KENSINGTON
DEBATE
EXCLUSIVE
I was in Kensington last night for the Mayor and Council debate. To establish my Kensington bonafides, there is quite a bit of Robert Dyer music trivia and history there and in Wheaton.
My first professional recording was at a studio in the shopping center on Connecticut Avenue next to Hardware City. How this came about, the story behind the B-side of the single... ...you'll have to wait for the Robert Dyer "Behind the Music" episode someday. The A-side was a cover of Gypsy Road by 80s hair metal band Cinderella. That is off of their Long Cold Winter CD, which is not really hair metal at all, and you should check that album out on iTunes (well, at least when you're not downloading Robert Dyer). Great record.
But I digress. You get the idea, though, that someone who ate at Roy Rogers when there was a Roy Rogers in Kensington, and got a toy gas tanker truck from the now wrongly-maligned gas stations there doesn't cotton much to the idea of bulldozing the Connecticut Ave. strip for those cookie-cutter "town center" buildings. I've never thought badly of the strip through there, and it provides important services to a large number of people - many of whom do not live in Kensington.
Mayor Pete Fosselman does have a good point when he says the voters have spoken. Last year's election was a very clear choice of zoning change vs. keeping the current historic qualities of the town. Every person had the opportunity to vote, and my recollection was that the pro-development candidates won in a landslide. So while I favor keeping things pretty much the way they are, you have to respect the wishes of the voters. At least in Kensington, residents are able to have slightly more input into planning issues in their town, as opposed to those of us who live in unincorporated areas of the county.
In addition to the scoop on the debate, I'm about to scoop the Post and Gazette here (mainly because the Post doesn't cover Montgomery County anymore, and because the Gazette doesn't print until tomorrow): Mayor Fosselman announced that the third mayoral candidate, Duane Rollins, ended his campaign Monday morning. That leaves a matchup between Fosselman and longtime resident Richard Orens.
The council candidates are incumbents Sean McMullin and John Thompson, and challengers Lorri Simmons and Lydia Sullivan. This debate was a very civil and uneventful one. In past years, there have been a bit more fireworks between audience members and candidates; the format of question cards read by the moderator bypassed those sort of direct confrontations.
To give you a cheat sheet for the 45-minute debate, I would break it down like this:
If you favor the way the sector plan is going, more multi-family housing, and taller buildings, you'd likely vote for McMullin, Thompson and Fosselman.
If you are concerned about the budget, Fosselman, Orens, Thompson, McMullin and Simmons all emphasized their own concerns about the financial future of the town.
If you are concerned about getting a new trash truck, Thompson, Orens and Simmons spoke to that. Mayor Fosselman noted (is this another scoop?) that residents may be unaware that trash collection has been informally outsourced already, due to the emergency hiring of temporary collectors. Fosselman argued that there has been no noticeable decline in quality of service during this time. If true, that does add to the case for outsourcing.
Fosselman, Thompson, and McMullin referred to pending tax increases. Orens said he would transfer funds to buy the trash truck, and cut his salary to $8000, if elected.
Simmons spoke of the need for more Ride On service, especially at later hours.
No one seemed thrilled about the idea of take-out liquor sales, but Thompson, McMullin, Fosselman, and Sullivan gave the proposal varying degrees of support. Orens warned of young people "getting sloshed." Thompson said county police told him there have been no problems around the two establishments nearby that currently sell beer and wine.
Well, no big thrills, but the issues were pretty clear, as were the candidates' positions on them.
I saw Delegate Al Carr (District 18); he actually knew who I was, even though I've never met him before. Former Kensington mayor Jayne Plank was in attendence, as well. I met a few new potential voters before leaving; fortunately, I had some flyers with me.
Like the Woodley Gardens shopping center in Rockville, and many others around the county, the pending changes in Kensington indicate some of the development choices ahead.
As pressures increase from Damascus to Westbard to turn every corner of the county into a "walkable town center," the debates in Kensington and elsewhere are fascinating to follow.
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