Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 11, 1995 TAG: 9501110047
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-13 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Council had to move its meeting from the town hall to the George Wythe High School auditorium to accommodate about 350 people, most of whom - judging by the applause for those speaking against the prison - did not want a 1,500-bed facility built two miles east of Wytheville.
Mayor Trent Crewe said the town did not go out and seek the private prison, but was approached by Corrections Corporation of America of Nashville, Tenn. He assured those attending that no decision had been made about extending utilities to the prison site, and said the county had not yet even made a request for the utilities.
``We have not taken a stand on anything, and have not been asked to take a stand on anything,'' he said.
``There are numerous problems in this project right now,'' he said. ``Whether it will ever come to pass, I don't know. ... It has lots of hurdles to clear before it ever comes to fruition.''
He reminded the audience that the Wythe County Board of Supervisors was to meet Tuesday.
Crewe pointed out that there is no county zoning and so no way to keep out a private prison or, for that matter, a state prison if those behind a prison were determined to put one here.
``There is nothing the town, or even the county, could do to stop it,'' he said, if a prison built its own water and sewer plant.
The town has zoning, he said, but the county where the prison would be located does not. ``That is the one place there could be some control over economic development including this prison,'' he said.
He said he had asked representatives of several industries if they still would have located in Wytheville with a prison nearby. He said they told him it would have made no difference.
Only a few speakers favored the town extending water and sewer to the prison planned by CCA. ``People do not understand the system. It is a very strict system,'' said Mary Hagy, who works at Bland Correctional Center.
Hagy said her daughter began working there immediately after graduating from high school. ``Do you think I'd put my daughter in an environment that I think is not safe?''
``We don't need that type of job, in my opinion, that badly,'' said Dr. Jerry Willis. He said he could understand Buchanan County, with its high unemployment, allowing a state prison there, but, he said, Wythe County is not in that position.
``Couldn't we attract some kind of industry besides a prison?'' asked Jim Lytton, whose home is near the proposed prison site. A number of other nearby residents agreed, including Ruth Carty, who said she is among several widows living in the area.
Former Town Manager Carter Beamer said the prison would use 15 percent to 20 percent of the town's water and sewer capacity. ``That is capacity that cannot be used for something else,'' he said in urging council not to subsidize the prison, but to oppose it.
by CNB