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Montgomery County Council members sharply questioned transportation, emergency management and school officials over snow removal failures.
Montgomery County Council members questioned officials in charge of snow removal in the Maryland county Tuesday afternoon about their efforts to clear roads and reopen schools, more than a week after a snowstorm blanketed the D.C. region with inches of snow and ice.
Since the storm, the snow removal process has received criticism from some residents due to the condition of some residential streets and the closure of county schools for five days.
“This is perhaps the worst snowstorm I’ve ever seen,” Montgomery County Council member Sidney Katz said at a Transportation and Environment Committee session.
And while he, like the rest of the council members, thanked snow removal crews for their hard work, Katz added, “We need to try our best not to have this misery again.”
The National Weather Service reported parts of the D.C. region saw significant snow accumulation during the storm, ranging from 5 inches to nearly a foot. Montgomery County Department of Transportation Director Chris Conklin told the council that crews had to move about 3 million tons of snow and ice off county roads.
However, Conklin conceded changes are needed, particularly in how the county communicates with the public about the snow removal process.
“We need to clean up the data entry process for the residential street clearing and get rid of those false reports of completed routes,” he said.
Conklin also said that there’s too much reliance on technology and social media for communication.
“We need to go back to having direct conversations about the snow status among elected officials and those responding,” he said.
Luke Hodgson, director of the Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, added that there was a “mismatch” in the expectations the public had about the snow removal process.
“We’ve all acknowledged that there are things that we could have absolutely done better,” Hodgson said. “We have a list of those already.”
The county’s Department of General Services — which manages the county’s vehicles and facilities — worked long hours repairing equipment quickly to keep the snow removal process going, Director David Dise said.
About 26 heavy equipment mechanics, welders, and parts technicians made repairs to snow-clearing equipment, Dise said, adding that those crews worked around the clock for five consecutive days. Among the repairs were replacing mud flaps, fixing flat tires and repairing hydraulic hoses.
Along with the repairs, Dise said his crews were also towing trucks and Ride On buses that were stuck in snowbanks. Once the agency completed its work, some of its contractors were sent to help the county’s school system with its process, Dise said.
Getting kids back to school
When asked about the level of cooperation with Montgomery County Public Schools officials to clear school properties and bus stops, Conklin said there had been as many as seven to eight exchanges between transportation and school officials before a formal request for assistance was filed on Sunday.
Council member Andrew Friedson, who is one of three county council members running for county executive, responded questioning the exchanges.
“What was supposed to happen?,” he said. “Because I can’t imagine that the protocol suggested not responding until eight days after a storm, requesting help.”
Conklin conceded that the department’s protocol is to have “an open line of communications,” but there isn’t a formal written agreement between the county and MCPS regarding the issue.
“I would strongly urge there to be a written MOU between (county agencies) and MCPS that specifically delineates what will be done and how it will be achieved,” Friedson said.
Council President Natali Fani-Gonzalez asked Adnan Mamoon, the schools’ chief of operations, about the timing of the school system’s request for help with opening schools.
“We were focusing on clearing up our schools first. … We started gathering the intel and we shared with our partners,” Mamoon said.
However, Council members Will Jawando and Evan Glass, both of whom are also running for county executive, challenged Mamoon’s explanation, sharing details of massive snow piles at school bus stops before classes were scheduled to start with a two-hour delay.
“Neighbors of mine shared with me a video from the Flower Avenue Apartments where 50 school children were hoisted by neighbors over an ice barricade so that they could get on the school bus,” Glass said.
Jawando said hundreds of people shared their concerns about the cleanup process during a town hall he attended.
“People are frustrated, they are upset, but they’re forgiving if they know that there’s a plan and a commitment to do better,” he said.
Council member Kristin Mink noted that during the hearing, her phone was filled with notifications that Montgomery County schools would again open with a two-hour delay on Wednesday. She questioned whether the delay would really make a difference, given the condition of some school bus stops.
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Kate Ryan
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