WARSAW — The city of Warsaw's massive HVAC replacement project will finish ahead of schedule, and city meetings, which had been moved to the Police Training Center, are set to return to City Hall this week. 

Staci Young, the assistant to Mayor Jeff Gross, said plans were altered earlier this year after the contractor recommended closing the entire second floor rather than dividing it into two phases.

The change saved four to six weeks of construction time and allowed the contractor to work more efficiently, Young said.

To accomplish that, several departments — Building & Planning, Parks, the Mayor's Office and Human Resources — used council chambers as a temporary workspace.

Young said that's the reason public meetings didn't move back to City Hall as soon as expected. 

As it turns out, the delay in moving public meetings back to City Hall turned out to be "a positive delay," Young said.

The project ends a long effort to fix the downtown building's HVAC system, which had been problematic since City Hall opened about 16 years ago.

That led to a lawsuit, and the city eventually recovered $331,000.

The overall project cost $1.7 million and was funded with money from the settlement, ARPA money, and a local income tax supplement distribution, Young said.

A few small cosmetic and finishing details remain before completion, she said.

Public meetings moved over to the training center in February.

Young said the Police Department Training Center worked out very well for meetings.

"We were able to host meetings of all sizes in a comfortable space and continue live streaming our meetings to the public. The Police Department graciously worked with us to host meetings for a longer period of time than originally planned, so that our project could be completed ahead of schedule. As a result, it was only a very minor burden to delay the return of meetings to City Hall," Young said in a detailed message to News Now Warsaw.

"Our employees and board members were all understanding, cooperative, and had positive attitudes about the disruptions. Everyone is eager to get back into the Council Chambers, though, and back into routine," she said.

Two boards, the city redevelopment commission and city council, meet today in council chambers.

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