By Louie Graves
News-Leader staff
With a low bid of $89,600 an Austin, Ark., company won has won job of demolition of part of the old Howard Memorial Hospital facility on West Leslie St., Nashville.
Graylee Demolition submitted the low bid, and is due to begin work at an unspecified date, probably within the next month, according to the county judge’s office.
Part of the facility will be kept for future use as record storage and possibly as District Court. The county is also required to have a viable substitute for courthouse operations in case an emergency compromises the actual courthouse, and the remaining part of the hospital can be designated for this purpose.
The original hospital and several additions will be razed.
Materials from the demolition will be used to fill the slope on the east side of the hospital.
Monday morning, crews from Graylee were on the old hospital campus to dig up and remove an underground tank which formerly held fuel for the hospital’s large emergency electricity generators. A member of the crew said that demolition of the buildings would soon begin.
At noon Monday, County Judge Kevin Smith told the quorum court that demolition work was expected to begin Wednesday. He said that after the bid payment was made there should be enough money left to close up the open ends of the remaining building and to make any changes inside the structure.
