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Opinion: Editorial

Dealing with Hayswood

Friday, February 10, 2006 5:40 PM EST

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Let's keep our fingers crossed that the latest effort by Maysville to do something with the Hayswood Hospital property is successful.

Over the past 23 years, since its closure in favor of Meadowview Regional Medical Center, the hospital building has transformed from a vital part of the downtown to its biggest eyesore. Once called the worst blight in the community, officials have struggled with finding a solution to the "Hayswood issue."

More than 10 years after it was abandoned, the Hayswood property was purchased at auction by developer Esther Johnson, the woman whose company developed the Maysville High School building into apartments. She had similar hopes for the old hospital and announced plans for renovations on several occasions. Early on there seemed a promise of cooperation between Johnson and the city but that eventually collapsed. Grants never materialized, funding dried up and any hope that upscale apartments would become part of the Hayswood landscape disappeared. The project never came to fruition and the property continued to decline, becoming a haven for drug users and ghost hunters, among others.

Finally, in 2000, after it became obvious that Johnson would not be able to pull together the funding for the project, she offered to sell the Hayswood property to the city for $55,000. But the city was put off by projected clean-up costs flirting with $1 million. Even condemning and demolishing the building turned into a way-too-expensive project.

Now it appears the interest of the state and federal government to clean up brownfield sites may hold the best hope yet for Maysville and Hayswood. City officials met with the EPA's Brownfield representative and the Corp of Engineers Thursday to explore the deteriorating building. Testing on contaminants could begin as soon as this spring and city officials hope to apply for grants to clean up the site this fall.

As Maysville continues its quest to keep the downtown area a vibrant and enticing draw for residents and tourists alike, nothing is more important than doing something with the Hayswood property.

If nothing else has been accomplished over the last two decades, we have at least learned that best opportunity for rescuing Hayswood lies with the city, not a private developer.

We're glad to see some real movement finally taking place and hold out hope that this time it's the real thing.

If that turns out not to be the case, then the future of Hayswood Hospital is more likely to lie in the bottom of a landfill, a sad ending for a once important part of our town.

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