A 3rd suitor for Petaluma's ample potholes

<p>It sounds like a Kurt Vonnegut subplot: The killjoys at PETA compete with the chicken cookers at KFC for what is essentially the naming rights to Egg Town's nest-sized potholes.</p><!-- Nothing to do. The paragraph has already been output --><p>Wednesday, the cast grew larger in the drama that will determine who will garner some publicity in return for cash donations to fill some of the infamous craters on Petaluma's streets.</p><p>Remember Pierre Miremont? He's the mirthful Petaluma businessman and anti-pothole crusader who, along with Tim "Animal" Sullivan, furtively painted bright yellow and red circles about Petaluma potholes years ago.</p><p>Miremont wrote Petaluma Mayor Pam Torliatt on Wednesday and offered to sweeten the pothole pot in the wake of the offers by Kentucky Fried Chicken and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.</p><p>Torliatt has welcomed KFC's plan to donate $3,000 and paint a temporary company logo on one filled pothole. The mayor's shown no appetite for PETA's offer to give the city $6,000 and paint a fixed pothole with a logo portraying Colonel Sanders as a torturer of chickens.</p><p>Miremont's offer: He and Sullivan would pony up $5,000 for pothole repair. In return, Petaluma would allow each fixed pothole to be permanently stenciled with "Pothole Capital" or similar wording.</p><p>Miremont also seeks a promise that for each pothole fixed, an unfilled pothole will be ringed in yellow warning paint.</p><p>Mayor Torliatt's initial response was thanks, anyway. She told Miremont in an e-mail, "Your offer is clearly one that would create confusion and a distraction for motorists on the road."</p><p>The world waits.</p><p>— Chris Smith, Press Democrat columnist</p>