The Erie County Legislature is responding to the high volume of road complaints it is receiving by calling on County Executive Mark Poloncarz to create the “pothole hotline” that he promised to implement when he ran for the position in 2011. In a letter sent from Chairman John Mills to Executive Poloncarz, the County Executive is strongly urged to create the tip line and provide constituents direct access to the County Executive to report road issues.

“We agree with the County Executive’s 2011 stance that this hotline is necessary. The Legislature believes this will provide constituents the necessary avenue to report issues so we can get DPW crews assigned to repair them as soon as possible. There is no reason that residents should have to face the same crater every morning without even a proper method for reporting it so the County can address their concerns. Our hope is that this hotline is set up immediately, the phone number widely published and that reports are answered in an efficient manner,” said Chairman Mills.

“We need to get ahead of the problem the County Executive is already behind on. He promised to set up this service for residents and since taking office in 2012 hasn’t done it. We are now asking him to take the necessary steps to create a Pothole Hotline and quickly. The county will soon be inundated with complaints and we need a method to handle them as best we can. As the County Executive stated when he campaigned, this hotline would be a good tool,” said Legislator Edward Rath, Chairman of the Economic Development Committee, which oversees items related to DPW.