Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 28, 1993 TAG: 9309280250
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
The Board of Supervisors decided Monday night to give itself the extra time to get price estimates from other consultants.
the firm of Thompson and Litton has been hired by a regional jail study committee to make a planning study required by the 1993 General Assembly for regional jail projects seeking 50 percent state funding.
The committee includes representatives of the counties of Floyd, Giles, Carroll and Grayson and the city of Radford. Pulaski County was represented in an earlier study, but declined to take part in the second one, necessitated by the legislature this year.
Pulaski County was a key county in the earlier study, because it houses more prisoners than any of the other localities. The cost of the regional study will be $1 per capita without Pulaski's participation. With Pulaski, it would have cost 83 cents per capita.
Assistant County Administrator Peter Huber recommended hiring Thompson and Litton to make the study sought by Pulaski County to decide whether it would be more expensive to expand its own jail or rejoin the regional project.
Supervisor Bruce Fariss said involvement in both studies might affect the recommendation of the consultant.
"To me, it's a conflict of interest to do both studies," he said. "I don't trust them."
Huber said Thompson and Litton could get the information being sought by Pulaski County in time for the county to rejoin the regional project, if that proved the best option.
"I'd like to pay somebody else, myself," Fariss told Huber. "You're probably right, but I'm a little bit more paranoid than you are."
It was not certain that another consultant, who would have to gather the regional data independently, could do that before December, the deadline for Pulaski to rejoin the other localities.
The state must get the study data in early January for the project to qualify for this funding cycle. In the next cycle, two years from now, the state might no longer be paying half the construction costs.
The board will be getting together Thursday at Claytor Lake State Park for its quarterly meeting with the town councils of Pulaski and Dublin. It will learn then what other consultants are available, how quickly each could complete the study and at what cost.
by CNB