Bids sought to raze CCMH
By Thomas Wilson
STAR STAFF
twilson@starhq.com
The Elizabethton city government will begin accepting
sealed bids next week to remove asbestos and demolish the
old Carter County Memorial Hospital building.
Bids will be accepted through July 16 in the
city's office of planning and development. The city government
budgeted approximately $500,000 as part of a $1.25 million
capital outlay in the 2005 budget to raze the hospital building.
"The asbestos removal will take a while to do,"
David Ornduff, city director of planning and development said
on Friday.
The city government bought the hospital at public
auction on Nov. 21, 2002 for $71,242.75 covering the real
property taxes owed to city and county governments by former
owner Wayne Graybeal. The city took possession of the property
in February 2003 and assumed full possession one year later
when Graybeal did not pay off taxes and penalties as was his
right under the condemnation proceeding.
The 96,000 square-foot hospital building sits
on a 5.4-acre tract of property located on West G Street.
Construction on the four-story original hospital building
began in the late 1950s. The hospital opened in August 1959.
The three-story addition connected to the hospital was built
in 1971.
Whether $500,000 can cover both demolition and
removal of asbestos may not be known until bids are opened.
A major cost to the project could come in the form of asbestos
removal.
The SM&E environmental services company surveyed
the building for the presence of asbestos earlier this year.
Company representatives investigated the entire structure,
the addition and boiler room as well as the building's doors
and pipes, Ornduff said.
The state's Department of Environment and Conservation
requires persons involved with the removal of Regulated Asbestos-Containing
Material (RACM) during facility renovation or demolition to
file a notification with the department's Division of Air
Pollution Control. A notification is required for the removal,
renovation and demolition of asbestos where quantities exceed
260 linear feet or more on pipes, 160 square feet or more
on other facility components, or 35 cubic feet or more off
facility components where the length or area could not be
measured previously.
"We will qualify those bidders when they submit
the bids with the TDEC," said Ornduff. "It will be monitored
by TDEC and certain requirements to do that. You have to get
the required permits and assure they are capable of performing
the work."
TDEC regulations identify RACM as any material
containing more than 1 percent asbestos, including friable
asbestos material, asbestos-containing packing, gaskets, resilient
floor covering and roofing products containing more than 1
percent asbestos material.
All asbestos materials must be removed and disposed
of before the building is demolished.
The use of asbestos material used in construction
greatly increased during World War II. Since the early 1940s,
millions of American workers were exposed to asbestos fibers.
In the 1960s and 1970s, federal health officials began linking
asbestos exposure to increased rates of lung cancer among
a cross section of workers exposed to materials containing
the fiber.
Concerns over health risks posed by high exposures
to airborne asbestos brought on the decline of asbestos use.
Many companies ceased production of asbestos products because
of liability issues. Commercial products such as asbestos-containing
insulation, plasters, ceiling tiles, cement products, and
caulks were slowly phased out.
The city and county maintained joint ownership
of the hospital until the mid-1980s when the Hospital Corporation
of America (HCA) approached local leaders about building a
private hospital in Carter County that became Sycamore Shoals
Hospital. The hospital was effectively abandoned after Sycamore
Shoals Hospital was completed in 1986.
