The city has cleared another hurdle to take down Kuhn Memorial Hospital.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen Friday approved an agreement with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality that allows DEQ oversight over the project to remove asbestos, raze the buildings on the property and clear it of debris. The agreement is part of the requirements of the $400,000 Environmental Protection Agency Brownfields grant to help cover the estimated $615,000 cost of clearing the property.

“Basically, what it means is that we will meet with DEQ and set a schedule to clean the property and we agree to follow that schedule,” community development director Victor Grey-Lewis said. He added DEQ inspectors will periodically go to the site to ensure the contractor keeps to the schedule.

April 25, the board opens bids to raze and clear the property, and there are two questions remaining: Will the city be able to move forward with its plans, or will it have to rebid the work because the first set of bids were over budget? Will it be able to come up with the remaining funds?

Kuhn’s history is well known to city residents. A former city hospital, the city sold Kuhn to the State of Mississippi in 1956 for $5, and the state operated the facility as a charity hospital, initially known as the Vicksburg Charity Hospital, until 1989. The state returned it to the city in 1990. In 1999, the building was sold to the Lassiter-Studdard Group Inc., which planned to open a 100-bed clinic and assisted living center. When the plans fell through, the company in 2000 donated the building to the Esther Stewart Buford Foundation.

The city officially took title to the Kuhn property Nov.1, 2016, after reaching agreements with the four parties that had interests in the property. Since then, city officials have been working to find a way to raze the buildings and remove something that has been a problem and an eyesore for the community.

The debate and worry over Kuhn has been going on for 20 years, and the city is close to making Kuhn a memory, but the hurdles remain. The city still has to find a contractor and find $215,000 to make up the difference between the grant and the project cost. Hopefully, things will work out. We don’t need more delays.