Jim Thorpe Borough Council and the Carbon County Commissioners ironed out some issues leading to Thursday’s conditional plan approval for the county’s proposed office building/parking garage project on Susquehanna Street.

One thing still undecided, however, is how the borough will be compensated for the removal of parking meters necessitated by the county’s highway occupancy permit.

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 $120,000, 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.

According to council members, the main concern with meters across from Subway is if they would have to come out if sidewalks are extended down to the train station for safety purposes.

“I’m concerned that if the sidewalks are extended, that work might require a highway occupancy permit or at the very least require the sidewalks to be a certain width that would mean those meters had to come out,” Councilman John McGuire said.

That would put the borough back in a scenario where it was losing revenue.

To address that concern, Commissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein said he would take a counterproposal back to his colleagues.

“If those meters should come out in, let’s say three years, I’ll see if I can talk the other two commissioners into still giving you that lump sum payment of $120,000,” Nothstein said.

The county, Nothstein added, already looked into extending the sidewalks down from the Route 903 bridge to the train station. Their proximity to the rail ties, however, created an issue.

“The sidewalks would actually go over the top of the rail ties,” Nothstein said. “It’s too close to the rail cars. It just didn’t work.”

Councilman Kyle Sheckler also suggested the borough be able to take the $120,000 lump sum, which would cover 10 years of lost Jim Thorpe meter revenue according to calculations, and then be able to renegotiate after that time period.

Jim Thorpe Solicitor Jim Nanovic said while an agreement on how the revenue would be replaced did not need to be finalized Thursday night, the clock is ticking.

“We will probably need a special meeting within the next 30 days, “Councilman Jay Miller said. “This can’t go on forever. We need this done before they start tearing down the building.”