Demolition of the Audrain Medical Center’s main hospital is expected to begin in early December.

During its Oct. 26 meeting, the Mexico City Council approved a cost-share agreement with Audrain County for the demolition of the remaining Audrain Medical Center hospital building. The work will mark the second and final phase of demolition.

City Manager Bruce Slagle said the site will be leveled, filled and prepared for future development. 

“This is actually the last step of the process to hopefully make way for a new hospital,” Drew Williford, Mexico deputy city manager, said. 

According to the cost-share agreement, Audrain County is the project owner, while the city of Mexico is supporting the project as the engineer. The proposed shared cost between the county and city totals $1,067,714. 

“Essentially, the county and the city will be equal partners in this and share about the equal amount of cost,” Williford said. 

The shared-cost portion of the project includes demolition of the main hospital building, non-engineered backfill and site restoration. However, there are certain costs associated with the project that will be the city’s sole responsibility. 

Expenses that are considered necessary improvements for the City Hall/Public Safety facilities project, which will be located at the former cancer center, will not be included in the cost-share agreement. For the second phase of demolition, these include disconnecting the former cancer center and constructing a temporary wall, providing engineered backfill and demolishing the linear accelerator building, which has concrete walls that are 3-feet thick. 

City-only costs for this project total $432,080. 

Williford estimates that, in the end, the city will be responsible for $1.8 million in demolition costs, but said it is difficult to provide a precise figure due to other costs such as site inspections. 

The city budgeted $1 million in fiscal year 2025-26 and another $1 million in fiscal year 2026-27 in anticipation of this project. 

Audrain County accepted the bid submitted by Flowmaster Construction of Mexico earlier that morning. 

Williford said the company not only submitted the lowest bid but was also “uniquely suited” for the project because it was the only local contractor with its own concrete crusher. Once the building is demolished, materials will be hauled to Flowmaster Construction’s site to be crushed before being brought back to fill the hospital site. The process will also be a shared cost. 

“You can imagine the theory of a very efficient operation if everything works correctly here,” Williford said. “We end up having what I’m going to call ‘a clean fill.’” 

An official demolition date has not been set, but Williford thinks it could be the first week in December. He explained there is roughly two more weeks of contract work to do before any work can be done on the site, and expressed concern that the Thanksgiving holiday could affect the timeline.