DPW HWYS Shelley F assigned this issue to DPW HWYS Dayton (central)

Thank you for submitting your request to the Howard County Department of Public Works. Our staff will investigate this issue and respond.

In areas where these gum balls are thick, the sweeper can pickup the majority with little issues.

After investigating, some of the yards and areas between the curb and gutter harbor a lot of these gum balls, which make it to the gutter pan after sweeping. The street sweeper sweeps on a cycle. By the next cycle, most of these gum balls should be down and easily swept up. Trees still have a lot of gum balls on them to fall yet.

Picture of area between sidewalk and curb.no work to be done at this time as the sweeper will return on its normal cycle.

Thank you for contacting the Howard County DPW Bureau of Highways. This issue is now closed in Tell HoCo. If you require more information, please contact Department of Public Works Highways office 410-313-7450.

Jim. Thank you for your response. So why can't the gumballs be swept up every cycle? They are a nuisance, unsightly, dangerous to pedestrians and clog the swales and gutters. I wish that home owners would be responsible and remove them like I do but that is not the case. Why do we have to wait until 'most of them are down'?

Dear user m&m, you do not have to wait. The street sweeper has about a three month cycle before it comes back through your neighborhood. I couldn't see assigning a special sweep but merely trying to explain, by the time the sweeper comes through again, hopefully most of the gumballs would be off the tree and we could have a cleaner sweep.
I hope I explained it better this time. Please feel free to reach out with any questions. Regards Jim B.

So we had a scheduled sweep last Monday, in which they failed to sweep the gumballs out of the swale, and really, I didn't even see a difference in the gumball content of the street either. And there will be another sweep in 3 months, which is early June. So in the meantime we are left with gumballs cluttering the swales, impeding the flow of water during the period of the year when we can expect the most rainfall. I'm just not seeing why the sweeper couldn't do the job they were supposed to do, which is sweep the street.

Dear User m&m, I did not see where the gumballs would impede drainage. I have a follow-up with the street sweeping contractor, to see if they had any issues just in that spot. While I am waiting on a response, here is some information regarding Howard County's Street Sweeping Program.

Street Sweeping
Howard County’s street sweeping program is designed to help prevent street dirt from reaching the waterways and the Chesapeake Bay. Curbs are swept four times each year by a contractor using brush sweepers. Each year we remove approximately 1200 tons of debris from more than 1300 miles of curbs.

Each sweeping cycle takes from six to nine weeks to complete. Cycles generally begin in the months of January, April, July and September. In general each cycle begins in the east part of Howard County and moves westward.

https://www.howardcountymd.gov/public-works/street-sweeping

Jim, I am CONSTANTLY sweeping gumballs out of the swale (in front of my neighbor's house, who does absolutely nothing wrt yard maintenance) so water can reach the drainbox as well as periodically poking the gumballs through the grill on the drainbox to open up the flow. Your response in this regard is just a little bit breathtaking. If you look back through these tickets I know you will find some referring to the drainbox on Eliot's Oak between Blacksmith and Endymion being plugged up. To the county's credit the response is usually very fast. Every time I have observed a street sweeping, the gumballs have been removed. The street sweeper makes 4 passes down our cul de sac. This time, once, and he broke the speed limit in doing so. I'm really not understanding why the street sweeper, this time, cannot remove the gumballs from the swale, as they have done during the 14+ years I've lived in this neighborhood. I'm sure the gumballs clog up some filter downstream if not removed. Just this morning I saw and talked with a Senior Citizen on Eliot's Oak who was removing the gumballs from the swale in front of her driveway. Please tell me to whom I can escalate this problem within your management chain.

Dear user m&m, I will personally check the drain boxes today, while it is raining and document my findings here. If we have a blocked drain, we will clean it today.

Regards
Jim B.

Dear User m&m, the street Sweeper is coming back through that street segment today.

Attached is the photograph after the sweeper left. The property owner at 5013 spoke with us.

Here are some of the issues we run into with street sweeping. Vehicles parked along the curb.

I checked the drains you mentioned and a few more in the area and could only find one inlet with a small amount of debris in it. That was across the street from 5013. The crew is on site cleaning it as I type.

I check the inlets between Blacksmith and Endymion and they were spotless. Inside and their tops, we’re free of debris.

I am closing out your request as completed. Please let me know if you have any further questions. Jim B.

Thank you for submitting your request to the Howard County Department of Public Works. Our staff will investigate this issue and respond.

Thank you for contacting the Howard County DPW Bureau of Highways. This issue is now closed in Tell HoCo. If you require more information, please contact Department of Public Works Highways office 410-313-7450.

Well Mr. Barker, just inspecting the drainboxes does not constitute resolution of this issue. What we need is an easement to easement street sweeping, like we usually get and as taxpayers, deserve. The fact that the drainboxes are now clear does not resolve this issue in any way, shape, or form. The gumballs in the swale are an impediment to the flow of water which causes backup problems on our properties and eventually clog the drainboxes. I've spent thousands of dollars addressing these problems on my own property. There is also the unsightliness and danger to pedestrians these gumballs pose. A neighbor on our block broke an ankle because of a nasty fall caused by a gumball. I am emailing you, your supervisor, the Harper's Choice Village Governance and my Council Representative to try to resolve this issue. I'm just extremely disappointed in this lack of service, logic, understanding and dedication to doing a job correctly from Howard County.

Yes, cars parked on the streets are an issue. However there are many many stretches where parked cars are not an issue and were not touched. Also, it would be helpful if we wouldn't schedule street sweeping on the mornings of trash and recycling pickups!

Dear User m&m,

Here is the link to what residents can expect from our Street Sweeping Program and how we are trying to make improvements. https://www.howardcountymd.gov/public-works/street-sweeping

I copied and pasted a portion here, that may acknowledge your question.
Content
The 29 sweeping areas were developed for the quickest continuous sweeping effort to obtain the best competitive bid. These areas do not align with the current 15 trash and recycling collection routes and 75 sub routes. The County GIS system is being used to investigate improvements in coordinating these two major efforts.