It’s still not clear when the Junction City Municipal Court and City Commission will move into its new location.
The contract to renovate and expand the building at 701 N. Jefferson into the new home of the Junction City Municipal Court and Commission Chambers was awarded to Cheney Construction in August of last year, and completion of the project was slated for April of this year.
Seven months later Cheney Construction is still working on a punch list that still had 200 items on it last week. The delay is being attributed to delays in getting materials on site.
“It sounds like the same old record over and over again,” said Mayor Mick McCallister about the reasons for pushing back the move in date. “But you just have to make sure that things are done, and done right before you cave and move into something that’s not ready yet.”
McCallister went on to say that there are penalties in place and the Commission is looking into those.
Allen Dinkel, City Manager explained that the penalties built into the contract with Cheney Construction were for liquidated damages for up to $100 per day.
“Now the question will be, when the project finally gets done, is what percent do we assess the penalties? Will part of the penalties have to go to repairing stuff that we’re not happy with? There’s just a lot of things to do, but ultimately we’re looking at $100 a day going back to, I believe, April 1,” said Dinkel.
Commissioner Pat Landes voiced his frustration not only with the overrun of the project but with the commission as well.
“Well six months is a long time to be off course, and from the size of the list of things that still have to be corrected I think it’s going to be quite a bit longer,” said Landes. “I still stand by my original vote that we probably should have gone with someone else as a contractor. That’s really all I have to say, and I reminded my commissioners of that tonight. It’s not always the lowest bid that’s the best bid.”
Cheney Constructions bid did come in 20.4 percent less than the architects estimate last August.
It remains unclear when the City will be able to occupy the building, but Mayor McCallister did go out on a limb and say,”that I think we’ll be in there by the end of the year.”