harlan Kirgan
St. Landry Parish Council members weighed in on the demolition of the old Moosa Hospital by adding a few hurdles.
Parish President Jessie Bellard said he met with officials from the city and hospital district about the old hospital.
“It needs to be torn down, but it is full of asbestos. They have $286,000 in their bank account ... and they are asking us to put up $10,000 so they can get the contract out to start doing the asbestos removal,” he said.
After the asbestos is removed the property would be sold with the understanding the building would be cleared “down to the dirt,” he said.
Wayne Ardoin, chairman of the Administrative-Finance Committee that met Wednesday, asked, “They want $10,000 from us? From parish government and they are sitting with $286,000?”
Bellard replied, “I look at it like this, at the end of the day the hospital belongs to the parish government. So, if that board runs out of money because they don’t have any money coming back in, if that board runs out of money it belongs to us. We foot the whole bill.”
Ardoin asked that legal counsel Garret Duplechain research the ownership of the property.
Several years ago the parish government was told if the property is not used as a hospital ownership would revert to the Moosa family, which donated the land for the hospital, he said.
A motion by Council member Dexter Brown was approved to determine if the city of Eunice can help pay at least half of the $10,000 being requested.
Council member Timmy Lejeune’s motion to ask the owners of the new hospital if they would pay the $10,000 to help with the asbestos removal.
Bellard said the St. Landry Hospital District 1 Board owns the land where the old and new hospitals are located. The owners of the new hospital pay for the hospital district’s Board expenses, he said.
Council member Harold Taylor cautioned the Council about its involvement in the hospital expenses, explaining that the St. Luke Hospital’s resolution cost $186,000.
“How can I say this diplomatically?” he said. “The hospital Board just raised their fees to manage a defunct building.”
Taylor said, “It would seem to me that the hospital that is sitting on their land ought to come up with the $10,000,” he said.
Taylor said if the property is cleared there is documentation that ownership reverts back to the Moosa family.
No one representing the hospital district or Eunice city government attended the meeting.
In 2019, the Eunice Board of Aldermen passed a resolution asking the parish government to do something with the old hospital that has been vacant since 2005.
The building was left vacant when the Acadian Medical Center began operations in its new facility.
The resolution stated the building is a safety hazard and asked St. Landry Parish Government remove the asbestos and demolish or secure the building.
Parish Council Chairman said a previous estimate for the demolition of the old hospital was about $750,000.