Dr. Phil none too pleased with the potholes

Dear Mayor Frank Butt:

It has become necessary for me to write the Town of Carbonear after holding my decision to do so for at least two years.

I was hoping in this time the town would have taken the corrective action to alleviate the problem which I have been dealing with every day, as do all town residents, and particularly those citizens who live in the east end of Carbonear.

This problem is the state of the main road, Water Street, from the Post Office to Church Hill and the bottom of Harbor Rock Hill to the Crocker’s Cove bridge.

Last evening, I made a cursory drive over the Crocker’s Cove Road in question and counted 33 sections of road which I had to slow my vehicle down to a few kms per hour so as not to ‘beat up’ the front end and shocks in the car. 

These ‘rough’ sections of the road, to list a few, include potholes of various shapes and sizes in the pavement, cracks and dips running across the road, remnants of patch work which have sunk, stretches of pock holes and erosions that run some 30-40 feet. It is so bad that moving left and right in some places does not allow one to cover the road without going into holes!

I suggest someone on the council drive over the road in question and see for their self the situation drivers have to face every day. I really would not write on this matter as I know the town has a full slate of business to look after. But after having my wife’s 2013 Ford Escape in the repair shop six times in this past 12 months, to repair front end damage, I am angry that this section of road has not been paved. 

Ball joints, front wheel bearings, linkages, tie rod ends and struts, and front springs all have been replaced, costing us $4,500. My wife drives her car very carefully and looks after it, and there is no question the bad road through Water Street, from Post Office on down, apart from a good strip from Church Hill to Harbor Rock Hill, is the reason for unnecessary damage in a car that only has 150,000 km of safe driving on it. For the past year we drive from our home to the business end of town, where we do our shopping, through Freshwater in order to avoid the ‘moon’ drive up Water Street. This is a disgraceful way to treat a tax paying resident of Carbonear, and if you were to ask the many residents who live in my section of town, I’m sure hundreds feel as I do over this matter.

I don’t like to use positive things the town has been doing to improve its status, like spending millions on doing the new sidewalks, lights and pavement to improve the business sections of water street, and planning a $1.3 million extension of this, this summer. Some numbers of millions have been spent on this and it does little or nothing for many hundreds of the towns citizens who have lived in the east end for all their lifetimes. 

I should not have to feel depressed and disheartened, as I do when driving home on Water Street because I am destroying my car. I ask the town of Carbonear to take action to correct the deplorable state of the road in question. Patching the road as has been done for some years does not fix the problem, but just puts it out of mind and out of sight to those responsible for its maintenance. 

This road needs to be paved, and I ask the council to meet on this matter, where hopefully the right decision will be made to do just that.

I am yours truly,

Dr. Phil Earle and on behalf of my wife Dallas.

Freshwater Road, Carbonear