Lincoln, IL (WAND) – Officials with the City of Lincoln learned Friday that Logan Correctional Center was closing. While the possibility was discussed previously, they learned the facility’s fate during an online meeting.

“Essentially what they told us was [that] after working with the consultants and those that were doing the evaluations upfront and that they have decided to relocate Logan to Stateville,” said Lincoln Mayor Tracy Welch. “That was essentially it. They told us that as long as Logan remains safe that they’ll continue to keep the facility open during that period.”

Welch said Illinois Department of Corrections (IDOC) staff didn’t provide any details about how long it would take to build the new facility. They did confirm to Welch and WAND News that Logan Correctional would be closed once inmates could be transferred to the new building.

Dave Beck, regional director for AFSCME Council 31, said over 500 people with the union work at Logan Correctional Center. Now that they know the facility is closing, they are looking for other options.

“The employees of the Logan Correctional Center are highly trained,” Beck said. “The state is saying that the new facility will be several hours away, so you can imagine that is not a move that most people can make.”

But Welch and Beck don’t want the employees to leave. Lincoln has a population of around 13,000, and it will severely impact the city’s economic future.

“Lincoln has seen a number of things happen to it over the years with loss of jobs,” Beck said. “This would be a terrible blow to that community and a terrible blow to our members, the employees and difficult for the individuals in custody.

“It could result in families moving out, which will impact revenue that’s being spent in the community,” Welch said. “It’ll create vacancies in housing. It’ll have impacts on our schools, our businesses. So it’s going to have a ripple effect.”

Welch mentioned that the city makes substantial revenue just processing sewage and waste from Logan Correctional, so they will have to adjust the budget for losses like those.

Welch said city and county leadership are working together to come up with new ideas for local employment and industry.

“We have to continue our economic development efforts to try to counter the impacts of this,” Welch said. “Obviously, this is a large employer, and it’ll be harder to recover from this one than if it was a smaller business that closes.”

The new IDOC facility will be built in Crest Hill. It will cost $1 billion and will hold 800 women and 1,500 men.