PONTIAC, Ill. (AP) — When residents here heard that the governor wanted to close the 137-year-old Pontiac Correctional Center, taking hundreds of jobs from the area, they mobilized.

They held rallies and a parade. Streets were lined with blue and white “Save Our Prison” signs, and people were outfitted in T-shirts to match.

The 12,000 or so residents now find themselves trying to talk Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich, a Democrat, out of closing the town’s second-largest employer to help fill a $700 million hole in the state budget.

Mayor Scott McCoy said about 570 jobs in this central Illinois town would be lost. He worries about lost revenues for the city, construction companies, restaurants and other businesses, which one study estimated at more than $50 million a year.

Mr. McCoy also pointed out that most prison employees would probably take other jobs in the prison system, leaving town with spouses who are teachers, nurses and other professionals.

“These are our coaches, these are our P.T.O. members,” Mr. McCoy said. “Almost every one of them will transfer to somewhere else.”

Officials say closing the prison will save the state $8.5 million over the next two years.

“I hate closing Pontiac,” Roger Walker, director of the State Department of Corrections, told more than a thousand people at a public hearing here last week.

But he left no doubt where he stands. “The best available option for the department at this time,” he said, “is to close Pontiac.”

The facility is to be closed in January. But this month, Mr. Blagojevich suggested that he might save it if legislators backed his capital spending plan. The legislation, which would finance construction of roads, buildings and schools, has been stalled for months.

“It’s not politics. It’s economics,” said Brian Williamsen, a spokesman for the governor. “The funding has to be in place.”

The maximum-security facility, a complex of mostly red-brick and stone buildings, is tucked into the edge of a middle-class neighborhood. High fences and layers of razor wire separate it from a park and tennis courts.

Guards say the prison houses the worst of the worst. In 1978, three guards died in a prison riot. James Earl Ray spent time there in the 1950s for armed robbery.

“Pontiac and this state have had a wonderful partnership for more than 130 years,” said Mr. McCoy, who was raised in a house across the street from the prison.

In early May, news filtered through town that the prison was on the chopping block.

Stephanie DeLong, whose husband, Kevin, is a lieutenant and a 19-year veteran at the facility, heard the news from a local politician who stopped in at her downtown restaurant, DeLong’s Casual Dining.

The restaurant employs 20 people, Ms. DeLong said, and if the prison closes, the couple and their five children will be among those who are likely to leave.

“I look around and see everything that we do have,” Ms. DeLong said. “You know, we’ve worked hard the last 20 years. How would we ever start over?”

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