Heather Curtis
WMAL.com
UPDATE: WMAL spoke to Leggett a second time around 3:50 Wednesday afternoon. He said he didn’t regret making his pledge despite complaints from some residents.
“You get 99 percent of all of that done, the few that were remaining I don’t think that that’s something that we can look at and say that that was not successful. That was very successful,” Leggett said. He added some streets were missed because machines broke down under the weight of the snow, and drivers didn’t see some cul-de-sacs because they were plowing in the dark.
As of 4 p.m. Kumi was still snowed in. Gallagher said a plow arrived on her street around 3:30, allowing her to finally get out and buy milk and run other errands.
For people like Kumi, Leggett said to call him directly at 240-777-2550.
WASHINGTON — (WMAL) Montgomery County’s Executive Ike Leggett said the county had met his self-imposed goal of plowing all streets, at least once, by Wednesday morning at 7 a.m.
“Thus far [by 9 a.m.] , this morning I’ve received only two calls of someone indicated either that they were not satisfied. We want to go back to make sure that we touch up some areas, and only one area that we may have just sort of missed all together, but overall you have 5,000 road miles as we have in Montgomery County. We have done a very very good job of meeting the plans that I’ve stated, and I think we’re there,” Leggett said.
Leggett may be overly optimistic about achieving his goal. Frustration is mounting among residents in different neighborhoods whose roads were not plowed hours after that deadline.
Kosi Kumi lives in the 8500 block of Leonard Drive in Silver Spring. She said the middle and top of her street had been plowed by the deadline but not the lower portion close to East-West Highway where she lives.
“Ike had made the promise of, ‘everybody should be done at least one pass by 7 a.m.’ Nothing,” Kumi told WMAL at noon. This is especially frustrating for her because she has three children, including an infant. She’s the only adult in the house and can’t get out to the store to buy more diapers. Her baby was sick this weekend and used more than she expected. Her Amazon order likely won’t be able to be delivered either.
She said she called 311 Tuesday but got disconnected, so she called again Wednesday at 6:30 a.m. and was told to call back after the 7 a.m. deadline. It wasn’t until that third call that she was able to file a complaint.
The person who took her call didn’t say when they might get to her neighborhood.
“I feel like a cat in the window just looking for the plow. Just waiting. Just waiting,” Kumi said.
Veronica Gallagher told WMAL around noon that her street, Burtonhill Drive hadn’t been touched.
“I actually had called last night because I looked on the 311 map that said it was in progress, and I said nobody’s been down the street. He said, ‘Don’t worry. By 7 it’ll be done.’ Of course 7 came around it wasn’t done. I called at 8, and they said, ‘oh we’ll have somebody out there.’ I called at 10 and they said it was complete. At the 311 center they’re not really having good communications or information,” Gallagher said.
Montgomery County Highway Services told WMAL on Twitter they know neither of these roads have been plowed and are working on it. They wouldn’t give an exact timeline. When asked if these residents could expect to have their roads cleared by day’s end, they said “most likely.”
Bethesda resident Rodney Tanner wasn’t snowed in as long as Kumi or Gallagher, but said his street, Weathered Oak Court, wasn’t plowed until 9 a.m.
“It was frustrating, and I think they were cleared because myself and a number of our neighbors took to social media, made every attempt to use email and phone calls, to call the county council folks to take action when the website claimed, as of last night at 10 p.m., that our neighborhood had been cleared, but it hadn’t,” Tanner said.
Leggett said the county’s not done plowing. Crews will keep plowing until all streets are cleared from curb-to-curb, but he said it will take a while.
Copyright 2016 by WMAL.com. All Rights Reserved. (PHOTO: Kosi Kumi)
