THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, September 30, 1994 TAG: 9409280156
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Short : 34 lines
Our neighbors in Suffolk, who were once dead set against locating the Western Tidewater Regional Jail in their midst, could offer some encouragement to Chesapeake residents jittery about a proposal to build a new jail here.
In the beginning, Suffolk residents were as skeptical about having a jail near their homes as Bowers Hill residents are now. But many of them have come to realize that it isn't as bad as they thought.
Not everybody in Suffolk is crazy about the jail, of course, but most agree that the administrators of the facility have gone out of their way to be good neighbors.
The Suffolk facility is so far off the highway and so well screened by trees that you wouldn't even know it's there if you didn't search it out. Once you find it, it surprises with its appearance - much more what you'd expect on a campus or in an office park than the way most of us visualize jails.
Bowers Hill residents understandably want a lot more information about the jail, and they are entitled to have all their questions answered.
One way to ease concerns would be to enlist the help of former opponents of the jail in Suffolk whose minds [have been changed.
The folks in Suffolk have come to realize that the jail provides jobs and, through the spending of those on their payrolls, boosts municipal income.
And that's not a bad thing.] [the text inside brackets mistakenly did not appear in print] by CNB