Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 7, 1994 TAG: 9405090130
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
Regions seeking 50 percent state funding on regional jails must submit financial plans to the state by July 1.
So far, only Radford City Council has officially voted in favor of the project. Boards of supervisors in Pulaski, Floyd, Giles, Carroll and Grayson counties are still considering it.
Their representatives got financial information at a gathering Friday that may help them make up their minds.
William Carter of Carter Kaplan & Co. and James Johnson of Wheat First Securities gave members of a regional jail committee an outline of how financing the proposed 360-bed jail would affect each locality.
The consultants want to be hired to prepare a full-blown assessment covering such comparisons as whether each locality would be better off financially by running its own jail or joining the regional project. The jail, if built, is scheduled to open in 1998.
Floyd County Administrator Randy Arno said the financial consultants' information was exactly the data he has been seeking for several years while a committee has been working on the project. "I think, with this, I'm ready to go to the board," he said.
The project would have to be scaled down if some of the localities decide not to participate, especially Pulaski County, which carries with it the largest number of prisoners by far.
The site now being considered is in Carroll County. But that would change if Carroll should drop out of the project.
"If Carroll County doesn't participate in the jail, it won't be in Carroll County," said County Administrator Bill Mitchell, who is also chairman of the regional jail committee. "They'll base their participation on cost," he said.
Assistant Radford City Manager Bob Lloyd said the state code would not allow a regional jail to be built outside the region it serves, unless the locality involved gives its permission. "Which we wouldn't give," Mitchell said.
"At some point in time, we need to know who's in and who's out," said Grayson County Administrator Don Young. Those decisions will be made before July.
by CNB