Church leaders and Latino community advocates continue to work closely with Gaithersburg and county officials to move a proposed center for day laborers closer to fruition.

As many as 50 workers gather every morning in a parking lot off Route 355, next to Grace United Methodist Church in Gaithersburg, waiting for employers to pick them up for a day's work.

The church has opened its doors to the day laborers, providing food, shelter and paying $200 a week for someone to supervise the program, since early last fall.

Grace United Methodist and other churches have set aside some $6,000 to keep the program going for the next six to eight weeks, and a committee met last Friday to push the city and county to take over that financial responsibility and make steps toward a more permanent arrangement.

"What we are working is an emergency plan," the Rev. David Rocha said.

"This is not a solution," Rocha said. "[This] is an emergency plan, but the short term is to bring a person to start making relationships in the community and finding the jobs for these people, which is a real solution."

The Rev. Lou Piel, head pastor at Grace United and head of the committee, said he was "very pleased" with Friday's meeting, especially with the way that the county was more positive than at previous meetings about its willingness to fund the center.

"It was the best meeting in the sense that there was some action from the city and the county," he said. "I feel now that maybe we're finally moving. We just needed someone to push, that's all."

The committee has had to overcome several obstacles in the course of its seven or so meetings since last year, he said, including getting county police on board, opening the doors at Grace United to the day laborers and getting the city involved.

The Gaithersburg center would be modeled roughly on one that opened in Wheaton, according to Catherine E. Matthews, director of the Upcounty Regional Services Center.

But because Wheaton is not incorporated, the county has sole jurisdiction over that center. Having this center within Gaithersburg is unique, she said, because it gives the city and county the opportunity to work together.

"We said all along that if we are going to do something in Gaithersburg, we want it to be the best that the county has," Gaithersburg Mayor Sidney A. Katz said at the meeting. "But we want to know first off what you've tried, what's worked, what hasn't worked, what kind of space you need. We don't have the background and I think the county does."

Gustavo Torres, executive director of Casa de Maryland, which would run the center, said that with County Executive Douglas M. Duncan proposing his budget for fiscal 2006 in March, and the County Council scheduled to approve it by the end of June, there is pressure to work faster.

As an offshoot of Friday's meeting, Matthews met Monday afternoon with County Councilman Michael J. Knapp (D-Dist. 2) of Germantown, Fred Felton, assistant city manager, and Joe Heiney-Gonzalez, an aide to the county executive, to look at specific sites for the center and to discuss a short- and long-term plan, Heiney-Gonzalez said.