The in basket: Merlin Dahlke writes, “The question I have regards the lower portion of Horstman Road (in Port Orchard). About three months ago they tore it up, for reasons I don’t know. Instead of fixing it, all they did was put up ‘Rough Road’ and ‘Motorcycles Use Caution’ signs. Even those signs are down or gone now. Are there any plans to fix the road?”
The out basket: It certainly is impressively rough, so much so it’s clearly a temporary condition,
Mark Dorsey, Port Orchard’s public works director, says the spot was ditched for utilities to serve the housing being built south of Horstman.
“I am told it’s being paved today,” he said Monday. “Fingers crossed. We’ve been struggling with the contractor on several fronts.”
The struggle continues, apparently. As of mid-day Tuesday, the patch was unchanged.
Funny that there are issues with the contractor “on every front.” That seems to be a common song being sung in Bremerton as well as county. No doubt the same contractors continually get the bids and continually can’t perform. One of my favorites is the Lower Wheaton Way project in Bremerton. It took anout a year to finish that one. But it is about a mile long. And there were two sink holes after it was paved and blessed by the mayor. No fault of the contractor though. Nope. No doubt the same people will continue to be awarded jobs. Funny how that works. Same bunch took forever on Silverdale Way project, and it still looks like a work in progress. But they did publish a blurb in the Sun that basically said this is what you get, too bad if you don’t like it. Apparently there is no oversight from the people that hire them.
A commenter on this column is of the impression Port Orchard is having trouble with a contractor it hired for a city project, an impression also left by the headline in the Kitsap Sun on this column. Actually, the city is pressuring a private contractor on a private Horstman Road housing project to complete the patch of ditching done for the benefit of the project.