PUEBLO WEST — News5 viewers in a Pueblo West neighborhood say their roads are crumbling and they’re pleading for repairs. News5 went to Pueblo West to find out more about what’s going on and why maintaining the roads in the area has been such a challenge.
It’s an annual concern for the Pueblo West neighborhood near Kipling and Tolstoi, potholes in every direction. Homeowners tell News5 this year they are just getting bigger so they reached out to get help finding out when they can expect a fix.
”The ones down at Homer and Kipling started off at maybe about that big around and now they are that big around because of cars hitting them,” said Teri Goode who has lived in the neighborhood for the last 25 years.
She says in the past potholes here were addressed quickly, but says at this point she couldn’t even get a response from public works. After reaching out to News5, she says the road experts finally acknowledged the issues.
“18 days later, this morning, they finally said yes we’ve seen some of the potholes you are talking about,” said Goode.
Walking along the street News5 found out she wasn’t the only neighbor with concerns.
”Well the damage to the cars and then the unsightliness of it because we also walk the neighborhoods all the time,” said homeowner Kathy Holen. “Two years ago because of a pothole, on ice, I broke my ankle.”
These streets are also part of a school bus route, adding to the wear and tear on the roads and safety concerns that neighbors feel aren’t being heard.
”In this part of Pueblo West it seems like we get the short shift,” said Holen.
After weeks without answers, I took this community's concerns to the Pueblo West Public Works Director Christian Heyn.
“A report in 2019 determined we were severely understaffed,” said Heyn.
He says crews are dealing with more than 2,000 road issue complaints along 400 miles of roads with just eight people on staff.
”We can typically handle between 20-25% of the requests we receive per year. That is, unfortunately, leaving 75-80% for the next year to try to follow up on,” said Heyn.
News5 asked Heyn if he knew exactly when a repair in this area will happen and when we can expect to see progress.
”Ideally we would be out there within a couple of weeks to a month, but historically with our resources it has been about four to six months until we’ve been able to respond appropriately to something of that size,” said Heyn.
He didn’t give a specific date but agreed to work with News5 on an update if and when a repair is officially scheduled.
”The longer they wait the more materials it’s going to take and it’s just going to never get done then,” said Holen.
Residents in the area aren’t too pleased to find out it’s going to take months before these potholes are fixed. Ultimately, it’s going to be up to them to keep public works leaders updated on just how bad things get to see if these fixes will soon become a higher priority.
In the meantime, residents in Pueblo West can file any road repair complaints online.
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