Bids are in for two Jim Thorpe Borough projects several years in the making, but it could take until later this week until true costs are finalized.

Blaine Summit of Spillman Farmer Architects told council Thursday night that renovations to Memorial Hall and construction of a new public works garage each had 2-3 general construction bidders along with 6-7 companies seeking the mechanical, electrical and plumbing contracts.

The projects, specifically Memorial Hall, were bid with several alternate options giving the borough options to pick and choose which parts of it to do in order to meet its budget.

“The first thing to do now is go to the apparent low bidders and confirm their understanding of what they bid on,” Summit said. “There are a couple places where we have low bidders if that company does the whole project, but if things are cut another company may have the low bid. We have to do the math over the next week and figure all of that out.”

The borough plans to renovate Memorial Hall, using one-third of the top floor for borough office staff while keeping the rest of the space as a community center, and moving its police department to the bottom floor. It also eyes construction of a new public service department garage on property the borough owns across from its water department on West Broadway.

A pre-COVID-19 estimate for the entire Memorial Hall project was $2.25 million, but that figure jumped to $3.72 million in May 2021 and the projects were sidelined.

Low base bids for the Memorial Hall contract, without considering any of the deductions, were $2.92 million from Uhrig Construction for general construction, $992,500 from G.R. Noto Electrical Construction, Inc. for electrical, $915,000 from JBM Mechanical for HVAC, and $337,200 from Reading Mechanical and Utility Contracting Inc. for plumbing.

On the public works project, low base bids were $3.63 million from Bracy Construction for general construction, $424,885 from Larry McCullion & Son Electrical Construction Services, LLC for electrical, $567,000 from K.C. Mechanical Service for HVAC, and $239,959 from Reading Mechanical and Utility Contracting for plumbing.

“The Memorial Hall project is in the ballpark with the budget for the project,” Council President Greg Strubinger said. “That entails some deductions from the original scope of the project. Most of the deductions center around some improvements we were hoping to make to the remaining hall space and the lobby after the offices are put in place.”

The heart of the project, moving the borough office staff to Memorial Hall and the police department to the lower level, remains in tact.

“Hopefully we can award those contracts next week,” Strubinger said. “We know these projects are desperately needed and want to do them without negatively impacting the tax base.”

Even if the borough took all of the deductions on the public works building, it would still come in around $300,000 over budget, Strubinger said.

The borough has secured $4.74 million in United States Department of Agriculture loan financing and is receiving $3.96 million in federal appropriations money based on the original project scope.

“We do have some reserve funds in our sanitation account that we could use to cover the overage for the public works building,” Strubinger said. “We would then have to come up with a plan to repay that account.”

After the borough accepts bids for the projects, those numbers then have to be accepted by USDA before the notice to proceed can be sent to contractors.

Borough Manager Maureen Sterner said the start date could be “the end of this year or the beginning of next year” depending on approval timelines.