Construction on the new Peoria County Health and Human Services campus could begin as soon as next month.
The new campus will consolidate the offices of the Peoria City/County Health Department, Peoria County Coroner's Office, and Peoria County Regional Office of Education into a new building on the site of the current health department.
"Even before COVID happened, we knew that the health department was in need of new facilities. Buildings typically have lifecycles," said Peoria County Board chairman James Dillon. "Anybody that's been into the health department knows what we're talking about. Was it user friendly? Probably not. Was it functional? Somewhat. But it was designed as a tuberculosis sanitarium back in the day."
The county board opted last year for a new building, rather than rehabbing the existing health department building on Sheridan Road.
A request for construction bids is currently out. The county board currently has $18 million budgeted for the project, but the current estimate comes out at around $21.7 million.
"Everybody has been stung by inflation. And when we came up with these budgetary numbers, that was two years ago. So we're expecting those numbers to be over, which we will have to make a budget amendment for. That would require 12 votes," Dillon said.
Most of the project is funded through a $14 million chunk of the $34.8 million the county received from the American Rescue Plan Act. An additional $3.5 million in health department reserve funds are also earmarked, and $500,000 from the solid waste fund.
Any funding gap between the budgeted amount and the actual construction bid would likely be filled by another $2 to $3 million in ARPA funds. The county isn't issuing bonds or taking on debt to pay for project costs.
The window for bidding for the Health and Human Services campus construction closes April 6. Dillon said if the county board approves a budget amendment at its April 13 meeting, demolition of the old health department could begin "pretty much immediately."
A value engineering process has delayed the project's original timeline. That process scaled down the original 62,860 square foot design after construction estimates came in at more than $28 million. The current design calls for one new structure instead of two, and the total square footage was reduced by about 20%.
With a successful construction season this year, Dillon said the new Health and Human Services campus will open sometime in 2024.
