ATSSA Signal July/August 2020

American Traffic Safety Services Association 10 COVID-19 that it woulddonate 500,000 face shields to U.S. medical and healthcare facilities. But the largest stockpile in theworld is of no use without a way to store, track, and distribute it. InMaryland, AnneArundel County’s Facil- ities Management Division quickly fore- saw that need. The division converted a warehouse that hadbeen storing surplus property intoasupplydepot tocoordinate storage anddistributionofmasks, gowns, gloves, hand sanitizer, cleaning products, body bags, wipes, and face shields for the regionalresponsetotheglobalhealthissue. “We moved all the surplus property out, rearranged all of the shelves in the ware- house, painted lines, and reassigned staff members,” said Facilities Manager John Blackwood, who started his job with the countyonMarch19—just as the transition from normal life to pandemic response was making business as usual a thing of the past for many organizations. Blackwood said inearlyMay that the facil- ity was receiving deliveries of masks and gloves in thehundreds of thousands, and that local distilleries were delivering 500 gallons a week of hand sanitizer. Hisstaffdevelopedaninnovativetapsystem to get that sanitizer from the enormous containers it arrived in into smaller jugs suitable for distribution to first respond - ers, healthcare facilities, and the county health department. “They made it in no time at all—took an hour to come up with it and an hour to put it together,” Blackwood said. His staff also contributed to helping the countysolveother issues suchas theneed for a contactless drop box for blueprints, which allowed the building department to continue to process permits. The ability to quickly adapt to changing needs comes in handy quite often in the worldof transportation. It’s also a skillset that is crucial when emergencies arise. John Scrivani has made a career out of being the go-to guy in chaotic times. He’s currently director of the Virginia Depart- ment of Transportation’sOffice of Safety, Security,andEmergencyManagementand spent time inMarchworking to transition VDOT to remotework to keepemployees safe. He alsoworked to find solutions for procurement and document signatures that didn’t require human contact. The Anne Arundel County, Md., Facilities Management Division proved its resourcefulness in creating systems for distributing critical supplies such as hand sanitizer to county personnel.