Carbon County officials are hoping to secure a grant to complete an analysis of Josiah White Park and the area surrounding the train station to better serve the growing pedestrian traffic.

On Thursday, the board of commissioners approved submitting a grant application to the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources for a Peer Grant in the amount of $18,000. A 10% match is required and will be funded by the Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau.

Commissioners’ Chairman Mike Sofranko said that the goal of the grant, if successful, is to look at Josiah White Park and the surrounding area where hundreds of thousands of visitors traverse annually to see how it could better be set up for vendors and pedestrians.

Items that will be analyzed include how the park is laid out, where vendors are located, the walking patterns of the visitors, and what could be done to create better areas to meet the needs of everyone.

“It has got to be seriously studied,” Sofranko said, commending county employee Jennifer Boger who spearheaded the grant application; as well as PMVB for stepping up with the matching funds. “We’re going to be having someone come in to do a study to see how to improve the park, how we improve the way we do the vending. ... It’s going to tell us where vendors should set up in the park and what vendors we should allow.”

The commissioners said that there are limited amounts of food options within the borough of Jim Thorpe and current establishments get overloaded on some weekends when thousands of visitors come to town.

To address that, the board allowed more vendors in the park and now they want to make sure they can have them set up where vendors can get customers easily, while also not creating backups in pedestrian traffic.

“That’s what we’re trying to do,” Commissioner Rocky Ahner said. “We’re trying to get it separated a little bit and break it down. ... I think it’s going to be a really good thing to help us out.”

Sofranko added that the county has blocked off the parking area in front of the King Coal Cafe, known as the corral, which has allowed people to walk from the parking lot into downtown Jim Thorpe easier.

“That has been a huge help,” he said.

The board said that while these changes that already have been implemented have helped, having an expert come in and look at everything will help even more.

In a related matter, with Mauch Chunk Trust Company vacating its space in the train station next month, the commissioners said that this grant would also help determine what could be done to better accommodate visitors and residents.

“It kind of addresses part of that as well,” Sofranko said. “It’s going to look at what is the best usage for that space. Is it bathrooms? Is it the welcoming center? I can tell you this much, a lot of people have said ‘Oh, the train station, the train could go there and sell tickets.’ Well there’s no way you can sell tickets in there with the doors. You got to think about stuff like this.”

Sofranko addressed rumors that Reading and Northern will be purchasing the train station and again stressed that the station is not up for sale and will remain under the county’s ownership.

“We do work with the train and Andy Muller and we have a good working relationship ... but we’re not selling anything. This is just opening up space so we can address the need for space.”