Topeka ? The Kansas Law Enforcement Memorial will be put in storage for a while because of the Statehouse restoration project, but it is to return to its site in a few years in bigger, stronger form.

The limestone monument, measuring 25 feet across, is round with a star in the middle, resembling a badge. Chiseled into its face are the names of 223 law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty in Kansas, some as early as the 1860s, and there is room for about 20 more.

“Unfortunately, we need to make plans to enlarge it,” said Bill Miskell, chairman of the commission that oversees the monument.

Since 1987, the monument has been located on the northeast section of the Statehouse lawn, but the section is being excavated for an underground parking garage.

The garage is part of an eight-year, $135 million project to renovate the Statehouse from top to bottom, inside and out.

Made up of a series of stone blocks, the monument will be disassembled in about three weeks and put in storage, then will be returned to the Statehouse lawn in about two years, Miskell said.

In the interim, the committee will decide how to enlarge the monument to make space for additional names. The star and circle design will be retained, he said, but the limestone may be replaced by something stronger, such as granite or marble.

“It will be an improved and expanded memorial,” Miskell said. “It will come back looking very similar.”

He said refurbishing the monument will cost at least $150,000, to be funded with private donations.

Miskell said the committee will have a fund-raising kickoff in May, around the time of the annual ceremony to honor those whose names are added that year.

One Kansas law enforcement officer was killed in the line of duty in 2001 Junction City Police Officer Wilson Johnson, shot to death in December while answering a domestic disturbance call.

Johnson was one of 233 federal, state and local law enforcement officers nationwide who were killed in the line of duty last year.