THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 12, 1995 TAG: 9502100022
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 43 lines
On Jan. 2, Pat Murphy took his talk show statewide, and his guest was Gov. George Allen.
A lady called from the Eastern Shore of Virginia. She was very concerned about the site the Department of Corrections has chosen for its new maximum-security prison. She felt that it had chosen the site because it is in a poor, black area. The governor said he certainly did not feel this was the case.
Fact: The DOC narrowed from an initial 69 sites to five. Four of these sites were around wealthy, white land-owners. The rest is history.
STRIKE ONE, Governor Allen!
The next lady asked Governor Allen about the evacuation of the inmates during a hurricane. He said, ``That is being looked into but the prison is going nowhere near the ocean.''
Fact: The proposed prison site is one mile from the seaside on the east and three miles from the Bay on the west.
STRIKE TWO, Governor Allen!
During the governor's conversation, he said he did not understand the uproar on the Eastern Shore as ``they had numerous public hearings on it and no one complained until recently.''
Fact: About 20 months ago, two information meetings were held (not hearings), and then silence; everyone thought the DOC had dropped any plans to build on this peninsula. Early in November, a press release stated the DOC had put an option on 108 acres of land (in a poor, black neighborhood) where it would build the proposed prison. This is why the ``uproar'' started!
STRIKE THREE, Governor Allen!
If Governor Allen were before a judge, three strikes and off to jail with no parole!
BRENDA G. FRASER
Cape Charles, Jan. 29, 1995 by CNB