Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 12, 1995 TAG: 9502130009
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-23 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
WYTHEVILLE - If Corrections Corporation of America builds a private prison in Wythe County as planned, it will pay some of its staff higher salaries than it originally announced.
Olin Armentrout, a member of the Wythe County Board of Supervisors, secured a commitment from CCA President David Myers to re-evaluate some of the lower starting salaries when he and Supervisor Charles Dix were visiting another CCA prison site.
Meanwhile, a group of citizens opposed to the 1,500-bed prison has started circulating recall petitions for Armentrout and Dix, charging that they exceeded the instructions of board Chairman Mark Munsey by negotiating with CCA. The two had been sent by Munsey on a fact-finding trip concerning CCA's prison operations. After Armentrout gave a favorable report on a CCA institution in Texas that they visited and told of the salary increases, the board voted 4-3 not to oppose the prison project.
Starting salaries for 215 of 339 prison positions would increase. The biggest group would be 188 guards, whose salaries would start $1,000 higher than originally announced, going from $17,175 to $18,175. A library aide position and a mail room supervisor would also go from $17,175 to $18,175.
Other upgrades include: six administrative clerks, a mail room clerk and a receptionist, each $13,840 to $15,000; nine food service workers, $16,500 to $17,000; a dental assistant, $18,780 to $19,018; a records clerk, a medical records clerk, a secretary and a warehouse/commissary worker, $15,644 to $16,576; a clerk-typist and two count clerks, $14,742 to $15,747.
Salaries for the other jobs remain unchanged.
Some 3,500 county citizens have signed petitions seeking an advisory referendum on building the prison near Wytheville, but the county Board of Supervisors voted 4-3 against that. Prison opponents plan a mass trip to Richmond Wednesday to try and make their objections in person to state officials.
Staffing agency grows
WYTHEVILLE - Western Staff Services, a Wytheville-based agency providing temporary and permanent staffing for a variety of employers, has expanded to Pulaski.
It began renting temporary quarters last year in the former Jefferson School building to recruit applicants for job placement.
The office is open Mondays and Thursdays, generally from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Rosalie Jude, public relations coordinator, said the agency is looking for permanent office space in the Pulaski-Dublin area.
``Our responses have been quite good. We have a lot of accounts in the Pulaski area,'' she said, as well as a lot of applicants seeking employment.
``We're sending Wythe County people down to Pulaski, and sending Pulaski people to Wythe County, so we're keeping the interstate hot,'' she said.
Science fair
DUBLIN - The annual Blue Ridge Highlands Regional Science Fair, held during its first three years on the Wytheville Community College campus, will move to the New River Valley Fairgrounds for its program this year on March 31 and April 1.
The fair is sponsored jointly by Wytheville and New River community colleges. It is open to high school students from Pulaski, Wythe, Montgomery, Giles, Floyd, Bland, Carroll, Grayson and Smyth counties and the city of Galax.
Exhibits will be open to the public after judging. The two grand prize winners and their teachers will be sent to Ontario, Canada, to participate in the 46th International Science and Engineering Fair May 7-13, with all expenses paid.
The fair will offer new awards this year in addition to those presented to students in earlier fairs. Further information is available from Donald W. Linzey, director of the fair, at Wytheville Community College (228-5541).
`Driving Miss Daisy'
WYTHEVILLE - A performance of ``Driving Miss Daisy'' will be presented at 3 p.m. today on the Grayson Commons stage at Wytheville Community College.
The performance, sponsored by the college's Cultural Affairs Committee, had been scheduled for Jan. 28 but was postponed because of weather.
Janice Scudder, the college's drama professor, will play the role of the 72-year-old Miss Daisy in Alfred Uhry's Pulitzer Prize-winning play. Her son is played by Noel Todd Necessary, who works in the drama program at Emory & Henry College. Revarlo Mitchell, senior theater major at Ferrum College, plays the man hired to drive Miss Daisy when she can no longer handle a car. The play is largely about the growing understanding and appreciation between Miss Daisy and her chauffeur.
The same cast first performed the play at the Blue Ridge Dinner Theatre. Tickets to the Wytheville performance are $2 for general admission and $1 for senior citizens and students, and will be available 30 minutes before the performance starts. Further information is available by calling 228-5541.
by CNB