Bill Bowling III, right, and Lewisburg Public Works director Roger Pence examine the automobile-sized sinkhole that opened up Friday in the alley behind City Hall.
LEWISBURG, W.Va. — Turning an ear to listen to the faint susurration of water flowing underground, Public Works director Roger Pence contemplated a gaping hole in the pavement of Stratton Alley Monday afternoon.
“On Friday, a city employee noticed a slight depression in the pavement here,” Pence said, indicating the automobile-sized sinkhole opening. “Thirty minutes later, there was a hole the size of a watermelon. An hour after that, it was about the size of golf cart.”
Addressing the public safety issue immediately by closing off the alley, Pence contacted Bill Bowling III, the owner of an adjacent building which houses the Greenbrier Printing shop. A contractor who owns several properties in eastern Greenbrier County — primarily in White Sulphur Springs — Bowling carefully dug around the edges of the collapse, gradually expanding the hole to permit access into the cavern below