Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 29, 1993 TAG: 9306290288
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-7 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
The counties of Montgomery, Pulaski, Giles, Floyd and Wythe and the city of Radford got together to fund a $26,500 needs assessment study as required by the state. The New River Valley Planning District Commission completed the 150-page study for the proposed $13.6 million jail last year.
Now the General Assembly has changed the rules.
This regional-jail project is one of at least 20 in varying stages of completion which also will have to meet the new regulations.
Those regulations will mean another $75,000 for localities in the New River Valley to come up with. But a good part of that cost can be included in capital funding when the jail is built, and reimbursed to localities or cut from their construction cost shares.
Radford City Council voted to pay its $10,008 share June 14. Each locality's share is based on its general population and the number of prisoners each jail is authorized to house, although it is acknowledged that the jails are usually overcrowded.
An architectural/engineering firm would have to be hired to complete the plan now required by the state. Data would include preliminary site design and layout, utilities, access, a staffing plan and other information short of actual architectural construction plans.
The plan also would have to include the location of the proposed 300-inmate jail.
The study committee of representatives from the six localities formed a site search committee last September, but it has made no recommendation yet.
Also, the General Assembly set a deadline of March 1, 1994, for submission of the plan if it is to qualify for 50-50 state funding. The study committee has worked out a schedule to meet that time frame.
Completion of the plan on time would let the project be included in the next state budget cycle. Any delay would mean four years rather than two years before state funding could be considered.
It also would mean that all the data collected during months of work by the Planning District Commission would be out of date and have to be compiled all over again.
The localities probably would form a joint authority for its half of the jail cost. It could then be handled as authority-bonded indebtedness, rather than by general obligation bonds requiring voter approval.
"I have reviewed the study and find that it is very well done and that it more than complies with the jail planning requirements established by the Board of Corrections prior to the moratorium," Anthony C. Casale, criminal justice analyst with the state Department of Criminal Justice Services, said in a letter to New River Valley Planning District Commission.
"I assure you that your project is not being singled out. . . . The quality of your assessment indicates that the Planning District Commission should be able to comply with the additional requirements," he said.
Casale said the needs assessment study had the best assessment of existing alternative programs from among more than two dozen with which he has worked, and one of the two best in its inmate population analysis.
"The quality of your assessment indicates that the Planning District Commission should be able to comply with the additional requirements," he said.
\ REGIONAL JAIL STATE DEADLINES\ \ ACTION REQUIRED BY\ \ July 1 Authorize planning study Governing bodies\ July 10 Advertise for proposals Study committee\ July 23 Receive proposals Study committee\ July 28 Have proposals reviewed Study committee\ Aug. 4 Interview applicants Study committee\ Aug. 31 Approve planning contract Governing bodies\ Jan. 4, 1994 Review planning study Study committee\ Jan. 31 Approve planning study Governing bodies\ Feb. 8 Submit study to state Jail authority
\ COST OF REGIONAL JAIL STUDY\ IF ALL LOCALITIES PARTICIPATE\ Population Jail inmates Cost share\ \ Giles County 16,366 14 $11,362\ Wythe County 25,390 14 $14,613\ Floyd County 12,005 10 $8,231\ Pulaski County 34,496 47 $30,783\ Radford 15,851 11 $10,008
by CNB