Negotiations over lost Jim Thorpe borough metered parking spaces due to Carbon County’s proposed parking garage/office building on Susquehanna Street remain at a crossroads as deadlines on permits and plan approval draw near.

Two offers have been made from the county to replace Jim Thorpe’s lost revenue on the meters. One was a lump-sum payment of $100,000, while the other was a meter swap. Jim Thorpe would lose the nine meters for the project, but gain 11 of the county’s meters across from the Subway and post office downtown.

“Of the two, I prefer the meter swap because it guarantees us more than a one-time payment,” council President Greg Strubinger said.

“We would continue to have an ongoing revenue generator.”

Though the meter swap is preferred, council had concerns over the location of the meters. For months, if not years, council has pressed the county to extend sidewalks coming down from the Route 903 bridge to the train station. If the meters along that route are transferred to the borough, several council members feared the financial burden of that safety upgrade might be shifted to the municipality.

Borough Manager Maureen Sterner cautioned against having those concerns.

“This would not be a transfer of land, you would just be getting the meters in that location,” Sterner told council.

“It would be recommended to put in any agreement that you are not taking ownership or responsibility for the sidewalks or the fence in that area.”

Council has had its eyes on the meters in the area referred to as the “corral,” facing the train station across from Molly Maguires Pub and Restaurant.

According to Sterner, the county did not want to part with those spots.

“If we could get those, the plan was to bag those meters on busy weekends so we could use that almost as a turning lane into the county lot and alleviate some of that traffic backup,” Councilman Jay Miller said.

Mayor Mike Sofranko said there is no way to compare if the swap would be revenue neutral because the county doesn’t track how much is made out of those particular meters like the borough does with its kiosks.

“If we do end up with those meters, I would recommend designating two of them for in and out traffic to the post office,” Sofranko said. “In reality then, you would be getting nine meters instead of 11.”

Concerns from St. Mark’s

Mike Shorten, property manager at nearby St. Mark and St. John Episcopal Church told council he was concerned about the project contractor’s proposed monitoring of rock removal.

The project calls for removing tons of rock from the back of the property, which could put the church’s historic Tiffany stained-glass windows in jeopardy.

“It’s like the fox guarding the hen house,” Shorten said.

“The contractor is going to want to get this finished in a certain amount of time. We want an independent contractor to do that monitoring, but the county called it a waste of taxpayer money.”

The proposed building is getting plenty of pushback from the community.

Shorten and other members of the Stop the Susquehanna Street Project have set up a petition on Change.org. The petition has garnered about 1,200 signatures.

As with any municipal review of plans, personal feelings can’t come into play, a point Councilman John McGuire drove home Thursday.

“If they meet our SALDO and our zoning, we really have no choice but to approve it,” McGuire said.

Miller said his main concern is making sure the monitoring is being done correctly and the job is shut down if necessary.

“I’m not against the county doing the project, but I want to protect the church and the properties around it,” Miller said.

Miller recommended the borough send a strongly worded letter to the county getting that concern across and recommending an independent monitoring service.

“Whatever we can do we will do,” he added, “but I don’t know what that is right now.”

The church’s historic windows were last appraised in 1998, Shorten said, with one window valued at over $2 million, a figure that is closer to $5 million now.

“It’s about 18 feet from the windows to where they are digging back to,” Shorten said.

“We can only get insured for the replacement value and we’re very concerned. Louis C. Tiffany isn’t making any more windows. He is in the ground right now.”