This is one way to alleviate a problem and fill the neighborhood with the spirit of Christmas! And thanks to residents’ clever idea of planting a Christmas tree in a massive pothole, the gaping hole in a street in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania may be fixed as early as Tuesday
Neighbors claimed the hole had been getting bigger for weeks with no fix. So they called attention to the problem in a festive way — and it cleverly caught the attention of city officials. Authorities have since put a metal slab over the hole.
“I was upstairs in the attic and was looking for more Christmas decorations and thought that would look nice in the hole,” said Spak.
Placing the fake fir in the pothole was her attempt to keep drivers from hitting the hole and bring attention to what she believed was a safety issue.
“It can cause so many problems with these holes. That’s not just a pothole. That’s sinkage, and it’s starting to spider web,” Spak said.
Eventually, someone placed a plastic Santa in the pothole next to the tree, and Gary Muchler, who has lived in this neighborhood for more than 60 years, posed for a picture with a watering can for his wife.
The Wilkes-Barre DPW was aware of the sinkhole and the holiday decorations.
“We have a lot of comedians in the area who put trees in there. I think it’s funny, too, Christmas spirit,” said DPW worker David Iskra.
City officials said the weather was not a factor in delaying a fix. Instead, it was that the paving company was backed up with other jobs.
By: Maytinee Kramer
