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NATCHEZ — The city’s Board of Aldermen voted to sell the old General Hospital property to James and Ginger Hyland, owners of The Towers in Natchez.

The old General Hospital property is adjacent to The Towers and once was a part of The Towers property, said Natchez Mayor Dan Gibson.

When the motion was made to finalize the sale, Alderwoman Felicia Bridgewater-Irving balked, saying, “Five minutes isn’t enough time to discuss this information.”

Irving claimed she was not as informed as she should be about the sale of the property.

Alderwoman Valencia Hall said the council first approved seeking two appraisals to us to come up with a selling price for the property, was voted on by the board on July 23, 2021.

Gibson said the city is following the law in selling the property to the Hylands, and doing so will be beneficial to the city.

“This is a condemned property. It is a liability to the city and is in a horrible state of repair,” Gibson said. “We don’t have the money to tear it down and we don’t have the money to renovate it.

“The property is not in a business district, it’s in a residential district,” he said. “Transferring ownership to someone in a better position is the right thing to do.”

The property will be sold for $105,000, which is the average of the two independent appraisals for the property, which came in at $100,000 and $110,000.

The motion to finalize the sale passed in a four-to-two vote, with Alderman Billie Joe Frazier and Bridgewater-Irving voting nay.