Howard County Takes Down Snow Plow Tracker

HOWARD COUNTY, MD – Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman informed residents Tuesday that he has taken down the county’s snow plow tracker.

The online service has aided residents and public works officials in recent years to see which streets have been plowed and which need attention.

However, Kittleman said its inaccuracy was becoming problematic, and the third-party contractor that has run the snow plow tracker could not guarantee an improvement.

“In order to avoid further confusion and misinformation moving forward, I believe it is best to discontinue this service,” Kittleman said in a statement Tuesday. The full statement is at the end of this article.

In 2014, the county also admitted there were issues with the snow plow tracker.

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The vendor said that the conditions around this weekend’s snowstorm such as wind, volume and drifting snow made it difficult to provide accurate information, according to Kittleman.

Howard County Councilwoman Mary Kay Sigaty told told The Baltimore Sun this week the tracker was showing streets as plowed that had not been touched and vice versa. She said that elected officials thought it best to take it down ”instead of making people crazy.”

The company that ran the snow plow tracker was Columbia-based Enterprise Information Solutions, the Howard County Times reports.

The snow plow tracker was taken down Tuesday morning.

In an update Tuesday afternoon, county officials said they anticipated having all neighborhood streets plowed by Tuesday night.

If your street has not been plowed by midnight, call the citizens information line Wednesday at 410-313-2900. Roads reported as not having been touched will be prioritized by the Department of Public Works Wednesday morning, officials say.

Message from Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman About Snow Plow Tracker

Due to a large number of calls and emails regarding the inaccuracy of the snow plow tracker service, I have decided to take down the service to eliminate further confusion. Howard County’s snow plow tracker, which has been used by the county for many years, is a service provided and maintained by a third-party vendor. Because of the severity of the storm, including high winds, drifting snow and an historic record snowfall, the service was not providing accurate information. Although we had contacted the vendor, we did not see an improvement. They advised us that they cannot guarantee the accuracy of the site because of the duration and severity of the storm. In order to avoid further confusion and misinformation moving forward, I believe it is best to discontinue this service.

Please be assured we use several processes and applications internally to manage our storm recovery and track streets that need to be cleared. We appreciate your patience and apologize for any inconvenience this service has caused.