Janet Yerg, Community Office Manager, Susan McConnell, Assistant Office Manager, and President and CEO, Dan Berninger cut the ribbon inside the new brick walkway that leads to new offices in the former H&R Block building located on North Main Street in downtown Muncy. A formal ceremony and reception was held Friday night, July 26 from 5 to 8 p.m.

MUNCY – Over the years the Muncy Bank & Trust Company has been a growing and stabilizing economic force in the Muncy community, and what better way to celebrate than with a ribbon cutting ceremony and welcoming reception to the public. The event was held on Friday evening, July 26, on North Main Street in front of the bank’s location in Muncy from 5 to 8 p.m. in conjunction with the annual Muncy’s 4th Friday event. During this time, visitors were welcome to view the newly constructed brick walkway leading to four new offices in the adjacent building, the former H&R Block building which is now owned by the Bank.

A formal ribbon cutting ceremony presented by Janet Yerg, Community Office Manager, Sue McConnell, Assistant Community Officer Manager and President and CEO, Dan Berninger was held at 5 p.m. before a long line of visitors who were anxiously waiting to see the new expansion. Yerg and McConnell, two long time Muncy Bank employees, will be retiring at the end of the year, Yerg has been employed with the bank for 26 years and McConnell for 39 years.

After the ceremony the new areas of the bank were then opened for tours. A wine and cheese reception awaited visitors when they arrived to the new offices.

“We are committed to staying in the downtown and utilizing the buildings adjacent to our headquarters,” Dan Berninger, President & CEO, Muncy Bank, said during his presentation at the ribbon cutting. Berninger also stated, “While many banks today move their corporate headquarters out of the downtown areas and build new facilities, we think that is a terrible thing to do to a community, as the bank building soon becomes another empty store front in the middle of town.”

In 2012, the bank began to focus on remodeling the property which had apartments on the second and third floors, and H&R Block utilized the first floor for many years. This building was purchased by the bank in 1984 as a fore thought in expanding the bank for future use. The second floor is completely finished and the third floor will be available for further expansion.

Several visitors await to enter the newly expanded offices at Muncy Bank & Trust during an open house and wine and cheese reception on Friday evening.

Berninger said, “In 1984, Muncy Bank had assets of $42,000,000, and today we are approximately $350,000,000 in assets. In order to continue to financially grow, we need additional staff with additional office space to help support this growth.”

To make the new building more useful and easily accessible, a bridge was designed to tie the buildings together. The bank used architect Tony Visco, Wingfield Electric’s Jodi Sanders, Rod Spring for brickwork, and Tanglewood Construction Company to build the walkway and do much needed renovations to the new building. The architectural design of the bridge was made to look as if it was always a part of the building.

Kimberly Wetherhold, Assistant Community Office Administrator, said that employees will be moving over to the new offices within the next two weeks. “Eight offices are ready and will hold two people each,” she said. “The bank currently employs 81, but we are steadily growing,” Wetherhold added. “We can expand later to use the third floor.”

Berninger concluded, “We are very proud of the final result and I hope that our community feels the same.”