Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, January 22, 1994 TAG: 9401240249
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-6 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
The agreement will be reviewed by Radford City Attorney John Spiers and then presented to governing bodies in Radford and the counties of Pulaski, Giles, Floyd, Carroll and Grayson for their approval. Then it would be submitted to the State Corporation Commission.
Construction of the $20 million, 300-bed jail is still several years away, but the Department of Corrections must have the proposal by March for it to qualify for 50 percent state funding. The rest would be funded by the authority, possibly through a Farmers Home Administration loan.
As now envisioned, the authority would have seven members - one from each of the six participating jurisdictions plus a sheriff chosen by an advisory board composed of the sheriffs from all six jurisdictions.
The other six authority members could be sheriffs or other people chosen by the governing bodies. The state requires that at least one sheriff serve on such authorities.
The sheriff chosen by the advisory board will serve a four-year term on the authority. Half of the other six representatives will initially serve two years and the others four years, with everyone serving four-year terms after that.
The procedure would allow for staggered terms and avoid the possibility of all new board members at any time.
The two-year terms on the first authority will be held by the representatives from Pulaski and Floyd counties and Radford. They were chosen by drawing the names from a box.
The only other way the authority could have been set up to comply with state regulations would have been to have two members from each jurisdiction, one of whom would be its sheriff. Most of the committee members thought that large a board would be too cumbersome and it might be hard to get a quorum at meetings.
Spiers had drawn up a 28-page proposed draft agreement based on earlier committee meetings. The committee spent most of its meeting Friday cutting out clauses that it believed covered matters best decided by the authority, and generally simplifying the document.
Giles County Sheriff Larry Falls joked that the document would be only five pages if the committee kept cutting it. Other committee members said they would not mind that at all.
Assistant City Manager Bob Lloyd said the agreement should make it simple for other localities to join the regional jail in the future. Other authorities have found that it can be complicated to expand, he said.
The jail will be built with a support core to handle future expansion up to 600 prisoners at a site still to be chosen.
It will cover 165,000 square feet, with 73,000 square feet for the support core and 92,000 square feet to house the original 300 inmates. It would have about 125 staff positions.
by CNB