Mary Pat Fannon and Phil Lee,
Thanks for your e-mail about the Meeting. I will not be attending this Meeting. I have thought about it long and hard to make this decision. The Major Trash Sweep in the targeted area (4000 homes) of the Harris Creek Watershed took place between June 16 through August 31,2010. It reduced significantly the amount of Trash going into the Baltimore Harbor from 5 Tons a month at the beginning to less than one Ton a month at the completion of this 10 week period. The Trash Interceptor was a major part of this Sweep Project and we are thankful to John Kellett, the inventor and creator of the Paddle Trash Interceptor for giving Creditability to what we were able to accomplish. However,the Trash Interceptor has been broken and incompetent now for over a year. The recommendations from the Trash Sweep Project have not been implemented. They have been ignored. The Spokesperson for DPW has stated many times recently that the recommended Trash Cans to be given to the Harris Creek Neighborhoods have been tried in the past and have not worked. Left unsaid is the fact that DPW workers contributed to these massive accumulations of Trash in the backyards of vacant houses by not reporting them despite walking these alleys.. Over 100 mini-landfill sites were identified (see the SR 311 Reports) and cleaned up after showing them to Steve Sharkey (DPW Supervisor). The unfairness (Injustice) associated with these mini-landfill raises tho Question,"Do we have two Trash Services for citizens of Baltimore?" What we had hoped to do with the Trash Cans was to reach responsible and concerned Citizens in the Watershed to help along the way and to go after citizens not placing their Trash Bags into proper Trash Cans. We were trying not only to educate Citizens,but change their behavior. To see this approach,you have to have Vision and not a "status quo" attitude. We have failed to do this over the last year. We have had four Meetings with very little DPW response. We have presented these recommendations to DPW in Canton at the Trash Interceptor Site,in the conference room at DPW and twice at City Hall,once at the Hearings of James Kraft (Council Resolution 08-0095R) and the second to City Council President Jack Young's resolution Response to these previous four Meetings has not produced any results or Efforts to improve communication . What has happened to the Trash Interceptor is an example of further dysfunction. What needs to be studied is not only the Interceptor Consultation Report (that has not been provided despite many requests),but all of the DPW maintenance information on the Trash Interceptor... and decision making on the Interceptor over the last year.
Lost in all of this is a Vision to clean up a significant amount of Trash from going from the streets and alleys in Baltimore City into the Baltimore Harbor. We were trying to develop a Model in the Harris Creek Watershed that we could apply to the other 26 inlets to the Baltimore Harbor. We had envisioned extending this Model to the East and West of Watershed 246 to see if we could duplicate and get the same results. You can not even attempt to do this with "status quo" thinking. It is like trying to move a mountain. What we needed was a Team within each Neighborhood that would consist of a person from the Neighborhood Association,a DPW Trash Supervisor and a Watershed Outreach Person that would stay on top of the Trash Problem by making monthly rounds in the streets and alleys of each Neighborhoods. Perhaps,this is too much to ask,but this is what we needed to start the Process of bringing back a more Humane Baltimore.
Good Luck in your deliberations. Respectfully,Raymond D.Bahr MD
Thanks for your e-mail about the Meeting. I will not be attending this Meeting. I have thought about it long and hard to make this decision. The Major Trash Sweep in the targeted area (4000 homes) of the Harris Creek Watershed took place between June 16 through August 31,2010. It reduced significantly the amount of Trash going into the Baltimore Harbor from 5 Tons a month at the beginning to less than one Ton a month at the completion of this 10 week period. The Trash Interceptor was a major part of this Sweep Project and we are thankful to John Kellett, the inventor and creator of the Paddle Trash Interceptor for giving Creditability to what we were able to accomplish. However,the Trash Interceptor has been broken and incompetent now for over a year. The recommendations from the Trash Sweep Project have not been implemented. They have been ignored. The Spokesperson for DPW has stated many times recently that the recommended Trash Cans to be given to the Harris Creek Neighborhoods have been tried in the past and have not worked. Left unsaid is the fact that DPW workers contributed to these massive accumulations of Trash in the backyards of vacant houses by not reporting them despite walking these alleys.. Over 100 mini-landfill sites were identified (see the SR 311 Reports) and cleaned up after showing them to Steve Sharkey (DPW Supervisor). The unfairness (Injustice) associated with these mini-landfill raises tho Question,"Do we have two Trash Services for citizens of Baltimore?" What we had hoped to do with the Trash Cans was to reach responsible and concerned Citizens in the Watershed to help along the way and to go after citizens not placing their Trash Bags into proper Trash Cans. We were trying not only to educate Citizens,but change their behavior. To see this approach,you have to have Vision and not a "status quo" attitude. We have failed to do this over the last year. We have had four Meetings with very little DPW response. We have presented these recommendations to DPW in Canton at the Trash Interceptor Site,in the conference room at DPW and twice at City Hall,once at the Hearings of James Kraft (Council Resolution 08-0095R) and the second to City Council President Jack Young's resolution Response to these previous four Meetings has not produced any results or Efforts to improve communication . What has happened to the Trash Interceptor is an example of further dysfunction. What needs to be studied is not only the Interceptor Consultation Report (that has not been provided despite many requests),but all of the DPW maintenance information on the Trash Interceptor... and decision making on the Interceptor over the last year.
