WASHINGTON, Ill. – The city of Washington will have to pay a little more money to build a new evidence building for the police department.
Police Chief Mike McCoy sent a memo to city council, dated Monday, informing them that the cost of constructing the new building next to the fire station increased by around $356,000. The original price tag was around $1.9 million.
The additional $356,000 would be covered by the city’s general fund reserves. The rest of the project is funded through federal and state grants, CURES funds designated for public safety, and the police department’s own building fund.
McCoy says there’s two reasons for the price increase; increased material costs, and extending utility lines to hook up at the planned location next to the fire station.
“The utilities don’t go out that far, they go as far as the fire station. A major portion of that money was for the extension of the utilities to get it to the evidence building,” McCoy said.
Washington city council is planning to vote on amending the budget to cover the increased costs at its June 17th meeting, after a first reading occurred on Monday.
The city is in need of an evidence building, after an older building that was being used to store evidence caught on fire in February. Since then, evidence has been stored in an off-site building outside of Washington’s city limits.
McCoy says that has created a hassle, when needing to take evidence from court and back.
“It’s terrible, because it then takes a police officer out of the city limits to go to this location and do the evidence. So that leaves us short a police officer here when that happens,” McCoy said.
If city council approves the budget changes, McCoy says he is hopeful to begin construction on the building and have it up and running by the start of winter.
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