EL RENO, Okla. (KFOR) – An El Reno resident reached out to News 4 concerned about a hole in the road causing problems for months.

So we went in her corner and found the city is working to fix the issue.

While the hole may not look like much, it has safety and structural issues that run deep.

“People speed down this road all the time,” said El Reno resident Tara Apeck. “It’s been an issue. This is a street where the busses come to drop off kids down at the church. I’ve had numerous instances where we’ve had people walking down this road and then cars coming up behind them. So you have to wait on this side even longer for everybody to pass.”

Tara Apeck lives just down the street from the railroad crossing and hole in the road near Roberts and Rogers by Frank Knight Park in El Reno.

She first reported the issue on the city’s app in October of last year.

“And took them a while to even put out cones and it just hasn’t been fixed since then,” Apeck said.

She’s put in several subsequent reports.

In January, she got an update that the city was waiting on a permit from Union Pacific but still no resolution, until Tuesday when we went to the scene.

El Reno’s City Manager, Matt Sandidge, explained to us and Apeck that they’ve been working on the issue – but it’s complicated.

“So it looks like it is a bad pothole, but the storm drain underneath it is starting to fail,” Sandidge said. “So this has been a process coordinating with multiple entities, with the Union Pacific Railroad, with our city engineer to come up with a plan and designed to fix the storm drain.”

The city has clearance from the railroad and plans from the engineer now to get the project started next week.

Apeck is hopeful these city streets will soon feel safer, if citizens do their part as well.

“People need to slow down,” Apeck said. “I personally have a 14-year-old daughter who does like to go outside, and there’s just too many kids around this area. People need to slow down.”

The city isn’t sure how long the project will take but they’re hopeful it will all be fixed soon – weather permitting.