By the time a history is compiled of the Western Division of U.S. District Court for the Northern District, its judges and staffs may be domiciled in a brand new Rockford courthouse.

A reported $46.2 million in additional funding for the long-awaited project is included in the 2007 spending bill that will be submitted to the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee.

The new funds would supplement the $41 million that was secured previously by Sen. Richard Durbin and Congressman Donald Manzullo.

Pending approval by the Appropriations Committee and full Senate, the courthouse allocation would face thumbs up or thumbs down from a joint Senate-House conference committee.

Durbin and Manzullo said last month that they hoped full funding could lead to groundbreaking this fall before the total cost accelerates much further.

The Rockford project, estimated earlier at $60 million, grew to $75 million last year and now appears to have a price tag of at least $87 million.

Magistrate Judge P. Michael Mahoney told the Winnebago County Bar Association last January about his proposal to create a history of the Western Division.

It would include documentation of the judges and where they served in courthouse sites that included Freeport from 1905 until the move to Rockford in 1978.

Oral histories were being sought from Stanley Roszkowski, a federal judge since 1977 who in 1985 became the first assigned permanently to Rockford, and Philip G. Reinhard, who was appointed in 1992 and has opted for senior status.

The new courthouse would occupy the block bordered by Chestnut, Cedar, Court and Church Streets, replacing the present facility at 211 S. Court that was built 30 years ago.

Plans call for five courtrooms, chambers and staff offices; federal bankruptcy court, and offices for the U.S. attorney, U.S. marshal, federal public defender, probation and pretrial services.

A new Winnebago County Jail, pegged at $140 million, is already under construction in downtown Rockford, where local officials and entrepreneurs hope for a boost in economic development.