Scranton council presses utilities over failing pave-cut repairs as city rolls out digital tracking

Scranton city officials and Pennoni, the city’s third‑party pave‑cut inspector, briefed the City Council on April 16 on progress digitizing permits and inspecting utility cuts in the public right of way, and on plans to push utilities to finish permanent restorations now that hot‑mix asphalt plants are reopening.

City administration representative (speaking at the caucus) said the city overhauled its permit and inspection process for 2025, moving permit submission to OpenGov, adding mapping and photo documentation, and increasing coordination with utilities. "We’ve placed it all into OpenGov, so it's digitized," the official said, describing a larger set of inspections and a new cadence of meetings with utility supervisors.

The council pressed for results on the street. Council members repeatedly described failing temporary cold patches that remained for weeks through the winter, and argued that residents have borne the brunt of deteriorated pavement. One council member summarized the concern: “We have over 700 active pave cuts in 2025, and only 12% of those pave cuts have been restored,” and asked staff how many of those will be completed in the city’s planned 2025 closeout.

Eileen Cipriani (introduced by the council) described the city’s approach to enforcement and inspection: Pennoni inspectors complete on‑site reports, upload photos and documentation into OpenGov, and city staff use those records to follow up with permit holders. Cipriani said the $500,000 figure in the contract represents an estimate of inspection costs that are passed through to utilities and that Pennoni has been paid about $219,000 so far in 2025.

Will Bradley, a Pennoni representative, described the field tool Pennoni uses to record GPS‑tagged photos and measurement data. “As soon as you hit save, it saves a GPS track on our map system and saves it in our file,” Bradley said, adding that the city can then track which cuts remain red (open) and which have turned green (permanently restored).

Council members pressed staff on enforcement. City staff said the ordinance requires a five‑day notice before escalation and reported that fewer than five formal fines were issued in 2025; staff added that in many cases a written notice or an immediate coordination call resulted in the utility sending a crew the same day. Council members disputed that small fine count and asked for a list of fines issued and amounts collected.

Staff laid out a closeout timeline: with hot mix available in spring, they plan to notify utilities on April 1 and request that items from 2025 be closed out typically within 60 days. Cipriani said that once the closeout is complete the city expects to mark roughly 600 of the 2025 permits as permanently restored.

Council members also urged more proactive short‑term maintenance by utilities while plants remain closed, suggesting the ordinance could be revised to require scheduled maintenance (for example weekly updates) of temporary cold patches and stronger penalties where utilities or their subcontractors fail to return. Staff agreed to review options and work with the council on ordinance language to add ‘teeth’ where legally appropriate.

On procedural questions, Pennoni and staff said OpenGov holds inspection photos and reports and that the city has access to those records; the city intends to provide monthly updates to council pulled from OpenGov showing restoration progress. Staff also said that residents should continue to use 311/OpenGov to report both potholes and pave‑cut issues so inspections and follow‑up can be documented.

The caucus ended with staff committing to provide council a list of fines issued, collections (if any), and monthly restoration reports from OpenGov; council members said they would pursue ordinance language and examples from other municipalities to strengthen enforcement if the closeout and improved tracking do not produce visible pavement improvements for residents.