The Jim Thorpe Olympians won’t be calling Palmerton Area High School’s stadium home if and when the 2020 high school football season opens.

During a school board meeting last week, a majority of Palmerton directors said they did not feel comfortable allowing Jim Thorpe to use their field in the event the Olympians’ own artificial turf field isn’t ready for opening night.

“Jim Thorpe reached out to us, Lehighton and Panther Valley about renting our facility for their home football games,” Palmerton Athletic Director Kyle Porembo said. “I said I would take it back to the board and see how they felt about it.”

The deciding factor for Palmerton director Sherry Haas was reading the news that a Jim Thorpe football player had tested positive for COVID-19 earlier.

“Had not that happened, I would have been 100% on board with it,” Haas said. “That is just too close to home for me.”

Ironically, Jim Thorpe has a football game scheduled against Palmerton at the Blue Bombers’ stadium in the second week of the season.

“Any player from any team that plays on our field could certainly be COVID positive and we wouldn’t know until after the fact,” Palmerton board member Barry Scherer said. “I don’t think it is right to single them out because they had a COVID incident.”

In late July, Jim Thorpe board member TJ Garritano said it’s possible the project could be completed as soon as late September. Porembo said had the board agreed, Palmerton would have sent Jim Thorpe a price per game fee that would have covered Palmerton’s costs for hosting the events. “We had offered them Saturday night games so it would not conflict with our schedule,” Porembo said.

During Tuesday’s meeting, several parents questioned why Jim Thorpe would be allowed to use the field when Palmerton’s own booster club is currently not allowed to use it this year. Per Palmerton’s health and safety plan, no outside groups are allowed to use district facilities.

“We haven’t even mastered bringing our own kids into school yet,” Husar said in regards to the booster club matter. “Let’s see how that goes before we talk about outside groups. I just don’t know how we would monitor that.”

Palmerton Board President Kathy Fallow said the district’s staff is already burdened during the COVID-19 pandemic, and allowing Jim Thorpe to play home games there would be an additional responsibility.

“We’re asking a lot of personnel,” Fallow said. “I think it would be unfair to everyone.”