Jackson Civic Center is 75 percent done

Three-quarters of the way into its construction schedule, the Jackson Civic Center is on track for completion.

Public Works director Rodney Bollinger, speaking for the Jackson Civic Center Building Committee, presented an update Monday night to the Jackson Board of Aldermen on the building's progress.

"We're at 75 percent, folks," he said. "It's a pretty exciting time, as it's going from a shell to putting the finishing touches on the inside."

The estimated completion date has been fall 2015 since the project began. Although Bollinger mentioned Halloween as a possible completion date, nothing is set.

City administrator Jim Roach said the project definitely will be completed before 2016.

"We're looking at having the facility open by the first of the year," he said. "Maybe sooner, but I don't want to put a date out there that might not happen. We're fairly certain we'll have it open by the first of the year."

The building will house a 1,990-person-capacity FEMA safe room in addition to recreational facilities. FEMA approved the plans for the project in July 2014, and a groundbreaking ceremony took place in October.

Bollinger said the mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems are installed, and the air-conditioning system is nearing completion. A finished and well-functioning air-conditioning system, he said, could expedite the remaining work.

Roach said the FEMA saferoom's concrete floor, in particular, must be dried and cured before the rubberized, spongy covering that will seal it can be applied. Air conditioning could cut days off the time it could take for the water to evaporate from the concrete.

Bollinger also said drywall installation on the building's interior is about 85 percent done.

The project has been in the works officially since 2013, when planning to obtain the FEMA grant began. Once the grant was approved, the city awarded the $5,677,100 construction contract to Brockmiller Construction Inc. of Farmington, Missouri, in September 2014. Change orders along the way that were approved by the board of aldermen have caused that budget to fluctuate somewhat, but Roach said that's normal for such a large project.

"I think that it's fair to say we've had the normal number of change orders for a project like this," Roach said. Because change orders can increase and decrease the budget, they have for the most part evened out. "We might be slightly over budget, but we're very close budgetwise," he said.

A change order approved by the board of aldermen Monday allocated money for an unforeseen expense in construction of an exterior stone wall. Roach said while it may not be the last change order the project sees, it most likely is the last large-scale change order.

Many of the change orders have been for upgrades, such as energy-efficient LED lighting, to make the space more widely useful to the community.

Included in the finished building is a donor recognition wall, where donors to the project will be honored.

"We have only one donor at this time," Bollinger said. "But we're expecting more in the future."

tgraef@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3627