City Hall renovations are now operating under a new “drop dead” completion date of May 23, project officials said at a city council meeting Tuesday.

    According to Mayor Cheri Barry, “That means the furniture is moved in an it’s ready for the public to walk in and use it.”

    The previous “drop dead” date for the final phase of renovations was set for February, but unforeseen delays have pushed the date back a few months, including what Project Architect B.B. Archer characterized as shoddy plaster work from a subcontractor, which had to be redone by a new subcontractor.

    The original subcontractor is now suing both Archer and general contractor Panola Construction, saying they are the ones who have caused delays. Archer said the original subcontractor’s plaster was falling apart.

    Work on City Hall began in 2006 after two years of study. The study was the first phase of the project, followed by three phases of construction. Construction began with Phase II, the selective demolition of elements that needed to be removed from the building. Now the contractor is working to finish the final phase, Phase IV, the interior renovation.

    According to Archer, there was a period where workers worked four 10-hour days per week, but that now, “They work five, six days a week, sometimes seven,” in order to catch up.

    The longest delays in the project came during Phase III, the exterior renovation. During that phase, workers uncovered a large number of unknown structural problems and completed the tedious task of re-tiling the exterior of the nearly 100-year-old, three-story building with tiles that had subtle differences in size, meaning each tile had to be placed in a specific place.

    “This type of project is not an ordinary construction project,” said David Butler, the project’s team leader. “There are many finishes in there … many things like that that require a special expertise. And I believe that overall we’ve had the best team we could have had.”

    Butler said finishing touches are being added now and that much of the work is either complete or near completion. Among the things he said were 100 percent complete were the repair of the scagliola (a rare type of imitation marble) columns, the decorative glazing on all floors, and the sanding of the plaster on all floors. He said the installation of a plywood sub-floor on the second floor, of decorative plaster on the second floor, the plumbing and HVAC systems, and the electrical systems, among other things, were all 90 percent complete or better. He said the installation of elevator equipment is 60 percent complete.

    “It’s going to be a very, very astonishingly beautiful building,” Butler said. “It’s one the citizens and (city government) will be glad to be associated with. It’s going to be functional … a working City Hall and not a museum, as most restorations are.”

    Archer said that, along with being a complete restoration of the original 1915 building, the new City Hall will have all the modern necessities and, thanks in part to federal stimulus money, will be highly energy efficient. The renovated building will be brought up to modern fire safety codes, will have energy efficient motion sensor lighting and will make the most of natural lighting, will have energy efficient cooling, handicap access, and a 600 person auditorium that will be used both for council meetings and for special events such as wedding receptions.

    Ward 1 City Councilman Dr. George Thomas expressed a great amount of concern at the repeated delays in completing the project.

    “This thing is just dragging and dragging and dragging,” he said. “I just want it done before I ‘drop dead’.”

    Butler assured Thomas that, “Honestly, we feel like we’re beyond those kind of (delay-causing) problems. I think we’ve uncovered all of them.”

    Mayor Cheri Barry said she has shared Dr. Thomas’ skepticism over the City Hall renovations, but that, “we can’t go back and fix all the problems that have already happened, we need to put a positive spin … We will have a building that will knock your socks off.”

    “If you stay the course, you’re going to be glad you did, because it’s a beautiful, beautiful project,” Archer said. “When we get to the final product it’s going to be amazing.”