West Peoria City Hall may sit on the site of the former Busey Bank branch by this time next year.
April Silver covers West Peoria for the Community Word monthly newspaper. She said discussions for a new city have been ongoing for a decade or more, but they moved on this opportunity.
"That property became available, just (a) prime location, you know, right in the middle of the intersection of Sterling and Rohmann, so that kind of made it a nice spot for a new location," she said.
Silver said the construction plan should be done in February or early March 2024. City Hall has outgrown its current space, she said.
"Safety was really their number one priority. And then second to that was efficiency. So I think they're just looking for a way to have office space, but also to be able to close that off and use the balance for a community hall type area," she said.
Ironically, the current city hall building could become a new community bank once the former Busey Bank site becomes the new city hall. Silver said the potential return of community banking to West Peoria is an "exciting development."
