ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, September 27, 1996 TAG: 9609270072
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: RADFORD
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
Some of the localities that dropped out of a regional jail project when it was being established are having second thoughts.
But time is running out for them to make up their minds.
The New River Valley Regional Jail Authority agreed Thursday to try to accommodate two more counties, if they decide to join in time for the project to continue on schedule.
"There is a time, although we can't put our finger on the date, that we have to know which way we're going to go," said Bob Lloyd, Radford's assistant city manager and chairman of the authority. "It's going to take a lot of work real quick."
The project is the last of its kind to qualify for 50 percent state construction money. A 240-bed jail was approved for Radford and the counties of Pulaski, Grayson and Giles. Within the past month, Bland County was added.
The addition of Bland will not affect existing plans to build core facilities for a 400-bed jail, allowing for future expansion, because Bland has relatively few prisoners. But the addition of Wythe County, which helped fund an early regional jail study but did not stay with the project, and Floyd County, which dropped out when the state kept changing the project's requirements, could have an impact.
Carroll County also dropped out, after residents protested a Carroll site being considered for the jail. The state then required that the core facilities be reduced from serving a maximum of 600 beds to 400 beds.
If Wythe and Floyd should get back in, said Bill King, of the architectural firm of Thompson & Litton, that would mean a return to the 600-bed core. That would require state approval to increase the size and price of the project, and the redrawing of architectural plans.
Those plans must be in final form soon if work is to start on the jail next year with the matching state funds. "We're going to have to have some procedures with some deadlines attached to them, and that's all there is to it," King said.
Wythe County has hired a consultant to help its governing body decide whether to build a new jail or join the authority, since its aging jail must be replaced. Sheriff Wayne Pike has repeatedly stated his opposition to the regional jail concept, predicting that transporting prisoners back and forth would be a problem.
"We're still in the process of studying and trying to obtain information in order to make an intelligent decision," Wythe County Board of Supervisors Chairman Mark Munsey told the authority. "It is our intent to look at all avenues, but we are looking at this option."
That was why Wythe, like Floyd, requested information from the authority on its regional jail plans and the process that would be required to join, he said.
Grayson County Administrator Don Young said it would benefit the project to have Wythe or Floyd as part of the region. Pulaski County Sheriff Ralph Dobbins volunteered to meet with both county sheriffs to answer any questions or concerns they have about the regional jail.
The authority established a $10 million line of credit with Signet Bank. From that, it voted to draw $400,000 to cover engineering, legal and financial consultant fees to date; to repay the four original localities for money they have put into the project; and to pay the town $166,740, less the $4,500 already paid for an option, for the 27.7-acre future jail site in the town's industrial park.
LENGTH: Medium: 67 linesby CNB