The hiring of an engineer will kick off the design and permitting phase of what will likely amount to a nearly $1 million stream restoration project in Jim Thorpe borough.

Five dams along the nearly 2-mile Silk Mill Run creek, designated as a Class A brown trout cold-water fishery, will be demolished and removed.

Officials from the Wildlands Conservancy, the nonprofit agency partnering with the borough on the project, said the dam height creates a barrier for fish to swim and live upstream.

“We’re looking to put out a request for proposals for an engineering firm that has experience removing old dam structures and restoring streams,” Dennis DeMara, Wildlands Conservancy conservation outreach coordinator, said. “It is a unique contractor that will be needed to do this.”

Wednesday marked the first meeting of the project’s advisory committee, which is made up of community residents, borough council members, borough employees and Wildlands Conservancy employees.

“The goal is to bring everyone together and work as a group,” Kristie Fach, director of ecological restoration for the Wildlands Conservancy, said. “This committee will be going over design plans together. It will be a total community effort.”

To date, the borough has received two grants to put toward the project. It was awarded a $200,000 Growing Greener Grant from the Department of Environmental Protection earlier this year and, on Tuesday night, it learned of an additional $65,000 coming from the Pennsylvania Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

The design phase, DeMara said, has an estimated completion date of December 2023, while the construction phase will not be complete until 2025.

Jim Thorpe and the Wildlands Conservancy signed a memorandum of understanding in 2021 regarding the restoration.

“The ponds behind the dam are now filled with sediment and smother any habitat for the macro invertebrate organisms that depend on a cobble and rocky stream bed,” the document states. “Removing the dams would eliminate any obstacles for fish to swim upstream and would re-create ideal conditions for fish to reproduce and young trout to take advantage of the spring-fed wooded stream.”

When the stream restoration is complete, DeMara said, the borough could look at adding a series of paths and trails to make the property more accessible.

“It’s a beautiful, amazing property that has been hiked by residents probably since the borough began, but it still has been somewhat of a hidden gem all of these years,” DeMara said. “It will be up to the borough how accessible they want to make it.”

Jim Thorpe Borough Councilwoman Jessica Crowley questioned the Wildlands Conservancy on Wednesday regarding its connection with the Nestle Water company. According to Crowley, Nestle has been listed as a Wildlands Conservancy stakeholder leading her to voice concerns the water bottling company may try to install a well near the tributary after the dam is removed.

“We are a nonprofit organization who has private donors that support the work we do,” Fach said. “That may be Nestle or another local corporation. It doesn’t mean we carry out their vision. We are not aware that Nestle has installed any wells following the completion of our projects.”

DeMara was adamant there is no connection between Nestle and the dam removal/stream restoration work in Jim Thorpe.

“This is about a partnership with the borough,” he said. “The borough has a situation and a problem with old dams that are no longer needed. We are doing this out of a pure 100% motive of stream restoration and for the aquatic wildlife of that stream. We feel we’re doing the borough a great service.”

Defending the borough’s partnership with Wildlands Conservancy, Councilman Mike Yeastedt said Crowley’s comments about Nestle were “irrelevant.”

“We are not going to keep dredging up the same accusations over and over,” Yeastedt said. “We are not spending time rehashing this.”

The project advisory committee plans to have additional meetings as the design and permitting phase moves forward