The Mapleleaf Online

Barbara H May 14th, 2010

Maplewood Citizens Association (MCA)

General Membership Meeting Minutes – March 24, 2010

Officers present were: Allen Myers, President; Janet Maalouf, Vice-president; Hugh Barteman, Treasurer; Barbara Harrison, Secretary. In addition, at least 13 other members of the community attended.

Allen began the meeting by asking for a motion to approve agenda as printed in Mapleleaf. This was moved, seconded, and unanimously approved.

Montgomery County Department of Transportation Snow Removal Process Presentation

Steven Suprata, from the County Department of Transportation (MDOT) attended to discuss snow removal issues. His phone number is 240-777-6000. Mr. Suprata spoke from his perspective of many years of service at all levels, from his days as a snow plow driver to his current job managing the Montgomery County storm operations center. Each season, the county restocks deicing and anti-icing materials, restores and maintains equipment, trains employees in snowplowing best practices, procures contractual resources (extra manpower, equipment, etc.), investigates new technologies (such as use of salt brine), reviews past seasons, and tries to initiate efficiencies.

They are responsible for plowing 5085 lane miles of road, including 600 miles of emergency routes and over 4000 miles of neighborhood plow routes. The county has 200-225 county personnel involved, and 175 pieces of equipment, which were supplemented this year by over 1000 pieces of contracted equipment from many places as far away as Florida. They also coordinate with transit services to clear bus stops, with fire and rescue services to aid responses, consult local weather forecasting, and conduct real-time traffic monitoring and road condition assessment. There are strategic plans for various scenarios, such as: work day snow, multiple snow events, weekend snow, and black ice.

Last winter MDOT moved several million cubic yards of snow – an amount that would be 49,000 feet high if piled on a football field. Emergency routes have to be cleared curb to curb before plows can move on to “secondary salt routes” – efforts are made to get both types of road down to bare pavement. Other neighborhood roads are just plowed. The secondary salt routes are selected to ensure that all residents will be within ½ mile of a road that is cleared early. Unique plowing challenges were posed by the back to back big storms this February. Smaller equipment is needed to plow narrow streets with parked cars but these smaller plows couldn’t handle the huge amount of snow, especially when it packed down. Plow operations eventually moved the top 20 inches, then loaders were used to move snow to the curb. This caused a lot of damage to curbs, etc. Residents were asked to call 240-777-6000 to report damage in the right of way. Our neighborhood also has a high density of street intersections, which take longer to plow (about 10 minutes each). The second storm had high winds, resulting in zero visibility, hundreds of downed trees and roads that drifted closed as soon as they were plowed. As a rule of thumb, a 24 inch storm takes 60 hours to clear, while 10 inches can be cleared in 24-36 hours. Ralph Shofer made the point that dangerous hills should be identified as a priority. Mr. Supata responded that they do attempt to do this. Allen asked if GPS could be used to identify where the trucks are and send them to missed streets. The answer is that this service is cost prohibitive right now, but MDOT is continuing to explore options for matching plows with missed streets.

Secretary’s Report

The draft minutes of the January 27, 2010 meeting were distributed before the meeting. A motion to accept the report as presented was made, seconded and unanimously accepted

Treasurer’s Report

Hugh Barteman reported that the January treasurer’s report had mislabeled an item as refreshments. A corrected report was distributed. The dollars remain unchanged. Hugh then presented a report for the period from January 28 through March 24. During that time, expenses were $79.94 (Verizon telephone, refreshments). Income was $750.20 from 18 memberships and payment for 1 of 2 March Mapleleaf Newsletter ad inserts. A motion was made and seconded to accept the report, and it was unanimously approved.

Spring Social Committee Report

DeeDee Lynch, chair of the committee, summarized plans for the event. We will have pizza, soda, juice boxes, chips, and water, as in past. Activities will include plant pot decoration, 2 moon bounces for kids of different age groups, a balloon clown, firetrucks, a cupcake walk, kickball, face painting, and a Maplewood memories table for people to bring memorabilia and share stories. We may have a guitar player for a sing-along area. Reminder flyers will be delivered the weekend of April 17^th. Students who need to earn volunteer hours can help with crafts, the moon bounce, or serving pizza. DeeDee also needs adult volunteers, and members are encouraged to sign up. Aminca Goldstein, a local realtor, is helping to sponsor the event by paying $200 for the small moonbounce. Major budget costs are about $625 for entertainment, $350 for food, $300 for juice, chips, water, and soft drinks. The total budget of $1650 includes the fee for using the park ($175) and miscellaneous supplies. Dee Dee also hopes to get donated door prizes. Allen noted that we will charge a fee for non-members to attend. A motion was made to accept the budget of $ 1450 ($1650 minus the $200 sponsorship). Approval was unanimous. It was noted that the moon bounce company has documentation proving they are insured.

Future of Maplewood-Alta Vista Recreation Center

To save money, the county is planning to shut down the least-used recreation centers. Ours was used 18% of the “usable hours” – just below the cutoff for funding. It is possible the center could be turned over to another organization to run. If there is interest, the neighborhood could propose taking it over, as Bannockburn has done. Anyone interested in exploring this should contact Allen. Our reservation for the social on April 25 is being honored, but the rec center is officially closed as of April 5.

Donation to Walter Johnson High School Prom Night Event

Traditionally MCA has donated $200 the WJ prom night event. This year, there was a pro and con discussion on the list serve about the donation. Ralph Shofer moved that we donate $200 again this year, noting that the event provides an opportunity for kids to stay at school after the prom and have organized activities, keeping them and their neighborhoods safe. Others questioned why this activity was singled out and whether this was an appropriate role for MCA. Allen noted that no other organizations have asked for similar support, and that we would be open to requests. We do give to the Bethesda Fire Dept when they come to our spring social. Allen asked for a vote by a show of hands of members. The motion was approved by a large majority of the members, with 2 opposing votes. Allen noted that we always have the option to revisit this.

FAES Committee Report

Early in February, the hearing examiner recommended against approval of the FAES-requested zoning change, indicating that the proposed development was too dense, and didn’t comply with master plan. Also, the NIH master plan says that it is not intended to put any pressure on existing zoning in communities surrounding NIH. FAES asked that their application be withdrawn without prejudice. This would allow them to submit a new zoning application at any time, rather than having to wait for 3 years. MCA filed an objection – since so much time and effort was expended on the process, a waiting period seems reasonable . The hearing examiner agreed with us. The County Council will have the final word, with the issue appearing on the agenda mid-April at the earliest. Allen suspects that FAES wants to sell the property. We will retain contributions made to the FAES legal fund pending the final decision on this.

MCA Nominating Committee

We need to elect officers for next year. Ralph Shofer is chairing the nominating committee and needs 2 people to serve on this group with him – please volunteer for this and for leadership positions. In particular, vice-president Janet Maalouf is retiring from the post and also is giving up newsletter editor position.

BRAC Report

Janet Maalouf reported that there is still no word on how much funding Montgomery County will receive for plans to cope with the increased traffic. Allen noted that a bike path is planned along W. Cedar Lane just outside the NIH perimeter. There are plans to move hydrants and erect bus shelters along the path. Navy is working on traffic mitigation, planning to widen roads inside some gates that exit onto Rockville Pike and to construct a commercial vehicle inspection station at the gate on Jones Bridge Road that is nearest to Connecticut Ave.

Minutes prepared by Barbara Harrison (Secretary); approved at May 13, 2010 General Membership Meeting

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