[04/28/03]A hospital boarded up 14 years ago, a historic apartment building and an old school full of memories are still deteriorating, but Vicksburg officials insist they won’t just let the buildings sit and rot.

At least three administrations at City Hall have wrangled with the fates of the former Kuhn Memorial Hospital, the vacant Aeolian apartments and the old Carr Central school. Recent action has also been taken on the former Battlefield Village mall, and officials say they are keeping a close eye on ParkView Regional Medical Center, empty for 14 months and fenced off on Grove Street.

But, the big question for elected officials is what to do with these and other derelict structures where the problems are often as big as the buildings themselves.

“As far as I’m concerned, if it’s out of compliance we need to take action on it,” said Mayor Laurence Leyens.

Last week, the owners of Battlefield were taken to court for the second time this month over the North Frontage Road complex, mostly vacant since 1996. In both cases, the city is asking the court to order the owners, J&V Properties of Jackson, to bring the structure into compliance with city building and fire codes.

Victor Gray-Lewis, building inspection department administrator, said the ultimate goal is to have the building along Vicksburg’s Interstate 20 corridor torn down by the owners, or the city, if necessary.

“If the judge finds in favor of the city I think that will put some pressure on the owners,” Gray-Lewis said.

Gray-Lewis said the city is also looking at the Kuhn building on Martin Luther King Drive, which has been empty since the state hospital closed in 1989. The building has changed hands many times since then, and several plans have been announced, but none has come to fruition.

The building is named for Lee Kuhn, a local merchant who left money to the state-run charity hospital after his death that helped fund its construction.

Once a premiere site for training state physicians, the building is boarded up and the lot is overgrown. Some doors and windows in the structure have been broken into, allowing access to vagrants or teens.

“Kuhn Memorial ought to come down. I don’t think it has any value to the community,” Leyens said.

The status of the former hospital is similar to the history of the vacant Aeolian apartments at Clay and Cherry streets, but city officials said the Aeolian is one of their successes.

Empty since 1991, the 78-year-old building was slated for demolition in 1999 just before it was bought by Frank Imes and Renovations of Mississippi Inc., a Columbus company. Plans were immediately announced for elderly housing, and restoration began within days.

All the windows and doors were scraped and painted, and the chain-link fence that had surrounded the site for three years came down late last year. Today, from the outside, it looks much like most other downtown buildings but it’s just a shell.

“The building is up to code as far as we’re concerned at least on the outside,” said North Ward Alderman Gertrude Young.

She was a member of the previous city administration that struggled with previous owners of the building. The Aeolian, advertised when built as the city’s first fireproof apartments, came within days of city-ordered demolition more than once in the 1990s.

Another historical site, Carr Central, is a protected historical property, leaving city officials in a quandary. Although most of the windows are broken out and inside many of the floors have collapsed after years of neglect, the designation of the former school and sentiment of students mean it is not likely it will be torn down.

By a quirk in a deed, the city, not the school district, owned the building until selling it four years ago to the current owner, Robert Rosenthal. Under terms of the deal, Rosenthal paid $105,000 for the Cherry Street school, but the city could buy it back for $45,000 if nothing was done in a year. A sign in front of the structure says it will open to residential living in September 2001, but no work has been done.

“What I don’t want is for the city to be responsible for it again,” Leyens said, explaining why the repurchase option hasn’t been used.

One reason city officials say they don’t want to buy it back is the cost of repairs. Removal of asbestos alone, which is everywhere in the school opened in 1924, is estimated to cost up to $400,000.

Rosenthal has applied for tax credits through the Mississippi Home Corporation every year since buying it, but has been turned down for the funds he planned to use to convert the structure into elderly housing. City officials said they have given Rosenthal until May 1 to come up with a plan for the building.

City officials say they are also waiting for a deal to be worked out for the ParkView Regional Medical Center building. After the hospital on Grove Street closed when the new River Region Medical Center on U.S. 61 North opened in February 2002, hospital officials announced plans for a deal with Alcorn State University.

“That’s still not dead. They’re just trying to get the figures together,” Young said.

Other plans still on the table include demolition of the Walnut Towers building, 1501 Walnut St., and renovation of the former Levee Street Depot at City Front. Both buildings have been purchased by the city under downtown urban renewal.

Specifications for the demolition of Walnut Towers are expected in about six weeks and specifications for the Depot in June. Both projects will take about 30 days to advertise before a contract can be awarded and work can begin.

Walnut Towers is to be converted back into a parking garage as it was originally built before the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers moved in and the Depot is to become a railroad museum and tourists information center.

The motor vessel Mississippi is also part of plans for City Front that include a river museum and interpretive center with the Corps. That project is federally funded and is being designed now.