Carbon County officials will decide next week if they will move forward with purchasing the former Jim Thorpe Administration Building or step away.

During Thursday’s county commissioners’ meeting, Commissioners Rocky Ahner and Chris Lukasevich voiced their differing opinions on the purchase of the building at 410 Center Ave., which would need extensive renovations to create the space various county departments need. Commissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein was absent.

The discussion began after several residents approached the board to voice their concerns over the cost of renovating the aging structure.

Jerry Hoare of Jim Thorpe said that he has been in that building many times and it will cost quite a bit to “make it useful.”

“I think the cost would be astronomical,” he said, citing the $5 million plus price tag of the emergency operations training center currently in the works. “As a retired resident with a fixed income, I’m worried about my taxes going up.”

Tina Henninger of Aquashicola also voiced her issue with the location because it took her approximately 40 minutes to travel from her home to the county seat.

She asked why all departments need to be located in Jim Thorpe as opposed to more centralized locations.

Ahner responded to the residents, saying that the board of commissioners will be reviewing the feasibility study on Oct. 12 and will make it available to the public after that. The board will then bring the matter to a vote during the Oct. 14 commissioners’ meeting.

He encouraged the public to attend next week’s meeting if they have questions or concerns and echoed his concerns about the project.

Ahner said that he thinks the county should focus on the much-needed courthouse renovations and finishing the 76 and 44 Susquehanna St. buildings before taking on more debt with the Center Avenue building. He feels that the figures to make that building usable for the county’s needs is going to be too high.

“The school property project has evolved into a much larger project than expected and in my opinion would burden the taxpayers,” he said.

In addition, Ahner also cited the need for additional space for the Children and Youth Department, which is expanding to provide enough staff for the caseloads that are occurring.

“That has to be addressed today, not in 2023 with a building project completion,” he said. “I have an alternate proposal to pursue a building at another location that could be gradually occupied to accommodate the Children and Youth staff increase and would be within the taxpayers’ budget.”

Ahner has voiced in the past that he has some issues with purchasing the Center Avenue building based on costs for all the renovations the county is currently working on.

The courthouse must be reconfigured since there is no room in various departments. That figure is anticipated to cost upward of $6 million.

Lukasevich, who has been for the purchase of the administration building, said he feels that previous boards, as well as this board, has failed to come up with a proper strategic plan to address the spacing needs of the county offices.

He said that the commissioners need to be conscientious about the cost and timeline of any renovation project and said that that was why the county hired Boyle Construction Management of Allentown to complete this feasibility study before finalizing the purchase of that building.

Carbon County offered the school district $517,000 for the building in August pending the results of the feasibility study. The offer is $80,000 higher than the appraisal the county received on the building and $83,000 lower than what the school district had it appraised at.