Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, October 7, 1995 TAG: 9510090022
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
It will be among the last regional jails in Virginia getting 50 percent state funding, because the General Assembly reduced state participation on such projects.
Representatives of Radford and the counties of Pulaski, Grayson and Giles voted Friday to make the request, which will go before the state Board of Corrections in Powhatan Oct. 18.
At different times during the five years, the counties of Floyd, Carroll, Wythe, Bland and even Tazewell have considered participation in the regional jail, but it ended up with the three counties and one city.
The size of the facility has changed, too. The first plan designed by architects Thompson & Litton was for 360 beds with support facilities for easy expansion to 600, but the state favored downsizing it to 240 beds with core support for 400.
That will reduce the total cost of the project from nearly $35 million to a projected $26.5 million. Of that amount, about $20.2 million of the cost qualifies for 50 percent state reimbursement.
"That figure does not include land costs," said Bill King of Thompson & Litton. King has spent the past two weeks in communication with state corrections officials over what cost figures should be submitted to the state corrections board. "Literally, these numbers were changing daily," he said.
"I got run out of my office and Bill King used up my phone allowance for the next two months trying to get these numbers resolved," joked Assistant Radford City Manager Bob Lloyd, authority chairman.
Lloyd said it was important to get the project on the correction board's agenda for its October meeting, in case the board raises last-minute questions. "Delaying presentation of this until November doesn't leave us any cushion at all," he said, because the corrections budget will be submitted to the governor's office for inclusion in the biennial state budget before the board's December meeting.
The schematic design for the jail is to be completed by next June and the preliminary design by October 1996. A construction contract would be awarded in June 1997, with completion of the jail anticipated by February 1999.
Jim Johnson of Wheat First Butcher Singer presented options for the local part of the financing, which could include a Rural Economic & Community Development (formerly Farmers Home Administration) loan and public sale of bonds.
"We are assuming the state will do lump sum distributions and we won't have to finance the state's share," he said.
The authority had wanted to build its jail somewhat beyond the number of beds it expected to fill immediately in 1999 so it could provide surplus beds for state prisoners. Even with new state facilities getting underway, Johnson said, it looks like the state will have more prisoners than beds for some time to come.
Payments for housing state prisoners, or local prisoners from other Virginia localities, could provide additional revenue for the jail. Localities began working on the regional jail project years ago because their own jails are aging and facing increasing state requirements, and other nearby counties face the same problems.
by CNB