long branch newsletter june 2015 final
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Volume 8
Supported by:
Long Branch Business League Issue 4 June 2015 Long Branch Business League
Join the Business League
Over the last four years the Long Branch Business League, with its Dis-cover Long Branch! initiative, has gradually built a more exciting im-age for Long Branch commerce. We brought the community the suc-cessful Super-Block Party last May; we started a Salsa Night series this September and we have helped install art work.
What is more, the Business League's newsletter keeps you up-to-date on important events, local business news, and business tips.
What are the benefits to you of membership? Preferred access to store design improvements Assistance with marketing and business planning Help with Enterprise Zone tax credit applications Greater visibility in business league marketing materials
And with big changes coming to our area because of the Purple Line, now more than ever we need to stand together to make sure all of us benefit from the expanded customer base the Purple Line will bring.
Making Long Branch successful for everyone.
Carlos Perozo, President Long Branch Business Leagues [email protected]. 301-587-4829 or 301 812-4141
IN THIS ISSUE
Earth Day 2015
Page 1
Get on the Map!
Page 2
The Flowers are Back
Page 2
Portraits of Spring (Photos)
Page 3
Getting to Know … Myra
Page 3
Resources
Page 4
Resources:
Small Business Development Center
SBDC provides counseling and classes. Coun-
selors speak Spanish and other languages.
301-403-0501x11
7100 Baltimore Ave, Suite 303,
College Park, MD 20740
Enterprise Zone Tax Credit Program
Access to County tax credits for real estate
improvements and employee hiring.
Mr. Pete McGinnity
240-777-8126
Montgomery County Council
240-777-7900
Department of Permitting
Responsible for all permits to make property
improvements and signage.
permittingservices.montgomerycountymd.gov
240-777-0311
DED’s Small & Minority Business Empowerment
Resources and training for small businesses.
Judith Stephenson
240-777-2012
Montgomery County Police
Non-emergency dispatch for Long Branch:
301 279-8000
All emergencies: 911
Montgomery County (All other services)
For all Montgomery County services there
is now a single number you can call, this
includes bulk trash pickup
(5 requests annually)
311 (English)
311 + 1 (Español)
Department of Liquor Control
DLC licenses and regulates businesses that
sell alcohol, and provides education and
assistance to businesses and their
employees.
Emily DeTitta
240-777-1904
Business League Gathering
Tuesday, June 2, from 10:30 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.
El Golfo Restaurant, 8739 Flower Avenue.
Guest presenter: Sales and Marketing ‘Rockstar’ Meryl Hooker Long Branch Business News, a monthly publication , Paul Grenier, Editor 301-622-2400, x 41 [email protected]
The Earth Day cleanup of Long Branch
creek, which took place on Saturday,
April 25, from 9 a.m. to noon, was a
big success.
How big? Fifty-eight volunteers
removed four rusting shopping carts
from the water and filled 132 bags with empty bottles and trash from the banks
of Long Branch creek, leaving the
whole area looking like new.
One high-energy group of volunteers,
headed by Nicole Sushka, came from
Montgomery College. Another good
group came from Silver Spring Serve
and Social, led by Tyler McClenithan.
The success was made even bigger
thanks to enthusiastic support from
Long Branch businesses. Nok Kim left
his Rainbow Laundromat for the
whole morning and helped pass out bags and gloves.
Nicholas Ali, owner of Ocean City
Seafood, not only brought new supplies
when we they began to run low, he also See Earth Day, p. 2
brought two young volunteers, Egypt
Pointexter and Roni Martinez, who did
the registration work.
Even though volunteers don’t ask for
anything in return, they do appreciate
some tasty food after all that hard
work. And that is just what they got, thanks to delicious warm pupusas
supplied by Samantha’s and El Golfo
Restaurants and sumptuous samosas
from Adarash Market.
This year the cleanup was harder than
usual, in part because the trash was
Earth Day Event Proves Business Cares
Earth Day, from p. 1
3 2
more widely scattered, in part
because the new bridge over Long
Branch creek – although almost
completed – was still closed to foot
traffic (it is now open). To get to
the biggest cleanup site, about a
100 feet to the side of the new bridge, volunteers had to carefully
make their way across the creek by
stepping on rocks.
