HOEFLICH@MYDAILYSENTINEL.COM

POMEROY, Ohio – It wasn’t a pretty picture.

The front lawn of Veterans Memorial Hospital was filled with everything from an antique organ to an aluminum bucket, and behind the building there were thousands of other things taken out of the building as a first step toward its demolition.

Saturday was sale day and Auctioneer Dan Smith and his associates were selling everything off to the highest bidder. Much of the better equipment and furnishings had already been passed along for use in county agencies or given to non-profit organizations.

While the sale went on for most of the day, the receipts totaled only about $11,000 with approximately $2,000 going for expenses leaving the remaining amount to go into Meigs County’s general fund.

Among the hundreds of people there were several former hospital employees who came to the sale to buy a remembrance of their happy days as an employee. In conversations they reflected on those days when healing flourished in the spacious hospital building with its busy emergency room, 70-bed hospital, and a skilled nursing facility.

The hospital building to be torn down in the next month or so was built in 1962 with tax dollars as a memorial to veterans.