This week, Watchdog brings you updates on several previously unresolved issues.
The Charles Street speed trap has been disarmed.
Reader Tom Lavin had noticed a 40-mph speed limit sign on southbound Charles Street, just north of a 30-mph sign obscured by a branch.
That sign was just north of a speed camera at Lake Avenue - a combination that seemed designed to generate speeding tickets.
But now the 40-mph hour sign has been replaced with one that alerts motorists to a 30-mph speed limit ahead. And there's a "photo-enforced" sign on the original 30-mph sign. And the branches that covered the sign have been trimmed.
Lighting might be installed in the alley behind homes on the odd-numbered side of the 5300 block of Catalpha Road.
Alverta Furman called Watchdog, saying that the alley behind her home needed lights. Other nearby alleys are lighted, and she believed she had been the victim of crime and illegal dumping because of the darkness.
Baltimore Transportation Department staff determined that the light levels are below minimum standards, spokeswoman Adrienne Barnes said. Installing three light fixtures on wooden poles already in place would fix the problem, she said.
Transportation officials will have Furman circulate a petition letter among her alley neighbors on Catalpha and Tramore roads. If a majority of residents sign within 30 days, the department will have BGE install the lights, Barnes said.
Clipper Mill Road will be opening to traffic. Soon. Really.
Contractors for the Baltimore Department of Public Works began replacing a collapsed storm drain in June. However, they had to stop indefinitely when they discovered the storm drain ran beneath a 4-foot sanitary sewer main.
The roadwork - and the unexpected delay - confused readers who worried that the abandoned construction equipment might need a good home.
Initially, DPW estimated the road would reopen in November, then December. But now, contractors are putting in the finishing touches, and the area will be ready for paving soon after, according to DPW spokesman Kurt Kocher. The new estimate is within a few weeks, he said - barring weather (ouch!) delays.