An email circulating the interwebs asks Silver Spring’s civic associations how they’d like to rock downtown’s new civic building.

“Is your group likely to want to hold your monthly meetings here? Will you want to program some of the spaces for the public? Might you hold an annual fundraising activity?” Susan Hoffmann, marketing director for the Silver Spring regional center, inquired in her email. “Get back to me with that information.”

Photo: Methinks I see a rink. Credit: J. Deseo/SSP.

Photo: Methinks I see a rink. Credit: J. Deseo/SSP.

Construction on the public building has been cooking with oil on the southeast corner of Fenton Street and Ellsworth Drive for more than a year. By the time this joint opens next summer (that’s Hoffmann’s prediction), there will be seven spaces available for rent: four activity rooms, an exhibit hall and “great hall”, and a courtyard for kicking it al fresco.

Rental rates haven’t been determined yet, Hoffmann wrote.

Hoffmann’s email query isn’t meant to carve room reservations in granite, she indicated. Instead, it’s “the opportunity for our staff to get a sense of what likely needs exist within the residential, not-for-profit, and private sectors” from opening day until the end of 2011, she wrote.

The building’s adjacent plaza will contain a veterans memorial, a lighted pavilion and a seasonal ice rink.

Skateboard spot proposed for Woodside park

Photo: One skateboarder tore it up in front of the Silver Spring regional center last summer. Credit: Kim Bieler.

Photo: One skateboarder tore it up in front of the Silver Spring regional center last summer. Credit: Kim Bieler.

MoCo’s planners propose to throw down a temporary skateboarding spot just north of Silver Spring’s central business district, they announced Friday afternoon.

The “skate spot” will sit in what used to be a tennis court at the Woodside Urban Park on Georgia Avenue and Spring Street, sandwiched between the park’s basketball courts and gymnasium. The 3,000 square-foot spot will have “street-style obstacles” like concrete ledges and embankments for boarders to skim.

“The new skate spot will provide youth in the community with better and enhanced play opportunities,” read a planning department newsletter being snail mailed to area residents.

Preliminary plans for the skate spot are already cooking and will be open to sidewalk shredders by January 2010, the newsletter predicted. The temporary spot could become permanent if residents feel it’s a good fit for the park’s overall renovation. Public meetings will be held on the subject in the next few months, the newsletter read.

A playground near First Avenue is also slated for renovations, planners announced. It’s not known whether that work will close the playground temporarily, or when the work will wrap.

Photo courtesy of Kim Bieler.

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Transit-center crews to blast into bedrock

Photo: Commuters hustle past the transit center construction site. Credit: J. Deseo/SSP.

Photo: Commuters hustle past the transit center construction site. Credit: J. Deseo/SSP.

Here’s the good news: Some of the construction work at Silver Spring’s transit-center site is cooking with oil. The bad news: The heavy lifting is still to come.

According to a newsletter from the county’s department of general services, crews slaving in the sand pit have replaced utility lines that cross the site outside the Silver Spring Metro station. That includes phone, gas and sewage lines, plus a fat Pepco duct bank (whatever that is).

Sticking with the up side, crews wrapped work on temporary erosion-control gear, including storm-water management ponds near the corner of Colesville Road and Wayne Avenue. They also tested the bedrock beneath all that sand to determine how deep in the ground the transit center’s foundation has to go, the newsletter explained.

Now the bad news. Excavation, blasting (that’s right — I said blasting) and installation of supporting structures are planned for the fall, the newsletter read. Crews also will put up a large retaining wall next to the MARC and Red Line tracks, though the newsletter did not explain why it was needed. (more…)

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Negotiations for downtown music hall drag on

Photo: I can almost smell the rock and roll. Credit: J. Deseo/SSP.

Photo: I can almost smell the rock and roll. Credit: J. Deseo/SSP.

Montgomery County officials and a local developer are at the “one-yard line” in talks to bring the Fillmore music-hall project into the end zone and score that elusive touchdown.

“We’re saying 30 to 60 days, but hopefully, we’re closer than that,” Bruce Lee, of the Lee Development Group, told the Washington Business Journal. “We have several meetings over the next couple of weeks and are wrapping up the details.” (more…)

Photo: Construction on Silver Springs civic building and veterans plaza will be done when its done. Photo courtesy of Taken With an iPhone. Reprinted with permission.

Photo: Construction of Silver Spring's civic building and veterans plaza in progress. Photo courtesy of "Taken With an iPhone". Reprinted with permission.

Construction on downtown Silver Spring’s civic building is cooking on Fenton Street at Ellsworth Drive, but don’t expect the adjacent plaza to get a jump start on opening to the public. (more…)

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County council quashes foot bridge to new library

ROCKVILLE — Start building those man-sized sling shots. The county council has rejected proposed changes to Silver Spring’s development plan that would allow a pedestrian bridge to be built between downtown’s new library and the Wayne Avenue garage. (more…)

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