MCPS Back To School Fair Draws The Largest Crowd Yet, Weast Thanks ABC7/TBD

Families started to line up for free backpacks of school supplies at the Carver Educational Services Center at 8 AM on Saturday. The Third Annual Back-to-School Fair wasn’t scheduled to open until 11 AM. By 2PM all 5,000 backpacks had been distributed to kids who needed them to get their school year off to the right start.

The City of Rockville booth

The white tents spread across the entire parking lot to accommodate over 10,000 visitors to the Fair, up from 8,000 last year. Booths had information on recreation programs and resources available in the County. Kaiser Permanente provided health information. Nutrition was an important theme. A human-sized bunch of grapes and a banana traversed around the crowd. Kids jumped in the moonbounce, ate Carmen’s Italian Ice, and talked to a robot. Throughout the day, the main stage was jumping. The organizers understood that kids like to move. The Washington Talent Agency kept the crowd upbeat and dancing.

Dancing to the beat

During the Corporate Sponsor Recognition, School Superintendant Jerry Weast emphasized the importance of the sponsors and volunteers who make the event possible. The total sponsor amount has grown from $80,000 to $200,000 in three years. Representatives from all the corporations, organizations, and schools received awards of appreciation from Dr. Weast and Eric Davis, the director of Family-Community Partnerships which organized the event.

Jerry Weast, Eric Davis and Leon Harris

From the beginning, ABC7/TBD have been the main sponsor of the Back to School Fair. ABC7 Nightly News anchorman, Leon Harris, accepted the award then stayed to talk with his fans and sign autographs. As a MCPS parent, he’s always willing to help out. 

In case you missed it, News Channel 8 is now TBDTV. TBD.com is the place for all local news in the DC region. In addition to producing their own stories and linking to other news outlets, the site networked 130 blogs together including Rockville Central. Therefore I was on hand to help distribute t-shirts and answer questions. If you haven’t yet, visit TBD.com and put in your zip code for your local community news. Try it on your phone too. The apps are a terrific way to stay connected when you’re on the go.

Leon Harris and Cindy Cotte Griffiths

Fewer Washington Area Commuters Are Driving Alone

According to the Commuter Connections program sponsored by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MWCOG), a higher percentage of people in the Washington metro area are either taking public transportation to work or teleworking.

In the past ten years, the number of workers in the region driving alone to work has declined from 70% to 64%, while those who use transit one day a week has risen from 17% to 21%, and those who telework at least one day a week went from 3% to 6%.

The economy might have something to do with it since 18% of the people who started using alternative modes of transportation did so to save money.

Over 600,000 people describe themselves as teleworkers, which is more than twice the number from 2001. Another 500,000 “could and would” telework if given the opportunity, so the trend is likely to continue upward during the next decade.

A quarter of those surveyed said their commute was more difficult now than it was a year ago. 59% gave the reason as a more congested route.

Everyone is being asked to give an alternative method of transportation a try. Join Car Free Day on Wednesday, September 22, 2010. Montgomery County Commuter Services wants us all to join this worldwide movement to celebrate sustainable transportation so walk, bike, bus, rail, or telework.

As the City Staff reported in the Strategic Scan 2010, the majority of Rockville residents are close to public transportation so we can do it. Almost all of us are within a half mile of a bus or rail stop. We already do a slightly better job of using alternative means to work with 62% driving alone in a car, so plan to give Car Free Day a try.

New Early Voting Starts Next Week In Montgomery County

You’ll have many more opportunities to “go to the polls” this election season. When you receive your sample Primary Election Ballot in the mail, don’t leave it in the pile until Election Day. Now you can go to certain polling locations and vote before Election Day.

Early Voting Centers will be open from Friday, September 3 to Thursday, September 9, 2010 excluding Sunday. This means you can vote on Labor Day! The polls will be open from 10 AM – 8 PM.

Early voting has increased participation in other states. You can find a more convenient time to cast your ballot. With several days to choose from, you needn’t worry about last minute problems, Metro delays, or sickness. You can easily make voting fit your schedule.

