It took the city just one hour to fix a Hubbard Street sinkhole that residents had been complaining about for six months.
Two Department of Environmental Protection trucks arrived at the curbside hole between Avenue Z and Shore Parkway on Oct. 20 and workers swiftly took care of a problem the city had ignored until local media put a spotlight on it.
“We’ve been calling 311 for months, but I think it was all the news coverage that finally got the hole fixed,” said Frank Messano, who lives right in front of the now-paved gash. “But we’re so happy to have the hole filled.”
The city would not confirm exactly what lit the fire under it to get the job done, but it seems apparent that coverage by us and on blogs like SheepsheadBites.com might have had something to do with it.
Last week, the city’s Department of Environmental Protection told us that the sinkhole couldn’t be repaired until it learned how the 3-foot-deep divot came about in the first place.
Even after the hole was finally fixed, the agency said the cause is “still under investigation,” but officials changed their tune about the timeline for a repair.
“The DEP fixed it because it is a safety issue,” said spokeswoman Mercedes Padilla.
Padilla would not comment on why it took the agency so long to realize the hole was a hazard.
The sinkhole, which residents said could fit a small child, was around for such a long time, somebody took matters into his own hands — by filling it with rocks.
But the makeshift patch job wasn’t an adequate solution.
“I still kept visualizing some little kid tripping over the hole,” Messano said.
Now that the job is done, Messano hopes the hole is gone for good.
“I just hope it stays fixed,” Messano said. “We’ll see what happens.”
