Eureka Mayor Sean Flower said the construction of the Michael A. Wiegand Justice Center is progressing as planned.
He said recent heavy rains slightly delayed construction, but the project is still expected to be completed by the end of the year. The building will house City Hall, the Municipal Court and the Police Station.
The city is paying Integrate Construction of St. Louis $11,530,145 to build the government center.
“They’re pretty close to being on schedule,” Flower said on May 7. “With the rain and everything, it’s been pretty nasty. We should start seeing it look a little more like a building within the next 60 days.”
The project is being funded by a combination of Proposition E sales tax revenue and proceeds from the city’s $28 million sale of its water and sewer system in 2022. The Prop E 1/2-cent sales tax was adopted in 2018 to fund public safety-related uses, including the Police Department portion of the new facility.
In anticipation of the completion of the government center, the Eureka Board of Aldermen voted unanimously May 7 to pay $64,000 to McClure Engineering of St. Louis to inspect various systems installed in the center and train the staff on how to use and maintain those systems.
City Clerk Julie Wood said 70 percent, or $44,800, of the fees will be covered by Prop E and 30 percent, or $19,200, will come out of the city’s capital improvement projects budget.
According to board documents, the company will train staff on how to operate the heating, ventilating, air conditioning, refrigeration, emergency power, audio/video, fire alarm and security systems along with lighting and HVAC controls.
“Basically, the company will come in and show staff how to operate all of the different systems in the building, and also confirm that all the systems are operating like they’re supposed to do,” Flower said. “These guys will come in and they’ll check the software on, like, the thermostats. Anything systems-based in there, they will go through it and make sure it all operates like it should.”
The new government center is being built at the site of the previous City Hall, which was demolished in January. The city closed City Hall Drive to through traffic and created an access point to the site on Legends Parkway for construction crews.
City Hall Drive connected Hwy. 109 to Bald Hill Road.
“(The traffic) has been pretty good,” Flower said. “I’m hoping it stays that way with all the construction coming in with the material. Having that access off of Hwy. 109 is working out well. I haven’t heard anybody really complain about Legends Parkway.”