Jim Thorpe Borough Council awarded a bid for liquid sludge removal during its meeting last week.

The contract was awarded to Biros Septic & Drain Cleaning Inc. of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area, which provided the low bid.

The three-year contract would be for 0.1326-cents per gallon. A one-year contract would have been 0.1249-cents per gallon; a two-year contract would have been 0.1287-cents per gallon.

Environmental Service Corp. was the only other bidder. Waste Management decided not to bid.

In other matters, the borough voted to purchase water plant equipment.

Council voted to purchase a new variable frequency drive in the amount of $11,795 for the East Side water treatment plant.

“A variable frequency drive controls our well,” water department Supervisor Dwayne Sterner said. “It allows us to change the RPMs of the well to increase or decrease the gallons per minute. As of three weeks ago, it was failing at all times of the night. Allied Controls was up, but the issue continued. We had the well company come up to check the motor and the pump. As of now, both companies strongly suggested that we replace the VFD (variable frequency drive).”

Council also voted to approve the rental of a temporary generator switch in the amount of $2,815, and a permanent switch in the amount of $16,075 if the temporary switch works.

According to Sterner, the temporary switch is to determine if the switch is causing problems that the generator has had for about a year. If the temporary switch works, then they would purchase the permanent switch.

If that does not work, the water department might need to replace the generator.