The Maryland State Board of Elections conditionally approved five (5) Early Voting Centers for the 2010 Gubernatorial Elections:

In Rockville:

• Bauer Drive Community Recreation Center, 14625 Bauer Drive, Rockville 20853
• Montgomery County Executive Office Building, 101 Monroe Street, Rockville 20850

Other Montgomery County locations:

• Germantown Recreation Center, 18905 Kingsview Road, Germantown 20874
• Marilyn J. Praisner Community Recreation Center, 14906 Old Columbia Pike, Burtonsville 20866
• Silver Spring Civic Building, 8525 Fenton Street, Silver Spring 20910

On Primary Election Day, Tuesday, September 14th, voting precincts will be open from 7 AM – 8 PM. Check your sample Primary Election ballot for your location to vote or enter your information in the locator. If you don’t take advantage of the Early Voting, remember that lines can form during peak hours immediately before work (7-9 AM), during the lunch hour (11 AM – 2 PM), and immediately following work (5-7 PM).

Early voting will also be available for the General Election from Friday, October 22, through Thursday, October 28, 2010 during the hours of 10:00 AM and 8:00 PM. Polls will be closed on Sunday. The Gubernatorial General Election Day is Tuesday, November 2, 2010. Polls are open from 7 AM to 8 PM.

If you make up your mind early, you can vote early. No excuses!

For further information on the voting process, call 240-777-VOTE.

Join ABC7 And Me At The MCPS Back-To-School Fair

This Saturday over 8,000 people are expected at the Carver Educational Services Center for the school system’s Third Annual Back-to-School Fair from 11 AM until 2 PM. I’m going to be at the ABC 7 booth telling everyone about TBD.com and Rockville Central. Please stop by and say hello!!

The City of Rockville will also be on hand with information about City programs, services, recreation programs, and foreign-language resources. They’ll have registration information to get you started.

You’ll also be able to find out about NOAA, the Newseum, the Audubon Society, the Nationals, and the Girl Scouts, among many others.

Besides visiting the information booths, A full line-up of entertainment will be hosted by Angel Santiago on the Washington Talent Agency Main Stage. Here’s the schedule:

11:00 AM Watkins Mill HS Marching Band
11:30 AM Kaiser Permanente – Professor Bodywise’s Traveling Menagerie
12:00 PM Washington Talent Agency Performance
1:15 PM InToneNation singers from Montgomery Blair HS

On the Kaiser Permanente Stage Bill Grimmette will tell stories at 12 noon and the Kids on the Block puppet show will grab your attention at 1:15 PM.

The Imagination Stage will give 20-minute demonstrations:
11:45 AM Create a Story for grades K-1
12:30 PM Create a Character for grades 2-3
1:15 Fundamentals of Acting for grades 4-5

You’ll also find hip hop, salsa and Haitian dance every 25 minutes and reading every hour, plus demonstrations from Kicks Karate, Leap on Love Art, and Gymboree. Vision and hearing screenings will also be provided.

With so many people attending, you can be assured of getting there by taking a bus from your local high school starting at 10:30 AM. They will leave from Richard Montgomery, Rockville, Gaithersburg, Blair, Einstein, Kennedy, Northwest, Seneca Valley, Springbrook, Paint Branch, Wheaton, and Watkins Mill.

See you there!

Looking Back at the Montgomery County Fair

The largest Fair in the State of Maryland was a major attraction last week and Rockville residents were out in full force.

Before you even entered the Fair, you were greeted by friendly faces from Rockville.

Boy Scout Troop 447 from Rockville worked long hours to direct the cars in the parking lot. On the last Friday and Saturday nights, the lot was full and closed down early in the evening then reopened after the very popular Demolition Derby. The place was packed with friends and families enjoying the temporary fun on the fairgrounds.

The Fair is only possible because of volunteers. People helped in many different ways. The Unitarian Universalist Church of Rockville collected food for Manna outside the entrance on Monday.

On those hot days, our own Carmen’s Italian Ice was on hand to cool everyone down. Notice the free samples!

And of course, as I mentioned before, Ruth Hanessian from the Animal Exchange held the Hermit Crab Races on Wednesday even though the weather was iffy. As you can see, members of the Royal Court did attend again!

