Our View: Maple-Ash corridor reopening party Tuesday
Terry Novak, former city manager of Spokane, also worked in city management in Alaska, Minnesota and Missouri. Over his many years in government, he heard so many complaints about potholes that he came up with a foolproof way of eradicating them.
Go out into the street during a full moon. Place a paper bag next to the pothole. Jump up and down quickly. The “pot” that lives in the pothole will worry an earthquake has arrived and jump out of the hole. Place the paper bag over the pot. Dispose of the pot. Problem solved.
Novak has a serious demeanor, and he explains the solution in the same voice he’d use to explain municipal taxes, so you see what hearing about potholes for decades can do to the most reserved among us. Potholes and streets. Citizens are obsessed with them.
“Streets are something frustrated people can complain about quickly,” Novak says. “You don’t want to mess with the water utility, because you need water. You don’t want to mess with police and fire, because you might need those services.”
Sometimes the pothole story has a happy ending. And it doesn’t involve paper bags, full moons or creatures called “pots.” One of those happy endings will occur today, when the Maple-Ash corridor – a major north-south thoroughfare – is scheduled to reopen to traffic.
And Tuesday at 1 p.m., at the corner of Ash Street and Boone Avenue, the city is throwing a little party in honor of the rehabilitation of the corridor. All residents are invited. A celebration for the completion of a road project? It’s a great idea.
Potholes will always be a fact of civic life. Roads are expensive to fix and maintain, especially in Spokane, due to our freeze-thaw winters. Money for street repair and rehabilitation can get derailed by more pressing city needs, such as police and fire. Finding a stable source of funding for roads is an ongoing challenge for Spokane – and all Inland Northwest municipalities.
Citizens should see where their complaints can lead. In 2004, voters were so fed up with the condition of Spokane’s roads that they approved a $10 million street bond. The Maple-Ash corridor rehab was the biggest project funded by the bond in 2008. It’s worth seeing – and celebrating.
And, as Novak might remind us, we better celebrate now, because winter – and its yearly invasion of pots – is less than four months away.