Pizzas start paving Havre potholes today

With some help from pizza sales, work on repairing Havre streets started this morning.

Havre was among the first 11 cities in the nation to receive a grant from Domino's Pizza to supplement its budget for street repair, and Havre Public Works employees were on 12th Avenue between First and Fourth streets doing work.

"Cracks, bumps and potholes can easily ruin a good carryout pizza, and nobody wants that," T.R. Christianson, Havre Domino's franchise owner, said in a release about the work. "We're thrilled that Havre was selected as a grant recipient to help smooth the ride home for our carryout customers."

Domino's launched its Paving for Pizza program in June, asking customers to nominate their town for a grant to repair potholes, the release said. Since the program started, Domino's has received more than 137,000 nominations from 15,275 different zip codes in all 50 states. Customers submitted so many nominations that Domino's decided to expand the program to pave one community in each state. Havre is one of 11 cities selected for a grant so far.

Customers who haven't submitted a nomination can do so online, and people can see an updated list of cities receiving grants, at http://www.pavingforpizza.com/.

Domino's will accept nominations through Dec. 31.

When the grant was announced, Havre Public Works director Dave Peterson said it will be a great help to the city's pothole repair work.

He said the city will be doing intensive work on the streets this month, weather permitting.