While Hillsdale is struggling just to fund routine road fixes, this winter amplified the problem by creating new potholes that are expensive to fix and costly to drivers if neglected.
Hillsdale senior Christopher Kehoe discovered this when he popped two tires driving 25 mph over a massive pothole on Fayette Street.
“I swerved to avoid all the potholes on the right side and I hit a super large one in the middle of the road,” Kehoe said. “I had a friend with me in the car, and I said, ‘You know what, I’m pretty sure I just popped a tire,’ and so we pulled into the Grab N Go and both of them were toast.”
Kehoe is not the only one who is struggling with the pothole problem. Hillsdale resident John Lovinger attended the Hillsdale City Council meeting on March 17 to discuss one of Hillsdale’s worst potholes, which he deals with every day.
“I’m the proud property owner of what we affectionately, on Wolcott Street, call ‘Lake Lovinger,’” Lovinger said. “It is directly at the end of my driveway. It’s not a big street, but it’s the worst puddle in the city.”
Despite his frustration with the pothole, Lovinger said he attended the meeting to encourage city council to continue seeking a solution to fix these road problems.
“I’m mainly here to encourage you. I understand it’s not a simple fix, but it’s a problem that’s not getting any better, and I perceive it to be worse,” Lovinger said. “The challenge is now that the street underneath the lake is basically down to dirt road and impossible to maintain.”
Lake Lovinger even prevented him from putting out his trash.
“This past week I was unable to take my garbage can out to the curb because there was literally a puddle 30 feet in length and so much snow on the side of my driveway,” Lovinger said.
Hillsdale’s Director of Public Services Keith Richard explained how cycles of freezing and thawing form these potholes.
When the ground freezes, it swells upward, but warmer temperatures thaw the ground and it shrinks back to original size. This constant freezing and thawing breaks up the pavement and forms potholes. Harsh winters expedite the process and form larger ones, like Lake Lovinger.
“It’s been a real struggle this winter,” Richard said. “We’ve had so many potholes form. We typically try to catch them as quick as we can. The severity of the winter and the extremely cold temperatures have made the streets swell up considerably worse than other years. This year the frost has gone deeper than a typical winter.”
Even though potholes pose serious problems for the city, Hillsdale has limited options for fixing them. Richard admitted the city doesn’t have enough funding to permanently repair the roads.
“We just completed the fiscal budget for the upcoming year starting July 1, and that has to be approved yet,” Richard said,” but we’re finding it difficult to fund anything.”
Part of the problem is that many of the worst roads are local streets that Hillsdale can’t use state funding to fix them.
Roads are classified into three types: trunk line, major streets, and local streets. The trunk line includes state routes like M99, and is maintained by the state. Major streets are also maintained by the state, but local streets must be paid for by the city.
“State grants are only eligible for major streets, and of course, the trunk line is paid 100 percent by the state of Michigan,” Richard said. “The City of Hillsdale is going to have to create their own funding among the taxpayers to reconstruct the local streets.”
This means that local streets, like Fayette, must be paid for by Hillsdale residents.
“We’ll be awarded in 2015 a small, urban grant of $350,000 that has to be used on a small urban route that is a connecter to the city limits,” Richard said. “I don’t know of one grant that could be used on a local street. The people of Hillsdale have to fund local streets on their own.”
Despite the many obstacles facing Hillsdale, residents believe that city council will find funding.
“I’m hopeful that you can find some type of solution,” Lovinger said.
