Jim Thorpe Borough is looking to get one of its newest police officers trained in tractor-trailer inspections.

The move comes in response to an anticipated increase in truck traffic on Route 209 after the state's push to get commercial vehicles off Route 93.Depending on a truck's destination, it will now be traveling Route 309, 209 or 54 instead of Route 93's 2¼-mile hill, which saw three rigs lose their brakes and crash in three days last year.If approved by the borough, officer Kyle Oliver, who was a diesel mechanic before joining the department, would be taking the free commercial vehicle safety training through the state police."It would be a four-week class and Kyle would have to do 30 inspections a year to hold his certification," Police Chief Joe Schatz said.According to the state website, more than 700 specially trained state and local officers inspect commercial vehicles and their drivers for compliance with state and federal motor carrier safety regulations.In the weight enforcement program, commercial vehicles are screened and weighed using portable scales to ensure compliance with Pennsylvania's weight laws.After the certification, Jim Thorpe would have startup costs including the purchase or rental of a scale.Schatz did not have an estimate last week on the startup cost, but said he has heard from other municipalities that the program pays for itself after a year."We're not doing this for monetary reasons, we're doing it for safety, but these citations can be very expensive for the individual," he said. "There would be some logistics to figure out like where we would pull the trucks over to do the inspections."In May 2016, the borough wrote to state Sen. John Yudichak, state Rep. Doyle Heffley and Pennsylvania Department of Transportation officials, asking they not reroute Route 93 truck traffic onto Route 903 on the east side of Jim Thorpe.Mayor Michael Sofranko said the borough was worried about homes, pedestrian traffic and cars parked on the street on Route 903.He was happy to recently find out Route 903 would not be one of the alternative options."I want to thank the borough for sending that letter, and I'm also very thankful to the legislators and PennDOT for hearing our concerns," he said.