Improvements

As I continue to patiently endure the incessant beeping of the machinery in front of my house, I read in the paper this morning that Victory Memorial Drive is to be renovated. I'm quite pleased about this.

For the past few years we have endured not only huge, deep and nearly unavoidable potholes along this roadway, but also the view of several temporary street lamps. These unattractive utilities are an eyesore both in the daytime and at night. In the daytime we can view the chipped and rusted yellow poles grounded in ugly bases and at night they are seen as different colored lights. Hardly a sight to elicit pride in our city.

This spring I was mildly amused to observe the effort by some public works forces working on the potholes. This effort consisted, from all appearances, of a crew tying up traffic for a couple hours, while they worked on filling potholes in short segments of the Drive. Their efforts consisted of someone slopping black tar around the edges of the potholes, then all of them standing around and visiting for some time as the traffic worked its way around them. After this restful interlude, they dumped a pile of tar like stuff into the hole and left for the day. In the course of a month, working like this once a week on about a half block at a time, they managed to partially fill some of the holes in a two block segment of the drive. They then disappeared, never to be seen or heard from since. How proud I was to see our tax dollars being carefully conserved by the deliberate pace of this effort.

A parkway renovation on our part of the Drive will be very welcome indeed, even if it prolongs the roaring and beeping of heavy equipment. I do hope it includes road work and the replacement of the temporary lighting.