Carroll County, MD Carroll 101, 30 Jul 2021

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From YouTube: Carroll 101 Public Works with Jeff Castonguay

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Carroll County Government
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Welcome to this episode of carol, 101.

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I'm jeff castingway, your director of public works, the heartbeat of carroll, county.

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We're responsible for the protection preservation, life, property, evidence and environment.

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Vital role in disaster prevention, preparedness mitigation.

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Response and recovery provide the necessary services for our citizens to live work and play.

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So we are the department of public works. A quick summary of public works. Is you? Have we have nine.

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Bureaus carroll transit system, 308 staff- we have 55 million dollars a year in operating budget.

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And over 34 million dollars in ongoing capital projects as department of public.

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Works, we have myself, director of public works, three deputies to run our 10 divisions to the.

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Size and complexity of them, this staff is key to keeping the day-to-day operations moving.

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The 10 divisions we have is airport, solid waste utilities, building construction.

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Engineering facilities, fleet and warehouse permits, inspections, roads and our carroll transit system.

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So let me take a few minutes here and go through each one of our divisions.

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And give you a little background of each one. First I'll start with the airport.

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We have an airport manager that manages the day-to-day operations of the facility.

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And we have skytac that is on site, managing the aeronautical aspects of this business.

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We have we sell 290, 000 gallons of fuel a year which is our highest revenue source.

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Out there, with the facility, we also managed seven corporate hangars and 82 tee hangers.

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Next is probably one of our most publicly seen areas is our solid waste or our northern landfill.

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We provide sources for waste and recycling for the entire county. We bring in over a.

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Hundred thousand tons of solid waste per year, thirty thousand tons of recycling per year.

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And a couple key points on our recycling is 4 000 tons of that 30 000 is yard waste and we bring.

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In over 350 tons a year in tires, we also manage foreclosed landfills throughout the county. That.

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Require 30 years of maintenance and monitoring for any environmental issues that may come up.

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Next is our bureau of utilities provide clean water and waste water to our unincorporated areas.

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Our largest area being the freedom district, which provides 2.1 million gallons a day of fresh water.

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And treatment of wastewater, some of our other facilities that we do manage and maintain is for.

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Pleasant valley, bark, hill and hampstead, we have over 10 000 customers throughout our system and we.

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Manage over five five wastewater treatment plants in 20, lift stations with throughout the county.

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Building construction: this is our in-house project management group.

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They manage over 10 million dollars a year in ongoing projects.

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And also handle major fiddle projects that may come up. Our projects include anything from.

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Specialized roof replacements at union mills homestead to large building fit out projects.

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As you saw here at the county office building, but also the construction of new buildings like.

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You see at the public library or even at the public safety training center.

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Our engineering group handles all road design and reconstruction projects, along with surveying.

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Design work these professionals maintain in 30 plus road improvement projects per year.

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288 bridge inspections and also main handle all in-house design and survey work for whether it's.

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Roads or bridge work, our bureau facilities is who we reference as the county's general contractor.

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We maintain over 50 sites with 500 structures and also maintain over 6 000 acres of land. We perform.

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Hvac, electric plumbing and building in-house for 90 percent of our work, which keeps us from having.

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To go outside to third parties or contractors: next: is our bureau of fleet and warehouse? This bureau.

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Maintains over 1200 vehicles and pieces of equipment per year, this equipment will range.

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From large construction equipment to dump trucks, pickup trucks, passenger vehicles and down to our.

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Small engine pieces of equipment that would be lawn mowers and trench compactors. We also have.

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Warehouse services that we provide bulk materials for departments like citizen services or for.

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Our bureau bureau facilities with a large providing large large supply of filter.

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Units, but we also provide personal protective equipment for the entire county as the needs arise.

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Our bureau of permits and inspections performs field inspections and permanent services for.

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Renovations and new construction projects in both residential and commercial markets.

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Last year we processed approximately 8 200 permits and performed over 27 000 inspections.

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Throughout the county, on everything, from new to new construction to renovations,.

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To include structural plumbing electrical and even fire code inspections, our bureau of roads.

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Is one of our largest bureaus and who maintain our roads, storm pipes and bridges? We have over.

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A thousand miles of center line of road, a million feet of storm pipes and 60 miles of gravel roads.

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On top of the maintenance that we perform, our team is on call 24, 7 365, to respond to emergencies.

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These emergencies will will include storm events, but also include if there's major accidents or.

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Fires throughout the county, our team goes out to help other take care of traffic.

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Control or remove debris as needed in order to reopen roadways and reopen developments.

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Last division: we have is our carroll transit service, we provide demand, response and.

