OLD HOSPITAL; CITY UNABLE TO REMEDY PROBLEM WITH UPKEEP

The fate of the former St. Francis hospital building is a question that continues to nag city officials nine months after the City Council passed a law to address the problem of dangerous and dilapidated structures.

The old hospital site at the corner of Good Hope and Pacific is badly overgrown with weeds, thistles and grass. The building, with its broken windows and doors, also is difficult to secure.

But City Manager J. Ronald Fischer said Sunday the building is structurally sound and there's little the city can do to force its owner, Peter Kern of Denton, Texas, to maintain the site.

"As long as it's not a public health and safety hazard there's really not a lot we can do," Fischer said.

The city manager said he and other city officials last month spoke with Denton about mowing the grounds but efforts since have been fruitless.

"He doesn't have a local representative, and that makes it very difficult to stay in contact with him," Fischer said.

City officials last week decided that the city Public Works Department would mow the lot around the building if nothing was done in the next week or two.

Also, Assistant City Attorney John Treu is studying what can be done legally to get Denton to maintain the property. The city already has tried to secure the site and last summer it cleared weeds and brush from the lot.

"We hate to keep putting money into this, but it looks terrible," Fischer said. "I saw it Saturday, and it's in the condition now where we're going to have to get some pretty good-sized equipment in there.

"In the next week or two, if he doesn't do anything, we're going to go in there and mow it. But that's just one shot. I guess if it gets bad again, we might have to do it over."

Fischer said the law passed last year allows the city to tax bill demolition costs for condemned buildings to the property. The measure was passed amid city council discussion over whether something could be done to improve the former hospital building and the Marquette Hotel on Broadway.

By taking steps to secure the old St. Francis site, the city became liable for maintaining the vacant structure's safety, said Councilman Al Spradling III.

Other council members said they would rather incur the expense of condemning the poorly secured, often-vandalized building than risk perhaps a costlier lawsuit from someone injured at the site.

But Fischer said the costs to raze the former hospital likely would exceed the benefits of tax billing the expense to the property.

A contractor last year estimated the demolition costs would be $180,000 to $200,000, with an additional $190,000 to $230,000 for asbestos removal.

Through condemnation, the city would be able to hold a lien on the property after it's resold. But if demolition costs far exceeded the value of the site after it's razed, the action would be of no advantage, Fischer said.

"If we can get (Denton) to cut the grass and keep it in halfway decent shape, we're probably not going to push him that much," he said.

Spradling said Sunday he'd like to see the city develop an alternative plan for the site.

"Something's got to be done," Spradling said. "That is just an eyesore beyond belief. If we can't force the owner to take care of that then we need to take some action."

The councilman said that if the existing building were torn down, the site would be ideal for a "YMCA or some sort of a youth club.

"We need something for the young people to use and to have a place for them to go," he said. "We don't have that, especially in that part of town.

"That area needs revitalization, and allowing a structure like that to stand doesn't help. I'd love to see us develop a program for a real improvement of that property."

Fischer said he'd support such a plan if it was endorsed by the public. "If we could develop a plan that would be workable, I'd be tickled to death," he said.

But, like Fischer, Spradling acknowledged there's little money in the budget to fix the problem. He said a major improvement could only be done at the behest of taxpayers.

"I'd want us to do it by bond issue," Spradling said. "Let the public vote on this one, and say, `We'd like to have that kind of program.' It'd be great for that end of town, and It'd be great for the city of Cape.

"But under our current status, we can't do that without a bond issue. We just don't have any money in the budget for something like that."