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Two weeks after a big storm dumped several inches of snow across Prince George’s County, Maryland, residents and elected leaders are still hot about the response efforts that went into clearing all the snow and ice off the roads.
The man in charge of it all, Public Works and Transportation Director Michael Johnson, admitted Wednesday the county “fell short.”
In terms of the actual snow removal, “inadequate resources” were blamed for the delay, combined with the type of storm that hit.
Johnson told the Prince George’s County Council that in some cases, the county doesn’t have enough large six and 10-wheel dump trucks that can be hooked up to plows to clear off the busier roads that the county is responsible for — while also hitting secondary and residential streets.
That’s why the county prioritized the busiest roads first, but the storm that started Jan. 5 and continued into the next day kept dropping more snow on those roads, keeping crews from hitting residential roads.
“This challenged our ability to deliver consistent outcomes across all neighborhoods,” Johnson said. “We’re not able to tackle both sets of streets, classes of streets, with our current compliment of equipment.”
But he said the county will need to start doing that during future snow events.
“It’s essential that those roads are dealt with, primary and secondary,” Johnson said. “However it’s also important that people are able to get medicine or that you’re able to get about.”
He said some of the problems were worsened by people driving on top of roads that hadn’t been treated yet, packing the snow and turning it into ice. Hiring enough contractors to plow certain areas can also be hard since private companies and other jurisdictions might pay more.
Johnson testified that county residents were failed by a plow tracking system that is supposed to keep people informed about the current state of operations online. He said that software glitch has been fixed.
And the county will keep more of a magnesium chloride salting solution, which can better melt ice on roads during extremely cold weather. However, he admitted it’s also rougher on roads and the environment.
Almost as frustrating for some members of the council was the county’s 311 response, which one resident described as “dismissive” when it was being relied on the most.
“People have talked about the lack of communication,” said District 1’s Tom Dernoga. “This is typical of 311. Not just with this. People file a 311 complaint, it gets closed out with no explanation.”
“They filed the 311 complaint, and it got closed out, no plow, no treatment, no anything, and no explanation,” Dernoga added. “Unless they’re all entering them incorrectly.”
Johnson said, sometimes, the 311 complaint filed doesn’t actually spell out a grievance.
Dernoga said it’s also a problem when complaints are filed with other agencies.
“There’s nothing more frustrating to a constituent than filing a complaint and having it closed with no explanation and your complaint is not resolved,” Dernoga said.