Lehighton has approved a new three-year contract for the Lehighton Senior Center.

On a 6-0 vote Monday, borough council approved the pact, retroactive to Jan. 1, and continuing through Dec. 31, 2028.

Before the vote, borough solicitor Jim Nanovic said that this year, the rent will be $1,045 per month.

Nanovic added each year the lease continues will have a 4.5% increase.

Per the agreement, the premises leased by Carbon County at Eighth and Iron streets are available for the use of the county as a Senior Center site on a daily basis, Monday through Friday, for a period of 4.5 hours per day, from 9 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.

Extended hours will be permitted for certain circumstances, such as food vouchers, Medicare, Carbon County Senior Games, etc. as agreed upon between the recreation director and the senior center director, with the time specified by the administrator of the program.

Councilman Steve Hawk was absent for the vote.

In December, borough council on a 6-0 vote approved a shortened one-year lease for the Lehighton Recreation Center. That came with shared use, cleanup provisions, and a 4.5% or higher with 60-day termination clause. The matter was tabled last month until the contract was set.

At November’s meeting, borough council on a 5-1 vote agreed to write a new lease at the state Department of Aging’s mandated percentage increase per year, for 10 years, which passed on a 5-1 vote. This year’s lease is $1,045 per month.

Borough Manager Dane DeWire said the county decided it didn’t want a 10-year lease. At its meeting in November, borough council originally agreed to a 10-year indenture.

DeWire said at December’s meeting he believes it’s unfair to the senior citizens, and didn’t want them to have that stress every year.

He then recommended that borough council go back to three years and everything else it discussed.

Zimmerman, who cast the sole vote in opposition in November, told the senior citizens his vote had nothing to do with them.

Rather, Zimmerman said he believed it should be worded the same as it was, and that he liked the idea of not being locked in for 10 years.

About 30 residents attended the November borough council meeting, roughly half of which were from the Lehighton Senior Center, to learn the fate of the Lehighton Rec Center.

After several impassioned pleas, it was decided senior citizens in Lehighton may continue to meet at the Recreation Center.

In June, council agreed to increase the senior center rental rates to $1,500 a month as of July 1, 2025; $1,500 a month as of July 1, 2026; and $1,750 a month as of July 1, 2027.

Tom Evans, recreation director, said at November’s meeting that the rate was $1,500 a month as of July 1, 2025, and that the agency came back with a cost of $1,045 a month.

DeWire noted that the previous 10-year lease was set up in 2015.

DeWire said that in early October, the borough sent Carbon County a letter with a proposal.

Within five days of receiving the letter, they sent a response to that letter stating that they cannot pay that type of increase according to the state Department of Aging, as the maximum they are allowed to pay is a 4.5% increase.

DeWire then sent another letter to the Department of Aging, stating the borough respectfully declined to accept the $1,045 rate.

He said he and Evans had gone back to the Carbon County commissioners to compromise, but that the borough never heard anything on that.

DeWire said one of the options discussed was taking it from a five-day program to a three-day program (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) in an attempt to save on costs.

After being approached by some members of the Lehighton Senior Center, Mayor Ryan Saunders said he spoke with the Department of Aging, stating the borough respectfully declined to accept the $1,045 rate, and noted this was not a council decision.

Saunders said he then immediately contacted the commissioners, who supplied him with the letters provided to them by the borough, and in turn, he spoke to some members of borough council who were unaware of what was going on behind the scenes.

Hawk assured those senior citizens in attendance that “this was never an attack on senior citizens.”

Every day the senior citizens are provided a hot meal at a nominal fee, and it was noted there are 60 people that count on that food.