The shadow of the Ellsworth Veteran’s Memorial Hospital continued to follow members of the city council Monday night as a company hired to inspect the old building set the price of asbestos abatement and demolition at $480,000.

It could have been worse.

“We were afraid it was going to be $750,000 to $800,000,” City administrator Rusty Varnado told the I-R after the meeting.

The multi-story brick building has been vacant since it was replaced in 1999 by the Ellsworth County Medical Center.

Council president Wayne Scritchfield said Ellsworth still has a lot of work to do before officials can move forward with abatement and demolition.

A major question remains the source of the dollars and cents the city will need to clear the old hospital site in east Ellsworth. The asbestos must be abated before demolition can start.

Varnado included information on grants and other potential revenue sources, including bringing the old hospital property into a city special taxing district to generate revenue.

The council is expected to address the future of the old hospital at its May 23 meeting.

Also on the agenda will be the detention basin south of Kansas Highway 140. Kirkham Michael’s Jon Halbgewachs said an engineer who specalizes in groundwater movement should have a path forward to a plan that would dewater the basin.

“It’s not going to be a construction plan. It’s going to be a process,” Halbgewachs said.

Meanwhile, he said work has stopped on the basin until the water issue is resolved.

In other business:

• Council members met in executive session for 30 minutes to discuss candidates for the city administrator’s job. Varnado has accepted a job at Liberal. Ellsworth interviews are planned May 19.

• Police Chief Emil Halfhill talked briefly about the possible renovation of the police department building across the street from the Ellsworth County Courthouse. The chief, who asked several companies for bids and received one in response, placed the cost at $37,000 for construction and another $15,000 to $20,000 for new desks and other items.

Issues are the safety of department employees and a better use of space, said Halfhill, who suggested the project be included in the 2023 budget.

As an aside, he said he also talked briefly to Ellsworth County Sheriff Murray Marston about the possibility of a joint law enforcement center.

“That would be a lot more than $50,000,” Halfhill said.