Since last spring there has been a hole in the street 25 feet east of my apartment building on the lower side of the 100 block of West Fourth Street. The hole is about 6 feet long and 2 feet wide and is about 4 feet deep. The street has sunk away and the curb has fallen in with it. The city placed two warning lights nearby and covered the hole with a 4-by 8-foot piece of chipboard that has been broken multiple times. The hole is filling up with garbage. The warning lights do not work and their steel frames are broken and are often found sticking out of the hole until someone repositions them in a safer manner. Someone could come up from one of the adjoining properties and trip into this hole, possibly breaking a leg or suffering a more serious injury. Heaven forbid that person be one of the many children who live nearby.
I have been in contact with a News Tribune photographer several times and have made several complaints to the mayor's office. The photographer is well aware of the situation and says he has seen it, but that no one at the News Tribune seems willing to do a story. The mayor's office, at last count, has referred me to six different departments which have come up with possible causes for the hole, ranging from no dirt under the street to a possible underground vault or coal bin remaining from a long-ago demolished building. The city also states it is the property owner's responsibility to repair.
Two men from the city were inspecting the hole last September, and they guaranteed me it would be fixed by the end of October. So far, nothing has been done to repair this unsafe and potentially life-
threatening hole.
Roy W. St. George
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Duluth
