EAST PEORIA (25News Now) – The East Peoria City Council has approved work on the much-anticipated new police station.
The new building, located at 500 West Camp Street, will have a floor area of 3,700 square meters, making it 3,200 square meters larger than the current building.
The city estimates the cost to be about $21.5 million, with about $20 million of that coming from bonds. Sales tax will help pay off those bonds, and financing for the new apartment building nearby will also help pay it off.
The fire department will not move, but will move into the premises it currently shares with the police.
Police Chief David Catton said they no longer have space in their current building.
“We now use multiple rooms for everything,” Catton said. “Our roll call room doubles as our report writing room, which is not very convenient when you’re trying to write a report and then there are a lot of people there having meetings.”
The new station will have a larger evidence room and state-of-the-art testing equipment.
“Drugs have changed, so new testing equipment is needed,” Catton said. “We don’t have space in the current building to safely test drugs.”
He said the new building will allow the department to grow.
“We’re building it for the future. At the end of the month we’ll have 50 officers, so we’re actually building this building for about 65 officers, which should easily last us 50 to 70 years,” Catton said.
The chief said they also plan to hold community events in the building.
“One of the things we’re going to have off the lobby is a training and community space,” Catton said. “It’s going to be for training our officers, but it’s also going to be for the community so we can invite them in, have some events in that space and really make this a part of East Peoria.”
Catton said it should be easier for officers to enter and exit the new building since it will no longer be as far from the railroad tracks of their current station.
The city hopes to begin construction on the new station in October and have the building ready for occupancy by April or May 2026.
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