Cold patch — with a hefty supplement of cold, hard cash — is the city’s temporary fix to the winter outbreak of potholes on streets throughout Lawrence.

Through the middle of last week, the city’s Public Works Department had spent $26,845 to fill the potholes scattered around the city’s streets after this winter’s snowfall, said Tom Orzulak, city street division manager.

The efforts come as the Public Works Department is trying to make do with a smaller budget.

The city cut a combined $200,000 from the department’s 2004 budget for street repaving. That’s likely to lead to bumpier roads in the coming months, Orzulak said.

“When we don’t have as much money for street rehabilitation,” Orzulak said, “you’ll have more potholes because you aren’t resurfacing the roads.”

Public Works’ main focus now is refilling the potholes. Five three-man crews are working around the city doing just that, Orzulak said. Typically, there are one to two crews on the job.

All told, Orzulak said the city had devoted 1,028 employee hours to its pothole patrol.

Crews had to wait for the snow to melt before filling the holes, but drier conditions last week allowed them to make progress. They were using a cold mix of asphalt while the city waits for its supplier to start making the hot-mix asphalt later this spring. Once warmer temperatures settle in, the city will use the hot mix, which provides a more consistent and permanent patch.

But even with the cold patch, Chuck Soules, director of Public Works, was confident his crews were making progress, especially on heavily used streets.

A vehicle passes over a patched pothole in front of Centennial School on the west side of Louisiana Street. City crews are working their way down a list of reported potholes, smoothing the streets for Lawrence drivers.

“The traffic areas are where we get the most complaints,” Soules said.

The city puts an emphasis on responding to complaints that are called into the city’s pothole hot line.

“Anybody who calls, we put it on a list, and we just go down the list,” he said.

In mid-February, as snow was melting and potholes were popping up everywhere, the hot line was busy, with 35 to 50 calls per day, Orzulak said. Last week, the volume fell to 15 or 20 calls a day.

Just because the number of calls has lessened, Orzulak said, callers still were vociferous about the potholes, sometimes to the point where they forget to provide the most important information.

“Last week we had a lot more angry people calling who did not always tell us where they saw a pothole,” Orzulak said last week. “We had one guy who had a bicycle accident because of a pothole, but we never were told where the pothole was. This week we’ve had a lot more actual reports of where these potholes are.”

Jan Gentry, a Lawrence High School assistant principal, says she understands the city has a tough job to fill so many holes in a short amount of time.

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But her patience is wearing thin. Gentry said potholes on Louisiana Street by Lawrence High School had been filled, but she still found herself swerving to avoid potholes that dominate the corner of 29th Street and Kensington Road near her home.

“It’s absolutely horrible,” Gentry said. “When you try and go around the corner you can’t miss them.”

Orzulak is hoping for more dry weather, which he said would allow for more work to be done. Still, he is asking for patience in the coming weeks.

“When you get a lot of complaints the public doesn’t realize you are trying your best,” Orzulak said. “Once you get caught up, people forget about it.”