Natchez &8212; The City of Natchez was set to file suit this week against the owner of the dilapidated former First Baptist Church building at Main and Rankin streets.

&8220;Then I got a call from a local attorney who said a member of the clergy from New Orleans may want to use that building,&8221; City Attorney Walter Brown said.

Without giving the name of the interested party, Brown told aldermen last week the person plans to appear at their December meeting.

If those plans don&8217;t materialize, the city can always follow through with filing suit in Adams County Circuit Court against building owner Durrell Armstrong, who now lives in Wichita, Kansas.

Whoever fixes up the building will have to undertake an extensive cleanup of debris and garbage, judging from a recent walk-through of the property.

In addition, the roof has caved in above the former church&8217;s sanctuary.

City Building Inspector Paul Dawes has estimated it would cost close to $100,000 to demolish the building, something his department hasn&8217;t had the budget for.

In other business regarding dilapidated properties, aldermen asked city Dawes Tuesday to bring to their December meeting a recommendation on what should be done with the old Margaret Martin School band hall.

&8220;Someone had expressed interest in perhaps buying (the building), and that&8217;s why nothing was done,&8221; Dawes told aldermen in their Tuesday meeting, adding that nothing has come of that interest.

In the past, Dawes has said the band hall should be demolished.

The 80-year-old building is a state landmark along with the school building itself, and the city would need state approval to demolish either building.

Also during Tuesday&8217;s meeting, the Board of Aldermen directed Dawes to contact the Federal Emergency Management Agency to see if federal money is available to fix the leaky roof on the council chambers building.

And aldermen voted to allocate $10,000 from the city&8217;s public properties fund to fix the leaky roof on the Natchez Senior Citizen Multipurpose Building.

Dawes said that building is in danger of collapsing.