The Jim Thorpe Borough Council voted during its normal monthly meeting in October to advertise a new health inspection fee ordinance the board hopes to enact during its November meeting. The council has been discussing a new ordinance for a number of months. The new proposed ordinance is the result.

As explained by borough solicitor James Nanovic, the new ordinance would see the borough adopting the Pennsylvania Food Code and the Pennsylvania Employee Certification Act and then setting inspection charges. As written, the fee for food establishments would be set for the initial and annual inspections at $55. Re-inspections, complain inspections and compliance inspections at $30. An annual license fee would be set at $5. The ordinance would also include penalties for violations.Borough council president John McGuire pointed out that for non profit organizations that sell food through food stands for a single day would not be subject to the new ordinance."We've been doing this for a while and the problem is that we don't have fees established," Nanovic told the council. "We really need to set the fees."The council also voted to raise fees for zoning hearing board from $365 to $600."You need to have a solicitor involved, you pay your five zoning board members, a stenographer, you have to advertise everything," explained McGuire. "For years, we kept those fees to $365, but we've lost money on all the zoning hearings. At $600, we're breaking even. We're not making money on this.""This is cheap, compared to what other townships are charging," said Council Member Justin Yaitch. "At $600 we're slightly behind (expenses)."The motion was made to adopt that resolution and it was approved.