County's Snow Removal Efforts Could Have Been Better Executed

by Joanna L. Conti
February 13, 2010

 Anne Arundel County has been pummeled with three record-breaking snowstorms in the last 60 days.  In an effort to understand how residents have fared and how effective the county’s snow removal efforts have been, we asked people in an online survey about their experiences following the biggest storm that started on Friday, February 5th.  Ninety-nine county residents completed the survey between the evening of Wednesday, February 10th and Friday, February 12th.  

Not surprisingly, respondents reported a tremendous range of experiences. Many people were plowed out by Sunday, February 7th and still more were able to leave their neighborhoods by Monday evening.  However, 40% of the respondents whose neighborhood streets are plowed by the county were still snowed in Tuesday night when the next storm began.  This may overstate the real number still snowed in because people who are upset are more likely to answer a questionnaire, although it correlates with the comment in Friday’s Capital that 60% of residential streets were passable by Friday afternoon.  

Residents who reported the worst experiences included those who live in Russett, Pasadena, Glen Burnie, Odenton, Providence (near St. Margarets) and the City of Annapolis (whose streets are maintained by the City).

Back-to-back massive storms are highly unusual for Maryland and difficulties dealing with three feet of snow in six days are to be expected.  All of us owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to the hundreds of plow operators who’ve worked 12 hour shifts every day for eight straight days in cold, dangerous and exhausting conditions.  

When asked to rate the effectiveness of snow removal operations, respondents took into account that these were unusual storms.   Although these are very small sample sizes, it appears that residents whose roads were maintained by their homeowners association were happier with snow removal efforts than those in neighborhoods maintained by Anne Arundel County.

How Would You Rate Anne Arundel County's Snow Removal Efforts?

                                                                             Roads in their neighborhood are maintained by: 

* Very small sample size

 
It is not fiscally prudent to invest a lot of money in additional expensive snow-removal equipment because we are unlikely to receive this amount of snowfall again for a very long time.  Nonetheless, we should learn from our experiences and identify inexpensive options to improve service in future storms.  There appear to be several things the county could have done better to somewhat alleviate the impact on our citizens of this week’s storms:  
 

Better Planning of Plowing Operations

If a plan existed to first clear the major roads and then systematically tackle all the roads in each neighborhood, it was not well executed.  Numerous complaints of treacherous conditions on major roads were received:

“The worst problem was leaving the neighborhood. Russett Green West and Woodland Hills, both county roads, were treacherous, either underplowed or unplowed. Many people were getting stuck, and although the roads were navigable, the lights and the intersection were timed to allow only 1-3 cars through at a time. It was a nightmare.”

“The lower half of Bayard Road (the only County portion) had seen a plow maybe once or twice throughout the Feb 5-6 storm. Upon leaving to take my children to a doctor’s appointment on Monday afternoon, the road was still 80% covered about 4 inches deep (with the exception of portions that had melted from the sun) and in poor condition, although PASSABLE.  Fair condition for those of us courageous enough to drive it. I was astounded at the condition of Forest Drive in Annapolis on TUESDAY! I believe that is a county road, and was treacherous.”

“Ritchie Highway and Route 50 were terrible on Sunday and not much better on Monday and Tuesday. Those are state roads. Benfield Road and Jumpers Hole Road were terrible as well and those are county roads. It was very difficult.”

There were also complaints of neighborhood roads being ignored:

“A neighbor on a side street five blocks away was plowed at least twice a day and no plow came to my street. Seems like the effort is poorly organized”.

“The snow plow came through on the main street of Providence (Providence Road) THREE times and got it bone dry, but NEVER touched our cul-de-sac. I have been unable to leave the house in six days, and I expect that it will be a few more. I don't understand why they put so much effort into one street and ignored the others. I pay just as much in taxes as my neighbors around the corner.”

The county used to have working GPS systems in its 70 snow plows to keep track of where they were and what streets had been plowed.  I have been told that the county stopped paying for these tracking systems several months ago to save money.  Unfortunately, I have been unable to confirm this with either County Executive Leopold’s office or the Department of Public Works.  If it is true, however, it would mean that our snow plow dispatchers were operating without the benefit of the real-time data the GPS system would have provided regarding where the plows had already been as they determined where to plow next.  With a plowing budget running into the millions for the three storms, getting rid of the GPS system would be false economy.  
 

Better Communications With Citizens

It was impossible to learn which county streets had been plowed, let alone when a particular street might be likely to be plowed in the future.  All phone calls were routed to the county’s Emergency Operations Center, where a recorded greeting directed you to the county’s website and told you to hang up unless you wanted to report a fallen tree.  The county’s website contained general information about their snow removal priorities, but no useful information about response to this storm.  

By comparison, Howard County provides detailed maps, updated every 15 minutes, showing which streets have been plowed and/or salted and the current location of all their snow plows:

Annapolis Mayor Josh Cohen has done an excellent job updating citizens about the city’s efforts through regular Twitter comments, his blog and even a YouTube video.  

We should do a better job utilizing various communications methods in future storms.

Plan Ahead So More Non-County-Owned Vehicles Can Help Plow

It is not fiscally prudent to purchase and maintain additional county vehicles to deal with rare occurrences like the recent back-to-back major snow storms.  However, with advance planning, there may be additional heavy equipment in the area that could be utilized for snow plowing during major storms.  For example, Philadelphia, New York and other cities outfit their trash trucks with snow plows during storms.  We should consider entering into agreements with the county’s trash hauling companies to do the same.  

The county should also consider negotiating additional contingency agreements in advance of future major storms with private contractors.  Many private contractors are currently helping with the county’s snow removal, but it may have been possible to bring them on board earlier.   

Summary

Hopefully we will never again experience two such massive back-to-back snowstorms in Anne Arundel County in our lifetimes.  But we should learn what we can from these storms to improve our systems so we can plow out all residents as quickly as possible and better communicate with our citizens during future storms.