Of course, no Earth Day cleanup
in Long Branch is complete with-
out setting a new record. What
was this year’s record?
Never before in Long Branch has
so much trash been collected so
quickly by so few!
It was like sending in the Special Forces. When the volunteers were asked to clean up an area, no mat-ter how bad it was, they didn’t stop to ask questions. They moved in and cleaned it up like a whirlwind. And then they moved on.
By 11:30, the whole area, from north of the football field to Piney Branch Road, was completely cleaned up — a half hour ahead of schedule!
A big thanks also to Giant Foods and Capital One Bank for their generous support of Earth Day!
DiscoverLongBranch.com DiscoverLongBranch.com
Getting to Know … Myra Rivera
Long Branch Community and Businesses Bring
Flowers Back to Flower Avenue
On Wednesday, May 6, almost 40 hanging planters with bright yellow and red
flowers went up along Flower Avenue in commercial Long Branch.
Carlos Perozo, Business League president and Nok Kim, owner of Rainbow
Laundromat, worked alongside volunteers from MHP for three solid hours that
Wednesday – preparing the pots, carefully placing the plants – all in assembly-line fashion.
Jose Gonzalez and his assistant, Molly Austin, a MHP resident at Halpine
Hamlet apartments, literally did the heavy lifting. They picked up the very
heavy planters and secured them to the light poles seven feet above the ground.
The Flowers on Flower Avenue project, initiated in the summer of 2014, was
made possible again this year thanks to support from the Long Branch
Business League plus the very kind assistance of the Takoma Foundation and
the local Capital One Bank on Arliss Street.
What is more, generous discounts from Johnson’s Landscaping (jlsinc.net)
stretched the flower budget further, making it possible to fill some neglected
areas along the sidewalk with beautiful yellow Lantana flowers.
Get Your Name on the Map! (before June 2)
Members of the Business League in good
standing as of June 2, 2015, will have their
company name included in bold letters on
new way-finding maps that will soon be in-
stalled at bus stops in ‘downtown’ Long
Branch.
Thanks to assistance from the County Ride On Bus system, the maps will soon be
installed -- for a period of at least one year --
at bus stops on the corner of Flower and
Piney Branch, and also at University Blvd. at
the intersection with Piney Branch.
The colorful, professionally-designed maps
will, for the first time, allow pedestrians to
find your Long Branch store the same way
shoppers find stores in a shopping mall – by
first looking for the kind of service or
product they want, and then finding out
which stores sell that, and where they are.
Job Title: Legal assistant.
Years at present job: 15. Company: Law Offices of Futrovsky, Forster & Scherr, 8517 Piney Branch Road. First job: Baby-sitter, when 13. Grew up: East L.A., then Langley Park and Takoma Park Childhood memory: Sitting in grandma’s kitchen pretending to make tortillas out of masa dough (but mostly just making a mess). Current home: Takoma Park. Dream Job: Teaching elementary school in rural El Salvador (was about to do that when met husband, and as a result stayed in the U.S.).
Person to meet: From the past: Frida Kahlo. From the present: the Mexican journalist Anabelle Hernandez who broke the story about drug cartels and now has a price on her head. Favorite app: Quizlet, because it lets you create flash cards to, for example, memorize foreign language words. Favorite movie: “Like Water for Chocolate.”
Favorite music: Extremely varied: Tchaikovsky, Perez Prado, Dusty
Springfield, Frank Sinatra …
Favorite restaurants: Bond 45, at National Harbor or Landini Brothers,
in Alexandria.
Favorite books: To Kill a Mockingbird; Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights.
Favorite vacation spot: Berkeley Springs, W. Va.
Guilty pleasure: Comic books! Especially Batman.
Family: Married 10 years, 1 daughter (who is also perfectly bi-lingual in
English and Spanish)
Startling fact: Has read the entire Bible from beginning to end four
times — the first time when she was 13 years old. “That way when Mom
told me ‘You have to do this, because it says so in the Bible,’ I knew my
facts and could argue my case” [see job title – the Editors].
Of Futrovsky
Forster and
Scherr,
Law Offices
____
—
Myra Rivera (right) with a friend
Never before …
has so much trash
been collected so
quickly by so few!
Maps like the one above will
soon advertise Long Branch
stores at local bus stops.
Earth Day Spring
Cleanup
… and Flower Planting