to this event, it’s that more people are talking about the election and their rights as citizens. Hooray!” This is all very nice, but it does not remove the stain upon Pierzchala, Moore and team Rockville for their vicious attack on an Asian American citizen, who just wanted to warn her community about over development, be involved in a way that she could not be in communist China and exercise her Right to Freedom of Speech under the Constitution.
6.) At their October 30th meeting, the BOSE dropped that matter, with no further “investigations” planned.
7.) To date, Pierzchala and Moore, nor anyone from the team Rockville slate have apologized to Ms. Lin, the residents of King Farm, Bridget Newton, Don Hadley or Claire Whitaker. Instead, only more allegations have been made by team Rockville supporters.
The only “hysteria and chaos,” “angry mob” mentality and “condemn[ation of] the culprits,” that occurred was on the part of team Rockville candidates, Mark Pierzchala’s (by proxy of his campaign manager) and candidate Tom Moore. I pray that this is not Rockville’s future.
Hey, Dan, Max already responded to everything you’re discussing here.
So I suggest you review the original post.
Seems to me the BOSE had a duty and responsibility to ascertain the veracity of the claim of working alone. Given the wording of the flyer and photos like this, it strains all credulity.
http://www.claire4citycouncil.com/102613-great-wall-supermarket-rockville-pike-rockville/dscn9413/
Gorgeous pic!
Cheryl Kagan http://www.FolkNGreatMusic.org
11 years of presenting talented singer/songwriters in Rockville!
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