Some sort of repair to East Second Street in Jamestown can’t wait any longer.

We understand the state is planning a major project for East Second Street starting this year and lasting into 2026, but the road is unusable now. It’s not as if Second Street’s potholes just popped up this year. We advocated in this space for a focus on the Second Street potholes a couple of years ago. The problem has only gotten worse since then while the state DOT wasted time focusing on things like bike lanes rather than making sure Second Street was driveable.

While the city has an agreement to handle basic maintenance like plowing and patching. What’s needed now is an intermediate step until the full reconstruction project gets under way, especially if the state isn’t planning the mill and overlay part of the Second Street reconstruction until 2026 as councilman Randy Daversa, R-At Large and City Council Public Works Committee chairman, has been led to believe.

The city’s 2025 budget doesn’t include the funding to pay for the type of work that’s needed on East Second Street. Cold patching the road during this time of year is like putting a bandage on a cut and then taking a bath – the cut is open within about three minutes. But not using the road isn’t an option for those who have to work or live on Second Street, and they’re the ones looking at thousands of dollars of car repairs because the state allowed Second Street to deteriorate to this point in the first place.

We have no doubt city officials have been trying to push the state to do something on Second Street. If the state won’t take action itself, it should provide additional CHIPS aid so the city can pay to do the temporary patch work itself. Time is of the essence. Second Street needs to be patched today, not tomorrow, not next week, not this summer and certainly before 2026.