By Susan Redden

sredden@joplinglobe.com

CARTHAGE, Mo. — The official hurdle was cleared Tuesday, but it will be about 18 months before the new owners will be prepared to move into the former McCune-Brooks Hospital Building at 627 Centennial Ave.

Members of the Carthage City Council on Tuesday night endorsed a memorandum of agreement governing the transfer of the city-owned building to the Carthage Water & Electric Plant.

The council and the CW&EP board of directors approved the plan earlier, and at least $300,000 has been spent on repairing water damage and stabilizing the structure, according to Bob Williams, CW&EP executive director.

“And the dollar; don’t forget that,” Williams said Wednesday, referring to the $1 conveyance fee for the building valued at nearly $15.7 million.

At Williams’ suggestion, the CW&EP board agreed to look into taking over the former hospital after other organizations, including Missouri Southern State University and the state of Missouri, dropped plans to use parts of the structure. The building has been empty for nearly two years, since completion of the new McCune-Brooks Regional Hospital in south Carthage. Having stable occupancy for the big building in central Carthage always has been a city priority.

Work on stabilizing the building began after the concept was endorsed by the council and the CW&EP board. Leaks in the emergency room roof had caused water damage to the newest part of the former hospital. Work to replace that roof was finished about two weeks ago, and maintenance is planned for other roofs, Williams said.

He said materials that had become wet have been removed, and the building was sprayed with a solution to kill mold. Some parts of the building’s exterior were tuck-pointed, and crews were brought in to stabilize the part of the building closest to Centennial Avenue.

“That former administration area had settled about an inch and a half, and they jacked it up and poured pillars under it,” Williams said.

He said architects and engineers are looking at the best use of the space in the 75,000-square-foot structure. He said CW&EP expects to use “about one-third of that space, in a couple of stages” as a new administrative and customer service headquarters.

The rest will be available for lease, and Williams said he already has been contacted by people who are interested.

“We’ll be focusing on nonprofits and institutional-type, but we’re open to anything,” he said.

The three-story patient care area of the former hospital could be occupied quickly, if a tenant “wanted small rooms,” he said.

In other business Tuesday, the council: