Construction company and Home Depot officials say they aremoving quickly toward the home improvement store’s scheduled June30 grand opening in Brookhaven.

Rico Rodriguez, project manager for White-Spunner Construction,of Mobile, Ala., said the Home Depot building is nearing completionand a new road to the store is done. The store and road projectstotal close to $7 million.

“Home Depot will be 100 percent (completed) by Friday. The roadis 100 percent now,” Rodriguez said earlier this week.

Company officials touted the on-schedule completion of theprojects despite inclement weather that saw almost 24 inches ofrain during the construction period. The building project began inearly January and the road project was started Feb. 14.

“We lost a lot of days to rain,” said Jon Largue, projectsuperintendent.

At one point, Largue said, the project was three weeks behindbecause of the bad weather. However, on-site manager Dennis Steeleand crews worked seven days a week for several weeks to catchup.

Rodriguez said the building was done for Home Depot while theroad was completed for Ergon Properties, which worked with city andcounty officials to secure a bond issue to supply infrastructure tothe area. Largue said water and sewer lines are now in place forfuture development that is expected as a result of the HomeDepot.

White-Spunner officials also credited a good workingrelationship with Brookhaven Building Inspector Steve Morton andlocal contractors Oddee Smith and Sons and Greenbriar in helpingcomplete the project on time.

Elsewhere on the site on Brookway Boulevard Extension, HomeDepot officials said they have had around 600 applicants forapproximately 100 jobs for the Brookhaven store.

“We’re finding Brookhaven has a lot of good, quality people withvaried backgrounds in home improvement,” Assistant Manager TonyMayes said about applicants.

Human Resources Manager Cindy Marlow agreed.

“We’ve had probably the most enthusiastic group of people I’veseen in about 13 years,” she said.

Marlow said about 80-85 percent of the job openings have beenfilled. Five members of the store’s management team was brought toBrookhaven from Home Depot stores in other areas, she said.

New employees will be brought in and come on board in stages,Marlow said. Grand opening ceremonies for the store are June30.

“We’ll have everybody trained and acclimated at least a coupleof weeks before then,” Marlow said.

Marlow said it is more efficient for applicants to apply onlineat www.homedepot.com, but they can also submit applications nextweek in the store. While the initial hiring is nearing completion,she indicated people may still seek employment at the store.

“We’re always looking for good people,” she said. “We’llcontinue taking applications after opening.”

Jennifer Sampson, assistant manager-operations, said a”Neighborhood Night” store opening is scheduled for June 29 from6-9 p.m. It will include drawings for prizes and refreshments.

Sampson said grand opening activities will cover several days.She said officials will be working out details of those events inthe weeks leading up to the June 30 opening.