Crabbs Branch is county pick for day-laborer center

The Gazette ^ | January 18, 2007 | Sebastian Montes

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

A parcel in the County Service Park, a county-owned cluster of industrial facilities just south of Shady Grove Road, will be the site of a new employment center for day laborers, county officials announced Thursday.

The center will be located on a half-acre parcel behind a Department of Liquor Control warehouse at 16640 Crabbs Branch Way.

According to a statement from County Executive Isiah Leggett (D), the location is more than half a mile from the closest residential area. It is also about 700 yards from the nearest bus stop. The Shady Grove Metro station is a little more than a mile away.

The announced plan is the county’s solution to the sometimes-bitter struggle to address the dozens of mostly Latino day laborers who have routinely gathered in Gaithersburg parking lots in hopes of being hired for temporary work, such as construction or landscape jobs.

‘‘If we do nothing, this situation doesn’t just go away. I believe we should address this challenge now,” Leggett wrote in the statement.

His plan is to set up a trailer and possibly portable bathrooms on the site. The service park area lies between the cities of Gaithersburg and Rockville and is roughly 1.5 miles south of the Gaithersburg lot where laborers currently gather.

Gaithersburg officials abandoned their effort to open a center in the city last fall after meeting widespread opposition.

Gaithersburg City Manager David B. Humpton said Thursday afternoon that the city would not comment on the county decision until after Mayor Sidney A. Katz meets with Leggett Friday.

Because the site is outside both Gaithersburg and Rockville, the county has sole control over the site’s approval process.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

BTTT!

[Squeako]

"Hello, I'm a Democrat"

"And I'm a Republican."

"We want to set up a station half a mile from your home where illegal aliens from unknown foreign countries with unknown identities and criminal histories can wait to get work."

"Sure, the work is illegal, but to us, votes and cheap labor mean more than the safety of the populace, and the sovereignty of our nation."

"Did we mention that you get to pay for it?"

[Fairview]

This area continually smells from the county's "transfer station" and recycling center where garbage is collected. Some hot days it's enough to knock you down. I'll bet the illegals and their reps at Casa de Maryland will protest the location.

The illegals are in the neighborhood anyway since right now a lot of them congregate around the nearby Home Depot and Burger King. In any case it wasn't a safe area to be in after dark and it's not going to be safe in the future.

[tgslTakoma]

Yep, and if they don't like it, they won't use it. They'll continue to hang out where they like and where there is more traffic.

[Fairview]

They'll continue to hang out where they like and where there is more traffic.

They've got a good thing going right now--they hang around Old Town Gaithersburg and the back side of the mall where there are plenty of rape and mugging victims available. Easy pickings, much less stressful than having to load drywall all day.