Patching Island Park potholes

While it seems like the worst of the snow and ice this winter is hopefully over, it means that another winter problem is starting to crop up — potholes.

Because of the constant freezing and thawing of our turbulent winter, many of Long Island’s roads are looking more pitted than orange rinds. And Island Park is no exception.

“I don’t have an estimate of how many potholes, but we have been filling some,” said Island Park Mayor Jim Ruzicka. “We’ve done some around the train station and on some of our streets. We have limited manpower, so we get out there when we can.”

The majority of the village’s potholes are reported in by sanitation workers and the village’s code enforcers. And, of course, from residents reporting them in.

“We try to address it right away,” said Ruzicka. “If it’s a real bad one and something we can get to quickly, we’ll try to do it.”

This year, the village has a new “hot box” that its workers have been using to repair potholes. It’s a special trailer that keeps the tar the workers use hot, making repairs easier and more effective.

“In the past, we used what they called a coal patch,” Ruzicka explained. “It was a bag of tar that we kept hot in the shop and then would run out and put it in a hole. So the purchase of this piece of equipment will enable us to fill the potholes better and hopefully they’ll last longer.”

Residents who know of a pothole that needs to be filled on village streets should report it by calling Village Hall at 431-0600. “We’ll put it on the list,” Ruzicka said, “and we’ll get it done.”