No trespassing signs and condemned signs on the second floor of Williamsport City Hall point to the Sechler Room and rooms 225 and 226 on Thursday. KAREN VIBERT-KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette

Boxes are packed with city documents and materials as several City Hall workers are going to temporarily relocate to the third floor of Trade and Transit Centre I, city officials said.

“We are preparing a new site for some of the employees to move into on a temporary basis,” said Adam Winder, acting general manager of streets and parks department and general manager of River Valley Transit, which owns the Trade and Transit Centre I and II buildings.

Painters with the city were applying fresh coats of paint inside Trade and Transit Centre I’s third floor Thursday.

The building’s first floor and basement remain occupied by the Community Theatre League, which leases the basement and first floor space from River Valley Transit.

“We are working with CTL to accommodate the space they need and as the same time to accommodate useful space for the city,” Winder said.

After recent rain flooded portions of City Hall, mold and mildew grew and the air quality was tested last week, including a third-party company testing for levels of air quality and measuring the mold spores, mildew, radon and, possibly, asbestos.

With notice of condemnation on parts of second and the whole third floor City Hall employees had materials boxed and say they were waiting on when to relocate.

“This structure has been condemned as unfit for human occupancy or use,” the notices read, specifying problems found in two offices nearby the Sechler Room and the entire third floor was off limits.

Mayor Derek Slaughter said he is having everyone inside, including police, to be relocated temporarily to safer premises, not necessarily in the same location.

Winder said the city will find various buildings in which to locate the employees, including the police, codes and others.

The exact plans were not revealed as of press time.

Last week, initial air quality tests showed the city needed to restrict access to about 25 percent or a quarter of City Hall.

However, given the fact that the heating air conditioning and ventilation systems is interconnected, the entire building is subjected to poor air quality.

“Therefore, we will temporarily relocate offices until these issues have been mitigated,” Slaughter said.

“The offices will start to move over the next several days. “The city departments’ phone numbers will remain the same as they are now.”

It was business as usual for police, codes, the controller, engineer and treasurer as each waited on details about when to clear out of the building.

Winder said the paint is getting applied and there are other locations that are being secured in short order.

“The mayor, department heads, and other elected officials are working out the logistics,” Councilman Randall J. Allison said. “I believe the findings suggest the scope of the problem may be far reaching in its effects across the board. An assessment of the building infrastructure, financial implications and plans for the future are all on the table,” he said.