Council seeks better utility notices and to resolve 911 address duplications with Plains Township

At the March 11 work session, Wilkes-Barre council members pressed city leaders to improve utility communication and to pursue a long-term fix for duplicate street names that complicate 911 dispatching.

Charlie told the council he and staff had recently met with Pennsylvania American Water leadership, which agreed to notify businesses in advance of scheduled shutdowns rather than leaving owners uninformed. He said the city would use signage and meter notices for planned outages, modeled on approaches used with the Juan Valley Sanitary Authority.

Separately, council members and staff described ongoing confusion among streets that share names across municipal lines (for example, Harriet Street in Wilkes-Barre and neighboring Plains Township), which can result in misdirected emergency responses and utility errors. Charlie said county 911 officials have been involved and recommended another meeting with Plains Township and other affected jurisdictions to seek an agreeable resolution. He cautioned that changing addresses or street names would be disruptive for longtime residents and would require intergovernmental agreement.

No policy decisions or formal intergovernmental agreements were recorded at the work session; council members directed staff to continue coordination with the water company, the county 911 office and neighboring townships.