It started out like any other drive around campus for senior Megan McGregor. Early Saturday, she was pulling into the alleyway of 6th Ave. like she usually does to get to her home, when she noticed a bubble coming from one of her tires.
Immediately taking her car in, a mechanic informed her that the cause was due to potholes, with almost $200 worth of damages to her car.
This is the second time that McGregor’s car has been damaged since living in her residence home of 3435 6th. St., which she is renting out with a few of her friends, who have faced similar problems regarding the condition of the street.
“When we were looking for houses for our senior year, the alleyway was a big concern for us,” said senior Paige Smith, who is one of McGregor’s housemates.
The location of their current house was a convenient spot for them, with its close proximity to campus, but over the summer road conditions “were just awful.”
Smith and her roommates had tried to reach out to both Augustana and Rock Island about the issue, and has said that maintenance was done on the road over the summer, by patching up a few of the divots, but the results have left the road uneven and still causing damages.
During the summer Smith recalls there being a total of two sinkholes located in the alleyway, one of them located in the driveway of one of the homes. The bigger sinkhole was patched up, and the smaller sinkhole was just recently filled in with asphalt last week, yet the residence are still unable to park in their own driveways because of the state that the alleyway is still in, which is forcing students to park on the street where their cars are subjected to vandalism.
Joseph Scifo, Director of Facilities at Augustana, said that the alleyway is owned by the city of Rock Island, with Augustana owning only a few buildings in the area, such as Abbey House, that is one of the art studios on campus. Scifo said that “it is a public alley” and that it is was “just repaved by the city last summer.”
Randall Tweet, who is the Public Works Director for Rock Island said that they did some patch work on the alleyway, and that a full replacement would require more money to be put into fixing the streets that is currently unavailable.
“Currently we are looking for options, but nothing is scheduled…we are keeping in mind the safety of the road,” said Tweet.
Smith and McGregor have considered this a lose-lose situation for all of the residents of the alleyway. Both students are fearful for the coming winter and the inability of a plow coming into the alleyway because of its bad condition.
Both roommates are questioning if the patch work is even up to regulation and hope to see the issue be resolved before it causes even more damages to people’s cars.
“This is a problem that can be fixed if (the city) fills in the potholes, but they are trying to avoid it…this problem is unavoidable and will keep causing damages (to people’s cars) unless something is done.” said McGregor.
