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Council and residents press for faster street paving as utility work and sinkhole repairs continue
Summary
Residents complained about potholes, a delayed paving start on Lackawanna Avenue and frequent road openings by utilities; the council detailed multi-year paving investments and identified two sinkhole repairs estimated at $27,000.
Residents and council members raised repeated complaints about road conditions, utility-related street openings and the schedule for repairs and paving during the meeting.
Multiple public commenters flagged local roads: Les Spindler noted the temporary Greenridge Street bridge recently reopened and criticized the scale and duration of the temporary work; Lynn Lubrowski and others described potholes and poor conditions on Lackawanna Avenue and Luzerne and Maine intersections and asked whether those roads are city or PennDOT responsibilities. Lubrowski also asked how many street sweepers the city operates and whether downtown sweeping includes posted no-parking notices.
Council members and staff responded with context: City finance staff (identified in the meeting as Mister Bolinberg) said City Council has approved multi-year paving programs and provided the recent investment totals: $2,680,000 for fiscal 2022–23, $2,530,000 for 2023–24 and $2,200,000 for 2024–25. The administration said substantial street disruptions are being driven by utility work, naming Pennsylvania American Water Company (PAWC) and UGI as entities replacing mains and service lines; the transcript records that PAWC alone had torn up 47 roads in the past 29 months for water-main work.
Council Member Shuster reported that the city solicited bids for crosswalks in high-traffic, traffic-control-requiring locations and that a meeting on the protocol for pave cuts and smaller contractors is scheduled for May 13. Shuster said the inspection workflow ties external inspection companies to the city's OpenGov account so work assignments are automated. The transcript also records two sinkhole repairs (2709 Jackson Street and 8 Fawn Wood Drive) with a combined repair price cited at $27,000.
No final schedule for repaving Lackawanna Avenue was provided; council members said they would follow up with DPW and the administration about start dates and holiday trash/recycling pickup changes for Memorial Day.
