Memorial Day weekend is fast approaching and Jim Thorpe officials are beefing up their pedestrian and traffic control staffing for the remainder of the year.

Borough council on Thursday night unanimously approved a contract with BCM Security, of Wilkes-Barre, for pedestrian and traffic control services on every weekend in October, the first two weekends in November, Memorial Day weekend and Fourth of July weekend.

The contract is conditioned upon satisfactory review by the borough’s solicitor, manager and police chief.

“We normally use Penn Forest Township Fire Police to help us out, but they have indicated they are looking to scale back,” Police Chief Joe Schatz said. “I totally understand it. They are a volunteer organization and they have done a great job for us for so many years. So what we’re planning to do is use grant money to pay for BCM to come in and assist us on those busy weekends.”

The cost to Jim Thorpe, Borough Manager Maureen Sterner said, is $19,440, and the municipality is planning to use grant funds to cover it.

“We’re looking at using a Pocono Mountain Visitors Bureau grant,” Sterner said. “I’m not sure which grant source the funds may come from. We may need to provide some matching funds or we may not. We have various things before them including some regular police services, ambulance services, public services, etc.”

The contract will cover five BCM officers and one supervisor.

At last week’s borough workshop, Fall Foliage Festival organizers, after discussion with council, said the event would be scaled back from four to three weekends in 2024.

Members of Jim Thorpe Borough Council gave their blessing to three weekends of entertainment, food and craft vendors during Thursday night’s workshop with only food vendors permitted on the final weekend of October.

“Penn Forest Fire Police has agreed to still help us out with a few parades,” Schatz said. “We all understand how big of an event Fall Foliage is. Those poor guys and gals do a wonderful job and it was just getting really big for them.”