EUNICE, La. ( KLFY ) — After years of discussion between St. Landry Parish Government in the city of Eunice, demolition has officially begun at the Moosa Memorial Hospital.

Parish President Jessie Bellard said this is the next step in the ongoing process of beautifying St. Landry Parish.

“If you go down Moosa Blvd. you’re going to see a lot of beautiful buildings down there,” Bellard said. “That one eyesore, it just stopped it. So, we’re going to make sure we take care of that.”

The Moosa Memorial Hospital has now been deserted for 20 years.

As the building has continued to age and landscaping has become overgrown, Bellard says he has spent four years creating a plan for the future of the building along with Eunice Mayor Scott Fontenot.

“That’s one of the first things that Mayor Fontenot and Eunice asked about, and we’ve been working on that ever since,” Bellard said.

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Bellard said asbestos was removed from the building, and the building can finally be demolished by a Parish Government crew without hiring additional contractors.

With the demolition beginning this week, Bellard said the future of the abandoned property is already in place.

“Our plans are to save two buildings on the side, and that’s not going to be attached to the old hospital,” he said. “Those are the newer buildings that was built later on. And save those, renovate those and make those an office complex. And then when it gets to ground level, when it’s all cleaned up, then the board is going to sell that piece of property because it’s going to have no more use for the government.”

Bellard says the entire property should be completely cleared out in the next six weeks.

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