City Code, ExplainedBetaPardon our dust while we build this out — expect some changes along the way.

A ward is a numbered geographic division of the city. This chapter divides Pottsville into seven of them and spells out exactly where each one's boundaries run. It does nothing else — it does not say what wards are used for, who represents them, or how they may be changed.

Who this affects

Every property in Pottsville sits in one of the seven wards, determined solely by where it falls relative to the street lines below. Two landmarks do most of the work: Centre Street divides the city east from west, and Norwegian Street divides it north from south. Most ward corners meet at that intersection downtown.

• 1Northeast — east of Centre, north of Norwegian
• 2Southeast — east of Centre, south of Norwegian
• 3Southwest — west of Centre, south of Norwegian
• 4West-central — Norwegian up to Race Street
• 5North-central — the two-part ward straddling Second Street
• 6The north end — above Harrison Street and Norway Alley
• 7The west side — the former Borough of Yorkville

Key rules

• First Ward — northeast: east of Centre Street and north of East Norwegian Street. It runs north to about the 500 block of North Centre Street, then east to the city line — the 1966 text fixes that eastern corner at the old Pottsville Water Company Reservoir.
• Second Ward — southeast: east of Centre Street and south of Norwegian Street, out to the eastern and southern city lines.
• Third Ward — southwest: west of Centre Street and south of Norwegian Street, reaching the southern city line and running west along the North Manheim and Norwegian Township lines to the eastern edge of the former Borough of Yorkville. The largest ward outside Yorkville.
• Fourth Ward — west-central: the blocks between Norwegian Street on the south and Race Street on the north, running west from Second Street to the old Yorkville line (roughly out past Twelfth Street).
• Fifth Ward — north-central, and the oddest shape of the seven: it takes in the blocks east of Second Street between Norwegian and Harrison Streets, up to Centre Street, and also the ground west of Second Street between Race Street and Norway Alley, out to the old Yorkville line and the western city line.
• Sixth Ward — the north end: everything north of Harrison Street and Norway Alley, running from the western city line across to that same old reservoir corner on the east.
• Seventh Ward — the west side: the whole of the former Borough of Yorkville, annexed into the city, described only as "all of the several courses and distances contained in the former Borough of Yorkville." It is the largest of the seven by area.
• Boundaries follow street center lines, so opposite sides of the same street can sit in different wards.

Notable and archaic details

• The chapter was originally adopted May 21, 1966, as Article 103 of the 1966 Code. The boundaries above are that 1966 description; they are not necessarily the same as today's voting precincts, and the county elections office is the authority on where a given address votes.
• The ward lines were drawn against landmarks that have since changed names or ceased to exist, including the "former Borough of Yorkville" and the North Manheim and Norwegian Township lines — which is part of why the official text is so hard to follow.
• The "Pottsville Water Company Reservoir" that fixes the First and Sixth Wards' outer corner is one of those vanished landmarks: no body of water lies inside the city limits today, and nothing by that name appears in current federal mapping data. The nearest named reservoirs, at Tumbling Run, are outside the city to the southeast.
• The plain-language directions above are this site's reading of the official metes-and-bounds text, condensed for orientation. For an exact boundary, read the official chapter.