Shoddy work led to problems

To the editor:
Last Saturday my beautiful wife and I were going to Fort Recovery to the Fort Recovery versus Mississinawa Valley boys basketball game where her brother was being honored for basketball prowess in the 1948-51 seasons.
As we traveled east on Water Street, I wondered what anyone coming west in Portland thought of our fair city. With the number and sizes of the potholes we encountered, their assessment would be anything but complimentary.
Kudos to J.R. and his evaluation of our Indiana Department of Transportation and continuing embarrassment of East Water Street’s lousy conditions.
If memory serves me correctly, it hasn’t been too long ago J.R. had issues with the quality of the repaving of Water Street done then. The end result of those issues was a sub-par repaving of what started as a vastly inferior paving job.
I may be wrong, but I firmly believe the quality of the original job has contributed to the deterioration of Water Street, and the original contractor should be held at least partially accountable for the cost of the work to be done now.
Thank you,
Larry Chittum
Portland