Hundreds of Montgomery County Residents Respond to Request for Suggestions for Improving Snow Response

County Council member Roger Berliner passed on about 300 complaints, compliments and suggestions that his office received to County Executive Ike Leggett

February 11, 2016 10:33 a.m.

A Bethesda woman offered to connect Montgomery County with the person in charge of Boston’s real-time snow removal map.

A Silver Spring man wondered if there were too many plows moving snow on his street, depriving other neighborhoods of the opportunity to get dug out.

A Takoma Park woman urged officials not to compare the county’s snow response to jurisdictions elsewhere that receive more snow, wary of a tax increase to pay for more snow plows.

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Those were just three of the more than 300 complaints, suggestions and compliments on the county’s response to the Jan. 22-24 snowstorm that flooded into Roger Berliner’s inbox after the District 1 County Council member asked for feedback in a Jan. 28 email.

Berliner’s staff divided the correspondence into seven general categories based on the topic of each message received: positive feedback, state and major roads, neighborhood street plowing, issues with the county’s 311 call center, issues with the county’s online snow removal map, sidewalk and driveway clearing and general communication practices.

He presented the info and emails to County Executive Ike Leggett on Wednesday. County officials are expected to brief the council on their response to the January snowstorm March 8 after a scheduled session was postponed earlier this week due to more snow.

“Rather than complain and find someone to be held accountable, one would think people would understand that we had a record-breaking snow and that County crews worked long hours under grueling conditions, without sleep, being threatened, trying to work around cars thoughtlessly left on roadways and struggling to keep their equipment in good working order,” a Germantown woman wrote in one email. “I’ll pass on a public gripe session and just blame Mother Nature.”

“Very poor job done,” another resident wrote. “We still have partially un-ploughed [sic] road and no mail, no trash collection.”

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According to the breakdown of comments in Berliner’s memo, 142 were from residents unhappy with how long it took the county to plow neighborhood streets. Some wrote they are always the last to be plowed out and others questioned the “passable” standard Leggett promised for all neighborhood streets by 7 a.m. on the Wednesday after the storm.

Eighty-seven of the comments were critical of snow-plowing work on state and major roads. Sections of Rockville Pike and Old Georgetown Road in Bethesda weren’t fully cleared until Jan. 30, which reduced those roads by one lane and caused traffic headaches late in the week.

Sixty-one comments concerned unshoveled sidewalks, especially where street plows pushed snow back onto sidewalks and driveways that had already been dug out. Thirty comments cited issues with the county’s online snow removal map, which many complained wasn’t providing timely information on snow-plowing progress.

Twenty-one comments mentioned issues with the county’s 311 call center, which received a deluge of calls on Tuesday Jan. 25 from residents seeking information on snow plowing. That led to long wait times.

Fifty-four of the comments included positive feedback, some pointing out the work of specific plow truck drivers in their neighborhoods.

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In his memo to Leggett, Berliner wrote he “would imagine that this number underrepresents broader public sentiment,” since in his experience, the county often hears more from unsatisfied than satisfied residents.

“Having realistic expectations in life is important,” a Potomac woman wrote. “I felt the County did a great job handling the storm.”

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