Some people who live in Mercedes are worried about the state of an old church after a portion of it collapsed about a week ago.

"I have kids, I wouldn't want my kids to be get hurt by something like that," resident Matthew Garcia said. "What if the building decides to give out, just like it did the other day."

Garcia is talking about a former church that sits near Missouri Street and 5th Street.

The wall collapsed nearly a week ago. Garcia says he's seen people inside the abandoned building, and he's worried they could get hurt.

While the most visible damage is in the back of the building, a few cracks can be seen at the entrance, making the front of the structure a risk as well. The city is already taking action.

The street near the entrance to the building is closed to traffic.

Mercedes City Manager Alberto Perez says the city first took legal action against the building's owners more than a month ago.

At that time, due to damage to the roof, crews determined the structure was a danger.

"As of September the 8th, we served them a formal notice basically to all the interested parties involved because we found there are some questions about the ownership. I think they're going through the courts, so we wanted to cover all bases, and we served everybody in the process," Perez said.

But after the partial collapse last week, the city now can take other steps.

"We served them a second notice that was hand-delivered, and basically we're going forward with the engineers and all that to make sure it is going to be demolished," Perez said.

Perez says their next step is to hire a contractor to tear down the building safely. The city is paying for the demolition, but they plan to get the money back.

"At the end, we'll turn around a submit a bill to them, if they pay it great, if not, we'll file a lien on the property and move forward," Perez said.

Channel 5 News has attempted to contact the owners of the former church through their attorney's, but have been unsuccessful.

Perez hopes the building will be demolished by the end of the month.

Watch the video above for the full story.