Lehighton council approves PathStone lease of Annex building

PathStone now has a permanent home inside the Lehighton Borough Annex building.

On a 4-0 vote at a special meeting on Thursday, borough council approved the PathStone lease for full use of the second floor at the rate of $13 per square foot.

Council members Autumn Abelovsky, Lisa Perry, Ryan Saunders and council President Grant Hunsicker were in favor. Councilmen Joe Flickinger, Darryl Arner and Jared McEvoy were absent.

Borough manager Nicole Beckett told council PathStone would take over the entire second floor.

Beckett said that the Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit will be leaving the building in July.

“The building will function only as a school, only one use,” Beckett said.

Abelovsky said the borough would rent out the building’s auditorium and gymnasium after hours.

She then questioned where the $13 per square foot rate came from, and whether that was counting their square footage as office space.

“If we’re giving them this entire building, and if we don’t charge them for it, we’re giving it to them for free,” Abelovsky said.

Beckett said the task at hand was approving the lease with the rooms.

In November, council on a 6-0 vote approved a three-month lease with PathStone at the rate of $12 per square foot, and to be put in the lease contract that they don’t have to secure the second floor.

Students had been attending PathStone classes in the Coaldale campus until building issues surfaced, and they moved into Lehighton’s annex building.

PathStone notified Coaldale Borough Council that its Head Start program will not be coming back to the Coaldale Complex. The company notified council it will be executing the section of its lease that allows for a 60-day notice of termination.

The private, not-for-profit company suspended its Head Start services in Coaldale in November after an anonymous complaint was filed concerning the air quality in the former Coaldale High School.