Monday, November 15, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

UPDATE: County officials say moving date near for troubled Regional Justice Center

County officials expect to receive a temporary certificate of occupancy within two weeks for the Regional Justice Center on Casino Center Boulevard. Photo by Gary Thompson.

After months of reluctance to set a move-in date, Clark County officials finally are talking seriously about moving furniture into the delay-plagued downtown Regional Justice Center.

Clark County Manager Thom Reilly said workers for general contractor AF Construction still are installing seismic bracing and the county will have to repair leaks in the building, but he expects office furniture will be moved in early next month.

"On the exterior there are still some issues with leaks, but they can repair those and do it simultaneously with moving in furniture," Reilly said.

The courthouse was scheduled to open more than two years ago. Disagreements over construction and design coupled with subcontractor walkouts, vandalism and a turbulent relationship between AF Construction and the county delayed the project.

Aviation Director Randy Walker, who was assigned to oversee the job nearly two years ago, recently has declined to give projected dates of occupancy, fearing they would never be accurate.

County administrators say despite the tardiness, they are within their $185 million budget. The county stopped paying AF Construction 16 months ago and has penalized the company $12,000 a day during the same period. Fireman's Fund Insurance Company, AF Construction's bonding firm, stepped in more a year ago to pay for construction.

Reilly said the county expects to receive a temporary certificate of occupancy within two weeks. It will take four to six months to transfer courtroom furniture and staff into the 17-story building.

The last publicized date the county set to take over the building was June 18. But at that point, some floors still were uneven. Also, window flashings, which prevent leaks, had yet to be installed and the seismic bracing was not complete.

Mistakes are noted in noncompliance certificates issued to the contractor, and payment is withheld until they are corrected. Since the beginning of construction, about 660 of those certificates have been issued.

Representatives of AF Construction have said the building was 90 percent complete when Walker began questioning work that had been finished months before, or in some cases more than a year earlier.

The county and AF Construction have filed lawsuits against one another and the case is headed to arbitration. County officials expect the legal battles to go on long after the Regional Justice Center finally opens its doors.

-- ADRIENNE PACKER

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