When the kids and I spent the day at the Fair I thought we would run out of things to do, but we didn’t even make it through all the displays and buildings. We did however join in the square dancing which the young ones had never experienced and enjoyed ourselves immensely. I wouldn’t miss the Fair!

Montgomery County Ambulance Fee Not On The Ballot

The Montgomery County Board of Elections (BOE) did not find the required number of valid signatures on the petition to bring the “Ambulance Fee Bill” on the General Election ballot as a referendum question in November. The BOE verified only 13,021 valid signatures meeting the requirements set by Maryland Election law, but 15,366 valid signatures were needed on or before August 4th.

Under the Montgomery County Charter, in order to have a local Bill placed on the ballot as a referendum question, a Petition must contain the signatures of five percent (5%) of the registered voters in Montgomery County, Maryland. 50% were due on August 4th with the remainder due on August 19th.

On Thursday August 19, 2010, the Montgomery County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association submitted the final group of signatures on petitions to place the law authorizing an ambulance transport fee on the ballot in November. On their website they report over 52,000 voters in Montgomery County who signed the petitions against the fee. They believe the number of signatures gathered for these petitions was the largest number ever recorded for a ballot referendum in Montgomery County and likely the State of Maryland.

However, in a case last June, Jane Doe v. Montgomery County Board of Elections, the Maryland Court of Appeals decided that the state law requires a voter to sign his or her name on petitions exactly as it appears on the statewide voter registration lists. So, if you have a middle initial on your voter registration or a hyphenated name, etc., you must sign petitions the same way. Apparently, many signatures were rejected under these more stringent requirements.

Montgomery County’s Ambulance Reimbursement program was approved by the County Council in May and signed into law by the County Executive. County residents will not pay anything under the new fee. The fee will be billed directly to residents’ insurance companies. If County residents don’t have insurance, the fee will be waived. Non-residents would be responsible for the fee unless given a “need-based waiver”.The fee is projected to net at least $12.7 million in the first full year of operation. Surrounding counties with ambulance fees include Fairfax, Frederick, Prince George’s, Charles, Carrol, Arlington, Washington, and Prince William. Close-by cities with the fee include Baltimore, Alexandria, and Washington, DC.

The Montgomery County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association warned that studies show citizens hesitate to call for help when there is a fee. They contend that the fee could make fundraising much more difficult for local fire companies and it’s unfair for the county to charge for a service provided by volunteers.

Contributor Opinion by Aileen Klein: Montgomery County Public Library Cuts

The following piece was submitted by Aileen Klein and edited by Cindy Cotte Griffiths. The information on policies, fees, and the budget was provided via memorandum from Parker Hamilton, the Montgomery County Public Library Director.

The operating budget that was approved for MCPL was $28.8 million and 348 positions, an approximate 23.1% reduction in budget since the FY10 approved budget. This is a drastic cut considering that in FY07 the operating budget was $40M. Collectively, these reductions will increase waiting times for customers at services desks, result in slower accomplishment of library operations functions, and decrease the accessibility and availability of library materials.

Not only has the budget decreased, but the number of library patrons has increased tremendously during this time period. It seems when the economy is bad, people turn more and more to their libraries to help them find jobs, use the free computers, access the free internet, and get free help from the librarians. Many people applying for jobs are unfamiliar with doing so on-line and need help from the library staff.

Changes in policy and fees

The following changes in policies and fees were instituted on July 6, 2010:

• The number of holds a customer can place was limited to 15 holds (down from 35) per library card. This includes Interlibrary Loan requests.
• Library accounts of customers who owe more than $25 (was $15) were blocked. Customers are not be able to place holds, check items out, or renew items.
• A $2 replacement fee for lost or stolen library cards was reinstated.

These are the major features of the FY11 MCPL operating budget:

1. Consolidation and reduction of library service hours into three levels, effective July 6th, 2010.

2. “Year round” service on Sundays runs from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at seven branches (it was eight
branches). For the seven branches (including the interim Gaithersburg location which hours have yet to be determined) that are open on Sundays, there will be a reduced complement of both information and circulation staffing. The Sunday branches are Bethesda, Germantown, Marilyn J. Praisner, Rockville, Wheaton, Silver Spring, and the Gaithersburg Interim Facility.

