PEORIA, Ill. – Multiple Peoria County departments and services are now working in harmony under one roof.
County leaders opened the new Peoria County Health and Human Services building with a ribbon cutting ceremony Tuesday. It sits on the location of the former Peoria City/County Health Department on Sheridan Road.
In addition to being the home for the Health Department, the building will also house the county’s Coroner’s Office, Sustainability Office, and the Regional Office of Education.
“It’s an anchor for the East Bluff,” said County Board Chairman Jimmy Dillon. “It took about ten years to get here, probably, from knowing we needed a new building, to figuring out how to fund it.”
Groundbreaking for the building took place in November of 2022. The building’s price tag was more than $22 million, with Dillon saying the county did not need to raise taxes or issue bonds to pay for it. The entire cost was paid for with American Rescue Plan Act funds.
Public Health Administrator Monica Hendrickson says after a couple years of construction, everyone is now back together.
“Our staff was dispersed providing services around the county, so it’s great to be back on Sheridan Road, have all of our staff in one location,” Hendrickson said.
Hendrickson says having many departments under one roof will make it easier for them to work together. One example she gave is registering a child for school and getting needed vaccinations and documents in the same building.
Coroner Jamie Harwood now has a new and larger location, compared to the office’s former location on East Seneca Place. He says it was a “bittersweet” moment to move, saying the new location will provide more opportunities.
Harwood says the new building has an expanded cooler to hold more bodies in, going from a capacity of nine in the old building to about 30 at the building on Sheridan. He says there’s also a freezer system for those bodies that are unclaimed.
Harwood says there’s new technology being utilized, with a station for law enforcement to use two-way video to observe autopsies and the morgue. He says there’s also services available for the family and friends of victims, with an on-site chaplain and social service workers.
The Regional Office of Education has a new home, moving out of the Peoria County Courthouse. Superintendent Beth Crider says the new home is more welcoming.
“You wouldn’t think being in a courthouse would be difficult, but having to have people go through with law enforcement there and the metal detectors, this is a more welcoming, open space to access education services,” Crider said.
Crider says the open lobby with large windows to let sunshine in gives a more peaceful and welcoming environment for people to come into it. She says that will also help reduce test anxiety for its adult testing center.
After the ribbon cutting ceremony which featured singers from Pleasant Valley School and a drumline from Peoria Central High, people were invited to take guided tours of the new building.
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