Wilkes-Barre, Pittston fare well in snowstorm despite challenges

The mayors of two cities in Luzerne County said Sunday’s snowstorm gave their public works departments some challenges, but they’re grateful there weren’t any major problems and thankful to residents for their helpfulness and cooperation.

“As planned, the city’s main throughfares and the roads leading to General Hospital and Geisinger South hospital were cleared to allow emergency vehicles to travel during the duration of the snowstorm. Twenty plow trucks were out during each 16 hour shift, since the onset of the storm, early Sunday morning,” Wilkes-Barre Mayor George C. Brown said in a prepared statement.

Brown said city plow trucks would continue to be on the roads well into Monday night and the following days.

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Vehicles travel through the intersection of Market and River streets in Wilkes-Barre Monday, January 26, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)

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“The focus now and through the remainder of the week is continued plowing of city streets to ensure emergency vehicle access and allow for residential travel,” Brown said.

City crews laid down rock salt Sunday and into Monday throughout the city.

“The biggest challenge lay in the duration of the storm and well over a foot of snowfall total covering the city’s 7.2 square miles. Many of our over 600 streets are narrow and provide residential parking. For many residents, street parking is their only parking. As with other older cities, this is a challenge whenever we are hit by a snowstorm of this magnitude,” Brown said.

Brown said he wanted to thank residents for their patience as city streets are addressed and asked that they continue to check on neighbors who are elderly or may be in need of assistance with shoveling.

Pittston Mayor Mike Lombardo said storm response required an excessive amount of manhours that taxed a relatively inexperienced staff of public works employees, but they responded to the challenge admirably.

“They started working at 4 o’clock Sunday Morning, and I made the decision to send them home at 7 o’clock Sunday night,” Lombardo said.

“The initial attack was to get the snow off the streets. Putting salt down on 10 or 11 inches of snow does nothing. They started the application of anti-skid (Sunday) night before they went home. They came back at 5 o’clock (Monday) morning and are back at it. Now, there are piles of snow we need to remove,” Lombardo said.

Lombardo said he appreciated the cooperation of Pittston residents who obeyed the snow parking bans on Main Street, which remained in effect until 5 p.m. Monday.

“It was great. There was 100% compliance, which really made clearing Main Street so much easier. It’s a major artery, especially for emergency vehicles,” the mayor said.

Lombardo said only one DPW employee, Bruce Wittick, had experience working a major snowstorm. All of the other employees are relatively new, having been hired to fill vacancies created by retirements and other circumstances. He said retired DPW employee Sam Valente, who worked the storms of 1993 and 1995, came in last week to give the new employees advice on how to approach Sunday’s storm.

He also noted that not one, single resident left a nasty message about street conditions, and he saw many residents stepping up and helping out their neighbors in shoveling and making sure they were OK.

“That’s really community, where there’s respect and people handle themselves appropriately,” Lombardo said. “That’s they way things used to be.”

Storm-related re-openings, service resumption

All Luzerne County offices are reopening Tuesday.
All Luzerne County Transportation Authority buses will resume service at 9 a.m. Tuesday on snow routes.