3. A reduction of 80 merit system positions from virtually all units and position classes in the Department; a countywide staff furlough; and reductions to Sunday, Substitute, and Page authorization levels.

4. Staff-led programs will focus on early literacy, all other programming will be done by Central Administration (using FOLMC grant funds) and/or volunteer-led efforts, with a substantial amount of volunteer-led programming being supported by the Friends of the Library Chapters as supported by local book sale efforts.

5. A 45% reduction in the library materials (books, magazines, CD’s, DVD’s, etc) budget, down to a base of $3 million.

6. Significant reductions in administrative and support staff and general operating expenses, and support for the Literacy Council of Montgomery County. These reductions include substantial reductions in office supply budgets for all units, suspension of equipment purchasing, and aggressive targets for the reduction of paper, toner, and mailing costs.

As the County Executive has stated in several forums, we find ourselves in an unprecedented crisis. Hard choices had to be made and acted upon. MCPL was given a target to meet, and we proposed the best library system we would build from the ground up, given our new and substantially reduced target.

These are difficult times for the County and the library system in particular. It is our continuing mission, despite the challenges we face, to connect our residents with knowledge, ideas, and information, and to be Where the County Reads, Meets, and Learns.

How You Can Help

The Friends of the Library (FOL) is the fundraising branch of the library system, much as a PTA is to the school system. The FOL is made up entirely of volunteers and is always looking for more people to help. There are so many things to do, especially now when our library is being used so heavily. The Friends of the Library is the one who will be paying for the children’s programs, arranging for and running author talks, special events, and book sales for the public.

Rockville is fortunate to have two libraries, Rockville Memorial Library in Town Square and the Twinbrook Library at 202 Meadow Hall Drive. Both are seeking new members and volunteers.

You may contact the Rockville Friends of the Library by emailing Rockville@folmc.org or the Twinbrook Friends of the Library by emailing Twinbrook@folmc.org.

You will be welcome at either.

Both of our libraries have programs and events which can be seen by going on the Friends of the Library website. There is a calendar on the front page and details of events can be found by selecting the individual library on the left side of the page.

The main way that the FOL raises money is through membership ($25/year), donations, and book sales. The Rockville Chapter holds weekly book sales each week at Out to Lunch Wednesday’s in front of Giuseppe’s Pizza from 11-2. Their big winter book sale will be held on Saturday, November 13.They are always seeking volunteers to help with their many book sales and book sorting activities.

I urge you to get involved and support our libraries.

By Aileen Klein, Vice President FOL, Rockville Chapter and FOLMC Board of Trustees

This is a Contributor Opinion. Rockville Central encourages readers to submit such pieces for consideration — the more voices the better. Simply send them to hello@rockvillecentral.com. We ask that all such contributions be civil and we reserve the right to edit (in consultation with the author) or reject. Contributor opinions should not be seen as reflecting opinions held by Rockville Central editors, as they are just as frequently at odds with our own views. That’s the whole point! Please also note that Rockville Central does not endorse candidates in election campaigns. Supporters of all candidates are encouraged to submit opinion pieces for consideration.

Registering To Vote And A County Council Candidate Forum

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As summer is ending, the primaries are heating up. Rockville Central ran a four-part video series from the forum held in the Casey Barn, but if you want to attend a discussion in person, here’s the details for the next event in Rockville featuring Montgomery County Council At-Large candidates:

Monday, August 23, 2010
7 to 9 PM
Robert E. Parilla Performing Arts Center
51 Mannakee Street, Rockville Campus
Parking in Lots 10 and 13

The Republican candidates are uncontested for the Primary race, so they are not included in the evenings proceedings.

The Forum is sponsored by:

• Montgomery College Alumni Association
• Montgomery County Civic Federation
• League of Women Voters of Montgomery County
• Organization of Chinese Americans, Greater DC Chapter

Moderated by Lon Anderson of AAA Mid-Atlantic & MC Alumni and Foundation Boards, the forum will also be televised live on Montgomery College TV Channel 10.

