The price may be going up on an already multimillion-dollar Jim Thorpe Borough sewer treatment plant upgrade.

Borough officials said they recently found out about a law that could require them to pay a daily fee for a flagman since the project crosses a railroad.Estimates put the cost at around $400,000 because the flagman is thought to be required even on days when heavy machinery won't be at the site.The borough is updating its plant, which was built in 1965.The U.S. Department of Agriculture is providing the funding for the project through Rural Development's water and environmental program.Of that, $6.129 million is a loan that will need to be paid back at 3 percent interest over 38 years, and a $4.549 million grant.A flagman fee, however, was not accounted for in those calculations.Councilman Jay Miller said he feels the borough's engineering firm, Entech Engineering, dropped the ball."I'm really disturbed that this is just coming out now," Miller said. "We've paid the engineer around $1 million and they forgot this potential nightmare."The project actually crosses two railroads, but Councilman Curtis Jackson said Thursday night it was his understanding that Norfolk Southern officials said they would not require a flagman.Reading Blue Mountain and Northern Railroad is the other affected party."We have to talk to Andy Muller and see if this is something that is required or not," Jackson said.Miller said the fee could have been built into the project from the start, but he is not for tacking it on the existing loan after the fact.Borough Manager Maureen Sterner said last week that nothing had been set in stone regarding potential flagman fees as the "contractors still have to complete and submit their forms to the railroad."Jim Thorpe awarded the general contract to Eastern Environmental Contractors Inc. for $6,478,600 and the electrical contract would go to the Howard Organization Inc. for $827,700."There are questions to be answered yet, but I think what Jay is saying that this should not be the borough's liability since the engineers missed it," Jackson said.Council President Greg Strubinger said he was hopeful the issue could be "worked around" before the start of construction.