Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 3, 1994 TAG: 9409060025
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By JAN VERTEFEUILLE and SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A subcommittee report under the auspices of Allen's government reform "strike force" mentions briefly that some state hospitals could be made private and their buildings used for prisons.
That was enough to mobilize residents of the rural Roanoke County area, who have fought against the possibility of a correctional facility in their area at least twice in the past.
Residents such as Laurie Shinault, whose property abuts the hospital, are ready to fight again. Shinault said she would be worried about her family's safety and reduced property values if a prison farm moved in.
A petition is being circulated throughout Catawba in opposition to such a move, and the Catawba Valley Coalition's steering committee plans to meet next week to discuss the issue.
But Bill Leighty, staff member to the Governor's Commission on Government Reform, said the only thing suggested for Catawba Hospital in the Health and Human Resources subcommittee was that the services provided by it and other state hospitals might be better farmed out to private business.
"Catawba has never been discussed in terms of a prison," he said, although other state hospitals have.
Of the as-yet-unapproved committee report, Leighty said, "The commission has not made any endorsement of these discussion recommendations."
After being contacted by constituents, Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, said he spoke Thursday with Jerry Kilgore, secretary of public safety, who told Griffith that his department has no plans for Catawba Hospital.
Catawba, with about 200 patients, is one of two state hospitals devoted to geriatric long-term care, and also provides short-term psychiatric care.
Hospital Director Michael Marsh said employees have talked about the possibility of Catawba's becoming a prison farm, but he was in Richmond Tuesday and was told nothing about it.
"They're sort of wild rumors," he said.
A work farm may not be an option because the hospital signed over most of its farmland to Virginia Tech to use for research, Marsh said.
Recommendations from the various groups studying ways to make state government leaner and more efficient will be considered by a full committee, and if accepted at that level will become topics for public hearings in October.
Final recommendations will follow the debate and should be ready by the end of the year, the state said.
The Health and Human Resources subcommittee report that dealt with hospitals stressed the need to avoid duplications of services across agencies. Fourteen agencies in four divisions of state government provide employment and training services, and seven agencies provide long-term care services, the report noted.
It calls for a review of boards, councils and commissions and the elimination of any that cannot identify a need to continue. The report mentioned as examples the Governor's Advisory Board on Medicare and Medicaid and the Department of Health's Toxic Substances Advisory Board.
by CNB