Some important Primary Dates:

The Primary Election is on Tuesday, September 14, 2010.
You must be registered to vote by Tuesday, August 24th.
If you want to change political parties, you must also do so by Tuesday, August 24th. (This is a change, it used to be 12 weeks so you still can!)

Details for registering and changing party affiliations can be found on the Montgomery County Board of Elections website.

The League of Women Voter ’s has a tremendously detailed Election Primer to answer all your questions.

Montgomery County Planning Director Compares Rockville To Silver Spring

Rollin Stanley, the Director of the Montgomery County Planning Department, has spent a Friday evening in Rockville Town Center and he’s written about his experience for his new blog, the director’s blog, where “no place is worth visiting that doesn’t have a parking problem”.

In Downtown Rockville On A Friday Eve, he compares Rockville to Silver Spring on a summer night and says, “While Silver Spring has much greater diversity, Rockville surprised me”. Both have break dancers and a fountain. He complimented the textures in our Square, such as grass, boulders, pavers, and wood, which provide varied spaces for people. He also believes the upper residential floors are an advantage and Rockville has a greater variety of shop fronts.

His conclusion:

There needs to be a mix in activity to ensure there is a reason for someone to be on the sidewalk all day long.

Read his entire comparison, which includes a three-minute video showing the activity he found in every direction.

Pepco Might Be Able To Improve Service In Four Years

“We know it’s a frustrating summer for our customers.” was one of the first sentences uttered by Pepco’s senior officers at yesterday’s Public Service Commission (PSC) hearing to investigate their shortcomings. Halfway through the hearing, it became apparent that Pepco might be saying the same thing for a few more years.

The PSC had stacks of letters indicating a broad sense of unhappiness with Pepco’s reliability. They believe the community has been pushed to the breaking point. Those who have lived elsewhere with more severe weather don’t understand why the weather disrupts power service in Montgomery County. More importantly, people are saying their power is knocked out on a regular basis when there isn’t a storm.

The July 25th storm received an in depth review since it was the first one and the most severe. Pepco had crews and contractors on hand before the storm hit and within 16 hours additional assistance arrived. Over 90% of the outages were caused by trees. Pepco asserted that cost is never a consideration when they work to restore power as quickly as possible. Since the first storm was on a Sunday, which paid double time, there was no problem getting crews and sustaining contractors to work. Pepco secured help from First Energy in Akron which was the closest neighbor not in the tract of the storm. Other companies came to help as their areas were cleaned up. The staging area was at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds. They adjusted the way crew deployment was dispatched. Heavy equipment went first for trees then smaller crews with smaller trucks did service drops. Pepco believes they did “a good job of restoration to customers”.

In 2006 Pepco had a plan to improve average performance in four years. During this time there were slight improvements in the duration of outages but not in the frequency. They added distribution automation, increased the amount of URD (underground residential distribution) cable replaced, and added some underground residential distribution. Every year they identified pockets of feeders with problems then worked to bring them up to a level of standard. Pepco also strengthened partnerships with the County and State forestry groups because most outages are from trees on private property. They have worked with Department of Transportation and City of Rockville foresters about trimming or dropping trees.

Although Pepco’s executives stated their system was “robust”, their improvement strategy still has them in the bottom 25th percentile for reliability. Pepco is “dead last” for utilities in Maryland. They openly admitted they still have problems. Now they want to implement additional multi-year programs for tree trimming and cable replacement hoping to see an overall improvement in another four years. Unfortunately, it is not a nicely planned program with a start and end date.

The Commission wanted to know why improvement was not more urgent. Pepco contended it’s impractical to think they can address every problem in a year. They are addressing significant problems but must do so across the entire system.

Since their actions during the last four years didn’t work, the Commission wanted to know how their current strategy will be different compared to four years ago. Pepco intends to implement more aggressive measures to improve circuits which will have immediate benefits. Their reliability group has the sole purpose of evaluating the performance of the system. Circuits with problems are assigned to the engineer department for improvement. Substation improvements are done once and provide better service for years. 2% of the feeders are replaced across the system on an annual basis. They are replacing the cable in entire subsystems. Increased costs for an improved vegetation management program were brought up during rate discussions this year.

