PEORIA, Ill. – Peoria County officials are using some of $34 million in COVID-19-related funds to build a new facility combining several departments.
Ground has been broken on a new Health and Human Services Building to be located on the site of the current Peoria City/County Health Department site on Sheridan Road.
“The Health Department…is over 70 years old, and it’s…at the end of its life,” said County Board member Sharon Williams (D-Dist. 1), chair of the board’s Health Committee. “We didn’t really know what to do with it, because we did not, obviously, want to raise property taxes to fund a new facility.”
Williams said federal American Rescue Plan dollars is paying for the new facility.
She says the health department, county coroner, regional office of education, and Sustainability and Resource Conservation offices will be located on the new site, which should be complete in less than a year.
Williams says the move will allow those department to have better working conditions.
“The Coroner is over on Gift, and he’s in a building that was never built for a Coroner’s Office,” said Williams. “It was a jail at one time. He’s been in that building for a long time, and it’s really challenging for him to work there.”
County employees will be moved to other facilities during the construction.
CLICK HERE for how the temporary move will impact the Peoria City/County Health Department.
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