A woman who called herself a frequent traveler on Amtrak complained to the Mirror Tuesday about a lack of heat since November in the waiting room of the Altoona Transportation Center, which is undergoing renovation.

It’s true there has been no central heat in the Transportation Center since about Thanksgiving, but there has been temporary heat, as required by the city’s contract with the HVAC contractor on the job, according to Interim City Manager Nate Kissell.

“It’s all part of the plan,” Kissell said.

With several portable heaters running Tuesday afternoon, the temperature in the waiting room was about 50 degrees — lower than it has been recently, due to the current frigid weather and the malfunctioning of the largest space heater on the job, according to Kyle Fyock, project superintendent for the general contractor, J.C. Orr & Son.

A large replacement space heater, however, had been brought in, and the temperature in the waiting room should be climbing into the 60s before long, Fyock estimated, as he showed off the new heater, located just inside the open doorway of a room that most recently was the location of an outreach of the Altoona Area Public Library.

Fyock hadn’t heard any prior complaints about the waiting room temperatures, but said he didn’t often speak to the Amtrak passengers who wait in the center for their trains.

The complaint told to the Mirror was the first he’s heard in connection with the waiting room temperatures, Kissell said.

The HVAC contractor for the job has already installed a replacement boiler, but still needs to do additional work that includes wiring for ceiling heaters, Kissell said.

He expects that central heat will return to the center in two or three weeks.

City Council awarded four bids in June totaling $1.63 million for the project.

Hranec Sheet Metal of Uniontown is the HVAC contractor, while the others besides Orr are K&K Plumbing of Johnstown and Westmoreland Electric Services of Tarrs.

The city is paying for the project with a $1.14 million multimodal grant from PennDOT awarded in 2022, plus a required 30% match from the city that will be paid with $490,000 from the city’s $39.6 million American Rescue Plan Act grant.