Looking at areas hardest hit from storms, Pepco knows tree trimming alone will not solve all the problems. During significant storms, trees standing 20 feet off the pole line cause outages, especially in older communities. A recent study showed that when trees were involved in outages, over 75% of the trees were outside the normal trimming area. Over half of those trees were found to be in poor health and rotted. They are looking at how they can become more aggressive. This involves rerouting cable and undergrounding wires in critical areas.

When yesterday’s hearing ended, they all agreed this was just the beginning. With Pepco’s lack of progress and long game plan, it certainly feels like a beginning. At a very minimum, customers can expect to suffer through a few more years of poor service.

The PSC discussed the increase in complaints. Unlike 15 years ago, Pepco believes consumers have educated themselves on the system and transformers, so they are more knowledgeable and more likely to speak up about problems. More people are working from home and since they are losing their livelihood, they are more likely to complain. If you would like to speak about the problems you are experiencing with Pepco, the PSC will be holding a public hearing on August 30, 2010 at 6 PM in Montgomery County Council Building. Photo identification is needed to enter.

Although I listened to the day’s proceedings as much as possible, I couldn’t cover the entire session which lasted from 9:30 AM until 3:50 PM with a mid-day break. Speakers were not routinely identified and the live video quality often prevented viewers from identifying speakers. If you watched, please let us know your impressions and any other information you think is important.

MD Public Service Commission Investigates Pepco’s Failings

The Public Service Commission (PSC) of Maryland has launched an investigation into Pepco’s reliability problems. The Commission has ordered Pepco management to appear at a public hearing at 9:30 AM on Tuesday, August 17, 2010. The hearing will be broadcast live on the PSC Web site. You can watch.

The PSC justifies their investigation due to the large number of complaints from the public about the number of power outages, the duration of the power outages, and the number of customers affected after the area’s severe weather.

For example, Pepco reported that recent power outages on July 25, 2010, August 5, 2010, and August 12, 2010 affected 297,000 customers, 75,000 customers, and 98,000 customers, respectively. The Commission also has received complaints of frequent and apparently inexplicable outages occurring outside of storm events. Additionally, customers have complained about Pepco’s failure to communicate effectively with its customers during outages – in part due to the apparent failure of Pepco’s automated communications system.

On July 29, 2010, the Montgomery County Council sent a letter to Mr. Douglas R.M. Nazarian, the chairman of the PSC, asking the Commission to open an investigation into the reliability of electricity in Pepco’s Montgomery County’s service territory. In the excerpt below, the County Council asks PSC to find the answers to several questions including:

• whether or not Pepco has sufficient in-house staff to maintain its infrastructure,
• what are the full range of measures necessary to mitigate the impact of trees, including undergrounding the wires, and
• whether minimum reliability standards can be adopted so Pepco can be held accountable for the length of time a customer is without power.

The County Council also advocated for human beings to answer the phones as much as possible when there are outages. They also want the Commission to insure that the best technology and mapping systems are available to customers online so they can receive accurate information in real time.

From the letter from the Montgomery County Council to the Public Service Commission of Maryland:

Our residents and businesses have suffered an unacceptable number and duration of outages for many years, outages that have harmed public health, public safety and the County’s economy. As a distribution-only utility, the quality and reliability of Pepco’s service is exclusively within your authority. We ask you to invoke that authority to ensure our citizens of acceptable levels of reliability.

We recognize that severe storms like the most recent one to ravage our community, as well as the blizzards this past winter are occurrences of nature that can not be blamed on the utility. However, the extreme results this storm produced highlighted the underlying reality that the distribution system in Montgomery County is extremely vulnerable. Even on cloudless, idyllic days, our residents have experienced unexplained outages. And this happens all too often leading us to ask whether or not Pepco has sufficient in-house staff to maintain its infrastructure.

We also recognize that our county and our citizens value our tree canopy, and that trees are often blamed for outages. But that simplistic response begs the question – what are the full range of measures necessary to bring our system to a level of reliability that meets the legitimate needs of our community, including measures that mitigate the impact of trees? Pepco officials told our Council Tuesday that they have investigated undergrounding those portions of the system that have experienced repeated outages.

