Years of planning and discussion culminated Thursday night with Jim Thorpe Borough Council awarding contracts totaling $9.69 million for the renovation of Memorial Hall and the construction of a new public service garage.

The transformation of Memorial Hall is a central focus of the borough’s plans, Council President Greg Strubinger said. The extensive renovation will encompass HVAC upgrades and a revamped interior layout. One-third of the top floor will be repurposed for borough office staff, while the rest of the space will remain a community center. Additionally, the police department will find its new home on the bottom floor.

“It is exciting to be undertaking these projects,” Strubinger said. “They are much needed. It is our responsibility to look after the buildings of the borough. These projects have skyrocketed and we didn’t get them off the ground before the pandemic hit, but we found a way to get this done.”

The contracts awarded for the Memorial Hall renovation include:

General Construction: $3,010,198 to Bognet Construction

Mechanical Construction: $915,000 to JBM Mechanical

Plumbing Construction: $337,200 to Reading Mechanical

Electrical Construction: $895,125 to G.R. Noto Electrical Instruction

Simultaneously, contracts for the public service garage construction have been awarded to:

General Construction: $3,303,200 to Bracy Construction

Mechanical Construction: $567,000 to KC Mechanical

Plumbing Construction: $239,959 to Reading Mechanical

Electrical Construction: $424,885 to Larry McCullion and Son Electrical Construction Services

To help fund the projects, the borough secured $4.74 million in financing from the United States Department of Agriculture and received $3.96 million in federal appropriations based on the original project scope. However, an additional $581,486 above what the borough had budgeted was required to fully realize the upgrades, prompting council to borrow that amount from the borough’s sewer reserve fund, which currently holds approximately $1.5 million.

“This allows us to borrow from ourselves and pay it back so we do not have to put an additional tax increase on our residents,” Strubinger said. “The only other option we had was to try and get more USDA funding, and that would have had us looking at a tax increase.”

In an effort to save costs, the borough made adjustments such as eliminating proposed skylights at the new garage and opting for a pole building instead of a steel frame structure.

The borough operated the top floor of Memorial Hall as a banquet and social hall facility until 2017.

Currently, borough office staff and the Jim Thorpe Police Department share a 3,332-square-foot building built in 2008 adjacent to Memorial Hall.

After a 2016 feasibility study cited concerns over safety and available space given the building’s current layout, the borough has been looking to relocate office staff and police.

Councilman Jay Miller expressed the urgency of moving forward, stating, “I think we have to, you know, what or get off the pot. I can’t remember how long we have been discussing these projects.”

Of everything the projects encompass, Miller said he is most happy to see the new garage.

“The one we have now needs to be ripped down,” he said of the garage. “It has been band-aided for as long as I have been around. I’ll be glad the day I see it ripped down.”

Strubinger said the borough was very fortunate for the grant funding, which essentially covered the cost of inflation.

“When it is all said and done, we’ll have a really nice facility here,” he said. “I think the needs of this borough will be met well into the future.”