A Kansas City, Missouri, resident is celebrating a pothole’s three-month existence by throwing it a birthday party.
Frank Sereno is drawing attention to treacherous road conditions on his street through humor in hopes of gaining the attention of city officials.
“I’m going to have a celebration for Pothole,” Sereno told reporters. “I got some cake, lit a candle and had a little birthday party for Pothole. He seemed thrilled with the idea.”
However, Sereno said he did not sing “Happy Birthday” to the pothole, but only because “it was too hot out.”
Maggie Green of Kansas City’s Public Works Department said the pothole outside Sereno’s home is in fact on the list of potholes to be filled and should be finished by Saturday.
“The weather is always a challenge. I know they got a lot done this week with the good weather,” she said. “Last week they patched almost 2,000 potholes. Anytime it’s pouring down rain it’s difficult to patch but as long as we have good weather, crews are out there working on that list.”
Sereno said he doesn’t think complaining is getting him anywhere, so his best option was to draw attention to the problem.
He said:
I thought, ‘What I can I do to have a little fun.’ Everyone is always complaining about the potholes, but complaining doesn’t seem to be getting anything done. So I said, I want to keep it top of mind. I know my fellow Waldo neighbors are just as disgusted as I am so I said, let’s just celebrate it’s birthday. It’s third birthday.
A similar celebration was held in Langdon Hills, England, in March 2018, when an unknown resident decided to draw attention to the township’s own pothole problem.
“I spotted something on the pothole, and thought “‘What on earth is that?’” said resident Paul Gibson. “Went outside and there was a card and cake sitting there, how funny is that?”
“The reaction has been amazing online, everybody has been commented saying ‘why wasn’t my pothole invited?” It could have been one hell of a party.”