Jim Thorpe Borough will be ready the next time a power outage hits its combination borough office and police station.

Council approved the purchase Thursday night of a generator for the building along East 10th Street. WB Electric will supply the generator at a cost of $13,730.

At a council workshop earlier this month, Councilman Kurt Jackson stressed his view on the importance of the purchase.

“It’s our borough office and the police station,” Jackson said. “If something should happen, we need to have that building up and running. It’s a main hub of the community. I feel very strongly about that.”

Looking to get the best bang for its buck, council debated whether to install a permanent generator or a go with a portable one.

Jim Thorpe’s Public Services Manager Vince Yaich said the natural place to put the permanent generator is to the rear of the building where the hookup is available.

“The only thing I would say is that you’re looking at some space issues in this building and if you ever decide to expand, it would have to be in the back toward Memorial Park,” Yaich said. “That would mean you’d be taking out the generator and moving it.”

Councilman John McGuire said he’s not in favor of expanding the building back toward the park if it would ever come to that.

“We’ve had some nasty weather events over the years,” McGuire said, “so I’d like to see us get that generator in there.”

The purchase, Borough Manager Maureen Sterner said, is included in Jim Thorpe’s 2017 budget.