[8/28/01]The hospital complex that has been the gateway to their neighborhood since the 1950s is for sale, Wildwood residents were told Monday.

Dr. Briggs Hopson, medical director and board member of River Region Medical Corp., was one of the guests who met with the subdivision’s residents who also talked with city officials and police.

Hopson told about 90 members of the neighborhood association that Triad, the new parent company of River Region, is seeking a buyer for the 44-year-old ParkView hospital.

“Their first objective would be to sell the hospital,” Hopson said.

If no buyer can be found, he said, other options are to donate the hospital to a charity or tear it down.

ParkView operations will move from Grove Street to U.S. 61 North starting in February when the new River Region complex is ready. The hospital was built by the Sisters of Mercy to replace their former hospital at Monroe and Crawford streets, which since burned and has been torn down.

At the time, the Roman Catholic nuns also created Wildwood. The subdivision’s streets bear the names of the founder of the order and other members.

Not all health-care entities will be leaving the area. Hopson said the Marian Hill Chemical Dependency Center will continue to operate in the ParkView complex for at least another year and that The Street Clinic and the Vicksburg Cancer Center will remain at their sites on Grove.

“At the present time, to be truthful, we don’t know what we’re going to do,” Hopson said.

He suggested that one other possibility for the hospital would be to donate it to Alcorn State University. He said the university could use the property for its nursing school.

Wildwood resident David Gibson commended the police department and Capt. Mark Culbertson for the arrest of three teens after two auto burglaries in the neighborhood earlier this month.

Residents told Mayor Laurence Leyens that teens from the Rolling Hills Subdivision have been entering the neighborhood through the old end of East Main Street at the north end of Wildwood. They said that the teens are crossing private property to get through to areas along Grove Street.

“It sounds like we need to have a police presence there,” Leyens said.

Residents also asked about the future of the neighborhood’s park at Hildegarde Terrace and Marian Lane. South Ward Alderman Sid Beauman, who had served as the city’s director of parks and recreation until taking office July 1, said new playground equipment was included in the budget proposed last week.d the weary. For her, she said, that was enough.