LH’s closed City Hall aiming for end of September reopening
LOCK HAVEN, PA – The City of Lock Haven has received the results of the first of a series of tests required to establish that City Hall is free of legionella bacteria and safe for employees to return to work at the location. Legionella is the bacteria that causes both Legionnaires Disease and Pontiac Fever and for which the city’s HVAC first tested positive on Aug. 30.
The first culture test has come back and shows that legionella is no longer present at that location in the building from which it was taken. The remaining tests are to be received through the week of Sept. 25. According to a Sunday release from City Manager Greg Wilson, ff each test was to come back showing the absence of legionella, the city would be able to return all operations normally based at City Hall and reopen the facility, supplying immediate notice to the public through both the city’s website and the media. If a test were to come back that a location in the building is still positive for legionella, the city would address that by sanitizing and resampling the area while continuing to operate from other locations. The city continues to follow the recommendations of the Pennsylvania Department of Health and hopes to return to basing its police and administrative operations out of City Hall by the end of September.
The city manager said city police will continue to operate from a temporary facility thanks to the generosity of “our strong community partner Commonwealth University at Lock Haven.” The remaining offices regularly located at City Hall operate out of the city Public Works facility at 99 Second Avenue and can be reached by calling (570) 893-5917. Those calling are reminded that more than six departments are sharing this single phone line and single office. To ensure the quickest response time from any City Hall based departments, email is preferred and a complete list of email addresses for departments can be found in the city directory on the city’s website at lockhavenpa.gov.
As results are known and more information is available, City Manager Wilson will continue to update the public through the city’s website lockhavenpa.gov and through the media.
