Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 2, 1995 TAG: 9502020056
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE LENGTH: Medium
The vote brought outcries from prison opponents, who made up most of the crowd of nearly 900 who packed the George Wythe High School auditorium where the special meeting was held.
At the start of the meeting, the supervisors voted by the same margin not to ask the General Assembly to approve an advisory referendum on the issue.
Jack Crosswell made the motion, and was supported by Olin Armentrout, Carlton Rose and Charles Dix. Voting against were board Chairman Mark Munsey, Tom DuPuis and John Davis.
Armentrout, who negotiated last week with CCA officials in Nashville, Tenn., and met with a variety of people in a Texas community where CCA has one of its 27 prisons, tried to reassure the sometimes-unruly crowd that many of their concerns were groundless.
Prison opponents gathered more than 3,000 signatures on petitions asking for legislative approval of the referendum, even though it would have had no legal effect. But Del. Thomas Jackson, D-Hillsville, who introduced the referendum resolution in Richmond, said last week that he expected no approval of the referendum without a request from the governing body.
Munsey had appointed Armentrout, Dix and County Administrator Billy Branson to visit CCA headquarters in Nashville and gather information on the company.
Afterward they flew to Cleveland, Texas, at CCA expense, and met with school, hospital, civic and other officials as well as community residents. Armentrout read excerpts of their favorable comments on the CCA operation there and offered to make available transcripts of the tape-recorded interviews.
Armentrout said he had obtained guarantees in writing from CCA that, if the project goes through, it would sell back to Wythe County, for $1 an acre, 433 acres of the 533-acre site on which it holds a $10,000 option. He said this should ease concerns that the prison would be expanded in the future. He added that the remaining acreage could be used as an industrial park.
He said CCA also promised to have 346 employees at the prison - nearly 100 more than originally projected. CCA officials also renewed their guarantee to house county jail inmates at the prison, saving the county from having to spend $4 million or more on a new jail.
Armentrout quoted a hospital administrator in Cleveland who reported no medical concerns in treating prisoners; a school superintendent who reported no negative impact on the school system; and a chamber of commerce brochure that featured the prison at the center of its industrial base.
The board opened the meeting to public comment after the votes were taken, and law enforcement officers had to break up at least one shoving match at the microphone during that time.
Dr. Carl E. Stark, a former Wytheville mayor and prison opponent, told the board Wytheville ``is not for sale.''
``It's not over yet,'' Richard Phillippi, a former Wytheville councilman, county School Board member and current member of the countywide industrial development commission, told the board.
by CNB