By the middle of next month, the demolition of the former Caldwell County Hospital building should be under way.

“I would imagine by mid-February we would see a lot of activity,” Caldwell Medical Center CEO Charles Lovell Jr. told the CMC board of directors Monday evening.

Bids from firms interested in the demolition contract are due by 10 a.m. this Thursday.

Five board members — Bobby Goodwin, Joe Gray, Rook Johns, Larry Mansfield and Dr. Dusty Oliver — volunteered to serve on a building committee to review the bids and choose a contractor for the job.

Medical center administrators had issued a 22-page request for proposals, and multiple companies responded, from as far away as Cincinnati, Lovell said.

Representatives from seven companies participated in a walkthrough of the Hospital Drive facility to get a feel for the scope of the work.

An asbestos surveyor also visited the building to identify areas where asbestos was present.

The survey found more asbestos than administrators had initially anticipated. Asbestos was located in some old floor tiles and some pipe wrappings, Lovell said.

The firm chosen for the project must be certified in asbestos abatement and must provide a performance bond, he added.

Building committee members are planning a working lunch Friday to review the bids.

After a contractor is chosen, a 10-day public notification period is required before the asbestos removal can begin, Lovell said.

The contractor will fence off the area while the demolition is taking place and will meet requirements for debris removal and cleanup.

“We told them that when the process was finished, that (the site) would be a green field,” Lovell said. “That’s what we expect.”

Once the hospital is torn down, the medical center will be under a 20-year liability window to make sure debris from the site was disposed in compliance with EPA standards.

The hospital is making arrangements to allow employees to be photographed outside the building before it is torn down.

“As this is getting close to being demolished, a lot of sentiment has come out from people,” Lovell said. “We are trying to be sensitive to those things.”

The lot at the corner of South Jefferson Street and Hospital Drive will remain owned by the county after the building has been removed.

The county fiscal court has not yet made any decision on the future of the site, Judge/Executive Brock Thomas said Monday.

In other business:

• The medical center has contracted to be the clinical service provider for the Outwood intermediate care facility in Dawson Springs.

• The facility has also become a clinical training site for third-year nursing students from Madisonville Community College.

“Having students in the building makes us all a little sharper,” Lovell said. “We’re looking forward to having them here.”

• The board approved the purchase of a $20,760 colonoscope and the rental of a climate-controlled storage building for X-ray film.