The problem isn’t necessarily that a man in Massachusetts went out and patched some holes in his street himself, at his own expense. The town prefers to use hot asphalt instead of the patching material he used. The core problem is that he happens be the sales manager for the company that sells that patching material.
Other nearby towns do use the material, and town officials suspect that his ultimate goal isn’t to prevent pothole-related accidents and damage to cars. They think that he wants to his company’s product and demonstrate that it holds up better.
Making his own street––where he’s patched two potholes recently––safer was a nice bonus. One neighbor noted how deep the hole was on camera with TV station WGZ, but the town would still prefer if he hadn’t used the street as a sales demonstration.
“Instead of filling it, tell us where it is and we’ll do it,” the town manager told the TV crew.
The resident isn’t in trouble or anything, but the town is in the strange position where all they can do is ask residents to please not perform DIY road repairs.
Millbury Man Takes Heat From Town For Fixing Pothole [WGZ]
by Laura Northrup via Consumerist