PINEY POINT, Md. – Since 2015, I have been writing to the Metropolitan Commission to straighten out the location of a force main serving a property at 17246 Piney Point Road in Piney Point, Maryland. The Commission has addressed many of my questions about this service however has chosen to either partially address some concerns or not address them at all. The Commission has also chosen to take the position that there is no issue with this force main and has so directed its attorney from Fifth Avenue in NYC and Pennsylvania Avenue in D.C. along with California, MD to so state the same. His name is Christopher Beaver. I wonder if his legal services were competitively bid given the various offices.
These are a few issues which may be of interest to others:
1, MetCom has not obtained written permission to place their force main across my property. I have signed agreements with other governmental entities when a private/public sewice is crossing my property through an easement that has been provided. This has not been done and I am the only person with whom such an Agreement could be provided.
The Commission accepted a Public Works Agreement from Windward Land
Development, LLC, the developer for 17246 Piney Point Road, representing that they owned the property through which the force main was traveling. They did not my property or the propeny of Mr. and Mrs. Harris through which the force main also crosses. An agreement with the Harris’s also needs to be drawn up especially since the force main leaves the easement and travels over their property to connect to Route 249.
2, The force main is in the wrong location which does not conform to the record plat at
47/20 and there appears to be no desire to correct this problem panicularly through their Chief Engineer, Maria Christy Hollander (aka Sterling according to her engineer’s license registered at the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation).
- The force main is cun•ently located where a sediment and stormwater measure, known as a grass swale, was to have been constructed by the developer, Windward Land Development, LLC. However, the Deparfrnent of Land Use and Growth Management did not enforce the Plan that had been approved for the swale. The County now says it is too late to do anything and that I should have appealed when the Occupancy Permit was given. However, how is one notified that a U&O has been issued? There is no notification and this was issued by Brian Taylor, former Code Enforcer who was found to not have had all the credentials to inspect properties in the County.
- MetCom used an expired and not valid (according to the Department of Land Use and Growth Management) project number with State Highway to obtain a permit to connect the force main to the main in Route 249. From what I can ascertain, that makes no difference to anyone. And even using someone elsets project number and plan (Springhaven Homes) MetCom did not install the force main according to that plan submitted for that number as called for in the State Highway application. No one seems to be bothered by this.
It is these details that make me wonder what else is “slipping through the cracks” and is not being followed through on by the Commission.
Those of us who are served by MetCom pay good money each month to the Commission. Its operations should reflect transparency and good government which it does not.
J. Whitson Rogers,
Piney Point, MD
