DOT damages woman's property while paving

From PIX11:

Like so many other streets in Jamaica, Queens, Foch Boulevard was riddled with potholes and in desperate need of paving. So when the New York City Department of Transportation began working on the street in late April, resident Latisha Wilson was relieved. But, she says, “Something went wrong with one of their trucks and the tar got all over my property, the gates, the sidewalks, the retaining walls.”

Letisha grabbed her cell phone and documented the damage, the wet tar covering the concrete slabs on top of the wall surrounding her yard, tar on the fence, the gate posts, even tar footprints from the workers’ shoes leading up the stairs to Latisha’s home.

“One of the guys came over and apologized, he said he was sorry, that it was an accident,” said Latisha. “He said we’ll clean it up.”

The D.O.T. used a power washer to try and remove the tar, but Latisha says it made the situation worse. So she called PIX11 to show us what it looked like two weeks after the power washing. Much of the tar was still visible and wet. In addition, the clean-up efforts also damaged the sidewalk. When it became clear this was a much bigger job than could be done with t power washer, the D.O.T. workers told her she would need to file a damaged property claim with the New York City Comptroller’s office.