The Jim Thorpe Lions Club will remain the sole caretakers and administrators of the Asa Packer Mansion for at least the remainder of the calendar year after a 5-1 vote by borough council Thursday night.

Council President Greg Strubinger, who cast the lone no vote, said the Lions Club, who have been caretakers of the borough-owned home since 1954, will be evaluated following the probationary period and any changes to who runs the mansion, if deemed necessary, could be discussed after that.

“Councilman Michael Rivkin and I, as building committee members, put forth a recommendation that we move forward with a new organization and board made up of three council members, a mansion director, and three at-large members, to oversee the mansion,” Strubinger said. “Michael was away and could not vote tonight and the rest of council did not take our recommendation.”

The three-story, 18-room, 11,000-square-foot Italianate Villa style mansion was built in 1861 and home to Packer, a prominent philanthropist, politician, and founder of the Lehigh Valley Railroad and Lehigh University. His daughter, Mary Packer Cummings, willed the home to Jim Thorpe borough in 1912. In 1954, the borough struck an agreement with the organization now known as the Jim Thorpe Lions Club, who became caretakers of the property and opened it to the public for tours.

The Lions Club has seen some turnover within the past several years and many of its newer members share a desire to maintain caretaking responsibilities at the mansion.

“We’re excited,” Jay McElmoyle, who serves as chairman of the mansion for the Lions Club, said following Thursday’s council vote. “I hope we continue to work with the borough and mansion staff happily. We will see what the letter holds and what determines a successful running of the mansion. I will say that the mansion has 648 reviews on TripAdvisor and has a 4.5 rating so I feel we’ve been doing something successful. We expect very positive things going forward.”

In an email Friday morning, Mansion Curator and Executive Director Ava Bretzik said she and all of the mansion staff intended to submit their resignations later in the day.

Strubinger said he wasn’t sure what the status of the staff would be moving forward.

“I think in their mind they have gone through a trial period with the Lions members who have been in charge for the last 6 months to a year and they are not satisfied in how they have been treated,” Strubinger said of the staff. “Their service, around 200 years combined, speaks for itself. There is a tremendous amount of work to keep that house going over there and they feel their service is extremely underappreciated based on the action taken today.”

Ongoing maintenance issues at the mansion, Strubinger said, and the fact that some mansion staff came to the borough with personnel issues caused concern and led him to recommend a different management situation moving forward.

“Any capital projects ever done by the Lions had to go through the borough because that is part of the agreement,” McElmoyle said. “Hopefully we have a better relationship with the borough now that there is a building and grounds committee who is very interested.”

Voting in favor of the continued agreement with the Lions were Michael Yeastedt, Joanne Klitsch, Robert Schaninger, Jay Miller and Jessica Crowley.

McElmoyle said the Lions and the borough started discussions last year on an updated caretaker agreement.

“Some small things had changed since the last update in 2000 and we thought it best to get something updated and fresh,” he said. “That kind of sparked the ‘who should run the mansion’ debate. We have a good group of hard working people who are excited to do what we can do.”

McElmoyle said he is confident any personnel issues can be worked out and the mansion can continue to thrive going forward.