Feb 11 Abandoned & Illegal Parked Vehicles Will Be Ticketed & Towed Effective Immediately

... You've been warned! :-)

Seriously, this has been a problem and DPWT & the Police are finally able to deal with it.

Tom Dernoga, Chair
Prince George's County Council (District 1)
(301) 952-3887

------ Forwarded Message
From: "Hubbard, Susan D."
Date: Thu, 11 Feb 2010 12:38:14 -0500

Folks, with the arrival of new snow, we are focusing our efforts on primaries; however, we have not pulled all crews from residentials. We are awaiting a delivery of rental equipment from New York to assist us. Please remain patient. The governor has been pleading with folks to stay off the roads, but folks are not listening even though he issued a state of emergency. It is dangerous for our drivers, as well as motorists right now. We will get a crew there as soon as we can, and I apologize if crews have not been there, as yet. And, we are assisting emergency crews if they need us to plow a path for an emergency run. And, the governor is requesting folks throughout the state to not call their public works departments, but to let them get into the neighborhoods. We are not telling you that, but are telling you that if you call 301.350.0500, expect a wait. I am trying to answer all e-mails, but that is getting very hard to do, so if you do not get a "personal" e-mail, it is not intentional and your requests are being sent to the districts responsible for your specific areas. I have included a release that was just sent to all the media. Stay home, enjoy your family and neighbors, read a book, cook, etc. Believe me, after six straight days with no breaks, many of us would love to be doing just that, but it will be a little while before we can do that. Again, we are out there and we are working. And, we are waiting for the heavy equipment to arrive that was supposed to have arrived yesterday, but got stuck on a closed interstate. Spring is just around the corner, and the sun that is out today and will be out tomorrow will certainly help to melt some of this. Susan

Any typos, please excuse.

PRESS RELEASE

Immediate Release:
February 11, 2010

For additional information:
Susan Hubbard
Public Information Officer
Prince George's County
Department of Public Works and Transportation


Abandoned and Illegal Parked Vehicles Will Be Ticketed and Towed Effective Immediately

Forestville, MD - Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson today announced that stranded vehicles or those parked illegally on county-maintained roadways will be ticketed and towed, effective immediately.

"It is imperative that we all work together to recover from this record breaking storm," Johnson said. "It is important that residents move their cars off streets into driveways or other off-street parking. If you cannot do that, please move your car to the even numbered side of the street so plows can get through your roads."

Snow removal crews from Prince George's County and around the region are reporting that plowing and de-icing efforts are being severely hampered by illegally parked vehicles along roadways.

In addition, citizens are cautioned not to threaten snow emergency personnel, more specifically, snow plow drivers. Police officers will be called to the scene to deal with this or any other similar situation.

As of 11 a.m. today, nearly all the primary roads in the county are passable and crews are working quickly to make all secondary roads passable. Once all primary and secondary roads are passable, crews will begin to move into residential streets.

"I know our citizens are getting very restless and they are calling everyone they can reach to find out when a plow will get to their street," Johnson said. "We're asking that you please remain patient and we will have plows into all residential areas within the next 1-2 days. We are experiencing conditions similar to those in more northern and mid-western states and folks have to understand that there will be impacted snow on roadways."