On Dec. 3, 2024, the odd pothole — odd because of its square shape — at Fourth and Waverly had been filled.
There’s important news happening all over this country and the world, but not on this site. Here, allow me to dwell once again on what had become my favorite Albany pothole.
This is a spot in the pavement of Fourth Avenue at Waverly Drive. Because of its unusual shape (kind of square with steep sides a few inches deep), the pothole there attracted my attention one day when I steered the bike around it.
Utility crews, I later leaned, sometime excavate square holes like this to check on underground pipes. But usually they fill the hole again when the job is done. This one remained for years.
I asked Albany Public Works about it this fall. And earlier this month, I again rode the bike down Waverly and found that the square hole on Fourth had been filled.
So this is the last time I test your patience with yarns about this particular pothole.
But potholes in general remain in the Albany news because in 2025, the city staff is expected to ask the council to approve a resolution setting the rates of the new municipal street maintenance fee.
This past September, the council voted 4-3, with Mayor Johnson casting the deciding vote in favor, to authorize the street fee, with the rates to be determined later.
Figuring out the methodology of who pays how much was expected to take months. Once the amounts are set, by council resolution, the fee will be added to the city’s monthly water bills.
Two of the three council members who voted for the fee ordinance, Jackie Montague and Marilyn Smith, remain on the council. Two of the opponents, Ramycia McGhee and Steph Newton-Azorr, will be there in 2025 as well.
Unless any of those four change their mind, the fate of the rate resolution, when it comes up, will depend on the votes of newly elected members Michael Thomson and Carolyn McLeod.
So the little pothole at Fourth and Waverly is history. But the issue of potholes in general and what to do about them will certainly come back. (hh)
Before: This was what the pothole looked like for a long time. The shot was taken on Oct. 8, 2024.
After: What used to be a deep pothole now is just a flat depression in the pavement.
“Two of the opponents, Ramycia McGhee and Steph Newton-Azorr, will be there in 2025 as well.”
Now that the election is over, I bet they show their true colors and it was all a lie. The mayor voted yes just so these 2 could vote no and not affect their true mission of adding Street TAXES.