By JARRAD HEDES

jmhedes@tnonline.comIt's round two for Jim Thorpe Borough in its quest to hire a borough manager.After advertising the position in October and never making a hire, council President Greg Strubinger said Thursday night the municipality intends to readvertise."A lot of other local municipalities have managers and the feeling is, if we get the right person, they will pay for themselves," Strubinger said. "It's been tough to find that person. We could sit around and let things be status quo in Jim Thorpe, but this is a way for us to be proactive."Through the first advertisement, the borough received 19 applicants but things stood idle until council reported last month it had interviewed two candidates.Councilman Curtis Jackson acknowledged the borough made a mistake by letting the applications sit without action."It was a bad error to let the resumes sit that long," he said. "We will be on them this time and interview immediately. We're hoping to have it narrowed down to the top few candidates by just before Labor Day."Ron Confer, a former Jim Thorpe mayor and councilman, didn't like the idea of hiring a manager last October and still doesn't like it now.He told council Thursday that its "$104,000 the borough doesn't have.""These people cost money," he said. "We had a guy that cost us a lot of money and then we had to pay to get rid of him. You're spending money to advertise a second time and are just spinning your wheels."The position has been vacant since Wesley Johnson was terminated in 2012 after almost two full years on the job.Borough officials said the money for the manager was budgeted last year but never used. A portion of it would come from other accounts including sanitation, a move with which Confer disagrees.The sanitation account currently has around $1 million in it."You're going to squander that money," Confer said.Council said it would adopt a resolution stating it would pay the account back like it did when it subsidized Memorial Hall operations and its water account out of sanitation in the past.Jim Thorpe's annual budget is around $5 million and Councilman John McGuire said that's a big enough number that it requires someone to manage operations."Our part-time staff we have now has to take care of the day-to-day business administration and it doesn't afford them the time to be a borough manager," McGuire said."Almost everyone on council has full time jobs and they don't have the expertise that a manager would. We have to have someone who can run this place. This is a business and when we don't have a chance to be proactive, that is just wrong."With contrasting views from Confer, borough resident Ed McArdle likes the idea of having a borough manager.In past years, council has had trouble collecting overdue water and sanitation bills."You had $190,000 owed in utility bills," McArdle said. "The manager went after that and got it down to $50,000. If you don't chase it, these people will never pay. You need a manager in here."