Jim Thorpe Borough Council this month authorized a Coopersburg company to complete mold remediation in the office of its streets department supervisor.

The contract, ratified by council Thursday, calls for ALM Abatement Services LLC to do the work at a cost of $1,985 plus an additional $800 for a third party inspection and clearance tests.

“This is mostly on the outside walls of the office,” Borough Manager Maureen Sterner said of the mold. “Once everything is opened up, we’ll have a better idea of what caused it. We did, a few years ago, have a leak back into that office and at that time we had a company come in and remove some of the drywall. This may be an extension of that, but we’re not sure at this point.”

Sterner said the amount for the work was well below the threshold for public bidding and, while she and Public Services Manager Vince Yaich could have approved the work in an emergency situation, she wanted to bring it before council.

“The company doing the work is owned by Kyle Sheckler, who is on borough council, so we wanted the rest of council to vote on this to avoid any issues,” Sterner said.

When the problem is discovered, borough officials said, the municipality will move forward with making the appropriate repairs to ensure moisture issues don’t continue.

“There is an air conditioning unit on that roof that hasn’t worked in a couple of years,” Yaich said. “We have duct work that runs right through there. It could be condensation as a result. Once we saw the mold, we didn’t want to go and touch anything and disturb it.”