Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 7, 1994 TAG: 9408080034
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: E-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
The city of Radford and counties of Pulaski, Giles, Grayson and Floyd are the participants at this point. But a Tazewell County official now has expressed interest in joining.
Radford Assistant City Manager Bob Lloyd reported Friday to the regional jail committee that he had met with Tazewell County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jimmy Jones, who was interested in hearing more about the New River Valley jail project.
Tazewell County is under pressure to build a new jail. Its jail now is approved for 43 prisoners but usually has 60 or more. The state pays 25 percent on nonregional jail construction.
Jones had checked with other localities in the Cumberland Plateau Planning District, but Buchanan, Dickenson and Russell counties were not interested in starting a regional jail project at this time. So Jones sought information about the nearest regional jail project.
The jail committee authorized Lloyd to proceed with discussions that could lead to Tazewell County's being added to the participating localities.
"The more, the merrier - merrier meaning less [cost] for everybody that's in," Floyd County Administrator Randy Arno said.
The committee also will notify Wythe, Carroll and Bland counties, which are situated between the New River Valley and Grayson and Tazewell counties, that they would be welcome to join the 360-bed jail project - but that the time to do so is getting short.
Wythe and Carroll counties helped fund early regional jail studies carried out by the New River Planning District Commission, but then dropped out of the project. Statistics on their prisoner populations could be plugged back into the jail plan quickly. It would take a little longer for Bland and Tazewell.
Arno said the need for final decisions by other localities is being driven by the state deadline for funding half the construction, which it may no longer do after this funding cycle.
Floyd County officials met Wednesday with representatives of the 4-year-old Central Virginia Regional Jail in Orange County, which covers Orange, Madison, Fluvanna, Louisa and Greene counties. Arno said the Floyd group was encouraged by what it learned about the regional jail's operation.
Not only are its participating localities free of having to pay to administer their own jails and meet increasingly-strict Department of Correction standards, but the 106-bed Central Virginia facility has become a moneymaker, with $1.5 million drawing interest in a bank. It is about to add another 50 beds.
Arno said localities transport prisoners to the regional jail the first time and, after that, all transportation including to and from court proceedings is handled by the jail. The jail is operated by a six-member committee, with one member from each locality plus a sheriff.
The New River Valley project, which is likely to be located at a site still to be designated in Pulaski County, has been years in the planning, with various participants dropping out and others being added. The final list of participants must be decided before the Department of Corrections can review the project.
"With a few holes in the staff, it's going to make it tight. But I think we can do what needs to be done for submittal on this," said Dave Rundgren, the commission's executive director.
by CNB