Hot steaming asphalt comes off the Lucas truck Photo Andy Scheck

A step on a crack can nearly break your back. Or so it seemed to Jim Lucas when he watched a neighbor fall on a section of broken sidewalk pavement along Lafayette's Glenside Drive. Lucas says the neighbor, out walking his yellow Labrador, "took a good little header but hurt his pride more than his tail bone." Soon afterwards Lucas, and his company, went to work.

Lucas owns JV Lucas Paving. He's been a Lafayette resident for 30 years and is a third generation contractor, in business with his son. Their company made the repairs at no cost to Lafayette, fitting the work in between previously scheduled jobs.

"That was nice," said City Inspector Mike Moran. He's worked with Lucas Paving on a half dozen projects over the last ten years, and inspected the job site. In this era of tight finances, "...to be honest, the city wouldn't have made the repairs."