Brookhaven Mayor Joe Cox met last week with the owner of the dilapidated hospital on the corner of N. Jackson and W. Congress streets to discuss what could be done about the eyesore.

But since Cox hasn’t returned our reporters’ phone calls, we don’t know the outcome of that meeting. We do know the city has been trying to get something done about the hospital for years.

“An update on the old hospital — there’s not really anything that we, as the city, can do to either get it tested, to see whether or not it has asbestos, or anything else because we don’t own the property,” city building inspector David Fearn said recently. “It is still private property.”

We were under the impression the city could in fact do quite a bit to private property, as long as it follows the proper legal channels of notifying the property owner and giving him time to address the city’s complaints. If the owner did not, the city could then perform the necessary work on the building and try to recoup its costs through a lien on the property.

At least that happened at a public hearing back in September to discuss a list of unkempt properties. Fearn reported then that cleanup work is done by the city at the owner’s expense, and the process the city follows to cleanup these areas is spelled out by state law. The city can go so far as to demolish a dilapidated property, again using a process spelled out in law.

While the hospital wasn’t on the list discussed in September, it’s been on the city’s cleanup list before. Chip Gennaro, the previous building inspector, reported in 2014 that the property was on the cleanup list.

We understand there are potentially enormous costs associated with the demolition or cleanup of the building. Fearn said if the building was found to contain asbestos, cleanup would cost between $800,000 and $1 million.

But the city doesn’t know if the building contains asbestos because the expensive testing hasn’t been done. We’re hopeful Cox and the owner came to an agreement that will result in that first step being taken. We’re also hopeful the city will use whatever legal process is necessary to get the property cleaned up. It’s more than just an eyesore, it’s a hazard to the public.