Proposed Jim Thorpe Borough parking changes include elimination of a loading/unloading zone at Molly Maguire’s Restaurant and Pub downtown.

Co-owner Darren Behan said during a borough workshop Thursday night the restaurant currently uses the spot to park a truck that transports its trash several times a day to a dumpster it rents in the Carbon County parking lot across Route 209.

“We don’t have the luxury of somewhere to hide our garbage, so without a spot for a vehicle that can transport the trash or a place to put a dumpster, I’m not sure where that leaves us,” Behan told council. “We’re going to generate rubbish. There is no way for us not to do that.

“I don’t want to have 40 garbage cans outside the place. Nobody wants to see that.”

Last month, the borough authorized its solicitor to draft an ordinance eliminating the loading/unloading zone in question, because it said the restaurant was not using it for its original intended purpose. When the spot was put in, borough officials said, it was for guests of the Hotel Switzerland above the restaurant to load and unload their bags when checking in or out.

“We’re willing to purchase a spot for our trash truck, but we’d also hope council would consider a true loading/unloading zone, just like the Inn of Jim Thorpe has, in front of our place for guests to enter and exit the hotel,” Behan said.

The restaurant pays $1,200 per year for a spot for its dumpster in the county lot.

Council suggested Behan pay for a parking spot by the restaurant each day and enclose the back of the truck so the garbage bags were not visible.

“The first thing people see when they get off the train rides down there is that truck with the garbage bags in the back,” Council Robert Schaninger said. “Put a cap on it and that way it won’t be seen.”

While there is also some space just off the Molly Maguire’s back deck to put a dumpster, Behan said the odor from the garbage would ultimately keep people away and hurt his business.

“Nobody is going to want to eat or drink out on the deck, with that garbage sitting right there and smelling,” he said. “I also don’t really want to put a dumpster out on the street, but I do question why businesses on the east side of town are allowed to do that. You talk about harming the aesthetics, but do not the aesthetics not count over there where people have dumpsters on the street.”

Schaninger, along with Councilman Michael Rivkin, plan to meet with Behan on Monday to discuss possible solutions to the garbage issue.

Jim Thorpe is about to begin a project to redraw parking spaces downtown. The new parking lines would give the borough 86 spaces downtown compared to the current 74, including nine extra spaces in the Broadway area. Parking, according to Schaninger, will be at a 30-degree angle and the spaces will primarily be 11 feet wide.

When the lines are redone, council said Molly Maguire’s also won’t have access to pull vehicles into the space off the deck. The restaurant, officials said, needs a highway occupancy permit from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to be able to properly pull vehicles into that space from a state road.

“This is the first we’re hearing about that,” Behan said. “We weren’t even aware we needed that. You can’t tell me the borough is doing all of this and it won’t negatively impact our business. It’s kicking us in the face.”