Eureka government officials will soon move into a new home.
The Michael A. Wiegand Justice Center, which will house the city’s Police Station, Municipal Court and City Hall, is expected to be operational in March, Mayor Sean Flower said.
Crews demolished the old Eureka City Hall on Jan. 11, 2024, to make way for the new government center at 100 City Hall Drive near the corner of Hwy. 109 and Legends Parkway.
The Police Station, 120 City Hall Drive, has remained open throughout the construction. However, City Hall employees moved out of the building Dec. 14 to temporary offices at the Public Works facility, 111 N. Virginia Ave.
Flower said on Monday that city officials will walk through of the government center within the next week. After the officials point out any “small stuff” that may need to be fixed or tweaked, Flower said crews will have about three or four weeks to put the finishing touches on the building.
“Overall, (the construction process) has been pretty good,” Flower said. “Most of the delays we’ve had are weather-related or some type of material was held up. I would think we’d be fully occupied and operational at the end of March.”
Flower said he believes the city will hold an open house later this year.
“There will be plenty of time before we’ve fully occupied it for people to come in and take a look if they’re interested,” he said.
The city paid Integrate Construction of St. Louis $11,530,145 to build the government center.
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.
Flower said the government center had a complex design, especially the Police Department portion. The station will have jail cells along with a separate and secure transport area for those in police custody.
“By itself, the police section is probably 60 percent of the building,” Flower said. “It’s a complicated kind of structure between all the different safety elements they need to have there. There’s a lot of detail that goes into that.”
Flower said a new police station was badly needed, as the current station is too small to hold the growing department.
“It’s going to be a good facility for them that will last a long time,” he said. “It’s also tremendously helped with recruiting because our other building is really poor. In fact, right now we’re almost at a point where we’re on a waiting list with applications which is different than, I would say, probably 95 percent of the police organizations I’m aware of.”