Residents tired of driving on pothole riddled road
By James Felton and James Paxson
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THOMAS TOWNSHIP, Michigan (WNEM) — With all the rain falling, more potholes are expected to pop up on mid-Michigan roads.
For residents in one local neighborhood it will only worsen a road they have tried to fix for years.
“It’s very bad,” said, Kay Castillo, Thomas Township resident.
Castillo is talking about a stretch of Gloucester Drive in Saginaw County’s Thomas Township. Castillo comes by often to visit her mother.
“There’s the red color on the road and she told me that that is the original road from the 1950s,” Castillo said.
Castillo said her mother is like a lot of residents there who are tired of driving their vehicles on the road.
“Very bumpy obviously because you’re going in pothole after pothole after pothole. I’ve never seen it as bad as it is today. I mean, now it looks like it’s actually crumbling too,” Castillo said.
TV5 reached out to officials from Thomas Township who in turn sent us to the Saginaw County Road commission. Managing Director Dennis Borchard explained what can be done to improve this road.
“Local roads are expensive and typically you have to do a special assessment and Saginaw Township, I mean Thomas Township does a great job facilitating that and y’know it’s gotta be the support of the property owners ‘cause they unfortunately are gonna pay the cost of it,” Borchard said.
Castillo disagrees. She said while residents should pay their fair share, it needs to be a team effort.
“The residents shouldn’t have to foot the whole bill. It should be shared with the township, the county, the state. I mean that is one of the mottos of the state is fix the damn roads. So this road needs to be repaired,” Castillo said.
Borchard said money set aside for local roads often gets spent on winter maintenance and other projects.
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