The “Friendly City of Williamsport” may be famed as a city of good neighborhoods, cheer and warmth…but city hall has been forced to display a “cold shoulder.”

A local furnace concern was engaged to prepare the furnace in the basement of City Hall so that it would be ready for chilly fall weather. But fall stole the lead on the furnace man. The task of cleaning and repairing the furnace is a gigantic one, as the huge boilers must be tubed and drained and the furnace and pipes cleaned, as task, which requires a week or two.

Ever since cold weather has been in evidence, so have coats and wraps in City Hall.

In the main office used jointly by the mayor’s office and the council chambers, a huge built-in fireplace has been banked daily with glowing embers and coals, emanating not only warmth to the room, but imparting a glow to the visitors with its old fashioned cheeriness.

The health office has been heated with a small kerosene stove and an electric heater, which certainly do the trick as far as heating is concerned, but the kerosene stove imparts a lasting fragrance on garments of personnel and visitors.

The office of the city engineer on the third floor was really well heated, as three or more electric heaters were going full force and were augmented by the rays of the afternoon sun that poured through the windows across the entire Pine Street side of the building.

The police offices, the only ones occupied all night, have been depending on an electric heater to provide protection from the chilly autumn evenings.

Compiled by Lou Hunsinger Jr.