For the first time since 2012, Jim Thorpe Borough has a manager.

By a 4-2 vote, with one abstention Monday night, borough council hired Maureen Sterner to oversee its daily operations, effective Jan. 11.The one-year contract calls for Sterner to be paid $75,000.Greg Strubinger, Joanne Klitsch, Paulette Haupt and Tom Highland voted in favor of bringing Sterner on board. John McGuire and Jay Miller, in his first meeting as a councilman, voted against the hire. Fellow newcomer Kyle Sheckler abstained, stating he didn't know enough about Sterner to cast a vote.Miller said he favored another candidate for the manager position, Chris Lukasevich, who has served as an active duty airborne ranger and special forces soldier with the U.S. Army for the past 34 years, including a rise in rank to "full bird" colonel in 2011."At one time I was against hiring a borough manager at all, but I changed my mind and felt we should have stayed right here in the borough and given Mr. Lukasevich a look," Miller said.Strubinger, council president, said Lukasevich was interviewed."The requirements included local municipal experience," Strubinger said. "Three candidates had that and one did not. I don't speak for all of council, but that requirement was the most important to me. We wanted someone who could come in and hit the ground running,"Sterner, who is not a borough resident, was not at Monday's meeting.She served as manager in Upper Mount Bethel Township for 10 years before a new board voted 3-2 to remove her from the position in February 2014."We feel confident that we have the right person moving forward," Strubinger said.McGuire voted against the hire because he said Sheckler and Miller should have had more of an opportunity to interview Sterner.Before the vote, Ronald Confer, former Jim Thorpe mayor, advised the council not to hire anyone."You can't afford filling the manager position," he said. "You have equipment that is failing and your roads are in terrible shape. Yet you're going to spend money on a borough manager that is an annual expense. You can't say you are broke and do that."The borough, however, is not broke, according to Curtis Jackson, former councilman.Jim Thorpe's sanitation fund, from which it is taking $60,000 to help pay for the manager, has a current balance of $1.1 million. Despite taking out the salary, the fund is still set to grow by about $120,000 in 2016, Jackson said."I agree that it shouldn't be a savings account and I would suggest the borough use some of it to do the capital projects that Mr. Confer mentioned," he added.New police officerAlso on Monday, the borough unanimously voted to hire Kyle Kohler as a full-time police officer.Police Chief Joe Schatz said that gives his department seven full-time officers to go along with five part-timers."We're very fortunate to have someone born and raised in Jim Thorpe to add to our force," Mayor Michael Sofranko said.The officer will be funded partly from a one-mill property tax increase in the 2016 budget, excess money in the general fund and revenue from raising parking at downtown meters from $0.50 per hour to $1 per hour.In other action at the reorganization meeting, Strubinger was elected council president for 2016 in a 4-3 vote over John McGuire.Strubinger voted for himself and also got support from Klitsch, Highland and Haupt. Voting for McGuire was himself, Miller and Sheckler.Miller was unanimously voted council vice president.