JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Residents in Brookwood Forest in Arlington asked the city to repair a pothole in the road 58 days ago, but no help is in the near future because of a backlog of such repair requests.
The hole in the road isn't huge, a little larger than a basketball. About a foot or so deep. Residents in the neighborhood say it's been getting larger due to rain. The wait for repair seems like ages.
Neighborhood resident Serena Francis called First Coast News about the problem. She says the city put a barricade over the pothole in late July. She says she was told by the city it would be repaired by November 15th.
Francis says she was floored by that response. Neighborhood resident Dmarris Smalls put it this way ."I think it's pathetic."
"I guess the only thing we can do is wait, " said area resident Charles Roos. Ross says the city is taking a chance waiting so long to repair it. " After a while it is going to keep getting bigger and bigger and one of these cars is going to fall in sooner or later."
Brian Smith lives down the road and thought that was a long time to let it sit there and was concerned about vehicle damage as well. " There are also a lot of small children that play in this neighborhood , the last thing you want is for some kid to hit it with a bicycle or a child slip their foot in there and break an ankle."
Marcy Cook with city Public Works says the hole is not a pothole which would require some dirt and asphalt. It is a cave-in, a drainage system issue that requires digging to repair.
"A repair time of November 15th is an accurate expectation," said Cook. " There are 331 such repair requests in the eastern zone of Duval County alone, 55 are cave-ins. We have several crews but they can usually repair just one a day. "
Recent rains have caused more problems. When there are emergency situations crews are called away from those road repairs to do other things and that creates delays.
Public works is set to lose more staff members in the upcoming budget year. " The level of servcie will be effected but by how much we are not sure yet."
If you have such a problem in your neighborhood call 630-CITY to report it. If you have reported it and there is a major change such as the hole growing twice as big, let the city know about that as well says Cook.
First Coast News