CASPER, Wyo. — A large pothole along Bonnie Brae Street in Casper has made sections of the road impassable, and for many residents on the street, it’s beginning to have serious consequences.
“It’s really bad,” Natrona County Road and Bridge Superintendent Mike Haigler said after Tuesday’s Natrona County Board of County Commissioners meeting. “The hole’s about 3 or 4 feet deep, and 50 feet by 50 feet. … It’s more like a bog out there.”
“It’s a huge hole of water,” Commissioner Steve Freel said.
Mark Stewart and Ken Jones — two residents who live on Bonnie Brae — said the pothole has impacted mail delivery along the street.
“They stopped our mail because they won’t deliver on our street anymore,” Stewart said. “I’ve got to go down to the post office to get my mail now, which is a huge inconvenience for all of us up there. … It’s a forgotten neighborhood up there. It really is.”
While losing mail service has been an inconvenience for those who live on the street, Stewart said the road conditions could have more serious consequences.
“We had a guy who needed an ambulance … and the ambulance couldn’t even get to his house,” Stewart said. “They had to turn around and go around the block. … Literally, somebody could die.”
The problem, Haigler said, is that the road is a subdivision road and not the responsibility of either the county or the city. In many subdivisions, he said, the members of the subdivision share the cost of upkeep. However, in many subdivisions where road maintenance was never ironed out, conditions have fallen into disrepair.
“It’s not just Bonnie Brae,” he said. “There’s one that’s in bad shape out by Bar Nunn, the one on Salt Creek. … It’s no man’s land on a lot of these roads.”
Commissioner Jim Milne said that if the county agrees to repair Bonnie Brae Street, it could create a precedent where they’d be expected to repair all the subdivision roads.
Freel said he plans on meeting with City of Casper officials and figuring out a course of action to repair the road.
“Commissioner Milne is right,” Freel said after the meeting, “but something has to be done. That’s why I’m going to meet with some people with the city and talk about possible courses of action.”
