Jim Thorpe Borough is hoping a couple of state grants will help it put some of the recommendations from last year’s parking and traffic study into action.

Borough Manager Maureen Sterner said during a workshop meeting Thursday night the municipality is entertaining the idea of applying for a multimodal transportation grant through the Pennsylvania Department of Economic Development that provides funding for projects costing $100,000 and above.

“We’ve had some group meetings following the release of the traffic study and we’re still in the very, very early stages of talking, but this would be one of the next steps,” she said.

Council would ultimately have to approve the grant application, an action that could come as soon as next week.

The $100,000 parking study, which required a $20,000 match, was completed last year by the Northeast Pennsylvania Alliance.

One of the areas the study touched on was improving vehicular and pedestrian safety and decreasing traffic congestion along both Susquehanna and Lehigh Avenues in the vicinity of Hazard Square through enhanced public information, improved pedestrian crossing markings, and by more regularly diverting parking during large events.

“We’re still getting into specifics, but this project would address some of the improvements on the west side of town identified in the study,” Sterner said. “It would include traffic calming and pedestrian safety items which would improve both pedestrian and vehicular traffic.”

A “very early” project cost estimate, Sterner said, is between $100,000 and $200,000.

The DCED multimodal transportation funds can be used for the development, rehabilitation and enhancement of transportation assets to existing communities, streetscape, lighting, sidewalk enhancement, pedestrian safety, connectivity of transportation assets and transit-oriented development.

“We have to finalize the items to be included in the project to get a better estimate, but one of the reasons we wanted to apply for the grant this year is because DCED waived its required match in 2021,” Sterner said.

Even though there is a waiver, however, Sterner is encouraging council to pledge $15,000 as a match, which would put the borough higher on the grant review list. It is similar to the several thousand dollar match two local banks put up when the municipality joined Palmerton and Lehighton boroughs in applying and ultimately receiving $300,000 in blight remediation funds from the state.

The borough also plans to apply for a multimodal grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation for the same project.

“We’ve had great success with some of these grants,” Councilman Jay Miller said, “and I think it’s the way to go. The parking study cost $100,000 and I think we better start using it.”