Baltimore City Council
File #: 15-0212R    Version: 0 Name: Saluting Heroes & Heroines of Baltimore City's Ice Age Ordeal
Type: City Council Resolution Status: Adopted
File created: 3/9/2015 In control: City Council
On agenda: Final action: 3/9/2015
Enactment #:
Title: Saluting Heroes & Heroines of Baltimore City's Ice Age Ordeal FOR the purpose of thanking our City workers and citizens for heroism and patience in enduring the current and ongoing Ice Age Ordeal of this most unending of winter seasons.
Sponsors: Mary Pat Clarke, Robert Curran, Rochelle Spector, James B. Kraft, Carl Stokes, Eric T. Costello, Edward Reisinger, Sharon Green Middleton, Helen L. Holton, Bill Henry, President Young, Brandon M. Scott, Warren Branch, Nick Mosby, William "Pete" Welch
Indexes: Baltimore City, Heroes and Heroines, Ice Age Ordeal, Saluting
Attachments: 1. 15-0212R~1st Reader
* WARNING: THIS IS AN UNOFFICIAL, INTRODUCTORY COPY OF THE BILL.
THE OFFICIAL COPY CONSIDERED BY THE CITY COUNCIL IS THE FIRST READER COPY.
      INTRODUCTORY*
 
      CITY OF BALTIMORE
      COUNCIL BILL           R
      (Resolution)
                                                                                                                                                           
Introduced by: Councilmember Clarke
                                                                                                                                                           
 
 
      A RESOLUTION ENTITLED
 
A COUNCIL RESOLUTION concerning
title
Saluting Heroes & Heroines of Baltimore City's Ice Age Ordeal
FOR the purpose of thanking our City workers and citizens for heroism and patience in enduring the current and ongoing Ice Age Ordeal of this most unending of winter seasons.
body
 
Recitals
  
   Throughout Baltimore, citizens and workers have truly been tested by the unusually cold weather afflicting our City this winter.  Though this Ice Age Ordeal has presented a seemingly unending stream of challenges, our City workers and residents have continued to rise to the occasion in the face of this freezing torment.  Employees of the Departments of Transportation and Public Works in particular have sallied forth again and again to battle winter�s attempts to drive us to extinction.
 
  In the course of 12 full snow emergency activations, Department of Transportation employees have spread over 50,000 tons of salt as a shield against the incoming ice, sleet, and snow.  And in the aftermath of each encounter with winter�s wrath, crews have set out to fill the potholes seeking to tear our roadways apart, repairing over 21,000 of them.
 
  Due to the nearly unprecedented Arctictinged temperatures in Baltimore, since February 14 there have been over 5,800 nowater calls received by the Department of Public Works.  That averages to 400/day as opposed to a normal 30/day for this time of year.  DPW Maintenance Division crews have responded to this onslaught with 12hour shifts in partnership with numerous contractor crews, working around the clock to address myriad water service line problems and approximately 25 water main breaks at any given time.
 
  Additional calls concerning exterior water leaks and water in basements mean that DPW has received a total of over 10,000 calls for waterrelated assistance, and, unlike the temperature, that number continues to rise.  Over 35 investigators have been dispatched to the streets to resolve basic restorations across the service area, and they continue to work tirelessly on this vital task.  Currently, there are 400 nowater concerns that are being investigated and addressed and another 300 where DPW is actively making service repairs.
 
 
   Through all of this relentless onslaught, our Fire, Police, Medics, 311 Operators, Code Blue managers and volunteers have risen to the challenge, working long hours to keep the City and its citizens intact.  Hundreds of cities across the nation have suffered even more severely than Baltimore throughout this calamitous winter, no workers anywhere have shown more dedication and heroism than ours, especially those knee-deep in the icy water of a meter break or lying flat on the frozen  ground to blow-torch a line into thawing.
 
  This ordeal has been trying for all Baltimoreans, but by working together to help our neighbors Baltimore has endured, and will continue to endure.  Without the herculean efforts of the heroes and heroines from the Departments of Transportation and Public Works manning the front lines against this unwelcome invasion of Arctic weather, things would be far, far worse.  We owe them, and all of our other citizens bravely rising to the challenge presented by this deep freeze, our most sincere �thank you�.
 
   NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF BALTIMORE, That the Council offers its most sincere thanks to our City workers and citizens for heroism and patience in enduring the current and ongoing Ice Age Ordeal of this most unending of winter seasons.  
 
   AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution be sent to the Mayor, the Director of Public Works, the Chief of Maintenance for the Department of Public Work�s Bureau of Water & Waste Water, the Director of Transportation, and the Mayor�s Legislative Liaison to the City Council.
 
 
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