A Jim Thorpe Borough facilities project postponed after bids came back too high for council’s liking last year could have new life thanks to a federal appropriations package that passed the U.S. House of Representatives last week.

Mayor Michael Sofranko said the package, which still has to go before the Senate, includes $2.5 million for Jim Thorpe’s project, including renovations to Memorial Hall.

“It’s an Agriculture, Rural Development, and Food and Drug Administration appropriations package and we’d really like to thank Congressman Dan Meuser for helping us with this,” Sofranko said. “This would be a big deal as it would pay for almost half of what council is looking to do here at Memorial Hall. There will be some matches required and additional grant money, but this is a positive step in the right direction.”

The work on the hall, which would include a new HVAC system, would allow the borough to move its administrative offices to a portion of the top floor of that building, while moving its police department to the bottom floor, which used to be a roller skating rink.

Jim Thorpe bid the hall project and a new, 26,000-square-foot public works garage late last year, but bids came back at $3.72 million and $3.27 million respectively, which is around $1.5 million more each than the borough had originally estimated.

“We’re still waiting to see where this appropriations bill goes in the Senate, but we feel like we’ve cleared a major hurdle with it getting through the House,” Sofranko said. “Believe it or not, we’re able to get Democrats and Republicans working together on this. I know this is still tax base money, but at least it’s grant money so we’re hopeful it comes through.”

Jim Thorpe raised taxes by 2.56 mills in 2021, in large part to help pay for the two proposed projects.

After bids came back high for the public works garage, planned for property the borough owns across from the water department on West Broadway, the borough’s building committee met with representatives from Pioneer Pole Buildings in Schuylkill Haven. The company is a Pennsylvania Cooperative Purchasing (COSTARS) vendor and said it was able to do such a project.

“Right now, we have the information for their COSTARS expert at the company and he sent some documents to our solicitor because their COSTARS construction contracts are a little bit new within the last few years,” Borough Manager Maureen Sterner said. “So we’re working on this and may be able to do the project without bidding it out again.”

The design of the public works garage would change slightly, borough officials said, and shift to a wood-frame pole building. The change, Sterner said, would likely drop the price of the project, but the borough does not have a final new estimate.

“In our discussions with Pioneer, they said you really can’t tell the difference between the wood frame and the steel frame,” Council President Greg Strubinger said. “From the exterior, it’s basically the same building.”