You are probably right. I walked around again and the crying has stopped. Perhaps they were separated from the mother.

I've had it once, but it's not as oily as you would think

It would help to know for sure what kind of animals they are but if its too dark and you cant get the lid off and get enough light down there to see, so be it.

I can try to prop a branch or something. It’s very narrow. Thanks.

If it's just the storm sewer, like concrete slab with manhole on top on at the curb, they may be just living down there, cats and racoon go in and out of storm sewers all the time.

If you have a board or something you might be able to angle it down there at some angle as a makeshift ramp of some kind for them to climb up. Short of being able to pop the manhole and look down there i dunno....maybe if they are good climbers they could even shimmy up some kind of sheet or rope that could be tied to something on street level and hung down there?

Non emergency police line?

Storm drain. I cannot see them. I was just taking out the trash. I only have my phone flashlight and they appear to be moving within the sewer system. I’ll hear crying from one storm drain and movement in the other. Sounds small. I was worried it was kittens. But we have raccoons too.

Has the sewer they are in got a manhole cover? Is it like a storm drain off the street? Can you post a picture of the situation? Hard to suggest ideas without a visual. No idea what kind of animals they sound like? How long they been down there? Can you see them at all? You gotta give a bit more specifics and details in the sitrep.

That’s a Silicon Valley thing. We’re all about driving bad and nature over here

I don't think there's any magic bullet but there are several small actions that you can take and if enough people do these things, the situation will improve:

• Participate in "Residents Speak Out:" that's the portion near the beginning of each board meeting that residents can use to raise issues they are concerned about. They generally limit speaking time to three minutes. You have to sign up in advance which you can do here: [https://www.columbiaassociation.org/about-us/leadership/board-of-directors/resident-speakout/]
  If you do speak out, you might consider a couple things: Ask them to release "the plan" they referred to in their press release, Ask them to publicly commit to keeping Lakey employed for at least the remainder of her contract, and Ask that they adhere to the Audit Committee's recommendations and hire a mediator (rather than a lawyer) to help resolve their conflict with Lakey
• Make sure your neighbors know about these issues and encourage them to participate in the elections. Seven of the CA Board positions (all except Town Center, Owen Brown, and Harper's Choice) will be on the ballot in April. Candidates will need to submit applications to those positions by mid March.
• Since it seems like there is a Maryland law being violated here, you can also file a complaint with the Maryland Office of the Attorney General. I used to think this was overkill but, since it seems like the most recent press release was a deliberate attempt to deceive the public (or at least omit critical information to our understanding), I think it may be warranted now. If you're interested, you can do that here:
  https://www.marylandattorneygeneral.gov/Pages/CPD/Complaint.aspx

I also think its important to remember that the board are people (flawed like all of us are) who volunteer a lot of their time trying to serve the community. I think it's fair to criticize their performance as a board member but please don't forget they are our neighbors and should be treated neighborly.

I don’t think there are any around here. I wanna try too

I’m grateful that my rep is one of the seemingly useful minority on this issue, but would happily accept suggestions as to how to contribute in order to improve this overall situation.

its not real, they have a tiny man in there cooking the pizza

Yeah, it looks like this is likely culprit. Crews have been working in the area, and the water seems to have cleared up. I ran some water tests (at home kit), and so far nothing concerning.

In my experience, this sometimes happens with water main breaks in the area.

TLDR: The CA Board (a majority of them but not all) is deceptively attempting to spin their conflict with the CA President as a responsible thing. In reality, the conflict is driven by petty issues and the fact the board doesn’t understand its own role. The conflict is sucking up CA’s money, time, and resources - all of which would be better spent on providing amenities and services to the people of Columbia.

Everyone should vote in coming elections and tell the CA Board to let Lakey do her job.

Depending on where in Elkridge, maybe it’s possible the water main break near Waterloo Rd is the cause

https://www.howardcountymd.gov/public-works/emergencyscheduled-repairs

6000 block of Waterloo Road affecting 6201-6241 Waterloo Road, Kovach Court, Stockbridge Overlook Court, Woodloo Drive, Woodloo Court, Woodcrest Drive, Woodchase Court, 6202 Walter Way in Ellicott City and Golden Bell Way, Arbor Meadows Lane, 6310 Roan Stallion Lane and Morning Calm in Columbia.

OK. Dammnit. Do I have to start paying attention to this now? Anyone have a good TLDR?

I didn't notice this issue this morning.

they realized it's not too long until elections come up. Until there's something more substantial, time to vote them out!

Doing that as well, but thanks for the input.

Ask an actual neighbor.

You skipped glue it to a piece of cardboard. That's necessary because of how stale it'll be

As others noted MD will charge you the difference in the sales tax that you paid and what MD sales tax would be. As military coming from overseas with a car that I bought through AAFES (and paid no tax on originally) it really hit my pocketbook. It's a bullshit policy and needs to change.