Stormwater officials are advising Jim Thorpe Borough to add larger drainage pipes across Front Street before it begins a much-discussed curbing and paving project.

Council heard detailed thoughts Thursday night from Daniel Wilusz and Stan Wojciechowski of Barry Isett and Associates, who visited the site in question for almost an hour before the borough’s monthly workshop meeting.

“It’s a very complex situation down there,” Wilusz told council. “You’ve got 12-inch pipes underneath there now, and that’s really pretty small. We don’t suggest anything smaller than 18-inch pipes, and being at the bottom of a big drainage area, you probably want to look at 36-inch pipe.”

The borough has been looking to kick-start drainage improvement efforts around the municipality and hoped to start this year with Front Street, which sits at the bottom of the east end of town.

Council voted to pave Front Street this summer from Center to South Street and require property owners with frontage along that stretch to pay for curbing installation.

Cost estimates came in higher than expected, however, as it was discovered multiple large trees would need to be removed in order for the curbing installation to be successful.

That isn’t the only issue officials have come across while planning out the project.

“It’s not just as simple as curbing and paving the road,” Wilusz said. “To the north of Fern Street, there is currently sidewalk that is lower than the road. To put a curb in on that side of the street, besides having to remove six trees, you’d need to replace sidewalk because otherwise it would just capture everything. On the South Street side, there is a question of where you would even put the curb. On the Lehigh River side, you’d be blocking stormwater that would run across the road. So you’d have to put depressions in the curb to allow water through.”

Council will vote next week on whether it wants Barry Isett to move forward with developing a sequencing of events and further proposal for the project.

Greg Strubinger, council president, said the borough has to be careful not to do work that would later be rendered pointless.

“We don’t want to start doing something like curbing and paving and then have to tear it back up because we need to put a larger pipe in,” he said.

Councilman Jay Miller said if the borough authorizes Barry Isett to do a proposal for the project, it should signal that the municipality is willing to move forward with the work.

“I’m in agreement that if we’re going to touch Front Street, we have to size our drainage first before we even talk about putting blacktop down,” Miller said. “But if we want a proposal, it should be telling people that we’re going that way. I’ve seen a lot of stuff on paper that we never do.”

Jim Thorpe meets again Thursday for a voting session, and Wojciechowski told council time is of the essence in the current construction climate.

“Construction costs are going up day to day,” he said. “You can bid something today and bid the same thing tomorrow, and you’ll have a higher price tomorrow. Workers are scarce, materials are scarce and contractors are super busy.”