Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 4, 1994 TAG: 9406060149
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
The regional jail committee must send its financial plan to the Department of Corrections by July to qualify for the state to pay half the construction cost.
The plan lists the location near Dublin only as a ``typical site,'' meaning that it would be comparable to whatever site eventually is chosen. One reason for the uncertainty is the question of which localities will participate in the project.
The corporate center property has industrial buildings on it, but also has available the type of site needed for the jail: 15 to 20 relatively flat acres.
A site off Interstate 77 in Carroll County originally was pinpointed as the best location, but the Carroll County Board of Supervisors withdrew from the project last month.
The remaining localities include the city of Radford and counties of Pulaski, Floyd, Giles and Grayson. So far, only Radford City Council has committed its locality to the project.
Committee Chairman Bob Lloyd, Radford's assistant city manager, will transmit copies of the planning document, drawn up by City Attorney John Spiers, to each locality in time for their governing bodies' monthly meetings.
Cost estimates based on jails of various sizes, and with and without Carroll and Wythe counties participating, also are being prepared. Wythe County helped pay for an earlier study but decided against taking part in a more extensive one last year.
Most of the localities have stayed with the project because of concern that independent jails are becoming prohibitively expensive, with new state requirements being added continuously. Their jails are mostly in old buildings.
The localities' share of the construction cost probably will be raised through a Farmers Home Administration loan.
James R. Johnson, a managing director at Wheat First Butcher Singer in Richmond, presented some alternative plans for the jail based on data from the architectural firm Thompson & Litton. Wheat is one of the financial institutions interested in underwriting the project.
One plan for the proposed 360-bed facility would reduce its cost by $3.88 million, to about $28.8 million, with such measures as changing a unit from single to multiple occupancy and replacing a second-floor visitor area with centralized visiting facilities. The plan envisioned Carroll and Wythe counties among the participants.
by CNB