Potholes can cause even the most careful drivers to spill their coffee, the thwack always seeming to hit just in time for a sip.
But in one Massachusetts city, officials say they’ll replace that lost cup of Joe.
Leominster is offering a free cup of coffee to anyone who reports the location of a pothole to the city’s public works department, officials said in a Facebook post.
“It has been probably one of the worst years I’ve seen,” Mayor Dean Mazzarella said in an interview. “But it’s also been more fun, too, because people are pretty animated about pothole season.”
Since the city introduced the offer, pothole reports are way up, Mazzarella said, though he couldn’t say how many they’ve gotten. To claim their reward, residents can go to the mayor’s office at City Hall to pick up a gift card from a participating coffee shop. People can only get one free cup, no matter how many potholes they flag.
Mazzarella describes himself as “the worst critic of potholes” and said Leominster has been working to fix as many potholes as possible.
“I started 33 years ago, and back then when you blow a tire, it was a $100 kind of thing,” he said. “Today you hit a pothole and that’s thousands of dollars of damage to your front end, your tire, to your rims.”
The city thanked Aroma Joe’s Coffee, LOV’N DONUTS, Main Street Gift & Cafe and ROOTS Natural Foods. Kitchen + Organic Juice Bar for donating to the Coffee for Potholes campaign.
Hannah Goeke can be reached at hannah.goeke@globe.com.