Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, January 27, 1995 TAG: 9501270068
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE LENGTH: Medium
The chairman of the Wythe County Board of Supervisors stopped just short of saying he is against the project, too.
Richard Phillippi, the authority member, said at the authority's regular monthly meeting that he visited Clifton, Tenn., where the Corrections Corporation of America operates a prison, and learned from local officials and residents about many negative effects. He suggested the authority take a position on the prison near Wytheville, for which CCA plans to break ground by spring.
``I've heard on the streets it's a done deal, there's nothing we can do about it'' he said. ``Is that our job? If an industry comes in here, we just say `Come on,' we don't look at it?''
Phillippi also was critical of the secrecy surrounding early negotiations between CCA and various local government agencies, including the development authority.
``Part of the problems that we've got here today rests on our shoulders,'' he said. ``This thing has torn a lot of people. I hate to see that. ... I don't know if we'll ever heal that process.''
The authority has distributed generally favorable comments from officials where CCA operates prisons. Benny Burkett, the authority's executive director, defended the distribution, saying the comments were provided only as information.
``It was not done as a marketing gimmick for CCA,'' he said, although some prison opponents have interpreted it that way.
Mark Munsey, chairman of the Wythe supervisors, said people in his district with whom he has talked are overwhelmingly against the prison.
``I have not publicly taken a position, but I have said, and will say, that I am here to represent the West Wytheville District,'' he told the authority.
Supervisors Olin Armentrout and Charles Dix and County Administrator Billy Branson left Thursday on a fact-finding visit to CCA's prison in Clifton, Munsey said.
The Board of Supervisors will hold a special meeting, called by Munsey, at 7 p.m. Wednesday to discuss the prison. It will be held in the George Wythe High School auditorium to accommodate the expected public turnout. Some 500 people attended the last board meeting, which had to be moved to the school.
Several other people spoke in opposition to the prison Thursday. Doug Wohlford, a retired truck driver and railroad worker, said he had traveled throughout the United States east of the Rocky Mountains and found that prison communities were stigmatized, based on citizens-band radio chatter he had heard.
``Please keep the prison away from here. It will stamp our town ... for years and years,'' he said, arguing that eastern Wythe County can attract better industry.
C.N. Otey, head of the recently formed Citizens Against the Prison, seemed on the verge of tears when he addressed the authority. ``If this comes, I'm going to lose all the pride I have in my county, in my community, and I'm probably going to leave,'' he said.
The authority took no position on the prison. As Munsey noted, the county has no zoning and no way to keep a private prison out if CCA buys the 500-acre site on which it has an option.
At a Jan. 9 Wytheville Town Council meeting that also had to be moved to the high school because of the crowd, Mayor Trent Crewe made the same point about lack of county zoning. He also said he had spoken to representatives of local industry and was told the existence of a prison would make no difference in any plans they might have for expansion.
Phillippi said he had trouble believing that, and contacted about 15 companies on his own. He said none of them recalled being asked that question by the mayor. ``One industry said they were opposed to it, their corporate office was opposed to it,'' Phillippi said. "You're going to be hearing from them.''
by CNB