Milton-Freewater Police Chief Joe Shurtz shows the new state-of-the-art dispatch room April 9, 2024, inside the new Milton-Freewater Police Department. But as of January 2025, the new station is not complete.

MILTON-FREEWATER — Nearly 15 months past its projected completion date, the new Milton-Freewater police station isn’t, actually, complete.

Voters approved a $7.7 million bond in 2021 for the new building, and a grant from the state of Oregon put another $3 million into the pot.

Residents were told the station, situated on a former vacant lot behind city hall on Main Street, would be done by October 2023. In April 2024, city officials said the 7,800-square-foot building would be substantially finished by the middle of that month.

While the station is operational, some finish trim, wiring and other work remains to be completed, City Manager Chad Morris said in January.

No open house for the public is on the calendar.

“My intention was to have the building 100% complete, and six months ago, I thought that would be in a month. But we should go ahead — it’s past time,” Morris said of an open house event.

Morris, who came to this job at the end of May 2024, agreed with previous assessments that supply chain issues, “in most cases,” have been legitimate hurdles.

He also seconded people who have questioned that reasoning and say the project has taken a lot longer than it should have.

“I can understand that feeling,” he said. “How some of the ways those supply chain issues were handled might have been addressed in a more efficient, more effective manner.”

In his opinion, there have been misunderstandings and miscommunications with the project’s contractors, and documentation indicates delays were not adequately relayed to city officials.

Had that been the case, the public and city council members would have had more realistic expectations about the building’s progress, he said.

Morris said he’s fielded complaints about the size of the lot the building is on — the property is on a residential lot of 16,500 square feet that once contained a single home. It’s surrounded by single-family homes.

People also complained to him about the cost of the new station for its size.

But it was the timing, Morris pointed out. During and following the pandemic’s first blast, he said, “construction projects were through the roof. That being the case, the decision was made that they needed to build the police department. That’s the way prices were at the time.”

Morris said the city has withheld about $66,000 in fines from payments to S&K Mountain Construction for its role in the delays.

“They feel like we owe them some money for some changes that were made. I am still looking into those concerns,” Morris said of the construction firm, adding no lawsuits have been filed by the involved parties.

“They’ve come to the table, and we’re having discussions on what it’s going to take to finish up and get that thing closed up.”

The city is paying for some design mistakes, such as not realizing the neighbors would be able to see into police offices from their dining room, Morris said. Additional fencing was constructed to provide the needed privacy at a cost of about $8,000, former City Manager Linda Hall said last year.

“There are several things I am not impressed with (Portland architecture firm) FFA’s design or process,” including the line-of-sight issue. But at the same time, we’re building a building in a very small residential lot,” Morris said, noting the city, too, could have noticed the problem and addressed it sooner.

There also is an issue with exterior stormwater drainage. He can’t know for sure, but it’s likely outdated survey information was used, resulting in the building being placed too low compared to the street level. “And that’s a shared blame thing,” Morris said.

Once the building is fully complete, an external audit of the project funds will be done.

“My understanding is that’s a condition of the bond issue and the grant,” Morris said.

When that open house does come, the city manager hopes to take attendees through the former police department quarters in the basement of city hall.

The department had been there since 1929; modern needs made the dark, cramped space outdated well before a building bond was presented.

With some renovation, however, city hall could alleviate a serious lack of office space, Morris said.

After that he’d like to assess the building’s third floor. City employees began restoration work on the top floor of the 1910 building about a decade ago, but things fizzled after money ran out and the employee doing the work retired, Morris said.

The building is on the National Register of Historic Places, requiring consultation with the Oregon State Historic Preservation Office.

The space is beautiful and, other than an employee break room, vacant. An elevator reaches that floor.

“I would like to open that up,” Morris said. “There’s a big auditorium up there that would make a really nice council meeting space.”