
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 28, 1995                   TAG: 9504280034
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

WYTHE PRISON

FIRST AN ill-advised recall petition, now an ill-advised board-of-supervisors suit to recover the county's costs in defending against the citizens' action. Wythe County needs to get hold of itself.

Opponents of a proposal to build a privately run prison in the county make dire predictions about the consequences, but one already visited upon the community has been the loss of a sense of proportion. Good will was an early casualty of the controversy.

The Board of Supervisors is doing nothing to lower the pressure in this overheated dispute by filing a lawsuit against petitioners who sought, and failed, to have one of their number removed from office. Given First Amendment guarantees that citizens can freely criticize their government, the board is unlikely to win. Success, in fact, would be cause for concern. The board should drop its suit.

But this is not to say the supervisors have no reason to feel beleaguered and angry. Since their narrow vote to welcome the prison, they have been threatened with lawsuits themselves, and become the targets of a campaign of unsubstantiated innuendo calling their integrity into question.

Forget for the moment the possibility that the opposition reflects less-than-universal sentiment in a county that could use higher-paying jobs. Forget for now the fact that Wythe residents have shown little enthusiasm in the past for gaining more control over their destiny - by instituting zoning.

Opponents nonetheless have every right to fight vigorously to keep a prison they don't want out of their community. Their right to call governing officials to account means that, yes, they do enjoy great leeway in voicing unhappiness with government decisions - even when such protests reach an uncomfortable pitch. (There's little need to guarantee the free-speech rights of a happy, uncomplaining public.)

Even so, fairness and civility demand that the debate turn on the pros and cons of the issue, not on personal attacks based on suspicions and aspersions.

The supervisors were elected as representatives of the people to make hard choices according to their best judgment. If their judgment does not align with that of a majority of the citizens they represent, voters are welcome to try their luck with a new bunch starting with the next election.

For now, though, both sides would do well to drop the threats - including the supervisors' lawsuit - and cool the rhetoric.

by CNB