Should they stay or should they go?

That is the question still before Jim Thorpe Borough Council as it debates whether to move its borough office staff across the parking lot to a portion of Jim Thorpe Memorial Hall’s top floor, or keep it in its current building along East Tenth Street.

The borough staff currently shares the building with the Jim Thorpe Police Department.

Council President Greg Strubinger said Thursday he is hopeful a vote on a resolution defining the direction of the project will take place at the Feb. 8 council meeting.

“The sooner we can get this all ironed out, the sooner we can get people moving on the project,” Strubinger said.

While he favors moving the staff to Memorial Hall and shrinking the amount of space available for wedding receptions and other functions to a 250-person capacity, several of his colleagues did not concur.

The move was an option that came out of a Spillman Farmer Architects feasibility study, which also included moving the police department to the basement of the hall.

“I think we should keep the borough staff where it is,” Councilwoman Edith Lukasevich said. “That is what that building was built for. I’m all for the police department moving to the basement, but I think that should continue to be a borough office over there. A lot of people in the community feel the same way.”

Council Vice President Jay Miller also said he thought the borough office should stay put, an opinion he said he would voice again next week if the resolution comes up for vote.

The proposed relocation of the borough office and the police department are part of a much larger building program that includes renovations to Memorial Hall, namely heating, ventilation and air conditioning improvements; construction of a new public works garage; and demolition of the current one in Memorial Park.

Cost estimates provided by Spillman Farmer include $1.5 million for the new public works garage, $650,000 to relocate the borough office to Memorial Hall, $1.5 million to relocate the police department to Memorial Hall, $75,000 to renovate Memorial Hall, $250,000 for site improvements and $50,000 to demolish the old public works garage.

The borough passed a 2.01-mill tax increase for 2018 to, in part, help pay for the work.

“The current borough office was undersized before we even moved in,” Strubinger said.

“I like the concept of everyone being under one roof over at Memorial Hall. I think if we don’t do that then we’re cutting the project short and we’ll still be talking about what to do with the massive top floor of the hall.”

Strubinger said the borough tried a number of things to keep the hall successful for the residents.

Most recently, Jim McHugh and his wife, Sherry, had been running events at the hall for three years before a month-to-month lease with the borough ended in January 2017.

“I also would like to see everyone under one roof,” Councilman Thomas Highland said. “We don’t have 500-600 person weddings. The average wedding size is 100 to 150 people. There is still plenty of space to do that.”

Lukasevich disagreed, saying she feels a full hall still has potential and recommended the borough take another look at getting someone to run it.

“This was built as an entertainment center,” she said. “If we’re serious about it, I think we can make it profitable again. It has to be open in order to make money.”

The borough is also looking at financing options for the projects, including a possible United States Department of Agriculture rural communities financing.

Borough officials said preliminary discussions with USDA featured a possible 38-year term loan at between 3.25 and 3.5 percent interest.