Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 17, 1995 TAG: 9506200041
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
GATE CITY - After two communities rejected a $60 million prison, Scott County officials and a private company optioned a site in a rural section of the Southwest Virginia county.
The latest proposed site is about 12 miles west of Gate City near the community of Speers Ferry, officials said Friday. The Cornell Cox Corp. hopes to build a medium-security prison on 200 acres.
The county on Thursday withdrew a proposal for a prison on 102 acres near Hiltons, about 25 miles west of Bristol. A site near Duffield was rejected May 30 when residents protested.
Hundreds of people packed the gymnasium of Hiltons Elementary School on Thursday night to discuss the proposal. The announcement that another site would be sought opened the meeting and was met with a one-minute standing ovation.
County Administrator Pat Loggans said the Hiltons plan was doomed by opponents who said they were concerned about safety and the possibility that the prison would bring low-income housing to the area.
- Associated Press
School paper gets ACLU support
CENTREVILLE - The American Civil Liberties Union has taken the case of a student newspaper denied access to the voting totals in a school election.
The newspaper staff at Centreville High School went to court unsuccessfully last month to force release of the precise vote counts of student elections held May 3.
Fairfax Circuit Judge Gerald Lee ruled May 11 that the school's policy did not violate the Freedom of Information Act. The law makes an exception for scholastic records.
The paper's former editor, Lucas Wall, has asked for a rehearing and plans to take the case into the state courts.
The Fairfax County school district argued that the paper would embarrass losing students by listing the number of votes each candidate received.
Instead, a faculty member counted the votes and told the newspaper editors the names of the winners.
The FOIA exemption doesn't cover election results, said Kent Willis, director of the Virginia ACLU.
``We're always concerned when the press doesn't have access to what we consider public information,'' Willis said.
- Associated Press
Rappelling accident kills Pa. man
COVINGTON - A 23-year-old Pennsylvania man plunged 200 feet to his death while trying to rappel from a waterfall, authorities said.
Chad A. Flumbaum of Punxsutawney, Pa., was pronounced dead Thursday night at Alleghany Regional Hospital, Alleghany County Sheriff Butch Simpson said. The accident occurred about 6 miles north of Covington.
Flumbaum, an employee of Orbital Engineering Co., had been working at the Westvaco Corp. paper mill in Covington, Simpson said.
- Associated Press
School board member resigns
ARLINGTON - The only Hispanic member of the School Board in Arlington County, which has more minorities than whites in its schools, has quit in frustration over what he called mismanagement by school officials.
Charles Cervantes made the surprise move at a meeting Thursday night. Cervantes, a Republican, said the school system has badly botched a program to make capital improvements. Long-term school renovations undertaken as part of that program ran $7.7 million over budget this year.
The overspending has delayed work at four schools for at least a year, which outraged parents and prompted the school system to hire an outside consultant.
- Associated Press
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB