BY TYLER SMITH, STAFF WRITER
Western New York winters typically rage on for longer durations of the year than other regions of the country. St. Bonaventure experiences snow, ice and general cold weather more often than where many of its students originate from.
With consistent snowfall and low temperatures being a staple around the campus community, many of the roads driven on by students freeze over.
Large potholes have been the result.
Junior accounting major Santo Lima has suffered a flat tire after driving over these gaps in the concrete.
“I have realized many are very hard to avoid on campus, especially when other people are on the road,” Lima said. “I find myself worrying daily if I am going to spend some time changing a flat tire.”
Lima mentioned the gaping holes present in and around the parking lots behind academic buildings such as Plassman Hall, where many students attend class each day.
However, potholes present challenges around residential areas, as well. Junior criminology major Cassidey Blake has trouble with multiple giant potholes on Francis Rd. around the townhouse apartments.
“If you somehow make it around the first pothole by going on the grass, there is another pothole like 15 feet away that’s bigger then the first,” Blake said. “You can’t avoid the second hole because if you go around it you’ll hit a parked car.”
Blake added she also runs the risk of popping a tire each day when pulling out of her residence.
Bhavika Sethi, junior behavior neuroscience major, believes the school has not done enough in a timely manner to address the potholes around campus.
“I get it’s very difficult to keep up with it just because of how much the weather fluctuates, but I feel like there needs to be a better and more urgent upkeep of the roads,” Sethi said.
As students around campus wait for warmer, sunnier days with spring approaching, so does Jared Smith, Bonaventure’s Director of Facilities, who said the university must wait for blacktop plants to open to make any permanent repairs.
“We are in the same boat as everyone,” Smith said in relations to towns and villages in the area experiencing the same issues. “We want them fixed ASAP.”
While Smith said there is no immediate fix, Sethi believes there needs to be programs in place for potholes to become known to the facilities department immediately, like how students can report any maintenance issues in residence halls.
“I think the school needs to include some type of program so that students can report potholes in order for The school to know for sure where and how bad these potholes are,” Sethi said.
Smith said the main roads on campus will have priority when permanent repairs become available, followed by parking lots and other concrete areas.
“We have been filling the potholes with stone, gravel and crushed limestone, but it is only a temporary fix at best,” Smith said. “Sometimes it doesn’t even las a couple of days.”
Both students and groundskeepers seem to feel similar frustrations with the large number of deep, wide potholes on campus, but Smith said caution can be taken to avoid major issues such as flat tires.
“95% of any potential issues while driving on campus roads can be avoided if students followed the speed limit of 15 mph. We constantly see students driving well over 30 mph all throughout the day,” Smith said.
Whatever the case may be, it seems as though most who travel on campus by car each day, whether it be students, faculty or groundskeepers, want to see these issues fixed as soon as possible.
Like all things, however, a solution may take some time.
smithtj19@bonaventure.edu
