Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 30, 1994 TAG: 9411300040
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
The board agreed to discuss the issue Dec. 19; Bob Lloyd, chairman of the jail committee, has said the authority agreement needs to be approved within 30 days. The state Department of Corrections will not recommend funding unless the localities approve the authority agreement before the legislature meets in January, said Lloyd, also Radford's assistant city manager.
The supervisors will ask state legislators to try to get them extra time.
The board also will ask state Sen. Malfourd ``Bo'' Trumbo, R-Fincastle, Sen. Madison Marye, D-Shawsville, and Del. Tommy Baker, R-Dublin, to push legislation that would keep state funding of regional jail projects at 50 percent for another two years. As things now stand, the state is about to drop its financial participation to 25 percent.
The supervisors also want the agreement creating an authority to allow them to withdraw if the interest on a construction loan from the Rural Economic and Community Development (formerly the Farmers Home Administration) goes higher than 5.2 percent.
Finally, the county wants to be able to upgrade its existing jail through a future bond issue and still get some state reimbursement for construction costs. Even if a regional jail is built, participating localities will need lockups or satellite jails to hold prisoners temporarily.
Pulaski County's participation is vital to the regional jail project, which currently includes Radford and counties of Giles, Floyd, Grayson and Tazewell. Not only would Pulaski have the greatest number of prisoners, based on current jail occupancies, but the regional jail is to be located in Pulaski County.
Supervisor Bruce Fariss said there already has been some public opposition to locating the jail in the Pulaski County Corporate Center, the location named in a preliminary plan. That spot is not far from Pulaski County High School, Fariss said, and ``that's a real concern.''
County Administrator Joe Morgan said the industrial park was listed in the plan simply because a site had to be given for the project to receive state funding. ``There's no zoning approved for a site in the industrial park. That has to come back to this board,'' he said.
Morgan said another reason to delay a decision is to see if all the other localities decide to participate. ``If you wait until December, you might know better where they stand.''
Fariss expressed misgivings over the proposed agreement giving each locality one member on the authority even though Pulaski County would have more prisoners and be putting in proportionately more money. He said the state was giving the localities a ``short fuse'' with the threat of reduced state funding to lock them into an agreement for the foreseeable future.
Supervisor Ira ``Pete'' Crawford said the question is whether it will be more cost effective for the county to invest a similar amount of money in its own jail or a regional jail.
The board hopes to get some of that information at its Dec. 19 meeting.
by CNB