Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 13, 1993                   TAG: 9310140086
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD                                LENGTH: Medium

COURT FACILITY NOT ON FIX-UPS LIST

"We've known for several years that we need to make improvements [to court facilities]," she said. "It doesn't make sense to make an idealistic capital improvements program when we know this is something we have to do."

Radford's been under the gun since a 1990 study commission called police headquarters, jail, clerks' offices and courtrooms "grossly inadequate" and "deplorable." The commission said those facilities should be expanded or replaced.

The building that houses the police department and jail was built in 1892 and remodeled in 1951. Radford's municipal building, which houses courtrooms and clerks' offices, was built in 1968.

The study says those facilities lack adequate space for records and storage, or are unsafe for holding prisoners.

Circuit Court Judge Duane Mink - who has the power to demand court improvements - has written City Council three times since 1989 about Radford's outmoded facilities.

Still, court facilities didn't appear among $450,000 proposed capital projects, such as new roads and sewers, council evaluated Monday. Approval of the list was postponed for two weeks after Corn said it was incomplete.

Mayor Tom Starnes agreed. "The judge has been very patient. Some action is obviously going to have to be taken," he said.

A proposal to build a new regional jail is moving forward and is indicative of Radford's good faith to upgrade its facilities, said City Manager Robert Asbury.

The same 1990 report that condemned Radford's court facilities called for a regional jail. That project is being discussed among Radford and the counties of Giles, Floyd, Carroll and Grayson.

All of those localities except Carroll have agreed to fund an official study of a new 200-inmate jail - the first step toward making the proposal a reality - and Carroll is expected to commit money for the study soon, said Roy I. Lloyd Jr., Radford's assistant city manager.

The city must wait until the new jail is designed and approved before it can act on improving its own court facilities, Asbury said.

"It's a puzzle, and the pieces must go together," he said.

At that point, the city's options will be to expand the municipal building or replace it with a new structure. Either action will be expensive, he said.

Asbury predicted that expanding the building would be sufficient. Yet that project would use part of a parking lot that would have be replaced, possibly forcing the city to buy additional land, he said.

Meanwhile, Judge Mink has been "more than patient" while the city tries to work out what facilities will be needed and how they'll be funded, Asbury said.