Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 22, 1995                   TAG: 9503220048
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE                                 LENGTH: Medium

WYTHE SUPERVISOR READY FOR DAY IN COURT

Dix and Supervisor Olin Armentrout made a trip to Cleveland, Texas, earlier this year, where they interviewed residents about the effect a private prison operated by Corrections Corporation of America has had on the community.

When they brought back positive responses to the full board in February, the supervisors voted 4-3 to allow CCA to build a private prison two miles east of Wytheville.

Opponents of the prison circulated petitions in the districts of both supervisors to force them to show cause why they should not be removed.

The petition against Dix had more than the required 148 signatures of registered voters, based on the 1,480 who cast ballots in the Black Lick District when he was elected. The petition against Armentrout has not been filed.

``I don't think Mr. Armentrout nor myself did anything wrong,'' Dix said, ``and I think Wythe County came away a whole lot better, with the concessions that we got.''

CCA agreed to raise the salaries in several job categories at the proposed prison, including guards who will make up the bulk of the employment, and to sell the unused part of the prison site back to Wythe County for $1 to ease concerns that the 1,500-bed prison might later expand.

The petitions claim that Dix and Armentrout had been instructed by board Chairman Mark Munsey to visit Clifton, Tenn., where prison opponents found some resident concerns about a CCA prison, instead of the Texas community picked by CCA. But a transcript of Munsey's instructions for their fact-finding visit did not name a specific prison site to be visited.

``We never did anything wrong,'' Dix said. ``We just followed instructions.''