[RP TownTalk] Report on snow event and progress toward removal

[Dwight Holmes]

Vern,
Thanks so much both for your thorough report here, and also for the hard
work of the entire crew. I even saw two of our Public Works crew shoveling
the sidewalks on River Rd with hand shovels this morning (maybe a sidewalk
plow could go in the next budget?), and I saw the trucks doing laps all
weekend (day & night).  While I'm sure there's always room for improvement,
I've once again been impressed with the advantage of living in a town like
RP vs living in unincorporated areas.

On Tue, Dec 22, 2009 at 11:34 AM, Vernon Archer <varcher at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear friends and neighbors,
>
> As I know many are frustrated and concerned about the lingering effects of
> Saturday's snow storm, I am forwarding to you an overview of the report and
> information that was released at last night's council work session. Please
> be patient and know public works is working hard to get things back to
> normal.
>
> Also, we will be reviewing our practices and policies--including how we get
> information out to residents--after we finish dealing with this storm.  As
> with all such major events we expect to learn from adversity and be better
> able to handle such events in the future.  However, we really cannot change
> game plans in the middle of an emergency, so please hold your ideas until we
> get out of this situation and then come share them with me and/or the
> council at upcoming council meetings when we have the time to genuinely
> rethink our strategies.
>
> REPORT:
> ____________________________________________________
>
> We are making reasonably good progress dealing with the aftermath of a snow
> storm of historic proportions.
>
> The area received between 16 and 20 inches. In comparison we normally
> consider a 3-6 inch snow storm a major event and are the type we plan for
> (this is typical of planning throughout the area). We are in effect cleaning
> up from what we would consider 3 storms that hit simultaneously. Another way
> to look at it, is we received in a 24 hour period approximately what we
> would expect for a whole winter's worth of snow storms--NOAA average for
> Washington is 16.6 inches.
>
> In a snow emergency our first goal is always to keep primary roads passable
> for emergency vehicles and all other traffic. This was always maintained
> throughout the recent storm, but unlike other major storms in recent memory,
> it was absolutely all we could do to keep the primaries open during the
> worst of the snow. What this strategy does, is guarantee that every resident
> is no more than two blocks from a passable street should a medical, fire or
> personal safety emergency occur, and in such a situation public works could
> drop all else and get an ambulance, firetruck or police cruiser into a given
> location.
>
> Plowing and salting secondary residential roads/residential streets come
> next.  Residents may have noticed that plows were nearly completely absent
> from the secondary roads on Saturday during the height of the event, this
> was because the primary roads required all of our attention. A side effect
> of this is that it is now all the harder to cleanup the secondary roads. We
> are also having a particularly difficult time dealing with hills and
> dead-end streets, as such places leave us very little space to pile an
> entire year/winter worth of snow.
>
> Additional problems we faced/are facing:
> 1) the local salt supply (we have cooperative agreements with College Park
> and Hyattsville) ran out Saturday. We resupplied Monday morning and are
> again working at full capacity;
> 2) we have had equipment problems with several trucks and plows both
> routine and also caused by excessively heavy work load. The equipment we
> have is purchased based on more typical snow events, so the 1 1/2 foot of
> snow is frankly more than the equipment is designed to handle and therefore
> we have had more breakdowns than would likely been the case in a more
> typical snow event;
> 3) We have to revisit areas plowed (primary and secondary streets) due to
> residents digging out their cars by piling snow into the streets while
> trying to dig themselves out.
> 4)Refreezing at night.
>
> From Friday morning, until end of operations Sunday night, we have put
> 396 staff hours into our snow effort, by 9 persons and
> put all 17 lbs/tons of salt on our roads that we had available. (Note that
> staff is working near double shifts).
>
> Residents can assist the cleanup effort by:
>
> 1. Moving snow off the road while digging out their automobiles and
> driveways. This does require more effort, but it will mean your street is
> back to normal sooner!
> 2. To the degree possible move autos off the street to driveways, or
> perhaps nearby open parking. This allows for much quicker and more efficient
> cleanup.
> *
>
> For assistance call 301-864-1803 or 240-237-5104
> *
> --
> Vernon Archer, Mayor
> Town of Riverdale Park, Maryland
>
> _______________________________________________
> TownTalk mailing list
> To post to the list, send mail to TownTalk at riverdale-park.org
> TownTalk-request at riverdale-park.org is for automated subscription
> processing only
> http://riverdale-park.org/mailman/listinfo/towntalk
>
> For more information about Riverdale Park, visit
> http://www.riverdaleparkmd.info
>
>


-- 
_______________________
Why should launching wars and cutting taxes for the rich require only 50
votes while saving lives requires 60?

Sign the petition at: http://StopSenateStalling.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://riverdale-park.org/pipermail/towntalk/attachments/20091222/92c811f2/attachment-0002.html>