Published: April 09, 2008 10:53 am            

WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM: Barrel covering sinkhole causes inconvenience

About three or four times in the past two weeks, Morrow Avenue resident Mike Barnwell has had to get up in the middle of the night to move a barrel out of his yard.

The orange and white barrel, placed there by the city streets department about two weeks ago, covers up a sinkhole in the middle of the street.

Barnwell said drivers have hit the barrel after dark several times since it was placed there.

“It’s been run over in the middle of the night, and it ends up in my yard, and I have to put it back,” he said. “If somebody goes over (the sinkhole), they’re going to get it.”

The city has been working on the sinkhole on an occasional basis since Barnwell moved to Morrow Avenue 11 years ago, he said.

“It’s always been like, a day or two,” he said. “It’s never been this inconvenient.”

Streets Superintendent Mike Hoffman said the repairs fall under the department’s sewer maintenance program.

The repairs will be done soon, he said. Crews have been waiting for clearance to make sure they can dig without hitting pipes or cables underground.

“You can call in to make sure you’re not going to hit anything,” Hoffman said. “We were just waiting on it.

He said the repairs will likely be done sometime this week or the beginning of next week.

“We’ll be there,” he said.

Contact reporter April Amadon at 439-9222, ext. 6251.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.