Lehighton borough council is discussing installing an elevator in its municipal building.

Borough Manager Dane DeWire discussed Community Development Block Grant funding projects for the years 2025, 2026, and 2027.

DeWire told council that the borough is running out of Americans with Disabilities Act projects.

He then suggested stacking the borough’s 2025, 2026, and 2027 CDBG funds for a possible elevator to make the building 100% ADA compliant.

DeWire said he received one estimate for the installation of an elevator in the amount of $108,800 in anticipation for discussion at Monday’s council meeting.

He said the project will also require the installation of a concrete block elevator shaft, for which the borough is still looking for estimates to put together the project.

“The elevator would be installed on the interior of the building within the current plans,” DeWire said. “We have no current exact location for the shaft, so at this point, we won’t know until we put engineered drawings together,”

DeWire said the elevator would likely be installed somewhere between the stairs and the fountain on the first floor.

“In that area, it would keep the elevator shaft out of the upstairs hallway and council chambers, which would be ideal,” he said. “Offices would need to be rearranged, but those would be secondary details that would come after the decision by the shaft installer.”

DeWire said a lot depends on the estimate for the concrete work.

“There is a possibility that only two years of CDBG funding would be necessary to complete the project,” he said. “If that’s the case, this can be installed as early as late 2026.”

DeWire said that the borough receives about $90,000 per year through the CDBG program, which would only leave about $70,000 for all concrete and design work.

“We might be stretching our luck with that, so it’s looking more like a three-year project,” DeWire said. “We are anticipating breaking ground on the project in late 2027 or early 2028, if the county deems the project qualifying.”

DeWire said that the administration building has ADA crosswalks, ramps, and doors at both the North and South Street entrances.

“We are currently waiting on 2024 funding, which will be used for the installation of an ADA-compliant doorway and teller counter within the utility billing clerk office,” he said. “The remaining 2024 funding has been applied toward the installation of ADA curb depressions around the Grove Park, and recreation center on Iron Street between Seventh and Eighth streets.”

The consensus of council was that the installation of an elevator would be a good use for the CDBG funds.

DeWire pointed out that the borough’s 2023 CDBG funds were used to reconstruct the public parking lot on Sgt. Stanley Hoffman Boulevard, and the remaining funding will be used to reconstruct North Main Lane, which is a main entrance to that parking lot. Since the parking lot was completed, ADA parking spaces and a pedestrian walkway have been installed.

He said that the borough’s 2022 CDBG funds went toward the replacement of the senior center roof.

Council President Grant Hunsicker said he believes the municipal building was constructed sometime during the 1930s.