Paying the price for potholes
GARFIELD TOWNSHIP -- A Grand Traverse County woman is frustrated with a problem all of us run into this time of year, potholes.
Autumn Emmott busted two tires and a rim in two separate occasions on a Garfield Township road this month. She says she'll do anything to fix the street, even pay for a permanent fix herself.
Emmott says, "It was not funny when I was walking to fix my tire Mother's Day morning and missed church, it wasn't funny at all. When I had to pay money to fix my tire and rim -- it wasn't funny then either."
These pictures show some of the damage caused by a five foot pothole on Spring Hill Road.
Emmott says, "Yeah, when I measured it, it was insane. Five feet long, that's the size of me. Four inches deep, that's crazy"
After dishing out several hundred dollars to repair the wheels on her vehicle, Autumn Emmott went straight to the Grand Traverse County Road Commission for help.
Emmott says, "He said the road was in really bad shape that it needed to go back to gravel and there was nothing he could do about that."
The road commission did travel out the next day and filled the potholes, but they couldn't provide a permanent solution.
Grand Traverse County Road Commission Manager, Mary Gillis says,” Right now we haven't budgeted any money for local road replacements, we just don't have money in the budget."
In fact, even if Emmot covered the costs, the road still couldn't be fixed since she doesn't live on the crumbling street. The road commission says 51% of property owners directly on Spring Hill Road would have to sign a petition for any further work to be done.
Gillis says, "The townships get involved and residents sign a petition and agree to basically tax themselves to pay for improvements."
Emmot says, "I'm most frustrated that I can't even do anything about it. I would pay to have road fixed but I can't it's totally out of my hands because I don't live on the road."
