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Flint family fills dangerous pothole with plant

Posted at 2:56 PM, Sep 03, 2018
and last updated 2018-09-03 14:56:57-04

A family fed up with a large pothole on their street is taking a unique approach to fixing it.

Flint, MI (WJRT) – A family fed up with a large pothole on their street is taking a unique approach to fixing it.

Robert Hawley and Danielle Smith say for the past year they’ve watched people get hurt because of this pothole. Hawley almost fell off his bike trying to avoid the large hole near his home. So, on Saturday the two of them took a step to make sure this didn’t happen to anyone else again.

“Hi, everybody, we are fixing Flint one pothole at a time,” Hawley said.

What started off as a hole about the size of a half dollar has grown into a much larger problem.

“Now it the size of basically by foot by foot,” Hawley told ABC 12.

Hawley and Smith decided they’ve had enough with this small crater outside their home on Cottage Grove Ave.

So, they bought a plant to fill the hole.

“So might as well make our holes pretty,” Smith said.

They say the city did make attempts to warn people either driving or riding by the pothole, but nothing permanent.

“There was a sign on it last year. They put a little cone over it last year, and both of them have been removed. They put a little orange flag in it, and none of the little kids in our neighborhood could see the little flag.”

Hawley and Smith are hoping this plant will give people enough warning to avoid the area.

“It’s better for them to see something there than nothing at all.” “In my book, it’s better than seeing somebody gets hurt. You know that’s the way I look at it,” Hawley said.

Early storms even providing rain to help the plant grow.

“Let’s see how long it takes the city to fix it,” Smith said.

They two say if someone did run over the plant they wouldn’t mind. They say it’s the best eight bucks they’ve spent.