An important piece of the Tazewell County Justice Center Annex puzzle was put into place Wednesday when the Tazewell County Board approved the purchase of the former Rick's TV and Appliance and Pekin Times building at 306 Court Street.
The building, which will be demolished, is adjacent to the site of the $44 million, three-story annex, the most expensive project in county history. The annex will be built just north of the Justice Center on South Capitol Street in downtown Pekin.
The county bought the building at 306 Court, owned by Randy and Julie Price since 2022, for $285,000. The Prices purchased the building from former Rick's TV and Appliance owner Ricky Woith for $250,000.
County Board Chairman Brett Grimm said the purchase of the 306 Court property clears the way for a better designed parking lot with more parking spaces for the annex, doesn't cram a maintenance shed into a corner, and opens more options for the annex as it's being built.
"On the construction side, it gives us a staging area that we needed because we didn't have enough ground to set all the materials and equipment on the existing county space," Grimm said.
"It also was estimated to cost about $75,000 to prop up the building during construction so it wouldn't fall down. The engineers were concerned that even if we propped it, the vibrations from construction could cause the rear wall to fall."
Work on the 79,000-square-foot annex is expected to begin this summer, with completion most likely in early 2027. The annex will initially contain three criminal courtrooms, state's attorney and probation offices, and the circuit clerk's traffic office. All will move from the nearby Tazewell County Courthouse.
Built in 1989, the building at 306 Court was originally Rick's TV and Appliance.
Pekin Times employees worked there from 2012-2019, when the newspaper's operations moved to the Peoria Journal Star building in Peoria. The 306 Court building has been vacant since then.
Pekin Times staff members learned in 2011 they needed to relocate after the newspaper's office since 1906 a few blocks away at 20 S. Fourth Street, was sold by GateHouse Media to Tazewell County for $255,000. The historic but deteriorating building was demolished in 2013 and the site is now a county parking lot.
The Pekin Times is now what's known as a "ghost paper." While it has a print edition and online presence, there are no editors, reporters, advertising or classified advertising salespeople, or circulation employees specifically working for the paper.
For sale: Drone, pickup, and service truck
Also Wednesday during its 40-minute meeting, the county board approved:
- the sale of an outdated drone no longer used by the Emergency Management Agency. Proceeds from the sale will be used to purchase a new drone;
- online auctions to sell a 2013 pickup truck and a 2001 service truck that are no longer used by the highway department. Replacement trucks have been purchased;
- a $168,191 contract with Crawford, Murphy and Tilly of Peoria for engineering services for a project to replace the bridge on School Street over Farm Creek in Washington Township. Motor fuel tax funds will pay for the services. Construction is scheduled to begin in March 2027;
- changes to the regulations regarding backyard chickens in low-density and multi-family residential districts, and buildings used primarily for the storage of personal or family-owned items, including recreation equipment;
- the purchase by the circuit clerk's office of case management software from Goodin Associates of Carbondale. A $142,910 state grant will cover a portion of the cost for the office to transition back to Goodin from its current supplier, Tyler Technologies of Plano, Texas. The annual licensing fee for the Goodin software will be about $240,000 less than Tyler next year. Goodin software is used by more than 80 counties in Illinois;
- an emergency declaration requested by the county clerk's office to purchase voter registration technology including electronic pollbooks so the office can receive additional state grant funding that will cover a portion or perhaps the entire cost of the upgrade;
- the addition of $41,475 in state grant funding to the sheriff's office and courts budgets for a video arraignment system for the jail arraignment room and camera and sound system upgrades to courtrooms 104 and 302, respectively;
- the addition of a $600 memorial donation to the EMA budget;
- changes to precinct boundaries in Cincinnati, Pekin, Morton, Groveland, Delavan, Elm Grove, Washington and Sand Prairie townships because of population changes;
- changes to five polling locations: Delavan to the Township Building, 1005 W. Fourth Street, Delevan; Sand Prairie to the Township Building, 102 S. Church Street, Green Valley; Morton 1 to Eastside Bible Church, 1310 W. Jefferson Street, Morton; Groveland 2 from the Creve Coeur Community Center, 586 Groveland Avenue, Creve Coeur; and Pekin 5 to Pekin Bible Church, 2405 Court Street, Pekin.
- and, the reappointment of Jim Brecher of Pekin to the Sheriff's Merit Commission for a term expiring in 2028.
