The state Capitol is scheduled to be rededicated on Friday, and crews were busy Wednesday doing little things, placing coat racks and other furnishings throughout the building.

Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert worried last month that things wouldn't be done in time, as fabric for the walls in the governor's suite and the Gold Room hadn't arrived yet. "Unless you've got a little fairy dust around here someplace — there's a lot of dust around here, but no fairy dust — I don't know how you can get it done," Herbert said during a December meeting of the Capitol Preservation Board.

Workers took that as a challenge and scurried to get things done. The fabric is up on the walls in both the governor's suite and Gold Room, and things should be ready to go by Friday.

"It was pretty hectic," Cutshaw said of the past few weeks, although it was worth it. "It's a showpiece for the whole state."

The Capitol has been closed to the public since August 2004 so the stately building could be retrofitted with a series of "shock absorbers" designed to withstand an earthquake. There were also cosmetic changes that included restoring rooms like the governor's office to their original grandeur, as well as modernizing everything from fire alarms to technology hook-ups.

It will be open to the public for an open house Jan. 5-12. The 2008 Legislature will convene in the Capitol on Jan. 21, the first time lawmakers will have met in the building since 2004, and Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. will deliver his State of the State address in the House chambers on Jan. 22, in what will be his first speech in the Capitol.

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E-mail: ldethman@desnews.com