The Lycoming County Commissioners want the public to know that they had nothing to do with the recent cancellation of the Fourth of July celebration by Williamsport, which was officially announced this week, after they “kind of got slammed,” according to Commissioner Marc Sortman.

“I want to make it very clear, the three of us had no decision, nor were we invited to discuss the city’s decision to not hold a Fourth of July celebration. We were not consulted, as if we could even help…this office did not cancel Fourth of July celebrations in downtown Williamsport,” Sortman said.

Commissioner Scott Metzger characterized the fact that Williamsport, the county seat, not having a celebration, especially for the country’s 250th birthday, as “an embarrassment.”

He noted that he had been contacted by several people who are “extremely upset over it.”

“I spoke to a veteran last night whose relatives have fought in every war, back to the Civil War, and he said, quote, it’s a slap in every veteran’s face that the City of Williamsport is not celebrating the Fourth of July. That was his quote. I kind of agree with him more,” Metzger said. ” I spoke with two of the council members, one being the president, yesterday, and they were not consulted either. So city council had no say on this, according to the president of city council. I have left a message with the mayor. Please contact me to see if it can be revisited and see if there’s some way we can get this to happen,” he said.

Metzger pointed out that 14 city police officers, out of 47 on the force, had provided manpower for the event last year. He noted that the city does not mandate overtime.

“That is one of the issues…they can call off if they choose not to work,” he said.

The State Police, he said, have indicated that they would be willing to help with the celebration this year by providing three two-man units.

“We would encourage the mayor to revisit this. There’s plenty of time yet-it’s April, not the middle of June,” Metzger said.

“We will try to assist in any way…but there’s been no discussions. There hasn’t been any leadership called to the table and said, hey, how can we work this out as a county, as a city,” he added.

Metzger said that he didn’t know if the Lycoming County Law Enforcement Association had been contacted, which would have brought everybody to the table.

“That’s a question that can be asked of the city too,” he said.

“So it sounds like this decision was made by possibly one person or two people, and we would encourage the mayor to reach out to us and try to find a resolution to this, because to have nothing is not going to be the proper way of handling this, and I believe the city would have more problems throughout the day by responding to hundreds of parties instead of having everything centralized,” Metzger said.

“The invitation’s on the table, we ask them to reach out and see what we can do to bring the proper celebration to the city of Williamsport, which is the county seat,” he added.