A large and well-known building in Bradford’s historic district
is without natural gas service because of a gas leak, according to
a representative of Columbia Gas.

Rob Boluware, communications representative of Columbia Gas of
Pennsylvania, explained that service to Bradford’s Terminal
Building “is off for leakage.”

“We had received an odor of gas call,” Boluware said. “We did
discover leakage.”

Columbia Gas representatives uncovered other problems as well,
and notified landlord Edna Hallock of all that needed to be done
before service could be restored.

“When that work is completed, the landlord is to inform the
company and we would respond,” Boluware said. He could not give
specific details on the case.

Attempts to reach Hallock were unsuccessful.

The City of Bradford Code Enforcement Office has been working
with Hallock “for weeks” on the problem, explained Sue Yeager.

George Corignani, enforcement officer, said a leak has been
detected “underneath the building someplace.”

The other problems identified include meters that have to be
moved and apartments that have to be re-piped, he explained.

Hallock is considering electric heat for the building instead,
Corignani confirmed.

He and an electrical inspector will be touring the building
today to determine if the electrical system in the building could
withstand servicing the entire structure.

“We’ll know more when we go in with the electrical inspector,”
he said.

“There’s a lot of apartments,” Corignani said, adding that it is
a big building. He said he believed about six or eight of the
apartments had been rented at the time of the gas shut-off.

The first floor had housed commercial businesses.

“I believe some of the businesses moved already,” Corignani
said. “It’s sad.”

At least one of those businesses is in the process of
relocating. Orris Jewelers, which had been at 12 South Ave. for 55
years, is moving into a space owned by the city on Chestnut
Street.

Owner Grant Orris declined to comment on Tuesday.

If the building is not able to be converted to electric heating,
the gas heating system will require a lot of work.

Corignani said there are pipes going through the walls and
floors to heat each individual unit in the building.

“The only thing then is to tear them all out and start again,”
he said.

The Terminal Building started out as Pompeon Hall in 1878,
explained Sally Costik of the Bradford Landmark Society.

“It was kind of the community center of its day,” she said.

“It was Wagner Business College for awhile,” she said,
explaining classes were in accounting.

The building was also owned by Tide Water Co. and by Tony
Dodaro, who remodeled it into a bus terminal.

“He did away with all the fancy, Victorian stuff,” she said. The
building had a bus on top of it and the wheels would go around,
Costik added.

“A lot of people remember the bus terminal,” she said.