NATCHEZ, Miss. – Mayor Dan Gibson broke a 3-3 city board tie Tuesday to move forward on selling the old Natchez General Hospital to owners of an adjacent mansion. The vote came amid allegations this is to keep blacks out of a neighborhood of whites opposed to the vacant facility becoming apartments.
The Natchez Board of Aldermen deadlocked on beginning the process for selling the city-owned blighted property to Ginger and James Hyland, who own The Towers antebellum estate behind the old hospital.
In breaking the tie, Gibson voted to get appraisals on how much the Hylands should pay to purchase the old hospital from the city.
Gibson refuted Alderman Billie Joe Frazier’s charge that “pure racism” is blocking black developers from acquiring the city-owned Oak Street property. The mayor – who’s white — said he’s following the wishes of nearby residents against a multi-dwelling housing development being nestled with homes on Myrtle, Oak and Pearl streets.
“The neighborhood does not want it,” Gibson said of Magnolia Medical Foundation’s proposal to restore the 96-year-old, dilapidated former hospital into 30 apartment units for elderly residents.
“People who live in the neighborhood are best to determine what they want,” Gibson said. “We are simply being fair (but), the first thing (some people) want to say is that’s about race.”
Foundation head Erica Thompson, who’s black, presented plans in 2017 to spend $3.4 million for renovating the building, once the city’s main hospital until 1960.
A divided city board in 2017 voted for the foundation to get the building, but the deal was nullified in 2020 after Gibson became mayor. The Hylands and more than 50 other Natchez residents had sued the city to block the property deal, but the Mississippi Court of Appeals last year threw out their challenge. Then the mayor broke a 3-3 board tie in November to nullify the agreement with the foundation.
Gibson – elected a year ago July 14 as mayor – bristled at insinuations made at Tuesday’s meeting that he’s against a housing development for blacks or is favoring whites. “I’ve never worked this hard in my life – for everyone,” Gibson said of his first year as mayor since taking office July 24, 2020.
The previous board had voted 4-2 for the foundation’s plans for the old General Hospital. However, Alderman Valencia Hall in last summer’s elections unseated Joyce Arceneaux-Mathis — who had supported the foundation’s proposal – and has since been the pivotal vote to create the tie for the mayor to break.
Other aldermen joining Hall – who represents a black-majority ward – to vote for selling the former hospital to the Hylands are Sarah Carter Smith and Dan Dillard, the board’s two white members.
Three black aldermen – Frazier, Felicia Irving and Ben Davis voted against selling to the Hylands. They said proposals should be sought from other bidders.
No public board discussions have been held about what the Hylands plan to do with old hospital building next to their two-century-old mansion and tourist attraction. “We have no idea of what the use of the property will be,” Irving said.
The city acquired the old hospital in 2013 after the previous owner defaulted on paying property taxes. Built in 1925, it was Natchez’ main hospital until what’s now Merit Health Natchez was built 1960. General Hospital has since has been apartments and a shelter for battered women.
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