Gaithersburg Residents Protest Day-Laborer Site

Residents of Gaithersburg’s historic district are irritated by day laborers who loiter in their neighborhoods of 100-year-old homes.

But they are outraged over plans to provide a shelter for the laborers, many of whom are illegal aliens, on a main street in Olde Towne.

“That’s not what I want to the entrance of my historic community, which has more stringent rules and regulations than normal communities,” Clark Day said. “That’s not why we moved here.”

Mr. Day and other residents plan to meet tonight to discuss the plans, which they say violate city code because they were not discussed publicly.

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Mr. Day said he awoke one day at 6 a.m. to find a laborer showering in his driveway with his hose.

Dan Searles said he and other residents are not opposed to immigrants living in the community, just the city’s failure to inform them about the center.

They said Gaithersburg officials led them to think that retail shops and condominiums, not a day-labor center, would be developed at the site under the city’s master-plan.

Residents said they had read newspaper articles about the proposed Gaithersburg Upcounty Employment Center but were shocked to learn last month that it was being built downtown, at Route 355 and Brookes Avenue.

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