Robert Brown, who has the contract with Carbon County for the concession stand and swimming area at Mauch Chunk Lake and the camp store, recently expressed his concern over lost revenue due to some restrictions at the area.

“The rent out there is pretty steep, and with this virus, it’s not my fault 75% was taken away from me,” Brown said last week in front of the county’s commissioners. “I paid full rent last month using some of my own money, which I don’t think I should have done … but things are only getting worse out there.

“This month is a terrible month; people are going school shopping … I make $100 a day some days out there. And I just don’t think I should be liable for the full freight. That’s only my opinion.”

There was an addendum to the lease agreement between the county and Brown, of Jim Thorpe, for operation of the concession stand at the Mauch Chunk Lake Park in June. Rental payments were amended, so the first payment will be in the amount of $1,250 would be payable no later than July 31. Electric payments were amended to reflect a payment of $80 for the month of July 2020. Rental and electric payments for the month of June were waived.

Brown noted that he paid the full cost in July.

Swimming at Mauch Chunk Lake will be for Carbon County residents and season pass holders only through Labor Day following an extension by county commissioners last month.

Noncounty residents can buy a season pass or rent one of the cabins or camp sites to be able to access the beach and lake.

“But if I just throw a number out there and say there are 1,000 people coming to the park,” said Commissioner Rocky Ahner, “now it’s restricted to 250 and we had talked about this, that you thought that maybe it would be reduced 25%, so if we review all the way back and we can look at it and can we resolve it that way? Maybe we can.

“But I think the other alternative is through our grants. When we have our second round, you would be more than welcome to fill out an application.”

While he does not have full-time employees, Commissioner Chris Lukasevich noted that there is no requirement to have full-time employees and that Brown would be eligible to apply as part of the COVID-19 Relief (Carbon) County Block Grant.

“So if you would say last year, I don’t know what you made but let’s just say you made $1,000, and this year you only made $250,” Ahner said. “You could apply for that you lost that much money. So if you’re looking at it that you lost that much money for over a three-month period of time, you could put in for that $750 for three months and you could apply in the second round. That would be one of the alternatives.

“I see where you’re coming from. I understand that it cut down on your business and you might be looking at it like it’s our fault.”

Brown didn’t disagree.

“Everybody’s bending over backward to help the little guy,” he said. “I’m littler than little and it seems like it’s just falling on deaf ears here. I don’t know what to say.”

Ahner stressed that the commissioners would work with Brown to find a solution.

“I think somewhere along the way we can resolve it,” said Ahner. “But we just have to watch with our contracts that we have with others, and I know we discussed the train coming back so the vendors that we have here will probably make out … I’m sure of that.

“But yours is a little bit of a different situation that we have to handle in a different way. How we’re going to handle the contract, I don’t know. There’s guidelines that we have to stay by. But I’m thinking we can resolve this somehow, either by what we’re going to discuss with the contract or either through the grant. I think either way we can resolve this. But I think we have to go over how our grants are going to be handled, in the first place, that we’re going to have money left over for the second round. We don’t want to exhaust all our funds, either.”

Brown emphasized that he was looking for a solution, one way or another.

“Really, I wasn’t looking for an answer from a grant,” he said. “I’ve paid cash every time it’s due, and I haven’t missed a payment in over 10 years. I’d just like to have an answer one way or the other, about the grants; maybe, no or whatever.”