Pocono News Section

Scranton Addresses Must be Able to be Seen

Scranton Addresses Must be Able to be Seen - Friday, October 19, 2007 at 5:17PM EST

Reported by: David DeCosmo
Friday, Oct 19, 2007 @05:17pm EST

SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA COUNTY- The city of Scranton is cracking down on a 6-year old ordinance requiring property owners to display their address numbers on the front of their homes. The city said their prime concern is safety.

There are more than 35,000 houses in the City of Scranton. If you know the address you should be able to get to any one of them. But spotting that address can be difficult at times. Some houses have no numbers displayed. Some are so small or nearly hidden that they're hard to see. That's bad enough if you're trying to deliver a pizza. But it could be downright dangerous if you're an emergency workers responding for a call for help.

Scranton Public Safety Director Ray Hayes explained "Many times the police officers have difficulty locating a particular residence because what happens, as they pull up in a particular neighborhood there are no numbers visible. It's a little easier on the fire side because many times you can spot a fire. But in the early stages of a fire it's difficult, many times, to determine the residence."

Public Safety Director Ray Hayes said the city adopted an ordinance back in 2001 requiring that house numbers be posted and clearly visible on the front of buildings. The numbers should be 3 inches high or higher. But a drive through the city quickly reveled that a few properties have no numbers and many have small numerals that are often hard to see.

Community Policing officers did a survey and suggested that the ordinance be enforced. Initially the owners of homes that aren't properly marked will just get a warning. "It will be a warning. What we're looking for, again it goes back to commonsense. We're not looking to fine people. What we're looking for is compliance. The compliance is in essence for their own personal safety" said Hayes.

Officers will begin issuing verbal warnings to property owners whose homes don't display numbered addresses as of Monday. The ordinance has fines between one and 300 dollars for those who continue to ignore the requirement.