MOCO Presidents Day 2022: What's Open, Closed In Gaithersburg

GAITHERSBURG, MD — Some Montgomery County services will be closed or adjusted for Presidents Day on Monday, Feb. 21.

Changes include county office openings, Alcohol and Beverage Service stores hours, and garbage pickup. Here's a list of county services and how they'll run on Monday:

• Gaithersburg City Facilities and Offices—Closed, with the exception of Police Department Administrative Offices
• Gaithersburg Recycling—Collection as scheduled
• County offices—Closed
• State offices and courts—Closed
• State Motor Vehicle Administration offices and Vehicle Emissions Inspection Program stations—Closed
• Libraries—Closed
• COVID-19 test kit and mask distributions at libraries—No distributions Monday
• Ride On—Operating on new schedules that began Jan. 16.
• Ride On extRa and Flex—Not operating
• Flash—Operating on a weekend schedule (Orange Line only)
• MARC Train and Commuter Bus—See schedule here: https://www.mta.maryland.gov/marc-train-presidents-day
• TRiPS Silver Spring commuter store—Open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
• TRiPS Mobile Commuter Store—Closed
• Metrobus—Operating on a Saturday supplemental schedule
• Metrorail—Running normal weekday service
• MetroAccess customers—Reservations available to travel Monday, but subscription trips are canceled
• Parking at public garages, lots, curbside meters—Free
• County-collected trash and recycling—No collections will be made Monday, and all will slide one day from the regular schedules.
• Shady Grove Processing Facility and Transfer Station—Open for trash and recycling drop-offs. Recycling Center is closed.
• Recreation—Aquatics facilities are open and all aquatics programs will meet as scheduled. Other senior centers and community rec centers are closed. Other classes and programs are canceled. See more information on outdoor recreation areas here.

Presidents Day was established by Congress decades ago to move the celebration of George Washington’s birthday to the third Monday of February every year. Presidents Day doesn’t officially include Abraham Lincoln’s birthday on Feb. 12, which was celebrated by a handful of states.

The 16th U.S. president was born in 1809 in LaRue County, Kentucky, though his birth state isn’t one of the five — Lincoln’s adopted state of Illinois plus California, Connecticut, Missouri and New York — that observe his birthday as a holiday.

In the public consciousness, though, Lincoln’s birthday is spun in with that of the first U.S. president, George Washington, and is observed on the third Monday in February. This year, that’s on Feb. 21.

Technically, though, the holiday observed on the third Monday of February commemorates Washington’s birth on Feb. 22, 1732.

The Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1971 doesn’t mention Lincoln’s birthday, or even Presidents Day. Some lawmakers argued during debate that Washington’s birthday should be renamed Presidents Day to include Lincoln, but Congress rejected that.

Before the Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1971, Washington’s birthday was celebrated on the anniversary of his birth regardless of the day of the week.

The Federal Reserve system won’t be operating, so that means most banks will be closed. ATMs will operate as usual.

The New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq and bond markets will be closed. So will the U.S. Postal Service.