Groundbreaking News––

Sandy Hook Sinkhole Snags Biker’s Wheels

By Dottie Evans

It might be the Sinkhole That Ate Sandy Hook, but William Ready of Sunnyview Terrace would like to see it gone.

Mr Ready can be seen almost daily riding his unique three-wheel bike, with rear signal flag flying high, up and down Church Hill Road. He is out to collect his groceries or run errands, and while peddling along two-way Route 6, he often stops to pickup bottles and cans he finds along the roadside.

Of late, his journey has become a little more dangerous, thanks to a certain sinkhole that has opened up on the north side of Church Hill Road, opposite the Sandy Hook Deli in between the Toy Tree and the karate studio.

Although the hole in the road is only ten inches wide, from street-side it looks bottomless. Any biker or jogger that inadvertently encounters it could suffer a potentially serious injury.

“I’ve hit that hole a number of times, and once a few bottles got knocked right out of my bag. It’s a dangerous place, where someone is going to get hurt sometime,” said Mr Ready.

He added that the sinkhole has been there at least a month, that Route 6 was a state road, and that as far as he knew, nobody had done anything about it. A blue arrow pointing to the hole and been sprayed on the pavement a while ago, but it had faded almost to invisibility.

A recent call to the Newtown Public Works Department elicited concern on the part of Deputy Public Works Director David Bratz.

“We didn’t know about it, but we’ll put a cone out there right away and we will call the state,” Mr Bratz said.

He explained that sinkholes can open up for a number of reasons –– due to a break in a water line, from separation of water lines, or from subsiding of the ground beneath the road. Usually, however, it is water related. The important thing, Mr Bratz added, is that they should be repaired as soon as possible.