THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 28, 1994 TAG: 9409280476
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TONI WHITT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Medium: 62 lines
The proposed construction of a jail in Hattonsville led to accusations of racism and threats hurled between a white councilman and a black leader during a highly charged City Council meeting Tuesday night.
Councilman Cameron C. Pitts threatened to block construction of the I.C. Norcom High School if the residents of Hattonsville, a predominantly black neighborhood, stymied the city's efforts to build the jail. The school is a project for which black residents have lobbied for several years.
But before Pitts made his threat, the Rev. Rudolph L. Perry told council members that if they insisted on building the jail in Hattonsville, ``finances can be cut off; black money will dry up in this city.''
Despite the threats and accusations, the council voted 4-2 along racial lines to continue with its plans to build a jail in Hattonsville. Vice Mayor Johnny M. Clemons and Councilman Bernard D. Griffin, who are black, voted against building the jail there. Mayor Gloria O. Webb was not present.
The proposed $59 million regional jail would hold 875 inmates from Portsmouth, Norfolk, Newport News and Hampton. The state would pay up to half the construction cost.
Portsmouth plans to sell the 43-acre site for $2 million to the Regional Jail Authority, which would build the facility. By providing the site, Portsmouth would receive the most inmate space and would be charged the least annually. It would also get $250,000 a year from other cities in lieu of taxes on the property.
Pitts said without that money the city can't afford to build the $32 million I.C. Norcom High School.
Perry, who does not live in Hattonsville, threatened to take legal action against the city.
Five years ago the council, which had a 4-3 black majority at the time, voted along racial lines not to join a regional jail authority that wanted to build a jail in Hattonsville. At that time, the Portsmouth Redevelopment and Housing Authority had condemned most of Hattonsville, a poor, black community settled after the Civil War, to make way for an industrial park.
After years of fighting with the residents, the city agreed to set aside 6.3 acres for residential development and zoned the remaining 73 acres industrial.
Since then many of the residents built new brick homes. Mary H. Wood told the council she put all of her money into building her home.
``You all didn't tell me that you were going to put a regional jail out there when I built,'' Wood said. ``In fact, the council had voted against the jail. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of you doing this to us and putting this out in our nice neighborhood.''
Perry said to the council, ``If you tried to put that jail in Churchland in a white back yard, not one of you would be sitting up there.''
Sylvester Brown, president of the Hattonsville Civic League, said residents fear the 875-bed jail will be expanded to twice that size in the next decade.
The council voted Tuesday to require a use permit for the project so that the city would have the ability to control construction and future expansion of the jail.
KEYWORDS: PORTSMOUTH CITY COUNCIL by CNB