Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, June 13, 1995 TAG: 9506130090
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: EASTVILLE LENGTH: Medium
County Administrator Tom Harris said Northampton opposed the 1,276-inmate prison because Department of Corrections officials did not complete an environmental study of the proposed 108-acre site outside Cape Charles. He said the board needed a completed environmental impact study before it could decide whether a prison would benefit the county.
``Tell the state of Virginia they are no longer welcome in Northampton County because they have not completed the minimal requirements our board needs to evaluate the prison,'' Harris said.
``We do not wish them to locate a facility in Northampton County,'' Chairman Thomas H. Dixon III said.
Bill Cimino, spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety, said the county's rejection of the prison would have no effect on the state's prison crowding.
``Full funding for the prison had not been appropriated by the General Assembly. This will not delay us at all. It is, however, unfortunate,'' Cimino said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press late Monday night.
Gov. George Allen has said the state will not build prisons in communities that do not want them.
The Corrections Department submitted a preliminary report in January to the Department of Environmental Quality. The environmental agency said the study was incomplete. Among other requirements, the agency said a well must be dug on the site to analyze groundwater.
But John McCluskey, chief deputy director of the Corrections Department, told legislators last week that his agency would not spend the money for the well until Northampton first voted to accept the prison.
by CNB