Some Overland Park residents are upset with the way the city is maintaining its streets.
Drivers tell 41 Action News the gooey tar and loose rock is an unavoidable annoyance, even damaging some people’s vehicles.
"It is chips in the car, it's your tires picking up the rocks, and throwing them everywhere,” said Overland Park resident Jake Sanders. "I'm a motorcycle rider, so to go out on that street was terrifying. It was basically just loose gravel.”
Another resident, Erik Radzins, said a city worker came through to inspect and apologized.
"A guy came by inspecting the road and said flat out, ‘I'll be honest with you, this is the worst one we've done in a long, long time.’"
The city tells 41 Action News it has heard these kind of concerns and complaints before.
"It's a very scientific measured process,” said Overland Park Spokesperson Sean Reilly. “This is something the city has been doing since it was incorporated in 1960."
The process is called chip seal and it’s popular because it’s inexpensive and efficient.
It costs taxpayers about a dollar a month and is typically completed on each street every seven years.
But many people said Tuesday, they’d rather pay more for a different solution.
“My plea to the city is please stop putting more down, " said Radzins.
The city plans to bring a street sweeper through the area near 119th and Antioch later this week, to help clear up some of the loose rock.
You can read more about the process on the city’s website at www.opkansas.org.
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Lexi Sutter can be reached at lexi.sutter@kshb.com.
