Toledo woman fills pothole in front of her house

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - It’s the season for potholes, and on Varland Avenue in Toledo, residents are no strangers to them.

When one pothole, in particular, popped up in front of Jamie Rossi’s house, she decided to take matters into her own hands.

“Every Wednesday, I like to go outside and make sure I pick up the pieces of trash I can get into the garbage because I get excited. As I was out there, I noticed the pothole is getting and bigger, so the best thing I can do is fill it back up, so nobody has to get a tire rim or car out of alignment,” said Rossi.

But Rossi says she didn’t do it because the city wasn’t willing to fill it.

“Because I want to, it looks better for us, looks better for whoever goes over it,” said Rossi, “We need to have a nice area. Let’s take care of it.”

In fact, her neighbor’s father had reported the pothole to Engage Toledo as Rossi was filling it with the gravel around it. The city responded the day after to properly patch it.

“There’s a few of them up and down the street, and I called the city, and they seemed to take care of it pretty quick, which was pretty nice, you know,” said Toledo resident Matthew Erard.

So far this year, 18,088 potholes have been patched by the City of Toledo. Last year, the city repaired 85,560 potholes.

“It has been kind of a light year for us on pothole request, and that’s due to having such a light winter,” said Toledo Road and Bridge Maintenance Commissioner Jeremy Mikolajczyk.

Various factors can affect the number of potholes that pop up, such as the age of the road.

“The older the street is, the more water it can get into, and then that water freezes and breaks up the pavement. so the older the pavement is, the more water is in it, and it breaks up easier,” said Mikolajczyk.

Right now, there are 275 active pothole repair requests.

If you do see a pothole in your neighborhood, you are asked to contact Engage Toledo. If it is a major repair, you can make note of that so it can be put on a high-priority list.

See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Please include the title when you click here to report it.