Tenants wanted.

For the past several months, a house at 38 S. Fourth St., Coplay, has been vacant.

Each month that it's unrented, taxpayers fork out a mortgage payment of $712.

"It's an asset but is it doing anything for us?" asked Councilman Charles Sodl at the workshop meeting Tuesday. "Should we be tearing it down and building something? Should we sell it, take that money and build a garage? I don't know. These are questions that we should be asking."

The house was purchased in 2008, said Councilman Bill Leiner Jr. He and council President Lou Bodish said the idea at the time was to tear down the house and build an addition to the public works garage. But that never happened.

"I don't think we should be in the rental business," Bodish said.

"When we were renting it, it was fine because [the rent] was taking care of the mortgage payment," said Councilman Joe Groller. "Now it's coming out of our budget."

"Thats even worse," said Sodl. "Now we're paying the mortgage and were not collecting any income. … We've got to come up with a plan."

Groller said the original purchase price for the house was about $125,000. He estimated the borough owes between $80,000 and $90,000.

Sodl suggested the borough make a sound business decision.

"If we want to keep it, let's fix it up and get somebody renting it. If not, let's sell it," he said.

Bodish said early next year he will put together a committee to examine the issue and devise a long-term plan for the house. In the meantime, the borough needs to get it rented.

Some renovation work has been done since the last tenant left. Carpet was scheduled to be installed this week, said Councilman David Royer.