Lost in all of this is a Vision to clean up a significant amount of Trash from going from the streets and alleys in Baltimore City into the Baltimore Harbor. We were trying to develop a Model in the Harris Creek Watershed that we could apply to the other 26 inlets to the Baltimore Harbor. We had envisioned extending this Model to the East and West of Watershed 246 to see if we could duplicate and get the same results. You can not even attempt to do this with "status quo" thinking. It is like trying to move a mountain. What we needed was a Team within each Neighborhood that would consist of a person from the Neighborhood Association,a DPW Trash Supervisor and a Watershed Outreach Person that would stay on top of the Trash Problem by making monthly rounds in the streets and alleys of each Neighborhoods. Perhaps,this is too much to ask,but this is what we needed to start the Process of bringing back a more Humane Baltimore.
Good Luck in your deliberations. Respectfully,Raymond D.Bahr MD
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-----Original Message-----
From: Fannon, Mary Pat <MPFannon@baltimorecity.gov>
To: plee <plee@moffattnichol.com>; Fiaschetti, Erin <Erin.Fiaschetti@baltimorecity.gov>; Patrick.Dooley <Patrick.Dooley@mlis.state.md.us>; hvandergaag <hvandergaag@bluewaterbaltimore.org>; Kraft, James <James.Kraft@baltimorecity.gov>; Fiaschetti, Erin <Erin.Fiaschetti@baltimorecity.gov>; Raymond D.Bahr MD <rdb60@aol.com>
Cc: Augustus, Gussener <Gussener.Augustus@baltimorecity.gov>
Sent: Mon, Sep 12, 2011 11:37 am
Subject: Meeting with DPW - October 6th, 3 p.m., 6th Floor, 200 N. Holliday Street
From: Fannon, Mary Pat <MPFannon@baltimorecity.gov>
To: plee <plee@moffattnichol.com>; Fiaschetti, Erin <Erin.Fiaschetti@baltimorecity.gov>; Patrick.Dooley <Patrick.Dooley@mlis.state.md.us>; hvandergaag <hvandergaag@bluewaterbaltimore.org>; Kraft, James <James.Kraft@baltimorecity.gov>; Fiaschetti, Erin <Erin.Fiaschetti@baltimorecity.gov>; Raymond D.Bahr MD <rdb60@aol.com>
Cc: Augustus, Gussener <Gussener.Augustus@baltimorecity.gov>
Sent: Mon, Sep 12, 2011 11:37 am
Subject: Meeting with DPW - October 6th, 3 p.m., 6th Floor, 200 N. Holliday Street
Hello everyone – for the time being, I’m taking the lead to coordinate your efforts with the Harris Creek waterwheel and the Watershed 246 with DPW. As many of you may know, Steve Robinson has left the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhoods so I’ll try to handle some of the issues he was dealing with here but I am not a subject matter expert on these issues. I have arranged a meeting with DPW on October 6th at 3 p.m. at their conference room on the 6th floor (200 N. Holliday Street). Please attend if possible.
The goals for the meeting will be yours – I’ve asked Mr. Lee to put together a list of items for discussion that we can send to DPW staff well in advance of the meeting – hopefully by this Friday. So far there are two items to address before the meeting:
1. You would like to receive a copy of the Harris Creek Water Wheel Report;
2. You would like to have Steve Sharkey's replacement contact Dr. Bahr to discuss how to continue to have the Watershed 246 neighborhoods address the trash and other issues.
I will work on these two items and look forward to the rest of the specific issues to be discussed soon.
Mr. Lee – you asked that the following be invited to the meeting - Councilman Kraft, Dr. Bahr, Halle VanderGaag, John Kellett. All are copied on this message except for Mr. Kellett as I do not have his contact information.
Mary Pat
Mary Pat Fannon
Mayor's Office of Government Relations
City of Baltimore
88 State Circle
Annapolis, MD 21401
410-269-0207 Telephone
410-269-6785 Fax
410-948-9167 (Blackberry)
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