On day of eclipse, Erie County Court will not meet and City Hall will close to public

Two of Erie's busiest public buildings will not go totally dark during the total solar eclipse on April 8. But they will host far less activity than usual.

Court will not be in session that day at the Erie County Courthouse, though the building will be open to the public.

And across from the courthouse on Perry Square, City Hall will not be open to the public, though employees deemed to be "essential" will be required to work at the building.

An effort to avoid congestion on Erie's big day

Officials at the courthouse and City Hall made the plans public on Thursday.

They said the heavy traffic expected in Erie for the eclipse will likely make getting around the city difficult.

And at the courthouse, the court administrator said police officers and other law enforcement officials who might have been scheduled to testify in court on April 8 — a Monday — will now be free to help handle any influx of tourists that day.

With no court in session on April 8, those involved in the court system will not have to travel to the courthouse, at West Sixth and Peach streets, and "navigate the anticipated problems that day," said the district court administrator, Bob Catalde.

He said the president judge of the Erie County Court of Common Pleas, Joseph M. Walsh III, decided to close the courts for scheduled business on April 8, and allow court employees to get paid as they normally would.

The closure also applies to district judges, whose offices are not at the courthouse but who are part of Common Pleas Court, Catalde said.

"We are treating this as if the courthouse is going to be closed because of a weather emergency," Catalde said.

Courthouse will still be open to public; City Hall will not

The courthouse also contains county offices and other offices that the courts do not oversee.

Though court will not be in session on April 8, the courthouse will be open to the public, and visitors will have access to any offices that are open, said Chris Carroll, the public information officer for the administration of Erie County Executive Brenton Davis.

"Our intent is to remain open to the public," Carroll said on Thursday.

He said county employees will have to take a vacation day if they did not want to work at the courthouse on April 8.

At City Hall, Erie Mayor Joe Schember announced at his weekly news conference on Thursday his plans to close the building to the public on April 8.

He said the decision is "due to the unprecedented traffic in downtown Erie anticipated that day, and to alleviate any congestion.”

Schember said that he and other “essential” City Hall employees, such as police and fire command staff, various department heads and members of the mayoral staff, will work at City Hall that day. Other city employees will work remotely. City Hall will reopen for the public on April 9.

Many schools also to be closed in Erie on April 8

City Hall and the courthouse are joining many schools in shifting plans during the eclipse, which is expected to draw as many as 30,000 visitors to Presque Isle State Park in Millcreek Township to view the event. Tens of thousands more people are expected at the Erie bayfront and elsewhere.

Eleven of Erie County's 13 public school districts have said they will have no classes that day. One district will have a half-day of classes and another remote-only learning. Parochial and private schools have said they will be closed, will shift to remote learning or will dismiss students early.

The crowds in Erie are expected to be big because the city is the largest in Pennsylvania in what is known as "the path of totality." It is the path in which the total solar eclipse will be visible for the longest period.

A total solar eclipse occurs when the sun is fully obscured by the moon when the moon is positioned between Earth and the sun and casts a shadow over the Earth.

On April 8 in Erie, the big moment will begin at 3:16 p.m. That's when the moon will start blocking the sun, and the sun's outermost atmosphere, or corona, will be visible in Erie. The total eclipse will end in Erie a little less than four minutes later.

Staff writer Kevin Flowers contributed to this report.

Contact Ed Palattella at [email protected]. Follow him on X @ETNpalattella.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Eclipse means no Erie County Court sessions and no public at City Hall