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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — The Sangamon County Board recently approved funding for renovations at the county Public Health building.
The first phase of construction will primarily focus on the exterior of the building. The canopy, along with attached signage, will come down. Steel will also be installed for planned additions to the building.
Three organizations are moving into the space: the Veterans Commission, the Lincoln Land Workforce Alliance and the Illinois Department of Employment Security. The renovation will add 6,000 ft2 to the building.
“I am just absolutely super excited about that,” said John Ridley, director of public health. “I hope, for the eastern part of the city, that it really is a beacon and our constituents here are proud of it and celebrate that with us and use the facility for all the things that we have here.”
Phase two of renovations will focus on the inside of the building, including floor plan changes and improved wayfinding for clients. The department will make use of unfinished space to ensure everyone has enough room to work.
“We’ve carefully gone through the building, redesigned some areas that we thought we could do a lot better, and it’ll give us a better opportunity to have more quality, higher-quality interactions with our clients,” Ridley said.
Ridley explained that he was inspired to pursue certain changes after watching an employee, mom, toddler, and infant crowd in a small room for a WIC consultation. Part of the renovation includes doubling the space of rooms used for consultations like these.
The building was previously a grocery store when the county purchased it, and it was built out for the services offered at the time.
“If you can design your building around your processes, you’re going to be a lot more successful, instead of kind of cramming your processes into an existing building,” Ridley said. “That’s served us well over the course of the last 15 or 16 years, but things have changed.”
The renovations are expected to cost between $16 million and $17 million. The project is expected to be complete by early 2028.
Construction started today on an expansion of the Sangamon County Public Health building, a project county officials say is meant to better serve the community.