POCATELLO — Idaho State Police operations will have a new centralized home in Southeast Idaho sometime next year because the Legislature has authorized $5.4 million to construct the new 24,000-square-foot facility.

    It will be built on property next to the Idaho Transportation Department on South Fifth Avenue in Pocatello.

    “I think it will be a wonderful thing for the public,” said Region 5 ISP Capt. Eric Dayley. “The advantage is it will be a one-stop shop.”

    Dayley said the four ISP divisions — patrol, investigations, POST training and the forensic laboratory — are now housed in three separate buildings in Pocatello. The new facility would allow District 5 to consolidate those operations under one roof.

    Now the patrol division leases a building from ITD on South Fifth. Other operations are housed in the old Garrett Transportation complex and in the old Pocatello City Hall. Because of the costs of these leases, Dayley said that the state should ultimately save money by having all operations in one site that ISP owns.

    The project will break ground in August, with a completion date set in 2016. Two firms have been hired to get the project going — CSHQA of Boise and JHS in Pocatello, Dayley said.

    “It’s nice to have a local firm involved,” Dayley said.

    Bids will be sought soon.

    “The main advantage will be the synergy of working together,” Dayley said. “To have troopers and detectives sharing information every day should be a huge advantage.”

    There are ISP labs in Meridian, Coeur d’Alene and Pocatello, each specializing in a particular aspect of forensic investigation. The lab in Pocatello concentrates on toxicology, but Dayley said the building where it is now housed was never designed to be a lab.

    “This will be a modern laboratory facility,” Dayley said.

    Money for the project will come from the state’s Permanent Building Fund, and Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter signed the necessary documents last week.

    “We’re really excited about it,” Dayley said. “We appreciate the Southeast Idaho legislators who helped push for this funding.”