The cleanup of a rock slide that closed one lane on the Mansion House Hill going into Jim Thorpe will occur before Jim Thorpe's Fall Foliage Festival.

Jim Thorpe Mayor Michael Sofranko said cleanup on that section of Route 209 is scheduled by PennDOT to occur on Sept. 29 and be completed by Oct. 2.The rock slide, which spilled tons of huge boulders onto the southbound lane of Route 209, happened last Friday night. One car was damaged. No one was injured.Since then, one lane of the highway has been closed.In the short term, one lane is closed on Route 209, leaving one lane open in each direction, PennDOT spokesman Sean Brown said.Many of the rocks that fell on Friday were quite large and PennDOT does not have the equipment to remove them."We are working on getting an emergency contract to remove them," Brown said.Contractors will be out to look at the site and PennDOT will get bids for the work.Brown said, "This is specialized stuff and we'll get it done as soon as we can."PennDOT is hoping to complete the work before Jim Thorpe's popular Fall Foliage Festival on the first three weekends of October.The annual Fall Foliage Festival, arguably the top tourist attraction annually in Jim Thorpe, is set for the weekends of Oct. 7, 14 and 21. During the Fall Foliage Festival, traffic jams going into Jim Thorpe are common.Sofranko said during a meeting of Jim Thorpe Borough Council on Thursday that he spoke on the telephone with state Rep. Doyle Heffley, R-Carbon, and state Sen. John Yudichak, D-Carbon/Luzerne, and was informed that more work on the Mansion House Hill is planned for next summer.Plans are for traffic to be detoured over Flagstaff Mountain Road during the rock removal, if needed as well as when the work occurs next year.Because the road is three lanes at that location, traffic can continue to flow in both directions.Although Sofranko gave his report to Jim Thorpe Borough Council, he said the rock slide is primarily in the jurisdiction of Mahoning Township but affects Jim Thorpe.Council member Jay T. Miller said PennDOT will determine how much work needs to occur next year, but it might involve the opposite side of the highway from where the rockslide happened. "If you come down the Mansion House Hill, you will see curbing is shifting," he said, explaining that this indicates there might be work needed on the hill between the highway and the railroad tracks.Marlene Diehm expressed concerns about a detour on Flagstaff Road.She said five years ago she was at a council meeting and asked that Flagstaff Road be given a macadam surface. "A lot of people use that as an alternative route," she said. "Something has to be done."She said the bottom part of the hill is fine but higher up there is a dirt surface and at the top there are potholes.Miller said some improvements have occurred but Flagstaff Road isn't a priority.Miller said, "We have a couple of homes up there. We have other priorities in town."He said the borough work crew will be fixing about 500 feet of the 2½-mile-long road on Monday.Sofranko said he is concerned about using Flagstaff Road because of safety factors, including the lack of guide rails.He said he spoke with Heffley about this and the representative will be contacting PennDOT.Jake Arner, who owns a proposed development atop the Flagstaff Mountain, said when the Thomas J. McCall Memorial Bridge (Route 209) - which spans the borough of Weissport - was repaired, PennDOT improved the road going through Weissport and did other improvement work to use it as a detour.He suggested that pressure be put on PennDOT to improve Flagstaff Road to be used as a detour."We should try to get together to get emergency money," he said.Sofranko said he was advised by Heffley that $2.8 million has been secured for work on the Mansion House Hill next year.Gerald Strubinger of Jim Thorpe said he doesn't feel this is enough."That Mansion House Hill will continue to haunt us forever," he said.Strubinger told the council that he feels the only solution is to discontinue rail traffic on the west side of the Lehigh River and construct a bypass around the hill. He said the railroad traffic could continue on tracks on the east side of the Lehigh River.Jarrad Hedes contributed to this report.