It has been observed that history doesn’t repeat itself but it often rhymes.
Perhaps that is why the Oktibbeha County Board of Supervisors’ efforts to make use of the old Felix Long Hospital property is reminiscent of the long and ultimately failed effort to restore Oktibbeha County Lake.
For years, Supervisors haggled, argued, made plans, changed plans and saw possible funding streams come and go. Supervisors couldn’t agree to a plan to restore the lake, and even if they had, they didn’t have the money needed to do the job. The supervisors have let the lake languish as they await a study of it.
The county-owned Felix Long Hospital opened in 1950, but closed in 1973 when the city’s new hospital opened. It has been vacant since 2022. Supervisors commissioned Columbus-based Major Design Studio to design the building’s demolition to make room for a new county facility that would host administrative offices and some court operations. Even the legislature threw in $1 million in 2023 to help with the demolition to jumpstart the process.
But the project has languished since then. Complicating matters is the need to have any plans for the property approved by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History since the hospital is located in Downtown Starkville Historic District, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.
At Monday’s regular meeting, supervisors spent more than an hour debating how to proceed. During Monday’s board of supervisors meeting, Ryan Ashford of Major Design Studio presented updated estimates for the county to send to MDAH.
Those estimates ranged from $24.2 million for a complete 38,200 square foot rebuild and $28.2 million for a partial renovation and new additions to the existing facility, which would total around 51,720 square feet, according to preliminary documents.
Rather than submit the full plans, the board elected to send only the cover sheets of the two estimates. It’s doubtful MDAH will be satisfied with that. The devil is in the details, especially when it comes to historic sites. Sending the bare minimum of plans will only further prolong a process that seems to be nowhere remotely close to a conclusion.
The most pressing question is how the county expects to fund either plan. No funds have been designated for the project, which gives the project a distinct Oktibbeha County Lake vibe. Can the county build those funds into its budget without a major increase in property taxes? Will it pursue a bond to cover those expenses? These are the hard questions and the ones that should be answered first because everything else is speculation.
The most obvious option available is to demolish the hospital and wait until the time is right to develop and fund the project. That might be a year from now; it might be 10 years from now. There’s not much point in making plans now for a building that may not be built for years.
As it is, the county finds itself engaged in a debate over hypotheticals.
Given the circumstances, demolishing the building is the best tangible step in addressing this issue.
What follows after that is clearly another discussion for another day.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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