[RP TownTalk] addendum

[Roland Walker]

To be completely honest, taking years to remove dead trees has been
the state of affairs for at least four years (since I first became
involved in town politics).  Maybe David Michaeloff will tell us how
long his dead tree was up.

I'm glad that you mention Alice, as she has been proactive on tree
issues, but it is David Lingua (Ward 3) who has been doing an
incredible job of council oversight as the chair of the Public Works
Committee.  He probably won't like that I am calling him out for
praise, but I do think that many people don't realize just how hard he
works at this aspect of the job.

And I sincerely hope that we are locking in lasting change now that we
finally have a Director of Public Works who is here to stay.  It has
actually been *years* since we had a public works director of any
lasting tenure.  In retrospect, it seems hasty to have fired Jim
Houser, inasmuch as the town government had no particular idea about
how to line up a good replacement.

Anyway, Leonard Addison should be credited on storm response -- he
seems fantastic -- and the public works employees, who work quite hard
in these emergency response situations.  But I think CM Lingua should
be recognized in Mr Addison's hiring; his efforts insured that our
candidate search was much broader and that the review of candidates
was much more thoughtful and intensive.

Combined with the hiring of a great new Police Chief and the placement
of Code Enforcement under her leadership, I'm very excited about our
future prospects.

R

PS It took me a minute to understand "MoCo envy" because I thought of
Molybdenum Cofactor
(http://www.chem.qmul.ac.uk/iupac/bioinorg/MO.html#20). But maybe
that's just me.

On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 10:51 AM, Nancy Augustine <nya_md at verizon.net> wrote:
> And for those of you with MoCo envy -
>
> Earlier this week, a co-worker of mine who lives in Bethesda was telling me
> that it takes a minimum of 9 months (this is according to county staff) to
> get a dead tree removed from a public street. He had to wait 2 years for
> them to get around to a dead tree in front of his house. When he called to
> check on the status, some months into the waiting period, county staff told
> him not to worry about it. Because he had reported it, the county would pay
> for any damages caused if the tree came down in whole or in part.  He did
> not find that very reassuring.
>
> Nancy
> ________________________________
> From: towntalk-bounces at riverdale-park.org
> [mailto:towntalk-bounces at riverdale-park.org] On Behalf Of Nancy Augustine
> Sent: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 10:39 AM
> To: 'TownTalk'
> Subject: [RP TownTalk] I love my town
>
> Last week, half a tree came down on the street in front of my house. I
> emailed Alice about the bradford pear trees on the block that have gotten
> very top-heavy and potentially hazardous. She, in turn, forwarded it to
> public works. This morning, they're out there trimming the trees!  Thank
> you!
>
> Nancy, Riverdale Road
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