A Lehigh Valley firm will not provide security during a Lehighton Area School District asbestos abatement project despite a 4-3 vote in favor of the agreement at Monday night's school board meeting.

Board members Gloria Bowman, Wayne Wentz, Andrew Yenser and Stephen Holland voted to approve the contract with the Lehigh Valley Law Enforcement Association.The firm was to make $18 per hour, for a total of between $4,000 and $6,000, to work 12-hour shifts while Jim Thorpe's Sargent Enterprises removes asbestos at Lehighton Area Middle School.However, with two board members, William Hill Jr. and Larry Stern, absent Monday night, Lehighton did not get the five votes necessary to pass the motion."When you're dealing with items where you are going to spend money, you need approval from the majority of the nine-member board," said district solicitor William Schwab. "In this case, the motion fails."Rocky Ahner, Hal Resh and Lori Nothstein voted against the agreement."We have local police," Resh said. "We didn't hire security when we did asbestos removal at our elementary schools."District Business Manager Brian Feick said the security firm would only be working when Sargent had equipment at the school.The abatement is scheduled for holiday breaks starting with Thanksgiving, weekends and during summer break."Our people will still be doing building checks during that time, but they won't be in the sections of the building that are blocked off for abatement," Feick said.According to Lehighton's Building and Grounds Manager Joe Hauser, there may be times when the contractor can't have its eyes on the property, which is why the district looked into outside security."There will be windows open for negative air pressure and we just don't want someone sneaking in or out of the site," Hauser said. "If someone gets in there, it could be the district who is liable."Ahner said he voted against the agreement because he felt the construction team would have its own perimeter set up to keep unwanted visitors out of the site."They'll have their own people on site, and if I'm a worker and I see someone who is not supposed to be there, I'm going to call and report that," he said.The district is paying Sargent $344,900 to complete the asbestos abatement.