Just when it seemed as if the new Clinton County Justice Center was finally on track and beginning to move forward at a quicker pace, another glitch occurred in late March that has caused another–hopefully short–delay in the project.
After the demolition of the existing buildings was complete, with each structure gone within a few short weeks, contractors detected some groundwater on Clay Street, which runs between the old Ferguson Brothers building and former McWhorter Variety Store.
Clinton County Judge/Executive Ricky Craig, who also chairs the Justice Center Project Development Board (PDB), said the discovery of the water, as well as some odor being detected, led to the temporary stoppage in further construction at the site.
Due to the detection of the water in the ground and tests having to be conducted to attempt to find out where it was coming from and what steps could be taken next to proceed, work was halted on the current phase of the project early last week.
Craig told the Clinton County News on Monday afternoon of this week that test kits were done on the west side of the area near Cross Street, where groundwater had also been detected.
“Work was stopped to see if they would find out where the water was coming from, such as a possible water leak or water line break, but neither of those were found,” he said.
He said the next step was to figure out the exact next steps to take to divert the water and somehow proceed with the project.