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Tag Archives: DPW

Mrs. Jones, The Butcher, The Chicken and Hakeem

09 Monday Jan 2017

Posted by Ronald Parks in Baltimore, Health, HISTORY

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Baltimore, DPW, Health, HISTORY, Museum, Research

Scanning scrap books from the museum. Weights and Measures.

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Mrs. Jones and the butcher.

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What about lead poisoning?

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The Wise One!

Snow, Street Sweepers, Storm Water and Sewage

06 Friday Jan 2017

Posted by Ronald Parks in Baltimore, HISTORY, Sewage History

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Baltimore, DPW, garbage, Jones Falls, POLITICS, Public Works, Sewage History, Street cleaning

The snows are upon us and as I drive to work and notice the gutters and storm drains, I think of what it was like years past…

1881 A great defect is observable in the streets of our city, namely: the surface drainage. House sweepings, kitchen slops, etc., find their way into the open gutters; pools of water collect at various depressed points, giving rise to miasms and odors that are anything but conducive to health during the hot weather, and in winter time invade the adjoining pavements by extension of layers, forming broad sheets of ice, dangerous to life and limb. All of this nuisance can be obviated, and the streets kept dry and free from offensive and pestilential odors, and sidewalks free from ice, by a proper system of sewerage. The present sewers of our city are not self-cleansing, and in consequence thereof there is imposed upon this department an immense amount of work, for which there should be given a sufficient sum to thoroughly clean and disinfect them.
1885 It occurs to me to say, that I think the emptying, during the winter season, of snow and ice out from the streets into the lower Falls, is a vicious practice, and should be henceforth prohibited. It creates bars of the filthiest street mud and refuse, which fill up the Falls and disfigure the walls until late in the Spring.
1908 Investigations show that large deposits (trash) are being formed in numbers of the existing drains, caused by street sweepings.
1911 A considerable portion of the dirt which finds its way into the sewers goes in through the un-trapped inlets, and it is a matter of common knowledge that the street cleaners, in order to lighten somewhat their labors, are accustomed to pushing the street sweepings into the inlets, thus allowing large quantities of dirt to be washed into the sewers. It must be borne in mind, however, that it is much more expensive to remove deposits of dirt from the sewers by hand than it is to remove them from the surfaces of the streets by carts.

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Baltimore’s White Wing street sweepers.

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Newer version, Hokey Cart street sweeper (Does he really look to be the type to just push his sweepings into the storm drains?)

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That’s a lot of salt which will eventually head into the Chesapeake Bay.

Dam Jam 2016

19 Friday Aug 2016

Posted by Ronald Parks in Baltimore, Hiking, water history

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Baltimore, DPW, engineering, FILTRATION, Gunpowder Falls, Hiking, HISTORY, Montebello, Public Works, water, water history

Happening tomorrow! Loch Raven is nice but I liked the one at Prettyboy Dam a couple years ago, only because I got to go to the bottom-insides of that dam.

 

You will get to walk out here. This use to be open all the time, now only open to the public on special occasions.

Ask your tour guide who is responsible for closing these gates during the 100 year storm?? Enquiring minds want to know!

Looking upstreams from the old dam to the new.

This is what it looked like after the storm of 2011. Lots of water going over the crest.

This is the 1880 dam during the same storm.

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There will be tours of the lime kilns by Jim Kelly, who will be giving away copies of my book (Might as well give them away – nobody buys them anymore!) (That’s ok, a good cause) This photo was from 2006

Volunteers started clearing the weeds back in 2011.

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Jim and company have had a lot of work done to the kilns. He will be giving a presentation on the 3 different kilns, talking about their history.

He will also be talking about this house, which has been restored.

PP236.1693A Loch Raven. Balancing reservoir. Throwing shaft over

Thom Grizzard will be giving a tour of this area. Where the old balancing reservoir and shaft are. No sense in bringing your bathing suit – it no longer looks like this. It is grown over. The volunteers have cleared a lot of the trails around here – making exploration of Cromwell Valley Park a lot of fun!

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