Lingering Potholes Pose Problems for Council, City

The Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) is a place that typically takes a lot of complaints.

So, when the RMV began registering complaints with Mahoney Circle strip mall owner Paul Kneeland about the conditions of the roads leading to the shopping center – Everett Street to be exact – one knew the tables had certainly been turned.

City Councillor John Powers and numerous other councillors are putting the heat on Mayor Dan Rizzo and the administration to push the pothole, trench and sidewalk repair program into overdrive. As March turned to May, councillors began to get barraged with complaints about potholes that have lingered for months with little progress on repairs.

Ward 5 Councillor John Powers said he thought there needed to be another course of action next year, acknowledging that he has received complaints from Kneeland.

“Here’s a guy that’s not invested millions of dollars here,” said Powers. “He rehabilitated the whole shopping center at Bell Circle and we have 14 businesses there and the RMV. The RMV has been complaining to him about the conditions of the road. He’s contacted me and nothing has been done. There are two major potholes down there and people are bottoming out on them. That road also serves the Comfort Inn and Necco…We’re into May now and the DPW doesn’t have sufficient staffing to deal with what has been an excessively bad winter. My feeling is we should have had a meeting a month ago to address a plan, but we didn’t.”

Across from the Police Station, at the corner of Winthrop Avenue and Campbell Avenue, a gigantic hole in the sidewalk and street curb sat for months, according to residents, who reported the matter to the City and the Journal.

Despite numerous attempts at getting the sidewalk fixed – even temporarily – residents of the area said they got no responses.

Councillor Jessica Giannino said she gets more complaints about the conditions of the roads – especially Washington Avenue – than anything else right now.

That was echoed by Councillor Charlie Patch, who said something has to be done about Washington Avenue.

Councillor Ira Novoselsky and Powers said they would like to see the City contract with a few contractors ahead of time, so that when the winter breaks, the City and private contractors can hit the streets to get the job done.

Council President Tony Zambuto said he believes the City is moving toward contracting with outside vendors to help with potholes at the close of winter.

Additionally, the City did just receive around $117,000 from the state’s Pothole and Winter Recovery Emergency Funding, according to Ward 1 Councillor Richard Penta.

Residents can report any pothole or other condition online with the ‘SeeClickFix’ application on the City’s website –  HYPERLINK “http://www.revere.org” www.revere.org.