ELBERTA — Owners of buildings in Elberta that remain empty may soon be taxed for keeping it vacant.

During Tuesday’s Elberta Town Council meeting, Councilman Michael Hudson presented the idea.

“The vacant buildings in the town create a lot of issues,” he said in the meeting.

Hudson explained that those issues include the fact that no businesses are brought into the town that could be housed in those buildings.

“The town is getting no sales tax,” he said.

In addition, Husdon pointed out that Elberta Police officers spend extra time patrolling the vacant buildings to ensure they are not being trespassed upon.

The councilman’s solution was to impose a tax on buildings that remain vacant for extended periods of time.

“Other states do this,” Hudson said.

Councilwoman Alma Doege agreed that the vacant buildings are a problem for the town.

“How do you hold someone responsible when you have a building that needs repairs?” she asked. “Someone wanted to rent the hardware building. But when they were in there, the roof was leaking.”

Doege added that the owner of the empty hardware building refused to repair the leak when the potential renter requested it.

Further discussion of the matter resulted in the council agreeing to research the issue.