A tale of two hospitals: No plan for vacant Moosa Hospital in Eunice

Subhead
Eunice leaders struggle with costs
Image
Body

Ten years after the doctors, nurses and patients moved into a brand new hospital, Moosa Hospital remains vacant, boarded up and in a state of decay.
Newton “Chip” Thibodeaux, chairman of the St. Landry Hospital Service District 1 board, said the facility’s future is clouded by the cost of removing asbestos and demolition.
Estimates obtained eight years ago put the combined cost at $700,000, he said.
An audit for the year ending May 31, 2016, reported the hospital district had $92,657 in cash and $200,000 in investments. The building was valued at $151,788.
The district spent $3,125 in fees, $2,000 for scholarships and $678 for repairs and maintenance.
The St. Landry Parish Council pointed to another possible solution for the vacant hospital. The Council voted to dissolve the First Hospital Service District of Parishes of St. Landry and St. Martin. That district owned St. Luke Hospital in Arnaudville, which as been closed for seven to eight years.
The parishes will divide the assets with St. Landry Parish getting the hospital. There was about $1.4 million in the hospital district’s bank account. St. Landry will get about $500,000, which will be used to renovate the hospital.
Thibodeaux said Moosa Hospital, like St. Luke in Arnaudville, is ultimately the problem of the parish.
Bill Fontenot, St. Landry Parish president, said when he started working on the St. Luke project someone said, “Hey, Moosa is kind of in a similar predicament except they have no money and the building is just sitting there.”
Fontenot said the existence of about $300,000 in the Eunice hospital district’s band account was news to him.
Fontenot said he has heard people interested in using the vacant hospital have backed away when they find out about the asbestos.
The district’s money could go toward removing the hazardous material, he said.
“I’m going to look into that. It is a piece of land in a good location and I would like to put it back into commerce,” he said.
Unlike the Arnaudville hospital, Fonenot thinks the building will have to be demolished.
Eunice Mayor Scott Fontenot said he is unaware of any plan to deal with the building.
“The last I heard, and this was back when Mayor Moody was living, that he had gotten the National Guard to do a project to take it down.”
But the mayor said he has not found anything in writing about that Guard plan.
The only option for the city is to condemn the building, but the cost of razing the structure would fall on the city, he said.
“Something needs to be done and I don’t want that burden on the city of Eunice,” he said.
The building has been vacant since 2006. Thibodeaux said it was built in 1955.
Rep. Phillip DeVillier said the building was one of the first things he was asked about after being elected.
“I’m trying to come up with maybe a meeting to sit down and see where the original discussion ended with getting this thing torn down,” he said.
DeVillier said he is in contact with demolition to companies to find out how much it might cost to remove the asbestos and to demolish the builidng.
“I also put in a call to a recycling industry that actually buys old property that has been abandoned ...,” he said.
“I just think this something that we really and truthfully need to get cleaned up,” he said.
Mayor Fontenot said, “I don’t want to be talking about this 10 years later down the road. I think something needs to happen with it.”