Sign up to receive County Executive Pittman's Weekly Letter to be the first to learn about big announcements, and get an inside look at issues crossing the County Executive's desk.
I was supposed to be in Florida this week. I had a flight booked for Saturday and a return flight home last night.
After realizing that the storm forecast was for real, I texted this to my staff, “Cancelled my trip. Seven years with no scandals. Don’t want to go down in history as Ted Cruz 2.” If that doesn’t ring a bell, Google “Ted Cruz snowstorm.”
It’s not like my presence in the county is what gets the roads cleared. I can log into the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) meetings from anywhere, and my phone never leaves my side, but I’ve come to accept that an important part of being the County Executive is symbolic. People appreciate knowing where the buck stops, and they want to know that the person in this job is listening and leading, always.
My scheduled trip is the reason we didn’t have any budget town halls or other public events Monday through Thursday. It worked out well, because they would have been canceled.
But by staying home, I was able to fully experience one last time - hopefully - the professionalism, stamina, and sometimes heroism of our public servants when our people are in need.
The snow wasn’t as deep as first predicted, and the ice somehow left our power lines mostly intact, but the morning-after ice was treacherous, and the full week of arctic temperatures has pushed our DPW road crews to exhaustion.
Some roads are still not passable. Shoveling sidewalks requires a pick axe. Local stores are sold out of ice melt (salt), and for those lucky enough to have some, it only works when the sun comes out and temperatures climb into the twenties.
On my way to the Annapolis EOC Monday morning, where I went to thank staff and meet with Governor Moore and Mayor Littman, we pulled up at the Hilltop Lane and Spa Road stoplight. An elderly African American woman walked across the street with two younger Latina women, one on each side of her, gently holding each of her arms. Together, they climbed over the snow at the curb and made their way to the entrance of the Pantry 1 Food Mart and Deli. It was an image of warmth in a cold time.
When we arrived at the EOC, there were military vehicles parked outside, but I knew what they were there for. Mayor Littman had called me on Sunday to say that he had asked the Governor for some help from the Maryland National Guard, and that if I got any calls about military Humvees in Annapolis, it was nothing to fear. These are the times we live in. But it was great to see those National Guard troops when I arrived at the EOC. Some had been staffing the Annapolis Warming Center, and they were justifiably proud of their service.
When I saw that the big screens in the EOC had maps of city, county, and state road conditions, I refrained from comparing our progress, because the tone of the meeting was cooperation, not competition. But I might have whispered in the Governor’s ear that state roads seemed to be winning, only because theirs are the highways with wide shoulders and ours are the winding back roads and residential streets with cars parked on them.
From Annapolis, we drove to Glen Burnie to greet our own EOC team. We stopped at Dunkin on the way, but pickin’ was slim. Two boxes of donut holes was the best we could find to share with the team. I was told it’s the thought that counts. The EOC has staff on site taking calls and coordinating activities for lots of county departments as well as volunteers from CERT, Office of Emergency Management staff, and a group from Maryland National Guard.
The goal is for all public roads to be passable, but the blades on plow trucks are unable to break through ice. DPW has deployed heavier and slower construction equipment to meet that challenge, but those vehicles are not equipped with the tracking technology that shows up on the public-facing maps. That’s why the tracking maps are down.
After having investigated and addressed 8,631 Emergency Service Requests, crews are working on the remaining ones. The DPW Operations Center continues to triage high-priority requests (medical, dialysis, fuel oil), routes for curbside solid waste collection, and miscellaneous logistical challenges from multiple channels.
County call-takers have managed to find solutions for residents in need every hour of every day and night. I’ve heard of firefighters shoveling walkways for people with medical appointments, nurses being driven to emergency room duty, and food being delivered to seniors’ homes. Our public servants are stepping up, and they’ll keep on stepping up.
But ice only melts when temperatures warm. That should happen next week, and when it does, we’ll all be reminded that the forces of nature are greater than the power of mankind. Nature rules, and that keeps us humble.
In the meantime, thank a plow driver when you see one. A thumbs up keeps them going. They are exhausted, but they’re still working - for us.
Until next week…