We agree with Vicksburg Mayor George Flaggs that the county-owned Verhine building at 1015 Adams St. should be demolished.

The Warren County Board of Supervisors has had it and the old Justice Court Building at 1019 Adams St. for sale for some time, apparently with no takers.

The county has attempted to go through channels to tear down the Verhine building since as early as 2002. However, concerns about the demolition of a building within the city’s historic district have kept it standing.

The Verhine building, which is known by that name because it once housed the Verhine and Verhine law partnership, was built in the 1890s and is located in the city’s Grove Street-Jackson Street National Historic Register District.

Flaggs has opposed the county’s application to demolish the building, citing a need to live within the decisions of the city’s architectural review board. However, last week, the mayor said he had changed his mind, that “there comes a time when you have to put the public’s safety ahead of protecting a building.”

Flaggs’ support comes with a caveat: He wants the county to agree to turn the property into a green space if the building is razed.

Recently, a part of the building’s cornice or molding along the roof was blown loose by winds and is dangling from its roof. Clearly a threat to public safety, county workers placed orange cones around near the area where the piece of building is hanging down. The cones are not a very effective deterrent, should wind or other cause the cornice to fall.

The ball seems to be in the Warren County Board of Supervisors’ court right now. We urge the supervisors to act swiftly to take do whatever is necessary to protect the public from the hazards this building poses, be that demolition or repairs to the structure.

Preserving history is worthy whenever possible, but when a building like Verhine has been for sale for so long and garnered little to no interest and is in a condition that it becomes a public safety issue, elected officials have a need to protect citizens first.