Sudbury residents voice concerns about potholes at town hall meeting

The T.M. Davies Community Centre and Arena filled with about 100 people on Monday night, all there to share their stories about pothole damage and to hopefully get some answers on compensation.

Ward 2 Councillor Michael Vagnini held the open-forum town hall for any Sudbury resident to voice their issues. However, potholes were the main topic of conversation.

Vagnini says everyone in the city knows how big of a problem potholes are and he hopes to make it easier for people to get compensated from the city when their vehicles are damaged by potholes.

"We actually have one lady who is a single mother, she is on social assistance right now, she has a child that has a disability her claim was $3,500," he said.

"Unfortunately she won't be able to get her car out of the driveway until she gets enough money to be able to do that."

Vagnini says he's been getting a lot of calls and emails about this issue. 

"We've had claims as little as one that just came in which is a small claim that I saw which is $92 and two claims where we have over $3,500," said Vagnini. 

Residents from all over the city came out to share their stories and to bring the councillor their claims.

Sharron Colwell is a resident in the city, she says she's hoping to be compensated for the two tires and two rims she had to replace after hitting a pot hole on March 15. But it's not only the compensation that she's concerned about.

"I'm just concerned about the safety of the roads," she said.

"I drive to work at five o'clock in the morning and it's dark and I spend more time looking for potholes than watching cars coming. You're looking down at the road rather than up at the traffic."

Amanda Swan-Viau agrees that safety is important when it comes to potholes. She says she hit a pothole in Lively with her son in the car.

"I'm hoping that there's payment for damages but I'm also hoping that the city starts looking at better ways to fill the holes and not cheaping out and you know, it comes down to safety," she said. 

Swan-Viau says the problem wasn't just having to replace the tire and rim. She says she was stuck on the side of the road and both her and her husband ended up missing work to get the car fixed. 

While Vagnini is hoping to make the claims process easier, some are skeptical that they'll ever get reimbursed for their damages.

"Maybe get reimbursed but I don't know that'll probably be in about eight years if it does happen, but might as well put a claim in and see what happens from there," said Sudbury resident John Hajdukiewicz.

"I had over $2,000 in damage, I had to get ball joints replaced, leaf springs, my struts, everything," he said it was all damage caused by hitting one pothole.

While the city does have a process for claims for pothole damage, Vagnini says the process is not easy.

"We had about 180 claims, 160 were in the month of March," he said.

"What I want to establish is how many of these claims have been paid, how many of the claims have been paid back for the people because from what I'm hearing is we're not getting a great response on the claims that are being paid back."

During the town hall, Vagnini asked all who had a claim in with the city to raise their hand if they had been compensated. He said he wasn't surprised when no one raised their hands.