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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 27, 1993                   TAG: 9310270227
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI                                 LENGTH: Medium

PULASKI COUNTY MUST DECIDE SOON ON JAIL STUDY

Pulaski County still has not bowed out of a regional jail study planned by several other localities, but may not be able to make up its mind whether to participate in time.

The recently formed New River Regional Jail Advisory Board has contracted with engineering consultant Thompson & Litton to complete a study required for such projects by the 1993 General Assembly.

The study will include a schematic design of the jail structure, a staffing plan, site location, five-year maintenance and operations projections, annual revenue and expense forecasts and other data. It must be completed before mid- January to make it into the next two-year state funding cycle.

The state currently pays half the construction costs on regional jail projects meeting all the required criteria. Study participants - which include the city of Radford and counties of Giles, Floyd, Carroll and Grayson - doubt that 50-50 state funding will be available after the next funding cycle.

To meet the planning study schedule, the Advisory Board has set Nov. 19 as the cutoff date for adding participants.

Pulaski County is making a preliminary study of its own, to try and find out whether it would be more economical to join the regional jail or build a new jail of its own. That study is not complete and is not scheduled to have its findings before the county Board of Supervisors until Nov. 22.

For that reason, the supervisors voted Monday night to ask the Advisory Board to extend its deadline to Nov. 23.

The Advisory Board sent the status report on its study to the governing bodies of several localities that, at one time, had been approached about joining in a regional jail. They included Pulaski, Wythe, Bland and Montgomery counties.

A needs assessment for the proposed jail already had been completed before the state added the requirement for a more detailed planning study. It is scheduled to go to the Department of Corrections before the end of the month.

It contains an update of the data collected from the participating localities as well as populations, inmate projections and significant local corrections characteristics along with recommendations for alternate corrections programs in the region to be served.

Pulaski and Wythe counties participated in and helped fund the earlier needs assessment study for the regional jail. But Wythe declined to help pay for the new study and Pulaski County wanted to study its options first.

by CNB