During a meeting of Borough Council back in January the issue of a pothole (pictured above) in the alley that runs adjacent to Conshohocken Elementary School was brought up by two parents of students at the school. Parents of the school use the alley to drop-off and pick-up their children. While technically this shouldn’t be permitted, everyone, including the police chief, agrees it is the best and safest solution to handle the influx of cars at Harry and 3rd Avenue twice a day.

The pothole is just a few feet past the gate where children arrive and depart. Why can’t the Borough just fix it? The Borough is not responsible for the conditions of the alleys throughout the Borough. Borough Council was advised that if the Borough fixes it, the Borough could be held responsible to fix other issues in alleys. The parents have also sought help from the Colonial School District, which stated in an email to MoreThanTheCurve.com that since it is not on the school’s property, or on the alley along the length of the school, that the district can’t fix it.

So who is supposed to fix it? Apparently, the resident whose house is in front of the pothole is technically responsible, but can not be compelled to fix it. Here is the rub, the parent’s use of the alley greatly increases the amount of traffic that is ever supposed to exist in the alley. So should a resident be required to maintain an alley being used by the public? Obviously, that is not fair.

So where does that leave us? During the same meeting, Councilperson Bob Stokley stated he would personally fix the pothole through his foundation. We gave him the benefit of the doubt through the winter due to the weather. It has now been five months and it is not yet fixed.

If the residents of the town are using the alley, outside of the its normal intended use, the Borough or school district need to figure out a way to maintain it. As of right now we have two government entities that can’t figure out how to fix a pothole that everyone agrees needs to be fixed and is a special situation.

Below is the video of the discussion during the Borough Council meeting. Stokley makes his pledge to fix it at eight minutes and thirty seconds.