Jim Thorpe Borough has been awarded a grant to help cover costs with police protection during tourist activities.

On Thursday, the Carbon County Commissioners voted to release $5,000 under the hotel tax grant program through Pocono Mountain Visitors Bureau and award it to Jim Thorpe Borough Council for use in the police budget to cover 2015 tourist activities.The borough police are heavily utilized during major events, such as the upcoming St. Patrick's Day parade and the October Festival weekends, and these additional officers cost the borough more. The grant now helps cover that cost.The Carbon County Hotel Excise Tax, which includes a 3 percent tax on room rentals in hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts, and resorts in the county, was signed by the commissioners in 2007.The county receives a total of 50 percent of the hotel tax. Of the 50 percent, the county receives 20 percent, which it uses for improvements to Mauch Chunk Lake Park; 28 percent is put into a tourism grant fund that is awarded to nonprofit organizations several times a year; and 2 percent goes toward administration fees. The remaining 50 percent goes to the Pocono Mountain Visitors Bureau.In other matters, the commissioners appointed Ronald Blisard of Nesquehoning to the Carbon County Planning Commission. He fills the unexpired term of Ted Nagle, who resigned last October for personal reasons. The term expires Dec. 31, 2017.The board also received correspondence from the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission rescinding secretarial letters dated June 9, 2010, and June 16, 2011, and closing the case relative to the county application for approval of converting a railroad crossing from a private crossing to a public crossing at the entrance of the former Packerton Yards property.