• Release ID: 08-011
• Release Date: 1/18/2008
• Contact: Neil H. Greenberger 240-777-7939 or Jean Arthur240-777-7934
• From: Council Office

Montgomery County Council to Host Town Hall Meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 30

Public Invited to Express Their Views on Issues, Ask Questions of Councilmembers at AFI Theatre in Silver Spring

ROCKVILLE, Md., January 18, 2008 - The Montgomery County Council will continue its efforts to find out what issues most concern the residents of the County when it hosts a Town Hall Meeting for the Silver Spring area at the American Film Institute (AFI) Theatre on Wednesday, Jan. 30, starting at 8 p.m. A pre-meeting reception will begin at 7:30 p.m.

This will be the first Town Hall Meeting hosted by the Council in 2008. The Council is composed of President Mike Knapp, Vice President Phil Andrews and Councilmembers Roger Berliner, Marc Elrich, Valerie Ervin, Nancy Floreen, George Leventhal, Marilyn Praisner and Duchy Trachtenberg.

The AFI Theatre is located at 8633 Colesville Road in the revitalized area of downtown Silver Spring.

The meeting will allow residents to let the Councilmembers know how they feel about specific issues and will allow them to ask questions of the Councilmembers in an organized, but informal, setting.

Among the topics expected to attract the focus of residents are schools, public safety, traffic, growth and development, affordable housing and taxes. Another significant topic in the area has been the proposal to establish a music hall operated by promoter Live Nation.

“The residents’ survey we conducted in 2007 told us residents want their County to do a better job of communicating with them,” said Council President Knapp. “Town Hall Meetings are one of our real opportunities to listen to the community on a wide variety of issues in a way that is so much more direct than an e-mail or a letter. For the citizens, these meetings provide a forum where they can see their elected officials in a different format than a televised meeting or through a news release.”

The meeting will be taped for later broadcast on County Cable Montgomery (CCM—cable Channel 6 on Comcast and RCN, Channel 30 on Verizon). Susan Kenedy, a producer for the county station, will moderate the meeting.

All three Council Town Hall meetings held in 2007 attracted crowds of more than 200.



For more information about the Town Hall Meeting or about the broadcast times, call 240-777-7931.