Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 18, 1994 TAG: 9411180094
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"A developer came to us a couple of months ago with a site [near Ferrum], and we talked about it," said Bob Buchanan, president of Corrections Partners Inc. in Kansas City, Mo. "But I've got five or six developers calling me every day from somewhere in Virginia about possible sites. Many of them aren't suitable. I'd say one in 15 is seriously considered."
Buchanan did not identify the developer who presented the Ferrum site, its exact location or the reason the site was dropped.
He did say, however, that many sites are rejected because of poor access to primary roads and a lack of utilities.
Ferrum College administrators aren't upset that the Franklin County site was taken off the front burner.
"Operating from a place of very limited information, we don't think a facility of that type near the college, or near Ferrum Elementary School, would be appropriate," said Tom Rickard, a college spokesman.
The Virginia Department of Corrections awarded contracts to Corrections Partners to build two minimum-security, prerelease centers in Virginia. One of the prisons will be built on 60 acres in Brunswick County.
Sites for the second facility have been turned down in four localities.
Jim Hunter, the vice president of Dominion Leasing Inc., an Oklahoma company working with Corrections Partners, said this week that Franklin County is one of six to eight counties being looked at as potential locations for the second prison.
Dominion Leasing will build and finance the two Virginia prisons under contract.
Hunter was candid about the reason Franklin County is on his company's list: It has areas of unzoned land that would eliminate the need for rezoning.
Franklin is the only county in the state with partial zoning. The Blue Ridge Magisterial District, where Ferrum is located, has no zoning.
Buchanan said the prospect of avoiding a lengthy rezoning process "is obviously attractive to us."
"The state is anxious to bring this on line," he said, adding that Corrections Partners expects to secure contracts to operate several more new prisons in Virginia.
The company currently operates private prisons in Florida, Indiana, Oklahoma and Tennessee.
Corrections Partners usually employs 85 to 90 people at each facility and pays an average salary, including benefits, of $30,000, Buchanan said.
Buchanan and Hunter, who met with Franklin County Administrator Macon Sammons last week, said there are no specific sites in the county under consideration.
Sammons said he looks at the construction of a prerelease center in the county - with an initial investment of $11million - as an economic development possibility.
Sammons also said that Hunter did not discuss a Ferrum site during their meeting last week.
Blackwater District Supervisor Wayne Angell said that, the zoning issue aside, the Board of Supervisors is committed to looking at all proposals objectively.
"But, to me, there's been nothing to show that the prison coming here is more than a passing fancy."
Angell said a prison relies on available utilities - not an abundant resource in rural Franklin County.
"And if you're talking about areas with no zoning," he said, "just take out a map and look at Southwest Virginia. What about Floyd and Patrick counties?"
by CNB