ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, December 2, 1995 TAG: 9512040023
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: RADFORD
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
A regional jail authority is considering a site in Dublin for its $26.5 million facility.
The New River Valley Regional Jail Authority has secured an option to buy a 25-acre tract from Dublin Town Council.
The land is part of Dublin's industrial park on the former Burlington Industries property, which was incorporated into the town last year. The location being considered for the 240-bed jail would be at the opposite end of the park from where Dublin is planning its town center, with a new municipal building, post office and other facilities.
"It's fairly isolated," authority Chairman and Assistant Radford City Manager Bob Lloyd said Friday. "That's a pretty good-size industrial park."
"This site is not set in concrete," said Assistant Pulaski County Administrator Peter Huber. "We're looking at at least one other alternative."
But the authority made it clear that this would be the preferred site for the jail, expected to be up and running in the next four years.
"We have an option from Dublin to purchase that property. At the present time, it's the site of record," Lloyd said.
The jail would serve Radford and the counties of Pulaski, Giles and Grayson.
Dublin Mayor Benny Keister and Councilman Benny Skeens visited a regional jail in the Winchester area and talked to people living in that area to try to find out if there were any drawbacks to having such a facility in their community. Residents of that area said they weren't bothered by the facility, and the council members reported that the jail would add jobs in the Dublin area.
Under the option worked out with the town, the authority would pay $6,000 per acre for 15 acres, or a total of $90,000, with the cost of the remaining 10 acres to be negotiated.
The authority met with Radford City Attorney John B. Spiers Jr. who has been doing its legal work, and discussed interim financing possibilities until the state provides its 50 percent share of jail construction costs. This jail is among the last in Virginia to qualify for the 50 percent state cost-sharing, with future projects drawing a 25 percent state match.
The Department of Corrections has said at this stage that its share would not go toward a planned electronic communications system allowing interactive conferences between jail prisoners and attorneys, for example, or electronic booking of prisoners by magistrates.
Because of the distances between the participating jurisdictions, authority representatives thought that the electronic communications component must be part of the project. They will seek funding from other sources if the Corrections Department does not change its mind.
"I think it's vital. It's got to be there," Lloyd said. "But I think we have to more clearly define what the system's expected to do."
New River Valley Planning District Commission Executive Director Dave Rundgren said technology in this field is changing so rapidly that costs may come down by the time work starts on the regional jail. Bill King, with Thompson & Litton, the project's architectural consultant, said those costs have dropped by $250,000 since his firm started studying such a system.
The project will seek a low-interest $5 million loan from Rural Economic Community Development, formerly the Farmers Home Administration, to help cover its share of the cost. The organization would then guarantee up to 80 percent of the other $5 million which would have to be borrowed from local banks. That should keep the interest down as well.
The authority will need to secure some interim funding between now and the start of the next fiscal year in July, to pay its architectural and financial consultants for work performed so far and other incidental costs.
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