Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, November 1, 1994 TAG: 9411010120
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
To be incorporated, the authority needed three member localities. Bedford's vote was the last needed for the city of Lynchburg and Bedford and Campbell counties to enter into a 20-year agreement that will join the jurisdictions' jail systems.
Acting chairman Dale Wheeler and Calvin Updike voted against the proposal.
In Lynchburg, where the city faces a federal court order to reduce severe overcrowding in its jails, the authority will open a $20 million, 456-bed regional jail in 1998 to house Lynchburg prisoners and sentenced felons from Bedford and Campbell counties.
Unlike other regional jails proposed in Virginia, the Blue Ridge Regional Jail Authority will continue to operate local jails. By housing inmates awaiting trial locally instead of in Lynchburg, it hopes to cut down on transportation costs.
The state has pledged to provide half of the more than $30 million needed to build and expand jails within the localities. If the localities had decided to go it alone, the most money they could have received from the state for jail construction is 25 percent, a figure that's not guaranteed.
Bedford, which has space for 76 inmates in its two jails, usually has about 50 more prisoners on any given day than the jails are designed to hold. And the number of inmates in Bedford County is expected to almost double by 2002, according to a state report commissioned by Gov. George Allen. Bedford and Bedford County will pay about $3 million to the authority over 20 years.
Construction will start in 1998 to expand the Bedford jail from 36 to 45 beds at a cost of $1.25 million to Bedford. Later construction will expand the jail's capacity to 63 beds at a cost of $418,000. The Bedford County Sheriff's office will be demolished and rebuilt to make room for more jail space, but the authority will reimburse the county $325,000 for the building and the property on which it stands.
As for Camp 24 in Moneta, a state-owned jail that Bedford leases, the authority will take over the lease and day-to-day management of the facility's 90 beds.
The authority's board will consist of sheriffs from all localities and one person appointed by the City Council or Board of Supervisors from each jurisdiction. In Bedford, County Sheriff Carl Wells will represent the city of Bedford and Bedford County with one vote. Supervisor Tony Ware will have the other.
In other business, the Board of Supervisors named Wheeler as acting chairman until Jan. 1. James Teass, the former chairman, died of a heart attack last week. Supervisor Calvin Updike was named to replace Teass on the Smith Mountain Lake Policy Advisory Board until the end of the year.
The board announced that it will take applications for the empty board seat until Nov. 9 from anyone who lives in District Three, which includes the Huddleston, White House and New London areas. Applications and resumes may be submitted to the county administrator's office.
The board has until Nov. 23 to choose a new member to serve out the rest of Teass' term, which would have ended in 1995.
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.