Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 18, 1995 TAG: 9504180101
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The localities have formed a regional jail authority, which can borrow construction money from Rural Economic and Community Development, which used to be the Farmers Home Administration.
Their next step will be finding a site for the jail, apparently somewhere in Pulaski County within a five-mile radius of the intersection of Interstate 81 and Virginia 100.
Representatives from various localities worked on the $30 million project for more than three years, and it was uncertain that the paperwork would reach the state in time to qualify for 50 percent state funding.
The regional jail study committee met the deadline at the end of February, but it was a close call.
After the deadline, state participation in regional jail projects drops to 25 percent. The New River Valley project would not have been financially viable for the participants at that level.
The state is willing to provide financial support for regional jail projects because they are more efficient than having a lot of smaller, aging jails as many Southwest Virginia localities do. In fact, the state is considering eliminating all funding for jails that fall below a certain prisoner population.
Although the state obviously prefers regional jails, the state also nearly scuttled this one.
The original region also included the counties of Floyd, Wythe and Carroll. Along with the current participants, they got together and funded a study of existing jail populations, how much local money would be saved by switching to a regional jail, and gathered other information required by the state before it would consider the 50-50 funding.
It is painstaking work to explain the need to that many governing bodies and persuade each of them to kick in money for a study, but the work was done and the study completed. The participants were ready to make their application to the state.
Then, the General Assembly passed a requirement for a different kind of study, requiring other kinds of data. That put the committee members in the position of having to go back to their governing bodies and say, "Look, I know you just got through paying for this study we said you needed, but it doesn't count anymore, and we need you to pay all over again for a brand-new study."
Wythe County dropped out at that stage. Carroll County opted out when it appeared that Carroll would be the regional jail site. The others finally agreed to go ahead with the second study and, after that, were joined by Tazewell County, which was having problems with its obsolete jail.
The second study got done. Everything was ready again. Then, a state Department of Criminal Justice Services representative looked at the plan and recommended that the localities keep their local jails open as short-term holding facilities to decrease prisoner transportation costs to and from the regional jail.
The whole idea of a regional jail was to allow localities to avoid having to remodel their old jails, all of which date back to the 1950s and face costly replacement or renovation work.
Floyd dropped out at that stage. So did Tazewell, which decided to look to closer counties as potential regional jail partners. The number of participants was dropping to the level at which a regional jail would not be as beneficial. What's more, the remaining localities had to pay $500 each for yet another study, because the size of the region had changed so much.
Somehow, the remaining coalition held together, funded the study, and now seems on the verge of success. Much of the credit for that must go to the representatives from the various localities - especially Radford's Assistant City Manager Bob Lloyd, now chairman of the regional jail authority - who continued to see the potential benefits in a project that became more frustrating as time went on.
Some complained that they no longer wanted to lay their credibility with their governing bodies on the line, with the state shifting requirements every time they completed a new set.
There were times when it seemed at least as difficult as settling the baseball strike. And, for the New River Valley, it could be much more important in the long run.
Paul Dellinger is a New River Valley bureau staff writer.
by CNB