Dodging potholes

Dear editor:

After dodging potholes, like forever, on Hammond Drive, I decided to visit City Hall and ask when the potholes were scheduled to be fixed; and would they mind if I filled them in with some buckets of gravel if the repairs were scheduled far into the future.

Well, I was surprised to learn that Hammond Drive West is private property. OK, now we all know. It is private property with public access for customers using the businesses located in the strip mall across from the airport. Could someone let Google and Data Scout know? Because city employees have enough irate citizens to deal with as it is.

So, for those of us who enter and exit Hammond Drive West on a fairly regular bases as a quick cut-through to businesses on Hammond Drive North, and Highway 270 (feels like half the county), what are we going to do. It seems logical that those who benefit from the road should help keep it up and not put the entire burden on the private property owner. And in a way, everyone in the city/county benefits. Think traffic jams when Gardner school starts and lets out if Hammond Drive West is closed to the public. And think increased log jam at the Highway 70/Highway 270 fork or worse yet, on ramp traffic increase from Highway 70 west, and off ramp increase traffic to 270 west. There’s a nightmare.

At any rate, I’m still offering to do the right thing for whoever owns this property, by taking a few buckets of gravel and temporally filling them in until there is a timely and an equatable solution to this problem. And in the future, if the owner/owners continue to let us cross their property, I would like to thank them in advance.

Janis K. Percefull Hot Springs