RYAN PROPOSES NEW STATE POLICE DISTRICT 6 HEADQUARTERS IN PONTIAC

PONTIAC -- Governor George H. Ryan announced today that a new Illinois State Police headquarters for District 6 will be located next to the Pontiac Correctional Center -- a command post that will improve efficiency by consolidating several existing State Police offices and functions into one building.

"This project is good news for Pontiac and good news for the State Police," Ryan said. "The need for a new District 6 headquarters is clear. The current building in Pontiac is almost 60 years old and is too small for the troopers to do their jobs properly. The new facility will provide the space needed and will bring together various offices that we now must split apart.

Ryan is working with state Rep. Dan Rutherford, R-Pontiac and state Sen. John W. Maitland, R-Bloomington, as well as various local officials, to make the new headquarters a reality.

Currently, the District 6 headquarters is split between three buildings. The patrol unit's 52 personnel are housed in a 5,000-square-foot building built in 1941. The district's communications office and its 13 staff are located more than a mile from the headquarters in a 1,350-square-foot building constructed in 1949. The district's investigative unit is housed in leased space in Bloomington.

The new headquarters would be a 20,000-square-foot building that would consolidate the patrol and investigative units, space for crime scene technicians, an evidence vault and a radio repair garage. The estimated cost of the new headquarters is $4.6 million. A timetable for construction of the new headquarters is pending.