Poplar Bluff city officials and the public entered the city council chambers Wednesday evening from one of the coldest nights of the year to a chamber that was not much warmer.
According to City Manager Mark Massingham, the cold building was discovered around 3:30 p.m. before the 7 p.m. meeting.
With the temperature last night hitting a low of 11, inside the council chambers one attendee said it was around 23. But everyone attending wore coats and bundled up and conducted business as usual.
"After the long holiday weekend it (the system) just shut down for some reason," Massingham said. "We had it going late yesterday but it hadn't had enough time to heat the place up."
The city's building inspector is scheduled to check the issue this morning, Massingham said, to make sure the heating continued through the overnight hours.
"We try to keep the temperature lower to save on electric and warm it up for meetings," Massingham said.
City council meetings are not the only meetings that take place in the Oak Street location. If the building inspector finds an issue, Massingham said another spot may have to be found to host the meetings which are held each week in the location.