July 28, 2005

Hole in one on Park Ridge Drive

Neighbors turn sinkhole dilemma into private joke

By Jeanne Carbone Lewis
Staff Writer

Nobody can say that residents on Park Crest and Park Ridge drives don’t have a sense of humor. A recent sinkhole on the street caused concern at first but turned into a prankster’s dream.

The nine-inch sinkhole was cause for concern at first, but now neighbors are having a good time with it. The city says it will eventually be fixed.

“I didn’t call the city, but I have an idea who did,” said Park Ridge resident James Hakewill. “Every day there is something new at the sinkhole. It’s really entertaining.”

The sinkhole first appeared about three weeks ago, according to resident Molly Robertson. She then noticed orange cones placed around the gap in the street marked “SJPD.” Two mysterious large trucks appeared at 2:30 a.m. about a week later to check out the problem.

Next someone placed flowers in one of the cones.

Then a sign appeared that read: “City of San Jose fix this problem!” That was removed and a tall pole waving an orange banner announcing “18 Park Ridge Golf and Country Club” appeared, complete with golf balls glued to the street. Robertson is thinking of adding a golf club to the montage.

“We’ve applied a temporary fix,” said Department of Transportation maintenance supervisor for the sewer repair crew Ernie Espitia about the nine-inch sinkhole. “The crews went out, put cones up and had the video inspection crew take a look. It will eventually be dug out; we will repair the storm line, then backfill, compact and fix the street.”

Espitia says that sinkholes occur frequently after heavy rainy seasons like this year. The crews usually do repairs on weekends but they are very busy after the rainy winter.

“Hopefully they’ll let us know when they’re going to fix the street,” said Park Crest resident Robertson. “We are one of two access streets to this large development so we get a lot of traffic but in the meantime this is a lot of fun.”

Robertson says that neighbors walking their dogs or driving by are all stopping to take a look at the “18th hole” that sprung from an ugly, little sinkhole. And they’re having a good laugh.

To notify the city of sinkholes, call pothole repairs at 277-4373.