I have to share this awesome email from Gunner Hamlyn on the MPD listserv about DPW's problems with figuring out how to collect trash on snowy days. Brilliantly done, Mr. Hamlyn. Slow clap.

"Dear Kevin and Adam,

First, I agree with you both in every way - but why is this on the MPD4 listserv? MPD still deals with icy alleys if they like it or not, so my apologies in advance for an email complaining about trash among those about arrests and assaults.

In a previous job I held a commercial driver's license, and I am 100% sympathetic to the risks faced by the drivers on icy streets or alleys. What I also recall from that job is that drivers, trucks, and crews go where they are scheduled and sent.

I assume that tomorrow I will join the "3 Week Trash Club" with Adam and a large part of Ward 4. However, on Friday the 20th before it snowed again my alley was clear enough for me to wonder where DPW was. I waited all day, there with my trash, and nothing. No love from DPW. A little overtime and someone checking the weather would have gone a very long way.

I agree that a contingency plan should be put in place. I’m not a climate change denier, but there’s a really good chance it will snow next winter. If you ask me, I bet it will snow for the next 3-5 winters. In my opinion having a contingency is a good return on investment.

I moved here from Chicago, so this is the one time of year I get to say that like it might be relevant. They salt the alleys. They put plows on the trash trucks. I don’t think rocket scientists were involved (it’s Chicago, after all), but there’s an investment made by a city betting on a really solid trend. Let other places do the thinking and let's just copy them.

In the short term, I think it's only fair that residents who take their own trash to the Fort Totten Transfer Station have the trash portion of their water bill prorated for the 3 weeks of missed collections. Please let me know if I should get a signed letter from the transfer station or if they have a form I can fill out to show I really did take my trash down there. Also, please let me know where I can present that letter for what I can only assume will maybe cover my gas there and back. I would be happy with a free frozen yogurt. Whatever works. The time I will donate, free of charge because I'm running out of places to keep 3 weeks of used kitten litter.

Adam, if you and other Ward 4 residents want to get some shirts printed up that say “3 Week Trash Club,” let me know. Until snow planning is put into effect there’s a good chance those shirts will be a good return on investment for at least 3-5 years.

Thanks,

Gunner Hamlyn" from Petworth News http://on.fb.me/1BVZwus