Vigilante patches up his street

Smacking into the same street craters outside your home over and over can get maddening.

So Zac Handler applied a little pothole vigilantism, along with some concrete mix he picked up at a local hardware store.

“People were swerving like the slalom in the Olympics, trying to go around the potholes,” the 27-year-old medical school graduate said.

His frustration peaked the last weekend in May, after he left his apartment on 38th Avenue near Jackson Street. He was reflecting on the zigzag ritual he'd been perfecting the previous six months when he saw a Lowe's store.

“I thought ‘How hard can it be?' ”

Handler explained his peeve to experts inside. He walked out with a bag of materials and got on his computer to double-check the procedure.

Add water, flatten with a masonry bull float, let dry …

Acting in the light of day, Handler set up cones around his work site so motorists would not run over him or his repair work.

Neighbors reacted positively, said Handler, an Omaha native who grew up in sunny California before returning for doctor training.

One passer-by cheered: “Someone's gotta do it.”

Another neighbor told a reporter later that he hadn't noticed Handler's work but appreciated the gesture.

“I think it's pretty cool he took the initiative,” Lamar Newson said. “Not many people will do that.”

It's not that Handler totally blames the city for neglect. He is aware of the city's financial woes and the bad winter that created the ruts.

Despite lingering frustration, city officials say the worst is actually over.

As many as 200,000 potholes plagued the city back in April, officials estimated. Four private crews that were hired to help smooth out major streets finished their work in May, at a cost of $1.2 million.

City crews have been paid about $450,000 in overtime for pothole duty and now are focused on residential streets such as the one Handler lives on.

Scott McIntyre, Omaha's street maintenance engineer, said he hopes to have most of the remaining potholes filled this month but said the operation goes on virtually year-round.

To be sure, a drive along 38th Avenue near Jackson Street and Dewey Avenue showed that it is not the worst pockmarked stretch in the city. A few larger areas near the intersections appear to have been repaired recently, although other dips remain.

McIntyre said he knows of two other instances this season when pothole-pestered citizens took matters into their own hands. One filled holes with sand, and the other used concrete mix for a pothole filler.

It's not something McIntyre encourages on busy streets, for safety reasons. Also, he said that a filler other than sticky asphalt might pop out or crumble.

On the other hand, McIntyre pointed out, residents already maintain the rights of way in front of their homes by cutting trees and sweeping up debris. Pothole repair could be considered an extension of that, he said. Unless the culprits multiplied and became hazardous, McIntyre said, the city likely would let the deed go.

Handler said he'd just grown weary of waiting.

“Every day I would wonder ‘When are they going to fix these?' And every day I would read that the city has no money.”

He didn't have money to spare, either, and flinched whenever a tire on his Lexus sedan met a hole. “I'd think ‘How many years did that take off my car's life?' ”

Handler said he purposely started out modestly, patching just three of the smaller potholes in front of his home to make sure the repairs held up.

He's considering moving on to larger holes if the city hasn't gotten to them yet.

“Sometimes,” Handler said, “you gotta do it yourself.”

Contact the writer:

444-1224, cindy.gonzalez@owh.com

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