Barbecue Regulations Roil Florida County; a Long-Delayed Maryland Project Is Delayed Again
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Also: Eureka! It’s a small-town parklet pilot project! And a roadside message sign prank in Dallas.
ST. PETERSBURG, Florida: Think about this the next time you fire up the grill for a backyard cookout: Does the smoke from your barbecue fall within local regulations? That is a topic of major discussion in Pinellas County in the Tampa Bay area. A neighborhood dispute over the grilling odor and smoke coming from one home became a viral moment captured on video when a county officials paid a visit to the offending house and warned the owner about the barbecue smoke, according to the Tampa Bay Times. "If he was cooking properly, he wouldn't have the smoke and it would smell good, and [the neighbor] wouldn't be that mad at him," said Ray "Dr. BBQ" Lampe, a national grilling expert told the newspaper. [Tampa Bay Times]
SILVER SPRING, Maryland: The three-level multi-modal transit center serving the Washington Metrorail’s busy Red Line and buses has become a major joke in recent years. Although construction on the structure has been essentially completed for a long time, construction flaws have necessitated major repair work. The Silver Spring Transit Center is now four years late and $50 million over budget. The next chapter in the saga, according to The Washington Post: the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, which will eventually run the facility, is asking Montgomery County for more repairs, which will necessitate more delays and more money. [The Washington Post]
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa: Local law enforcement should soon have a new tech tool at their disposal: license-plate readers that will be deployed to squad cars.
According to The Gazette:
Police Chief Wayne Jerman on Monday said he expected the officers in squad cars with the plate readers to get “hits frequently.”Jerman said the plate readers will mean that people living or moving through Cedar Rapids and wanted by the law are going to find it harder to avoid arrest.
“That’s why we’re acquiring them,” the chief said. “If they are wanted for committing a crime, then they need to be held accountable for the crime they are wanted for.”
Criminals: You have been warned. [The Gazette]
EUREKA, California: The concept of the “parklet,” where a on-street parking space is transformed into a tiny temporary park, has been gaining steam in many big cities around the United States. But don’t count out smaller communities, too, including Eureka in Northern California. As the Times-Standard reports, four proposals are currently under consideration for a parklet pilot project in the city’s Old Town. [Times-Standard]
DALLAS, Texas: Here’s another example of a prank involving a roadside electronic message sign, this time along the Central Expressway in Dallas. [Dallas Morning News]
Michael Grass is Executive Editor of Government Executive’s Route Fifty.
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