Maryland's coldest weather in two decades has been keeping Howard County's Department of Public Works quite busy.
As snowstorms and icy roadways close offices and keep students home from school, Department of Public Works employees have been hard at work, logging about 9,000 hours of overtime, according to county officials.
The department handles a trifecta of cold-weather complications: plowing snow, responding to calls about frozen pipes and fixing broken water mains.
"We're being pulled in three directions, just working, working, working," said Steve Gerwin, chief of the Bureau of Utilities within the public works department.
According to Gerwin, the county has received five times the average number of calls reporting frozen pipes this winter, and has had to respond to 25 percent more broken water mains than the average in February alone.
Gerwin said Howard has never had a year with so many "frozen services," the department's term for frozen pipes.
On top of problems at private residences throughout the county, several public buildings have been affected by the cold. Columbia's Bain Center shut down because of a water pipe break, and an artists' gallery scheduled for March 6 has been cancelled due to ice and water damage in the American City building downtown.
The thousands of hours of overtime put in by DPW employees are already provided for in the department's allotted budget, according to county spokesman Andy Barth.
Howard officials have released a set of recommendations to help homeowners prevent frozen pipes. Among other measures, they recommend insulating exposed pipes, letting the faucet drip on nights when temperatures drop below 15 degrees and keeping cabinet doors open to allow the house's heat to reach pipes.
Residents can call the Bureau of Utilities at 410-313-4900 to report a broken pipe. After hours and weekends, county workers can be dispatched by a call to 410-313-2929.