Costs for new Washington Police evidence building exceed $2 million

WASHINGTON (25News Now) – Construction on the Washington Police Department’s new evidence building could begin soon, depending on a vote in the City Council.

The police have been calling for a new building for five years. The current facility is considered “unusable” and was closed due to a fire at the beginning of the year.

Police Chief Mike McCoy said the department needs the new building sooner rather than later because the government spends $2,000 each month renting a building in East Peoria to store evidence.

“Every day, we have to take every piece of evidence we get to this new location and then back again,” McCoy said. “That requires one of our officers to drive from Washington to East Peoria to deliver the evidence.”

Washington Mayor Gary Manier said the contract would likely go to the lowest bidder, contractor PJ Hoerr.

The new building on a plot of land behind the fire station is expected to cost $2.3 million. About $900,000 in grants will finance the project.

The remaining money will come from the city’s budget reserves and leftover pandemic relief funds. In total, the city will spend $600,000 on the project.

“$372,000 of that would come from general funds, so the council has one more week and this next week to discuss it, and a week after that it will probably come to a vote,” Manier said.

Chief McCoy said the new building will be a minimal design compared to the original plan, which cost about $5 million. He said the revised estimate is $1.9 million, but costs continue to rise.

“Construction equipment costs are increasing 15 to 18 percent annually, and now they’ve increased 20 to 25 percent annually,” McCoy said. “Our original budgeted cost of about $1.9 million is now about $2.3 million.”

Manier said the next step is to vote on amending the city budget. The mayor said while it is concerning to amend the budget a month after it was released, he does not believe it will have a negative impact on the city.

“We haven’t really spent our budget every year,” Manier said. “When you look at that, I don’t think we really need to give up services or push them over to the next fiscal year.”

McCoy said once the new building is completed, the police department will be able to work more efficiently.

“It’s all going to be barcoded now, so when a piece of evidence comes in, it’s barcoded and you can just scan it in and out,” McCoy said. “That reduces the amount of time the police have to spend on it, and it also reduces the amount of time it takes our evidence technicians to pick it up, scan it in and out, and put it in a secure location.”

The council will meet as a committee of the whole on Monday, June 10th to discuss the project. Mayor Manier said the council will likely vote on the budget amendment a week later on Monday, June 17th, and will also hire the contractor.

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