Quinn’s budget includes $8M for Normal armory

A Chicago-based Illinois National Guard unit is one step closer to moving to a new armory in north Normal. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

NORMAL – A Chicago-based Illinois National Guard unit is one step closer to moving to a new armory in north Normal.

Gov. Pat Quinn’s budget plan, released this week, calls for $8 million in capital funding to build the new Military Readiness Center. That’s on top of $10 million in federal money already secured, said Guard spokesman Lt. Dutch Grove.

“We are very hopeful (the $8 million) will remain in the final budget plan that the governor signs after the budget makes its way through the legislature,” he said.

The new armory would be built next to Heartland Community College’s campus, on land recently annexed into Normal. Access to the armory will be off Millennium Drive.

If lawmakers sign off on the $8 million, bids for the project would go out in the summer and construction could begin this fall, he said.

The Maneuver Enhancement Brigade would be housed at the armory, Grove said. (The Bloomington armory in south Bloomington would remain open.)

“But like all the new armories … it would be a modern platform for the Illinois National Guard soldiers to train and hone their skills to be ready to respond when the governor or the president calls us,” Grove said.

Ryan Denham can be reached at ryan@wjbc.com.