We believe such measures, and others that could increase reliability, require a thorough investigation by your Commission. While it is often said that undergrounding and other measures are expensive, the cost to our county and to the state of these repeated outages is also very large – economically and otherwise.

More broadly, we believe that every outage ought to be reported to your Commission, with a report on its causes, the length of time a customer was without power, and the measures that Pepco is taking to ensure that the cause of the outage is rectified. We also suggest that the Commission adopt minimum reliability standards so that Pepco can be held accountable – assuming that you provide Pepco the resources that it needs to significantly improve the system.

And finally, we strongly suggest that you ensure, to the maximum extent practicable, there are human beings answering the phones when there are outages. When a customer loses power, getting a recorded message, often with misleading information, is infuriating. Residents deserve accurate information regarding restoration efforts and a good faith estimate as to when power will be restored. In addition, Pepco should be required to use the best technology and mapping systems available so that customers can avail themselves of real time, accurate information online.

Signed:

Roger Berliner, Lead for Energy and Environment Council
Nancy Floreen, Council President
Valerie Ervin, Council Vice President
Phil Andrews
Marc Elrich
Mike Knapp
George Leventhal
Nancy Navarro
Duchy Trachtenberg

The Order for the proceeding in Baltimore directs the Company’s Chief Operating Officer, and the Company’s senior officers responsible for system maintenance, storm restoration, and customer service to respond to questions.  The PSC will also determine the procedures for the ongoing investigation.

What would you ask?

Personally, I want to know more about the tree trimming program. In the past, Pepco routinely publicized a very specific schedule for neighborhoods but in recent years the information shared has been much more general. The 2010 schedule lists counties and municipalities while leaving the area column blank.

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The last detailed listing was in 2002:
Montgomery County—West Rockville, Willows of Potomac, Potomac Highlands, South of Gaithersburg, White Flint, Garret Park, Stoney Brook, Rosewood, Sunset Terrace, Sligo Park Knolls, East Kensington, Forest Glen and Wheaton.

Here’s the previous year’s list in 2001:
Montgomery County—Rockville, Shady Grove, Gaithersburg, Washington Grove, Montgomery Village, Glen Echo, Layhill, Norbeck, Colesville, Somerset, Chevy Chase, Friendship Heights, Aspen Hill.

When you visit the Pepco site you can find a definition of Tree Pruning which states trees should be pruned every two to five years:

The types of trees along our primary distribution lines in residential areas generally need pruning every two to five years. This is routine pruning. Asplundh, our tree pruning contractor, prunes every tree that could potentially come in contact with power lines or other electrical equipment. The goal is to maintain and deliver safe and reliable electric service to our customers by minimizing outages caused by trees.

Some believe the investigation to be a “dog and pony show” during an election year but customers need the PSC to get to the root of the problem and force Pepco to deliver dependable service. With today’s technology, we can keep an eye on the process and file a complaint.

Six Montgomery County Libraries Begin Year-Round Sunday Service

As we noted in June, Sunday hours were eliminated at all public libraries due to budget cuts. However, beginning August 15, 2010, several Montgomery County public libraries will be open on Sundays all year round  (except on certain major holiday weekends). These include:

Bethesda
Germantown
Marilyn J. Praisner
Rockville Memorial
Silver Spring
Wheaton.

Only open in the afternoon, the hours will be 1 to 5 PM.

In a Montgomery County announcement, County Executive Ike Leggett noted:

Residents have expressed a desire for year-round Sunday service and with library services so much in demand these days, we wanted to find a way to fill their needs in spite of budget cutbacks. I am pleased to say we have achieved that goal.

We’ll have our Rockville Memorial Library open on Sundays when the parking at the City of Rockville Town Center garages is free. This results in a doubly good situation for library patrons.

Current Rockville area library hours are now:

Rockville Memorial Library:
Monday – Thursday, 10:00 AM – 8 PM, Friday, Saturday, 10 AM – 6 PM, Sunday 1 – [ 6] 5  PM. Sunday hours are 1-5 PM.

Twinbrook Library:
Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, 10 AM – 6 PM, Tuesday, Thursday, 1 – 8 PM.