For the past year or more, members of your Residents’ Council and especially the chair and key residents of our Maintenance committee have been working with the Administration to develop processes and procedures to reduce the chance of flooding (aka water intrusion) incidents in our community. During this time, it has been shown that the vast majority of such incidents are either due to residents overflowing their sinks or clogging their toilets OR contractor errors while they have been doing construction on apartments. On the resident caused incidents, there is an old, related saying that goes something like this – “We have searched for the enemy, and it is us.” Just one request with respect to clogged toilets, the moment it is clogged, call either the maintenance department during regular working hours or Security during non-working hours. Do NOT try to unclog your toilet by flushing it repeatedly – just not a good idea. With respect to contractor errors, there is much more oversight to their work and there are now supplies in the apartments to help reduce the impact of the water spreading when a break occurs. There are postings on the doors, in both English and Spanish, instructing the workers as to what to do if they cause a water line break. Additionally, Admin has prepared comprehensive, readily available, books showing the location of the shutoff valves for every apartment. As many of you know, Admin has also instituted the training of staff for simulated flooding incidents, on both days, nights, and weekends. Their response times are now averaging about seven minutes, a major improvement. These will be continued.

Most recently, those of us residents that have been most involved with this issue had a meeting with Admin to review their recommendations for the prevention of flooding incidents in the first place. One part of the plan is to inspect the HVAC piping (aka loop line piping) in every independent living apartment by the end of the year (a big job) and to install pipe support/restraint brackets, where needed, to help ensure that these pipe connections will not separate to cause flooding incidents. Also, in all apartment renovations, the piping will be improved to meet the higher standards needed to prevent the possibilities of separation causing flooding. Better procedures are also now in place to help residents cope with the side effects of flooding in their apartments – beyond the physical, but the emotional and the related stress effects as well. The adequacy of these improvements will be constantly evaluated, with further changes made as may be appropriate. Great appreciation must be given to the Administration for all they have done and are preparing to do to prevent the flooding problems that we have encountered. Executive Director Don must be commended for his dedication and continued involvement. Jay Spivey, General Services Director, and his staff have been exceptionally involved in the effort, as well as some senior corporate engineering and operations staff that have assisted.

Some of you may wonder why I have spent so much time on this subject, but it is one that has the potential to affect any one of us at any time and I just want to let you know that your Residents’ Council has been working hard, with Admin, to help prevent, or at least materially reduce, the impact of any single incident.

Now, on to the elections. Be sure to pick up your copy of the Baltimore County “Voters Guide” prepared by the League of Women Voters. It is available at any one of our front desks and is an invaluable resource for helping to select your candidates. Voting is one of our most important responsibilities as citizens of this great country. Many of us may be casting our ballots at our own voting precinct right here in our Conference Center on Primary Day, May 14th. Thanks must be extended to all our resident poll workers. Now, let’s GET OUT AND VOTE!!

The Residents’ Council Legislative and Political committee is in the beginning stages of preparing to have some type of forum with the General Election candidates here at Charlestown in the early fall. Also, we will be having a meeting with our State Senator and local Delegate(s), which is now being considered for late May or early June, to give us an update on the recent Maryland Legislative Session.

Among the many thanks in this article, kudos must be given to the Community Resources and Catering departments for the incredible Volunteer Appreciation Event!! They went all out on our behalf, and we thank them!

I must end with my usual comment – ISOLATION IS MY ENEMY; SOCIALIZATION IS MY FRIEND!

John Remias, President, Residents’ Council