Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 19, 1993 TAG: 9308190298
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By CAROLYN CLICK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: COVINGTON LENGTH: Long
In the end, the 65 jobs, the million dollar payroll, even the tantalizing prospect of a federal government contract could not outweigh the lingering questions.
They hung in the air long after citizens left a stormy public meeting, becoming grist for the mill of daily human interaction in this rural Virginia locality.
In the grocery store and on the telephone, neighbors talked about the proposed $3.5 million federal birthing center at Low Moor that could have brought up to 100 pregnant federal inmates and a little bit of prosperity to the Alleghany Highlands.
Some feared a detention facility in their neighborhood, while others warmed to the idea of good-paying jobs for a region hard hit by the recession.
Only, in the end, things weren't quite as they had been portrayed.
"This is how we get taken advantage of," said Regina Crush, an opponent of the project who believes the developers should be held accountable for their misstatements. "You just close your eyes to it."
Tuesday night, the investor group withdrew its request to rezone the land, contending the Alleghany County Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission moved too slowly on its application.
The group also cited "flawed legal advice along with a hostile press" for their decision to abandon Alleghany.
But board Chairman Clarence Farmer said supervisors and the Planning Commission were following standard procedures in analyzing the proposal. It was the investors, he said, who were trying to hurry the process along.
"They had told us there was going to be two of these units, one on the East Coast and one on the West Coast, and that time was of the essence," said Clarence Farmer. "They said their contract was in jeopardy."
But for a project of that size, Planning Commission Chairman Stewart Shannon said, the investors supplied only sketchy initial information.
"For that type of business to come in, they were asking the Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors to move too fast," said Shannon, who learned of the proposal only Aug. 4. "I don't like making hasty decisions."
As West Virginia developer James Clowser explained it to local officials, the facility would be one of only two federal birthing centers in the nation, assisting minimum-security, white-collar criminals in the important process of bonding with their newborns.
In addition to the 65 jobs the project would create, there would be additional business for Alleghany Regional Hospital, which already successfully cares for pregnant inmates from the Alderson, W.Va., prison camp, he said.
Under the plan, prisoners from other Eastern lockups would be screened through Alderson. Officials at the prison have made no comment and have not returned telephone calls.
Clowser and his local investors, including Dr. Krishna Sankar, Clifton Forge druggist James Bay, Clifton Forge businessman Glenn Perry and Covington Realtor Richard Showalter, assured residents the incarcerated women would pose no problems for the community.
Most, said Showalter, would be serving time for "paper crimes."
"A lot of them have master's degrees, believe it or not, and come from fine families," he said before a public hearing Aug. 11.
Although there were immediate security concerns, the prospect of federally backed jobs buoyed the region.
The board of directors for the Alleghany Highlands Economic Development Authority endorsed the concept. The mayor of neighboring Clifton Forge, Johnny Wright, backed it, suggesting it would add to the "financial stability of the area."
Former Clifton Forge Mayor Nancy Slusser was so moved by the anticipated economic boost she sent a letter to Showalter extolling the project's virtues.
"Some people may be inclined to object to this facility but a 3 million dollar investment that offers 65 needed jobs backed by the federal government, recession-proof, with above-average wages is just what our area needs," she wrote.
It turned out there was a catch - the federal Bureau of Prisons professed no knowledge of a proposed East Coast birthing center. Or a West Coast one, for that matter.
"As this point, we don't have any facilities such as that," said Dan Dunne, a spokesman for the Bureau of Prisons in Washington.
Dunne said the bureau is exploring ways to handle pregnant inmates through community corrections programs such as halfway houses.
"Before the bureau would ever enter into the contract, we would have to determine if there was a legitimate need and what the cost factors were," he said.
Clowser, a former West Virginia deputy mental health commissioner, asserted before the county Board of Supervisors that his investor group was preparing to sign a five-year contract with the Justice Department.
But a Justice Department contracting officer said the department has only approved a proposal from the investor group for a nine-bed detention facility, similar to a halfway house. That tentative approval, however, did not necessarily mean that Clowser's group would receive the contract, he said.
And then there was the problem of the company's name. The investors operated before the board of supervisors as Greenbrier Medical Group Inc., a company they said was chartered in West Virginia.
But West Virginia officials said Greenbrier Medical Group Inc. had been involuntarily dissolved in 1989 for failure to pay delinquent corporate license taxes and to file annual reports.
The West Virginia special receiver's office says the company owes $2,173.73.
That disclosure was "close to the final nail in the coffin," said Glynn Loope, executive director of the Economic Development Authority. "It was a pretty clear indicator that not everything was as it was presented."
Don Wilkes, director of West Virginia's corporate division, said it is not unusual for corporations to simply abandon a corporate name and forget about the taxes, especially if they have no plans to resurrect the company. And until this year, when a new state law strengthened the state's power to bring companies and their executives into line, it was too expensive for the state to go after the back taxes.
But Wilkes said it is improper for a corporation to use the name if taxes remain outstanding. Clowser and his investors legally obtained a new West Virginia charter in July under the name Low-Moor Inc. On Wednesday, one day after withdrawing the rezoning application, they properly registered its trade name as Greenbrier Medical, Wilkes said.
Despite the authority's enthusiasm over the additional jobs, Loope said he left himself some breathing room. Before signing on with the authority, Loope worked in Lee County and participated in efforts there to win a federal prison contract.
"We did say this from the beginning, that if things were completely on par with the Bureau of Prisons, there was a paper trail a mile long and I don't think that paper trail ever existed."
Loope still likes the idea of a prison, and he says the county, like many other rural localities around the state, would welcome overtures from the state or feds.
"It's when you get caught up in a mess like this that it leaves a bad taste in your mouth."
In the letter to the board, Showalter suggested the birthing center project would be moved to another location, but neither he nor the other investors were talking about where that might be.
Perry, reached by telephone, referred all questions to Clowser, who could not be reached for comment.
\ REGIONAL UNEMPLOYMENT\ ALLEGHANY HIGHLANDS\ June 1992 June 1993\ Alleghany County 7.5 percent 6.9 percent\ Clifton Forge 8.4 percent 4.6 percent\ Covington 9.8 percent 7.5 percent
by CNB