(rshsdepot) Jim Thorpe (Mauch Chunk) PA

[Jim Dent <jdent1_@_optonline.net>]

From The Morning Call

Carbon culls train station roof bids
County will pay $323,000 for repair of Jim Thorpe building.

 By Bob Laylo
Of The Morning Call
April 9, 2004

Carbon County commissioners awarded a $323,000 contract Friday for a company
to repair the roof on the historic Mauch Chunk Train Station in downtown Jim
Thorpe.

The commissioners also sparred over the appointment of a local insurance
broker to handle claims and other paperwork for the county's policies.

The commissioners voted unanimously to give the roof contract to S.G.
Mastriani Construction of Dunmore, Lackawanna County. The company was the
low bidder.

The county will use a $360,000 federal grant it secured in 2002.

Elissa Marsden of the Delaware and Lehigh National Heritage Corridor, which
helped secure the grant, said the company will put architectural shingles on
the roof and replace deteriorated wood under it.

She said the contract will cover replacing a third of the wood under the
roof.

County Administrator Randall Smith said the project will start in early May
and Mastriani has six months to complete the job.

He said the building, which houses tourism offices, a bank and the
headquarters of a small railroad company, will remain open while the work is
being done.

The commissioners held off giving the company an additional $45,000 worth of
work to restore a wood door and 70 windows in the building to ensure there
are not cost overruns on the roof project.

But Marsden said the company will honor the $45,000 quote for the door and
window work for six months.

In other business Thursday, commissioners voted along party lines to hire
the Wildoner Insurance Agency of Jim Thorpe as its local insurance broker,
replacing Person Agency Inc. of Lehighton.

Wildoner will work on policies the county has with the Pennsylvania Counties
Risk Pool through the County Commissioners Association of Pennsylvania.

The county has insurance on its buildings and vehicles, and liability
insurance for volunteers and at its nursing home through the pool.

Democratic Commissioners Charles Getz and William O'Gurek voted for the
change; Republican Wayne Nothstein voted no.

Nothstein asked his counterparts if there had been any problem with the
Person Agency. Getz said there have been no problems, but that he preferred
to work with Wildoner.

The Wildoner Agency is owned by Charles Wildoner, a former Carbon County
Democratic commissioner.

''You're just playing games,'' Nothstein said.

''You're the last person who should say that,'' Getz replied.

Getz reminded Nothstein that he and former Republican Commissioner Tom
Gerhard hired a county clerk in 2001 who is a Republican to run the Tax
Claim Bureau, passing over a Democrat who was acting director.

The bureau collects delinquent property taxes and oversees the sale of
properties taken for tax sale.

Nothstein did not respond to Getz's comments.

In other business, commissioners:

Hired Carbon Engineering of Summit Hill to help review bids and oversee work
to replace the county courthouse annex's malfunctioning heating and air
conditioning system. The county is seeking contractors for the work.

Learned it will get up to $78,835 a year for the next three years from the
state Department of Environmental Protection to run its West Nile virus
monitoring project.

Hired Thomas L. Dahl of Lansford as the county's new chief park ranger.
Dahl, who last was a ranger for the state Department of Conservation and
Natural Resources at Lake Nockamixon in Bucks County, will replace Bill
Hawk, who retired last year.

robert.laylo_@_mcall.com

610-379-3223
Copyright © 2004, The Morning Call
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-b1_1carbonapr09,0,7258432.story?coll=all-newslocal-hed


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The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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