Frustration over Montgomery County’s snow removal response spilled into a virtual town hall this week, where more than 400 residents pressed County Councilmember Will Jawando over lingering road and sidewalk conditions following last week’s snowstorm.
Online Portal Misinformation
The county’s online Winter Storm Information Portal became a problem for many who tried to find out when plows might arrive to clear their particular streets.
Kent Sobe, from the Sligo Grandview Community Association described his neighbor’s reaction to receiving false information on the portal as insanity.
“Our list went crazy [seeing online reports] that everything was plowed a hundred percent, when nothing was done in the Long Branch area, at least where I live.”
Catherine from Woodside Forest shared that same experience in her neighborhood. She suggested, “,,,the big thing to avoid in the future is saying things are done when they’re not.”
3-1-1 Frustrations
Calling 3-1-1 to get the plows to your street did not prove helpful either, according to Glen Felman of Aspen Hill.
“Three one one had very, very long waits. People who I spoke to who persevered went for hours, sometimes I don’t really know why, because they didn’t get any information, they didn’t get any real answers.”
Rockville Did It Better
Felman also pointed out a stark difference in services between Rockville and the county.
“If you compare the neighborhoods in Twinbrook, which are adjacent to mine, they were much better, much sooner. So, Rockville handled the storm and Montgomery County should look at what Rockville did because they got something right that Montgomery County got wrong.”
Getting Around Remains Perilous
Imposing piles of snow and ice posed safety hazards on many streets. Michael DeLong of Silver Spring pointed out the problems.
“What a lot of this has done is throw up these massive piles of snow, creed and jumbles of ice and snow and other things that now blanket a whole bunch of the sidewalks and the bus stops and other sort of pedestrian areas and make it kind of treacherous and often very difficult and sometimes even dangerous to walk around and get from place to place if you don’t have a car, it’s tough already enough for people like me to navigate this.”
Many worried about how school children could safely get on buses and go to school.
“There are a couple of areas where kids wait every day for the buses, but the plows put so much snow. There is literally no way the kids can stand anywhere near those. So, they’re now going to have to tomorrow stand in the middle of the street. And my neighborhood clearly is not the only one,” said Brett Esta, a resident.
Jawando Responds
Councilmember Jawando listened and responded to many of those who spoke.
“I just want to say thank you for your patience, not just tonight, but over the last week and a half… your tax dollars pay for high quality service in Montgomery County, and you deserve high quality service. And we all believe that that’s not a talking point, it’s an expectation,” said Jawando.
The councilmember said he would follow up with those in the meeting and express their concerns to the rest of the council.
Another Debrief
The county council continued to hear from other residents about the impact of the snowstorm on their neighborhoods in various other listening sessions throughout the week.
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