Sandy Spring Bancorp Inc., the Olney-based parent company of Sandy Spring Bank, announced that its net income for the first quarter of 2007 is down about $800,000. Sandy Spring indicated that the costs of acquiring Potomac Bank of Virginia hurt its numbers, a release indicates. At the time of the purchase, Potomac had total loans of $198 million, earning assets of $234 million. “On the plus side, we closed our merger with Potomac in mid-quarter, enabling our entry into Northern Virginia for the first time in our history,” Hunter R. Hollar, president and chief executive officer of Sandy Spring, said in a statement.