Construction continues on the old Omni building (now dubbed Citizens Tower) in downtown Lubbock.

According to Director of Facilities Management Wes Everett, the asbestos and mold abatement process was approximately 75-80 percent completed.

“Things sometimes don’t go as fast as we want to, but it’s on schedule,” he said.

One of the next steps includes interior demolition to make room for new elements, Everett said.

“Our next part of the puzzle is to be able to really open up the rest of the structure,” he added. “The first step that will be somewhat visible to everybody is there’s going to be some selective demolition. We’ve taken some marble off around the parking garage. We’re going to be able to start getting in to some of the demolition of some of the basements.”

A flag displaying Arabic text was found hanging at the top of the building Monday morning. A language expert at Texas Tech said the words translated to “love for everything,” but the banner sparked a swift reaction from Lubbock Mayor Glen Robertson.

The renovations continued after the flag was removed.

“The Police Department is going through their full investigation. I want to be able to give them definitely the time and the ability to investigate that without any interference from us. As far as where we went forward with Facilities Management, we go back through and we double check everything. We do this every day when we leave, but we went through and double-checked every piece of plywood and every door in making sure and those that we felt might have even a little bit been questionable, we made sure and re-secured, or just went in and made sure that it was even more secure than it was before,” Everett explained.

Citizens Tower is expected to serve as a new City Hall, once renovations are complete, and according to Everett, the current City Hall building will house the Police Department.

“Simultaneously, as we’ve been doing the design and work on the current Citizens Tower, which will be City Hall, we’ve also been diligently doing the design work on what will be the police department,” he said.

He hoped the new building would serve as a ‘one stop shop’ for Lubbock residents.

“It’s definitely feasible that they’re going to be able to fit all of those functions in for citizens to come in to that one area,” he added.

Everett said much of the work that has been done to this point may not be visible to residents driving by.

“A lot of people are maybe driving by and they’re not seeing a lot of activity, because a lot of it is interior. Occasionally you might see a dump truck, or a roll-off out here. But please know that there isn’t a day that goes by that we aren’t diligently going through this and keeping this project going. Making sure that funding is being applied correctly, and that tax dollars are being used correctly to make sure that this is a great quality project,” he said.

He expected a more detailed report to be presented to City Council in March, with drawings and designs completed by the end of the summer.