Emotions were high Thursday night as Jim Thorpe Borough Council voted to proceed with plans to renovate Memorial Hall, using one-third of the top floor for borough office staff while keeping the rest of the space as a community center, and moving its police department to the bottom floor.

“We’re looking forward to this,” Council President Greg Strubinger said of the projects. “It’s been a long time coming.”

Joining Strubinger in voting for the projects were Michael Yeastedt and Joanne Klitsch. Councilman Michael Rivkin abstained from voting, while Councilwoman Jessica Crowley was opposed.

The building projects have been a controversial topic over the last few months after a grassroots effort was started by borough resident Amy Kubishin to save and reopen the former roller skating rink in Memorial Hall’s basement.

“The entire community rejected this project,” Crowley said of the plans council passed Thursday. “I haven’t heard anyone in agreement other than a handful of people at this council table. I’m very sorry to the community that this happened and I urge you to take a larger role in choosing quality leaders for this borough.”

Currently, borough office staff and the Jim Thorpe Police Department share a 3,332-square-foot building built in 2008 adjacent to Memorial Hall.

After a 2016 feasibility study cited concerns over safety and available space given the building’s current layout, the borough has been looking to relocate office staff and police.

The borough has secured $4.74 million in United States Department of Agriculture loan financing and is receiving $3.96 million in federal appropriations money based on the original project scope.

Borough officials said the hall would need $800,000 in improvements to save it from damage and deterioration no matter what its future use would be.

“There is nothing really prohibiting the borough from moving forward at this point,” Strubinger said. “I think it would be a huge mistake to turn back this grant money and have a broken-down building fall in the laps of the taxpayers.”

A pre-COVID-19 estimate for the entire Memorial Hall project was $2.25 million, but that figure jumped to $3.72 million in May 2021 and the projects were sidelined.

Crowley and Rivkin said they received a large packet of information from a group called “Save Memorial Hall” at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday with contracts, letters from the solicitor, and other project related information. Crowley said the information came from Jim and Sherry McHugh, who previously ran the banquet operations at the hall.

“I certainly don’t want to go backward or lose funding, but I would like to read all of this,” Rivkin said of the information prior to abstaining from the vote.

Strubinger, meanwhile, called the information dissemination a “last-minute attempt to trip things up due to a personal grudge.”

Thursday’s motion also included authorization for architects to update bid specifications and forward them to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“Upon their approval we can put the projects out to bid again,” Strubinger said.

The borough also pledged continued collaboration with Kubishin and the rink supporters to utilize some of the Master Site Plan improvements at Memorial Park to accommodate an indoor recreational space for youth. Last week, the borough’s current 8,400-square-foot public services garage on the Memorial Park grounds was discussed as a facility that could be repurposed.

“We will do what we can to assist in the endeavor including trying to secure grant funding,” Strubinger said.

Jim Thorpe Mayor Michael Sofranko said the borough will hold a meeting in Memorial Park on June 6 at 7 p.m. Jim Thorpe children are encouraged to attend to give their take on what they would like to see in their community.

“We’ve heard from the adults, we really do now want to hear from the kids on what they feel we’re lacking and where we could make improvements,” Sofranko said.