GALLIPOLIS — The offices of the Gallipolis Police Department, Gallipolis Municipal Court and Gallipolis City Solicitor may be on the move and into their new space in the City’s Judicial Center by month’s end, according to Gallipolis City Manager Randy Finney.

“We are getting pretty close. I think we are looking at the week of the twenty-fourth to get moved into it,” Finney stated during Tuesday’s regular monthly meeting of the Gallipolis City Commission.

“I don’t think we’ll be ready this week or next week to move, so we’ll probably do it the week of the twenty-fourth and get things coordinated, the phone system changed over, Internet changed over and everything else changed over. Margaret [Evans, Municipal Court Judge] is fine with that. She says she doesn’t want to rush it, but wants to do it the right way, so we’re in pretty good shape there.”

Finney reported that the Justice Center, located at 518 Second Avenue and adjacent to the Gallia County Courthouse in Gallipolis, is nearing completion, with the interior of the facility in the final phase of construction.

“We are still cleaning out a few odds and ends,” Finney said. “Most of the inside has been taken care of and the courtroom is looking really good. The sound system is in and everything. They are just doing some touch up work.”

Despite the progress of the interior of the building, Finney reported that an issue has emerged in the exterior construction.

According to the city manager, the soil located in the back portion of the facility is very soft — a problem that will need to be rectified to prevent additional sinkage in the area.

“It’s just like a sponge back there,” he said.

Finney further stated that an engineer with CTL, the engineering firm that completed soil testing for the justice center, recommended that two feet of the affected soil be removed and replaced with gravel. After which the area should be tested to see how the soil compacts.

According to Finney, the engineer further recommended that, if that does not fix the problem, an additional foot of soil would need to be removed and replaced with gravel.

“If [the removal of two feet of soil] doesn’t work, we’ll need to go another foot beyond that and see what we can do, but he believes if we do two feet we should be okay,” Finney stated.

During the meeting, Finney also briefly reported on the construction of the Gallipolis Municipal Building at 333 Third Avenue on city-owned property.

A groundbreaking ceremony for the “administrative” facility that will house the city’s utility, tax, code enforcement, auditor’s and city manager’s offices, was held on August 21 with construction beginning immediately thereafter.

According to Finney, the soil has been compacted for the approximately 6,000 square foot facility and work on the footers began this week.

The building, which is expected to be completed within six months, will house 12-14 employees and will be the future site of Gallipolis City Commission meetings.