Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 10, 1995 TAG: 9511100105
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Jack Crosswell, a Wythe County supervisor with ties to the private-prison issue who was defeated in Tuesday's election, has resigned from the governing body.
"If I'm not representing the majority of the people, it would be fraudulent for me to accept the pay from the county," he said Thursday. "I thought I was, but apparently I wasn't. I gave it my best shot, and I lost."
Crosswell said he also would stop his weekly humor column, "Beck 'n' Me," which has been carried by the Wytheville-based Southwest Virginia Enterprise. He said he would devote all his writing time to completion of a book he has been working on.
Democrat Harvey Atkinson won the Speedwell District seat from Crosswell by a vote of 741 to 581.
Crosswell wasn't the only private-prison supporter who lost in Tuesday's election. Democrat Clay Lawrence defeated incumbent Olin Armentrout in a five-way race for the Max Meadows seat.
Much of the opposition to Crosswell and Armentrout stemmed from their advocacy of a private prison for Wythe County, and attendance at a meeting last year arranged by Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, for representatives of Southwest Virginia localities to make contact with private prison companies interested in potential sites.
After that meeting, Corrections Corporation of America of Nashville, Tenn., secured an option on a site near Wytheville and competed for a state contract to build a 1,500-bed medium-security prison on it. CCA did not get that contract, and is now competing with two other companies for a state contract to build a 1,000-bed minimum-security prison either in Wythe or Loudoun County, where it owns a potential site.
"I wish I could've gotten jobs, but I wasn't able to do it," said Crosswell, a former newspaper reporter, law enforcement officer and a retired U.S. Treasury agent.
Even in the face of public opposition to the prison, the outspoken Crosswell never hedged about being the one who brought CCA to Wythe County to seek potential sites. He believed the prison would be an economic boon to the county, especially with CCA's agreement to donate several hundred acres back to the county for an industrial park and to build a county jail at its site to replace the existing, aging one in Wytheville.
"I don't pass the buck. If I do something, I'm man enough to stand up and take the responsibility for it," he said.
But the prison opposition did force Crosswell and Armentrout to lose Democratic Party backing for their re-election bids. Crosswell won his first term four years ago as a Democrat, but joined the Republican Party earlier this year and ran for re-election on the GOP ticket. Armentrout ran as an independent.
The Board of Supervisors now has 30 days to appoint someone to complete Crosswell's term, or let the Circuit Court do it. The board could appoint Atkinson, but is not required to do so. In any case, Atkinson will become the Speedwell District supervisor at the start of 1996.
"I'm certainly not angry at anybody. I don't hold any grudges," Crosswell said. "To do the job of supervisor right, it takes a lot of time that other people don't know about."
by CNB