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THE FRONT ROW with MARK NELKE: Drivers starting to get 'tired' of this pothole

| July 4, 2021 1:30 AM

We'll get to the traffic report later in the show.

But first, coming up soon is an NBA Finals with the Phoenix Suns — just like we all thought — taking on the Milwaukee Bucks, who we sorta thought could be there, especially injuries reduced the Nets' Big 3 to the Big 1 and change.

LAST WEEK'S tongue-in-cheek column about a fictitious event dubbed CarIronman Coeur d'Alene, an alternative to the actual Ironman Coeur d'Alene, elicited a not-so-tongue-in-cheek response from a Coeur d'Alene woman.

To review: The third leg of CarIronman Coeur d'Alene involved successfully clearing a growing pothole forming on the edge of the Ironwood Square parking lot, for those making a right turn onto Government Way.

Carol Samuel and her 2007 Mercedes convertible encountered said growing, deepening pothole a few weeks ago, and the result was one flat tire and a damaged wheel, which necessitated four new tires and a bill of $870.88.

"I never saw it," Carol said of the pothole. "I never knew to go around it, because I had never seen it."

CAROL HAS had the Mercedes for some four years, a gift from her husband, David.

She only drives it in the summer, and only on roads that are not being repaired.

"It’s a summer car," she said. "Low to the ground, fast, sexy, not a scratch on it, babied."

Carol said usually when she goes to Ironwood Square, she enters and exits on the U.S. 95 side. On this day, she left in the other direction.

The vehicle in front of her was an old truck pulling a trailer with "pieces of metal, cans, all sorts of stuff," she said.

The truck turned left, with the trailer going over top of the pothole.

Carol turned right, and the rear tire on the driver's side caught the hole and "went deep down," she said. "And I went, 'oh, no.'

She made it down Government some six blocks to Walnut, where she turned right, knew something wasn't right, and got out to look.

"And sure enough I had a big gash in the side of the tire, and it was flat," she said.

Not only was the tire damaged, but so was the sensor that alerts drivers when their tire pressure is low.

Carol called her husband, who sent someone over to put on the spare.

ON THIS Mercedes, the two tires on the back are the same size, but a different size from the front tires.

Carol bounced around to different tire shops before eventually learning that her meeting with that widening, deepening pothole in the Ironwood Square lot was going to set her and David back nearly a grand.

"That was for four tires," she said. "Insurance wouldn’t cover it, because the deductible was $500, and they would only cover one tire and we needed two, because they don’t make that tire anymore."

Because the tires she had on the Mercedes are no longer made, she had to get two new front tires as well, as they must be the same make as the tires on the rear, even though they are different sizes.

Since then, when she visits Ironwood Square "I’m always watching what other cars are doing now, as a result, to see who else is going to fall into it," she said of the pothole. "I did see an SUV go right into it and up … I don’t know what happened to it."

HER PURPOSE here in sharing her tale of her "babied" convertible meeting a pothole and coming out on the losing end is hopefully to raise awareness, so hopefully someone will fill in that pothole — and soon.

"I bet you there are more people that have had (a flat tire there), and didn’t really do anything about it," Carol said. "I just want to help other people.

"There should be a cone there, a red emergency cone, either on top of it, or on the side.

"Or a flag … something."

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @CdAPressSports.

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MARK NELKE/Press The pothole in question, on the edge of the Ironwood Square lot, as you turn right onto Government Way.