Logan County offers building site for Lincoln police station

[December 01, 2015]  LINCOLN - On Monday, November 23rd, the Lincoln City Council and the Logan County Board held a combined Workshop at the Lincoln Park District. This is the second such meeting the two governing bodies held this year. Before the end of the evening, it was decided that the board and council would continue with these joint meetings in 2016, with plans to meet on a quarterly basis.

The purpose of the combined meetings is to improve communication between the two groups and keep each other informed on topics that are of importance to both the city and county officials.

In the course of the meeting, the two groups discussed several topics and also heard a special presentation from Jennifer Daly of the Greater Peoria Economic Development Council.

The first topic of the evening was presented by Logan County Board member Kevin Bateman, who renewed a previous offer to the city regarding a building site for a new city of Lincoln police station.

Bateman spoke on behalf of the Logan County Board members saying that the board wanted to extend once again an invitation to the city to utilize county-owned property for the new station.

The department currently rents space along with the Sheriff’s department, Logan County Emergency Management Agency and the jail in the Logan County Safety Complex located in the 900 block of Pekin Street. The county owns the full city block with the safety complex being located on less than half the property, and facing Pekin Street. The half of the block facing Broadway Street is a parking lot for city and county vehicles and green space that runs the entire length of the block.

In past conversations on this topic, it had been implied that the property the county was offering was the green space facing Broadway. Bateman said he wanted to clarify the county’s offer. He said that the county was willing to entertain any proposal the city might have for the location of its new building.

Bateman said that he felt, speaking for the county, that it is in everyone’s best interest to keep the two law enforcement agencies close together. He noted that one big advantage would be for the city in how it handles detaining suspects. He said the city would have access to the Logan County Jail. If the two buildings were close together, this would eliminate some of the safety concerns for the police department in transporting prisoners from one location to another.

He said that it would also be easier to take advantage of shared resources if the two departments were located close together. He noted that he felt that each department had “assets” that could be utilized by the other from time to time.

In addition, Bateman talked about improvements the county department would be able to make in the additional space gained at the safety complex when the city has its own building. He said one big improvement that could be made would be to implement a video booking program. He said that the added space in the county complex would make that possible, and that again it would be something that both departments could utilize. He also mentioned designing better interrogation areas that could be used by both departments as well.

Bateman concluded that the city and county departments would both be better if they work together and that it would be easier for them to do so if they were located together.

Lincoln Mayor Marty Neitzel thanked the county for their offer and said to date, no decisions have been made about what to do for a new city safety complex. Alderman Todd Mourning reinforced the statement saying that, yes, the city had hired a firm to conduct a site feasibility study. The study had included several areas in the city, including the safety complex area. But work on this issue had stopped with the site survey. The city has had no further discussion on what to do, so, in essence, all options were still open.

Bateman said he just wanted to make it clear again on behalf of the board, that the county does not want to be a deterrent to the process. The offer has been made in good faith, and the county will work with the city to help come up with a good solution.

The discussion ended on this topic, and Farmer moved on to introduce the next topic for the night - electric aggregation. A complete report on the aggregation discussion is also posted in the Tuesday edition of Lincoln Daily News.

[Nila Smith]