Bill Capo / Action Reporter
NEW ORLEANS -- There's a new hole in the concrete in the 2300 block of Calhoun Street. But seeing it there is making the neighbors smile.
"It's wonderful, it's fabulous," said Carol Caplan.
At the time of the first Action Report there was a serious water leak, gushing through cracks in the concrete, forming large puddles that turned pedestrians into the victims of passing drivers, including area college students.
"It's irritating, because we'll dress up for different speaker events, or job interviews, or things like that, and if you're wearing a suit, and people splash when they're driving by, so you get your clothes messed up," business major Clifford Mintz said then.
It was easy to understand the neighbors' concerns. Even I got splashed at the time of the first Action Report. So I contacted the Sewerage & Water Board, asked them to make this a priority, and the neighbors were delighted at the response.
"You were on Monday night, we were on Monday night, and Tuesday morning they were out here, early Tuesday morning," said a smiling Caplan. "I was so excited, I was so thrilled. It only took an hour or two."
But a month later, they want the repair job completed, because passing vehicles are encountering a new problem.
"They just put rocks on top of the hole, so as cars speed down, which they tend to do on Calhoun, they throw the rocks everywhere, and now we have a hole again."
But the bigger concern is that a large section of the street is cracked, broken and sinking, and they worry the leak has affected the road foundation, causing damage that could get worse.
But the Sewerage & Water Board answer was surprising.
"It wasn't their business," Caplan said she was told. "It's pointing fingers. I guess we're going to have to go to another department to get the street fixed.
So I asked the Sewerage & Water Board and Public Works departments to inspect the site, figure out what's wrong, who should do the repairs, and get them done.
