Bakersfield College officials said they expect potholes on campus to be repaired in the near future.

According to Bob Day, director of Maintenance and Operations, the potholes are an ongoing problem and several things have to be taken into consideration when refurbishing potholes.

For instance, a time must be found so parking lots can be shut down for repairs and won’t inconvenience students.

“It’s not that we intentionally try to put them (potholes) off … we just never seem to compromise with a good time,” Day said.

Several large potholes have been observed on campus. The free parking area has a few holes that have a diameter of four feet. And the library parking lot is perforated with five-inch deep cracks and small holes.

Lincoln Hall, BC’s interim president, said March 18 that the process of repairing the potholes is under way.

“We have one estimate from Perez Asphalt Construction. We can’t take just the one. We asked them to do it because we wanted to get just a general idea of what it’s probably going to cost us,” he said.

“But now, to comply with state law, we will have to send out advertisements inviting people to submit bids to perform the work.”

According to Hall, state law requires at least three competitive bids, if the first bid is over $60,000.

He said the Kern Community College District board of trustees will review the bids and “typically, the broad of trustees chooses the lowest bid.”

Hall estimated that the repair work would commence by the end of the spring semester.

According to Day, fixing potholes is an expensive chore.

“We did the stadium lots in ’98 or ’99, and at that time it was $250,000, so it’s very expensive and there weren’t major damages,” Day said.

However, Day doesn’t think that a tight college budget has contributed to several yet to be repaired potholes.

“I don’t think it’s so much they don’t want to spend the money, I think it’s just the volume of traffic,” he said.

Day said most potholes do get repaired. “The vast majority of them do (get fixed), but probably not to the time frame that people would like them to get fixed,” he said.

Students who encountered potholes said they didn’t cause damage to their vehicles but said they think they should be fixed.

“I have a little car so I try to go around them, but when I hit them it sucks. They’re not a real problem, but they should be fixed,” said Isabel Sordid, 20, a criminal justice major.

Others said they hadn’t noticed any potholes. “I don’t drive so I’ve never seen them,” said Robert Jenkins, 21, undecided major.

“I just haven’t notice them,” said Nile Hogan, philosophy major.