Lancaster city repairs pothole on Eshelman Mill Road [Lancaster Watchdog]

On the southern edge of Lancaster city, a stubborn pothole sat untouched for the past two years until The Watchdog prompted city officials to fix it.

The hole stretched nearly 2 feet and reached across half a lane at the curve of Eshelman Mill Road near Kiwanis Drive, which is just a stone’s throw from Lancaster County Central Park. It was impossible to avoid it without swerving into the other lane.

A reader pointed out the problem to The Watchdog after regularly passing the pothole on a daily commute.

“I come by there twice a day and that bad spot cannot be missed by vehicles coming around that curve,” the reader said. “It is extremely hard on vehicle tires and it may throw vehicles.”

The pothole was in a small corner of the city where municipal boundaries aren’t very clear — between the city and West Lampeter Township — so city operations manager Cory Simo said that stretch of road likely is not well traveled by city staffers, so they must have missed the pothole all these years.

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After learning about the problem, the city got to work, first with a quick-fix paving material called Perma-Patch. When they realized it was a bigger problem than expected, Simo said the city squeezed it into their busy paving schedule two weeks ago. The reader was pleased with the city’s work.

Lancaster Public Works Director Stephen Campbell said the pothole is one of the reasons the city introduced the Fix It! Lancaster app, where residents can report citywide issues like graffiti, potholes and litter. Campbell said the app is meant to bring concerns to the city’s attention, so things can be taken care of easily. After launching in January, the app reports just over 1,000 issues in total have been fixed.