PONTIAC - While Pontiac prison is headed toward closure, a large public turnout at a public hearing next week could send a strong message to key decision makers and help reverse the decision, local officials said Tuesday. | Pontiac's fight to keep prison may include lobbyist | Video: Save Pontiac Prison

"Where we sit now is a very dire situation," Pontiac Mayor Scott McCoy said at a news conference Tuesday. "It's time to say it like it is, which is the correctional center is closing."

McCoy was joined at the news conference by Livingston County Board Chairman Bill Flott and Mike Stoecklin, Greater Livingston County Economic Development Council interim chairman. State Sen. Dan Rutherford, R-Chenoa, spoke at a separate event about the prison.

They all offered a united message: The closure threat is real, the potential for economic hardship is real, and residents need to do everything in their power to stop it.

One way people can help is packing the auditorium for a public hearing at 5 p.m. Tuesday at Pontiac Township High School, they said.

"What I'm running into now is that every person I speak to at the street, I ask them if they are going to be at the hearing," McCoy said. "I'm hearing things like, 'I have a golf game,' 'I don't want to talk so I won't be going,' and when I sit down with them … they get a different picture."

Gov. Rod Blagojevich announced in May he plans to have the Department of Corrections close Pontiac Correctional Center and move its 1,660 inmates. Most would be transferred by February to the new but largely unused prison in Thomson, north of the Quad Cities.

Valuable to area's economy

It has been estimated the prison is worth about $45 million to the Pontiac area's economy. The prison also employs around 570 people, and those jobs would be transferred as well.

"By the first quarter of next year, we could have a lot of people moving, a lot of places closing and a lot of homes on the market," McCoy said.

Livingston County residents have shown support in a variety of ways ranging from staging parades to displaying the "Save Pontiac Prison" on T-shirts and yard signs. Now residents need to become more active in the state's closure review process, the officials said.

That means attending the Tuesday hearing and writing letters to the Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability, they said.

Under the state's Facilities Closure Act, the commission will collect hearing testimony and accept public comment until Aug. 26. The commission then will report its analysis of the community impact and other factors to the governor, who has the final decision on the closure.

Contact information for the commission can be found on state Sen. Dan Rutherford's Web site, danrutherford.com. People who want to testify Tuesday should e-mail barb@danrutherford.com, he said.

"I have approached this issue as a statesman's methodical and logical approach," said Rutherford, R-Chenoa. "Emotional, personal and political is not how you most effectively promote public policy. We need to be very logical about this."

The Illinois Department of Corrections has argued that while the move would be a $45 million loss for the Pontiac area, it would be a $47 million gain for the Thomson area.

While Rutherford said the prison is headed for closure, he also said the governor still may change his mind. While Blagojevich cut $1.4 billion from the state budget earlier this month, money to run Pontiac prison remains on the books.

"I talk to the governor, I have met with the governor and I sat in a four hour meeting with the governor about the budget, money and we talked about Pontiac," he said. "Since then, I have talked with the governor again and I don't think he wants to close Pontiac. I think what he is sensitive about is the budgeting."