Dear Anne Arundel County residents, businesses, and visitors,
Since the onset of the global pandemic in 2020, the Anne Arundel County Department of Public Works (DPW)has endeavored to ensure that the bedrock of our community—our county roads, bridges, clean water, waste collection, watersheds, and more on which you rely— continued with high-quality and uninterrupted service. We pride ourselves in providing the fundamental framework for other essential services such as hospitals, grocery stores, and public safety agencies to function to help us ride out the storm.
Just two years since COVID-19 upended the status quo, this year’s National Public Works Week—May 15 – May 21—takes on special meaning with its theme of “resiliency.” While this year, we celebrate the resiliency of the DPW teams providing essential work to keep our County’s physical and service-based infrastructure strong, we want to acknowledge and commend your support through it all.
With almost three in four DPW employees residing in the County, DPW truly reflects our community. We take so much pride in our mission because most of us are customers of the same services we provide, and our workforce has a vested interest in providing high value.
But with a dedicated workforce of fewer than 800 employees, we can’t be everywhere at once monitoring the 4,000 lane miles of roadways, 3,000 miles of buried water and sewer pipes, and 500,000 weekly curbside collection visits. So, when you identify issues to address, you might say you’re collaborating with a neighbor to help DPW do its job even better. Having another 600,000 sets of eyes assisting us in identifying where improvements are needed builds on the collective resiliency we aim to achieve. We live by the “help us help you” motto, working together as one community looking out for one another.
Every aspect of our work at DPW requires the support and engagement of our neighbors across the County. That’s why we encourage you to join us in any way, big or small, to keep our community safe, sustainable, and forward-thinking.
The ways you can get involved in supporting our work are plenty. One of the ways you can help is by reporting a pothole on a County road using the See, Click, Fix tool. You can also let us know about a water runoff issue that could affect the health of our waterways. Even if there isn’t an issue that requires direct contact with us, simple behavior changes such as turning off the faucet while brushing your teeth, being mindful when driving through road work zones, sorting your solid waste properly and taking shorter showers to conserve water go a long way.
All this is to say; a very happy National Public Works Week is in order not just for DPW leadership and world-class employees; a tip of the hard hat goes to you, our partners. Thank you for continuing to help us provide you with award-winning services. The last two years proved that we can navigate any challenge if we work together to build a more resilient community.
To contact us, head to www.DPWandYou.com or call 410-222-7500.
Chris Phipps, Director, Anne Arundel County Department of Public Works.
