STROUDSBURG, Pa. — The former Monroe County Jail on Courthouse Square in downtown Stroudsburg is filled with files from the past.
The building itself is used for storage.
The borough's mayor would like to see it used as something more useful to people and businesses downtown.
But, the property is owned by the county.
"Through the years between taking down the Sears building, 701 Main Street, and now the PNC building, it's almost $70,000 a year in taxes, so we are asking to give us a building that has been sitting there vacant, even against our ordinance vacant, since the late 1980s," said Mayor Tarah Probst, (D) Stroudsburg.
The mayor refers to the former PNC Bank Building, which the county needed to demolish in order to make way for a major courthouse expansion project.
Commissioner Sharon Laverdure says the idea isn't being squashed but rather put on the back burner.
"The timing is not right; let's put it that way, especially with the construction going on at the courthouse because we are using it to store lots of old files. We are in the process of putting our files together digitally and backing them up appropriately, so we have the long term and not paper forever, but that takes time. So we are not absolutely against moving forward; it's just the timing is not good right now," said Comm. Sharon Laverdure, (D) Monroe County.
Aside from getting the building back on the borough tax roll, the mayor tells us she also wants to see it used as a tourist attraction, so when someone asks where to go, she will tell them to go to jail.
"It's got so many stories to it, absolutely, and on top of that, look at what Jim Thorpe brings in from their jail. And not only was this nationally recognized for ghost stories, which is kind of cool, but the way the jail is set up, it's perfect for wine tasting, beer tasting, a restaurant," said Mayor Probst.
According to county commissioners, the contract to digitize the documents inside the old jail is only two years into a five-year agreement, so it will be some time before any movement is made.
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