[RP TownTalk] Question on street clearing

Sat Feb 17 23:35:37 UTC 2007

To all town talkers,

Despite what some new arrivals think, yes, the town has storm sewers. We
have had a storm sewer system since the 1920's.  Even before we had paved
roads.  All storm sewers are under the control of Prince George's County
Department of Public Works and Transportation.

What we have on Riverdale Road and our other streets are curbs and gutters
to channel the run-off to the nearest storm drain input.  Obviously,  when
everything is solid ice , we have to wait for the temperature to rise above
freezing for the ice to melt and run-off to occur.

The existence of a storm sewer system should have been obvious to everyone
during the heavy rain storms that occurred on the first week-end in October
and caused Riverdale Park Day to be moved from Saturday to Sunday.  I did
not hear any reports of Riverdale Road being turned into a canal. So, if
there was no lake in front of your house, and the rain didn't magically
evaporate, then our storm sewers worked as intended.

While we are on the topic of storm sewers, they all empty into the
Chesapeake Bay via tributaries, such as the Northeast Branch of the
Anacostia.

In order to protect the Bay, anyone caught dumping pollutants into a storm
sewer. e.g., oil from changing your motor oil and letting run down the
street  can be fined by the Maryland Department of the Environment. Fines
start, yes start, at $10,000 per occurrence.

As for the earlier exchange today about "snow emergencies" and alternate
side parking,  I agree with Louis King that I never heard the County declare
a snow emergency and our Code section 64-19 is based on a county
declaration.  Our law requires that no vehicles park on the odd numbered
side of the streets not posted a snow emergency routes.  On streets like
Riverdale Road which have permanent  no parking on one side, the odd-number
rule does not apply.  It has never been the goal of the Town to clear snow
or ice from curb to curb.  The goal is to make the streets passable.

The town does not have an alternate side parking rule at the present time.
Since we have purchased a street sweeper in conjunction with Hyattsville, I
suspect that the Council should institute alternate side parking to allow
automated street cleaning.  Up until now, street cleaning has depended on
Public Works employees using brooms and shovels.

Gerry Kiernan
Councilmember, Ward 5

> From: "Dwight Holmes" <dwightrholmes at gmail.com>
> Date: Sat, 17 Feb 2007 17:34:16 -0500
> To: TownTalk <towntalk at riverdale-park.org>
> Subject: Re: [RP TownTalk] Question on street clearing
> 
> the frozen layers of ice in the parking lane and gutters raises
> another question in my mind: i've never before lived in an urban area
> that doesn't have storm sewers!!  with no drains in the gutters,
> whatever melting goes on this afternoon simply pools there to freeze
> again tonight.  i really find it mindboggling that we don't have storm
> sewers in our town, and especially on Riverdale Rd, which used to, i
> understand, be a numbered state highway (prior to the building of
> East-West Highway, i presume)...
> 
> can anyone provide any history or background on this? has there ever
> been serious discussion of a storm sewer system for Riverdale Park?
> how is that we don't have this basic piece of infrastructure here??
> 
> On 2/17/07, Andrew Farrington <somefool at dvnt.com> wrote:
>> I bought a pick-axe this morning, but it is backbreaking, 'heart attack'
>> work.  The going is slow.
>> 
>> East-West Hardware in Hyattsville has snow-melt, or did at 11:00.
>> 
>> -A
>> 
>> 
>> On Sat, 17 Feb 2007, Dwight Holmes wrote:
>> 
>>> well, the good news was that within an hour of my post (or Jay's
>>> wakeup call post) they were shoveling the sidewalks on Lafayette &
>>> Queensbury around Dumm's.
>>> 
>>> more partial good news was that this afternoon around 1:30 i drove up
>>> Riverdale Rd. past the school and saw that the sidewalk alongside the
>>> park had indeed been cleared -- a fairly narrow path, but it had been
>>> cleared.
>>> 
>>> the bad news was that the effort stopped shy of the bridge.  neither
>>> side of the bridge had been cleared! what a wonderful place to force
>>> pedestrians into the street. needless to say, there is a lot of foot
>>> traffic along there and i had to slow down to almost a stop to allow a
>>> group of pedestrians to clear the bridge and then step out of the road
>>> and up to the sidewalk where it had been cleared.
>>> 
>>> on the subject of snow removal:
>>> Does  the town's public works plow the parking lanes of our streets?
>>> do they only not do it if there are cars parked there? why aren't the
>>> cars left on the street towed or at least ticketed (perhaps it's
>>> difficult to tow given the conditions right now)?
>>> 
>>> our block of Riverdale Rd. (between Lafayette and 48th) has not had
>>> the parking lane plowed. there are a couple of cars left out on the
>>> street -- that's what got me to thinking.  normally i would have
>>> shoveled in front of our place, but it's solid ice now.
>>> 
>>> On 2/14/07, JayRite at aol.com <JayRite at aol.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> In a message dated 2/14/2007 1:40:53 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
>>>> dwightrholmes at gmail.com writes:
>>>> as a pedestrian commuter (i live on Riverdale Rd, take the MARC to work) i
>>>> can't help but notice that Dumm's Corner has adopted the same technique in
>>>> this storm and the previous one: the front side by the entrances are
>>>> shoveled but not the Lafayette side, and not the Queensbury side of the
>>>> property.  (couldn't help but think back to the discussions here about how
>>>> they are so much a part of the community...)
>>>> Wuh-oh! Jimmy you better get Butch over there and get that taken care of.
>>>> The Peanut Gallery has you under a microscope now!
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> i also just came back from the Giant on Kenilworth and noticed pedestrians
>>>> walking in the street on Riverdale Rd where the park is (between the school
>>>> and the river). the school's sidewalks are cleared, but the sidewalk that
>>>> runs along the park (of infamous reputation on this list as per an earlier
>>>> thread) hasn't been touched. is this the responsiblity of the town? or
>>>> MNCPP?
>>>> LOL I love it! Who IS responsible for this? Perhaps because of that now
>>>> infamous list, is the reason that it hasn't been touched. EEEWWWWW!!!!
>>>> Please update us on this. I know that there is some watchdog somewhere
>>>> willing to camp out to see the result.
>>>> 
>>>> Staying tuned,
>>>> Jay Wright
>>> 
>>> 
>>> --
>>> "Donna the Buffalo are like Dylan meets the Wailers via Louisiana and
>>> Appalachia."
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>>> 
>> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> "Donna the Buffalo are like Dylan meets the Wailers via Louisiana and
> Appalachia."
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> 
> For more information about Riverdale Park, visit
> http://www.ci.riverdale-park.md.us