Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 9, 1993 TAG: 9306090092
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER SOUTHWEST BUREAU
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE LENGTH: Medium
County Administrator Billy Branson told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that he and Sheriff Wayne Pike asked Reno's office to look into why the U.S. Bureau of Prisons violated its own rule to sound out residents before placing a halfway house in their locality.
They also want to know why the project was shrouded in secrecy.
Local officials had been embarrassed several weeks ago over not having known about work under way to convert the former Trail Motel at Grahams Forge in eastern Wythe County, and angry at not having been notified.
Seacor Inc., which has operated a halfway house in Russell County, was to operate this one. But Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, said the Wythe house would get no federal prisoners, under Bureau of Prisons guidelines.
An operator could still seek a contract with the Virginia Department of Corrections to house state prisoners. A halfway house is supposed to help prisoners whose sentences will end in six months to a year learn to acclimate to society before release.
Supervisor Jack Crosswell said a representative from Boucher's congressional office had told him the situation was under control and asked him to see if he could curb the large number of telephone calls tying up office lines complaining about it.
In another matter, Supervisor Andy Kegley brought up the possibility of the county leasing or acquiring one of the large empty Main Street buildings for county office space.
Ball Brothers' Furniture, in a building which housed Crest's Department Store years ago, and the former Leggett building are the two big downtown vacancies.
Kegley said the Department of Social Services offices are severely crowded, and that they and other county offices could move onto Main Street if a suitable financial package could be worked out.
He said the existing county office building next to the courthouse might be converted into a new jail, which the county will eventually need. If the building is unsuitable, he said, the site would still be good.
Support for further study of the idea came from most of the board. Chairman R.T. DuPuis named Sheriff Pike, Social Services Director Mike Hall and Supervisors Olin Armentrout and Mark Munsey to the committee, along with a representative to be appointed from Wytheville. Munsey will be committee chairman.
The board canceled its regular fourth Tuesday meeting, which would have been June 22, because it has to meet this month at the end of its fiscal year, June 30.
by CNB