Members of St. Mark’s and St. John’s Episcopal Church and the Save Our Sanctuaries group were pleased by Carbon County’s announcement Thursday regarding changing the plans for the proposed Susquehanna Street building project.

“It’s a huge relief,” Mary Shorten, caretaker of the church, said following the announcement. “I’m still processing it, though.

“I’m hopeful we will be invited to the table with the design of this building so it fits in with the town,” she added. “Hopefully they learned something from this as far as we are the voice of the community and need to be heard.”

Diane Prokop, a member of SOS and the co-owner of the Times House Bed and Breakfast, located next to St. Mark’s, said she was happy with the announcement but is still hesitant to believe it.

She credits the church’s court appeal against Jim Thorpe Borough’s conditional approval for the project as the turning point.

“I don’t think any of it would have happened if church didn’t initially fill the appeal to the conditional approval given by the borough,” she said. “If the suit wasn’t filed, there wouldn’t have been a delay, contracts wouldn’t have been canceled and the opportunity for the commissioners to take a step back and take a look again wouldn’t have happened.

“The last time the stakeholders weren’t brought to the table,” she added. “This time around, we will make sure we are. I think they know we will be at the table whether we are invited or not.”

Shorten said that the idea of renovating the archives building to incorporate it into the building, located directly below the church, instead of demolishing it is a better option.

Shorten has been one of the driving forces in the movement against the proposed Susquehanna Street building project after it was learned that 40 feet of rock from the base of the mountain, which St. Mark’s is built into, would need to be removed to make enough room for the new building. The rock removal has now been taken off the table.

In recent months, many businesses, residents and church members have spoken out against the project.