After touring the new Municipal Court building back on January 20th and getting an update at that time on what still needs to be done the Junction City Commission was able to receive another update Tuesday night.

Bruce McMillan, the Architect for the project informed the commission that as of Tuesday there had been no additional work done to the building since their previous meeting.

Ron Cheney, President of Cheney Construction the General Contractor for the project then provided an update from his point of view to the commission. During his update Cheney went through an overview of the entire project, listing the numerous delays and providing the reasoning for the delays. Some of the items he brought up included that he had not been paid a payment that was due to him for October 15th. That payment was approved by the commission during their last meeting and staff confirmed the payment has been mailed to Mr. Cheney.

One other concern brought up by Cheney was an accusation that the tour the commission and staff took of the building back on Jan. 20th was an illegal meeting, because an occupancy permit has yet to be approved for the building.

Allen Dinkel, City Manager explained that the City followed the open meetings law and he doesn’t believe a certificate of occupancy was needed,”I think we disagree on that because it’s our building, it was not being used for a day-to-day use, it was just strictly to see the building.”

“He wanted to show the building to only one Commissioner at a time, I believe the commission acts as a group of five, and that’s why we had a meeting.”

Moving forward the City will be following the lead of McMillan as the Architect on the project. McMillan explained he plans to meet with Dinkel in the near future to go over dates on when the final items on the punch list should be complete, and when the City can finally take possession of the building.

Members of the commission remain optimistic that they will be able to move into the Municipal Court Building sometime in March.