A monument and a new flag pole will soon grace the grounds of the Tazewell County Courthouse.
The monument, approved by county voters in 2024, honors the county's three Medal of Honor recipients: Pekin carpenter John Ayers, Green Valley farmer and physician Thomas Murphy and Pekin school teacher William Reed.
Each was honored for his heroism during the Civil War. The three are among the nearly 3,600 Medal of Honor recipients since the U.S. government's highest military award was established in 1861.
Appropriately and coincidentally, the Tazewell County Board set the wheels in motion Wednesday – National Medal of Honor Day – to have the black granite monument built.
Abel Monument Company of Pekin was approved by the board to do the monument project. The company's quote was $16,300.
Knapp Concrete Contractors of Goodfield was approved as the subtractor for the flagpole project, with a low bid of nearly $37,700.
The project includes removing the current flagpole, demolishing a 6-by-25-foot sidewalk below it, removing and installing a new flagpole base, assembling and setting a new 55-by-10-foot aluminum flag pole, and adding a 1-inch conduit for light under the new sidewalk.
Justice Center Annex project 'on budget'
Two important county construction projects are on track despite the harsh winter weather, county board members were told at this week's meeting.
Matt Brown, project manager for Peoria-based P.J. Hoerr, said the $44 million Justice Center Annex is "on budget and moving along well," and the new animal control facility is almost done, with a May completion expected.
Responding to a board member's question, Brown said work on a tunnel that will connect the county jail to the annex should begin in late summer. The four-level annex is being built north of the Justice Center in downtown Pekin.
The animal control facility is being constructed at the county's Tremont campus. It's near the current facility, which dates to the 1990s and has multiple issues.
At nearly 9,400 square feet, the new facility will be more than twice the size of the current one.
The cost of the new facility has risen from about $3.5 million to nearly $3.7 million. The board voted to approve contingency funds to cover the increase.
Animal control contracts approved
Nine communities will receive animal and rabies control services from the county this year after contracts were approved by the county board.
Here are the communities and what they'll pay the county:
- East Peoria: $36,070.
- Washington: $20,558.
- Morton: $15,177.
- Marquette Heights: $3,997.
- Delavan: $3,994.
- Tremont: $3,084.
- Hopedale: $1,325.
- Green Valley: $999.
- Armington: $715.
Squad car won't be repaired
In other action, the board approved:
- selling for parts a 2020 Dodge Durango sheriff's office squad car that was damaged in a January accident. The estimated cost to repair the vehicle, which was scheduled to be traded in this year, was more than $15,300;
- an agreement with the Illinois Department of Transportation requiring IDOT to pay for resurfacing a three-mile stretch of Broadway Road from Springfield Road to the Interstate 155 interchange;
- declining an offer from IDOT to purchase right-of-way on Old Illinois 121 in Boynton Township, one-half-mile east of the intersection of Brownwood and Shipton roads, for its appraised value of $119,000, because the property is "mostly landlocked and unusable for anything other than agriculture, which makes it of no value to Tazewell County," according to the board's property committee;
- hiring New Jersey-based ADP to provide human resources and tax filing services for an estimated annual cost of nearly $100,000, plus an $11,000 implementation cost. County officials said the county will save about $32,000 annually because of ADP's work;
- appointing Jon Hopkins of Pekin to the Veterans Assistance Commission Board for a one-year term;
- reappointing Russ Crawford of East Peoria and Greg Menold of Morton to the Tri-County Planning Commission Board for one-year terms. Hopkins, Crawford and Menold are county board members;
- and, reappointing Richard Schwab of East Peoria to the Board of Review for two-year term.
