Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 20, 1995 TAG: 9507200061
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
He and state Public Safety Director Jerry Kilgore spent about 20 minutes behind closed doors with pro-prison Wythe County Supervisor Jack Crosswell and three anti-prison people - former Wytheville Mayor Carl Stark, former Vice Mayor Tom Bralley and former Supervisor Andy Kegley.
Allen emerged with a large gift-wrapped box containing a scrapbook of newspaper clippings about the proposed private 1,500-bed prison near Wytheville, a videotape of supervisors' meetings about the prison, and other documentation of the controversy.
State troopers kept reporters away from the door during the 20-minute meeting, but Kilgore provided a summary afterward of what went on.
"Everybody discussed their issues calmly," Kilgore said, with Crosswell stressing the jobs and other economic benefits that the project would mean, and the others stressing how it had divided the citizenry.
Allen explained that the state is now studying bids from eight firms covering 15 potential sites statewide from which to choose one or two prison projects.
Kilgore said the first consideration is which projects offer the best security, design and operation, with the second being price. If the top bid cost is "out of the question," he said, "we would go to the next one we're most comfortable with" and so on.
"We've got tons of material to read, boxes and boxes," Kilgore said. "We expect that sometime in August we will be making our awards."
He said the box of material from the anti-prison residents would go with all the other boxes of material being studied.
Allen told a reporter earlier that the local governing body makes the decision on a prison. Opponents reminded Allen that the supervisors' vote welcoming the prison had been 4-3 and that some who voted for it had been denied their party's candidacy for re-election.
by CNB