A Week in Review: Documentary, Construction, Hostages

Obviously the most notable event this week wasn't even in our county. The hostage situation at the Discovery building Wednesday in Silver Spring, stole a lot of the attention from the news media.

I'm glad to hear that Montgomery County Police quickly helped employees evacuate and that the children on the first floor were wheeled across to a McDonald's to safety. The hostages ended up safe as well - which was great too. Although it wasn't in Prince George's County, our county fire department and EMS sent out units to the scene to help, including a bomb squad, and also sent units to help MoCo fire departments with regular calls.

On a happier note, University Park's solar project on the roof of the Church of the Brethren was featured in a documentary that can now be viewed on YouTube. It's great to see a grassroots town effort be featured in such a way. Since moving to the area, I love seeing the energy around the town's STEP UP Program and how residents are supportive and enthusiastic about these energy efficient projects.

Driving around Riverdale Park and parts of University Park has been bumpy lately as some construction projects finish up before the cold of winter sweeps in. Its sounds like many of these projects will be over before we know it.

The Maryland State Fair continued on this week and Patch was there all week - with a Wii game where folks could joust virtually. I hope you got a chance to stop by and meet editors from around Maryland's various Patches. Anyway, I had fun the two days I was there with Greenbelt Patch Editor Cydney Cappello. We tried funnel cake and fried oreos and much to our amazement, the fried oreos weren't that great. Here are some pictures though from our vantage point at the fair.

Early voting began this week for the primary and although it's supposed to help there was already an issue with an illegal ballot. Hopefully this all clears itself up and folks use the early voting period to actually go out and vote in the primary.

Finally, since it's officially the last week of summer, county pools are closing for the season following Labor Day. Get out there and hit the pool before fall rolls in and we all start missing this warm weather.