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Fixed route services for the citizens of carroll county, with approximately 50 of our units, that.

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Are equipped with wheelchair lifts, our demand response is provides the door-to-door services.

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As needed to bring our citizens to other work, doctors, appointments or different events.

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Our trains, our fixed route system, we operate on a fixed time and of pickup and.

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Drop off in multiple our towns and our cities and towns, which would include westminster.

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Freedom, hampstead manchester area and tonytown, one of the other pieces of.

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Transit that I am pleased to talk about is our veterans services. The county does provide a free.

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Service to all county veterans to provide them, the transportation needs to baltimore, frederick.

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And martinsburg west virginia free of charge for their medical appointments.

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So a little sample of our current projects that we perform here on a regular basis in carroll county.

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First is our gravel road pilot test project for stabilization, we're always trying to think outside.

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The box and use good engineering practices to increase the stability of our gravel roads, while.

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Reducing dust and maintenance activities after major storm events, next project I'll.

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Talk about is our silver run, charles carroll community center. We hope to have this project.

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Under construction later on this year, this new building will include a gymnasium and community.

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Center that can be utilized by everybody in that area for years to come. The next project.

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Would be the c-click report app uh we're pro we're happy to have brought this on board a.

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Couple years ago- and we continue to enhance it for great citizen interactions, this app.

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Can be downloaded by any citizen and they run into an issue on the roadways they can simply.

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Click a picture of it send in that complaint or issue, and it gets immediately uploaded to all the.

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Pertinent parties that need to respond to that situation, that citizen will hear that we've.

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Received it they'll report it out to the site to perform an inspection and when the project is.

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Complete next I'd like to talk about the hampstead wastewater treatment plant, enhanced nutrient.

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Reduction upgrade this has been a multi-year 16 million dollar project that will clean.

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Our effluent, by reduction of nitrogen phosphorus, into our streams, so we can better the environment.

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But like any other department in any other area, we always have our challenges. It's.

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Not always puppy dogs and flowers, so some of the challenges we have here in pub in public works is.

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Funding of our roundabouts in high traffic areas to improve safety.

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Reduction of state highway user funds over the last 10 years, the county is to receive 13 million.

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A year from the state to help maintain our roads and bridges, and now we receive approximately.

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One million dollars a year with no mechanism in place to make up that difference in lost.

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Revenue managed counties, solid waste funds to meet today's mde laws.

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The laws and requirements continue to become more stringent and in the solid waste industry. There's.

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This results in changes of processes that come at a cost managing expectations during weather.

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And storm events, while also I'll take the next bullet point, is to also reduce a road salt on.

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Our roadways, we have 63 snow routes that we to handle the thousand lane miles of roadway that we.

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Have- and it is expected that we have roads open as quick as possible and we try to do the best.

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That we can, with that, at the same time we've been challenged with reducing salt in order to better.

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The environment, but also we have to take care of safety and keep that as priority number one.

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And finally, we have the autonomous vehicle and alternate fuel infrastructure items and.

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With the change of technologies and requirements that are out there for reduction of emissions, we.

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Have to change how we operate and how we build our infrastructure moving forward and these challenges.

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Are new to us and we are having to adapt to what is presented to us today.

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Lastly, I'd like to talk to you today about our.

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Teaming efforts with our towns and municipalities, we are one county, we are one team and together.

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We make these projects happen. A few of those projects will be the union bridge wastewater.

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Treatment plant upgrade working with the town with maryland department, environment.

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And design consultants to kick off this project and obtain the met the most grant funds possible.

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Secondly, is the town of sykesville and maryland department of transportation teaming with them.

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On a storm water project, along with our bureau of utilities, to replace our water.

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And sewer line at the same time, the storm water management, the storm water management project.

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Is underway to reduce our impacts to main street and springfield avenue, we also maintain our gi.

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The gis system for the towns and municipalities, so we have one central repository of our road.

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Infrastructure and major data points that are needed for ongoing maintenance and design.

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We also team, together with it, with with all during storm events. It always takes additional.

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Infrastructure and personnel to reopen a town or reopen a roadway. um Or if there was a major.

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Disaster of a fire or anything worse, so we teamed together with them because we, you know in sharing.

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Resources we're also the backup supply for salt during major weather events, the county.

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Has the ability to buy in bulk and store in bulk for assault, and we continue to provide.

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Backup when their supplies go low, lastly, is our permits inspections.

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Services are performed by the county for all towns and municipalities,.

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So if you have any questions, you can feel free to contact us at the department of public works.

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My email address is jaycastingway at carrollcountymd.gov at 410-386-2248. Thank you.

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