Some residents in New Deal said potholes on their street have not been properly addressed by city officials.
Karissa Garza said she and her husband moved into town more than three years ago. She has spent a year and a half trying to bring attention on the street conditions to City Council.
“The condition of the road, it’s just never changed,” Garza said. “It gets worse in the winter obviously because of the snow and the ice. Also in the spring and the summer when the rains come.”
She said city officials have not fully addressed the concerns being brought up. She said she collected almost a full page of signatures from neighbors.
“[Council] said that they were aware of the problems, the road conditions, they knew what they were like and that was something that they needed to address,” Garza said. “Every time there’s a big pothole we have to call the City Hall, ask them to get somebody out here to patch it up.”
“I did call the County Commissioners, they did say that they couldn’t help because we were in the city limits,” she explained. She also reached out to the Texas Department of Transportation.
“TXDOT, they said that they have some leftover building materials occasionally and all the city would have to do is call and request those. But those are also in a shortage too because of all of the repairs that they’re doing to the highways and stuff. So we’re kind of just at a standstill right now.”
She said Jarrell Street, and three others in her neighborhood all need attention.
“I think this one is probably the worst road out of all four of them out here,” Garza said. “If you look at the condition of the road, there’s really not anywhere that you can actually go to avoid hitting one.”
Neighbor Corey Callison said after moving to New Deal from Lubbock last year, he has experienced problems on the roads as well.
“It’s not a good thing. I’ve gotten three flats since we’ve moved in in October, and it needs to be fixed,” Callison explained.
“It’s just getting bad. You can hear the bus going up and down the street hitting the potholes,” he said.
Callison said the potholes pose safety and cosmetic concerns.
“Everybody’s safety and everything else just needs to be fixed,” he said. “It probably just completely needs to be repaved. Honestly. This road is probably pretty old from the looks of it.”
Calls placed to city officials in New Deal were not immediately returned.
“I just want something other than patching and repairing all the time. I feel like you’re kind of just throwing money away,” Garza added.