KANAWHA COUNTY, WV — Local officials gathered along a narrow residential road Thursday morning for a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrating the repair of a pothole that had remained open for eleven years.
The ceremony featured four elected officials, one folding table, a tray of grocery-store cookies and a red ribbon stretched directly across the freshly patched section of pavement.
Approximately nine residents attended, including three who said they came only because the ribbon prevented them from reaching their homes.
Mayor Curtis Pritchard called the repair “a historic investment in transportation, public safety and the future of this community.”
“For more than a decade, people said this pothole couldn't be fixed,” Pritchard told the crowd. “Today, we proved that with enough patience, determination and twelve pounds of cold patch, anything is possible.”
The pothole first appeared in the spring of 2015 after a particularly harsh winter.
Town records show it began as a small crack but expanded steadily through repeated freezing, thawing and several years of officials describing it as “not quite bad enough yet.”
By 2019, residents had begun using the hole as a landmark when giving directions.
“Go past the church, turn left at the old gas station and when your front tire drops about six inches, you're there,” resident Linda Harper explained.
The pothole became so familiar that longtime residents gave it the name Gerald.
Nobody remembers why.
Over the years, the town received at least 47 complaints about Gerald, including reports of bent wheels, damaged suspension components and a crock pot of soup that overturned in the back seat of a Buick.
Officials repeatedly promised to evaluate the situation.
In 2017, the town placed an orange cone beside the pothole.
The cone disappeared within two days.
A replacement cone was placed inside the pothole in 2018 but sank so deeply that only the reflective band remained visible.
In 2020, a public works employee outlined the damaged pavement with orange spray paint.
Residents said this made the pothole easier to admire but did not improve the road.
“We weren't ignoring it,” Pritchard said. “We were monitoring it closely to determine whether it would stabilize on its own.”
Gerald did not stabilize.
By last winter, the pothole measured nearly four feet across and had developed what transportation officials described as “a smaller supporting pothole” along its eastern edge.
Several residents began slowing down to admire it.
One family included it in their Christmas-card photograph.
Local teenager Mason Webb briefly listed the pothole as a fishing location on a map application after rainwater collected inside it for three consecutive weeks.
The listing received two reviews.
One described the fishing as poor.
The other praised the ample parking.
Pressure to repair the pothole increased earlier this month after resident Travis Miller struck it while carrying a birthday cake.
The impact separated the cake into three distinct layers and caused the decorative lettering to read “HAP BIR TH.”
Miller attended Thursday's ceremony but declined to applaud.
“I'm glad they fixed it,” he said. “I just think eleven years might be longer than we should wait to celebrate basic road maintenance.”
Town Councilwoman Donna Ferrell rejected that criticism.
“People focus too much on how long it took,” Ferrell said. “They need to focus on the fact that it eventually happened.”
According to documents distributed at the ceremony, the repair required one bag of cold patch, two shovels, a municipal pickup truck and six employees.
Four of the employees were assigned to watch the other two employees spread the material.
The entire repair took approximately fourteen minutes.
Planning and administrative review required eleven years.
Officials did not disclose the project's total cost but confirmed the ribbon cost more than the asphalt.
The town also purchased ceremonial scissors large enough to require two hands, explaining that ordinary scissors would not adequately communicate the importance of the occasion.
Pritchard attempted to cut the ribbon at 10 a.m. but was forced to pause when a resident pointed out that the patch was still soft.
The ceremony resumed twenty minutes later.
As cameras flashed, Pritchard cut the ribbon and declared the road “officially reopened to normal traffic.”
The crowd remained silent until someone asked whether the ribbon could be moved so they could leave.
Town officials then invited residents to inspect the repair.
Several people cautiously approached the patch.
Harper pressed it with the toe of her shoe and said it appeared “better than the hole.”
Public Works Director Stanley Cobb described that assessment as an important endorsement.
“You always want infrastructure to exceed expectations,” Cobb said. “Fortunately, expectations were extremely low.”
Officials said the patch should last anywhere from six months to several days, depending on rain, freezing temperatures and whether a school bus drives over it.
The town plans to inspect the site again in 2037.
Following the ceremony, officials posed for photographs beside the repaired pavement and distributed commemorative cookies decorated with gray icing.
Pritchard announced that the remaining ribbon would be preserved at town hall alongside the shovel used during the project.
Residents then asked whether the town planned to repair three larger potholes located approximately 40 yards farther down the road.
Pritchard said those concerns would be reviewed during the next budget cycle.
“We have demonstrated that this town can solve its infrastructure problems,” he said. “We just have to address them one every eleven years.”
At press time, the newly repaired patch had begun developing a small crack near the center.
Officials described the crack as cosmetic.
The Holler Herald — West Virginia’s Least Reliable News Source
If it happens in the hills, we’ll probably report it. If it didn’t, give us about twenty minutes.
