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January 20, 2007
VA: Governor's office slams prison board in letter
"Leighty said the Department of Corrections is "in the very preliminary stages" of reviewing the merits of the site, as required by the Public-Private Education Facilities and Infrastructure Act of 2000, and public comments are still being taken. The act allows the state to negotiate privately and without going through a bidding process for projects such as the prison. The process had been going on for nearly two years before county and state officials announced in November that the site was being considered for a prison."
Roanoke Times
Friday, January 19, 2007
Governor's office slams prison board in letter
An official said the Board of Corrections misled people by voting against a New River prison site.
By Paul Dellinger
The state Board of Corrections had no business passing a resolution opposing a prison site on the New River in Grayson County, a spokesman for Gov. Tim Kaine said Thursday.
William Leighty, Kaine's chief of staff, said the board exceeded its authority Wednesday when it took sides in a controversy under way in Grayson since the proposed prison was announced in November.
"As you know, the board does not have a role in the site selection process and, by this action, you have created an incorrect impression that decisions were already being made about individual sites," Leighty said in a letter written Thursday to board Chairman Sterling Proffitt of Richmond.
The contents of the letter were made public by the governor's office Thursday afternoon.
The board passed the resolution after hearing from two Grayson County residents who oppose the proposed New River site in the Cox's Chapel community. They said a prison there would harm river-related tourism and change the rural character of the community.
Leighty said the resolution, passed by the three members of the nine-member board present at Wednesday's meeting, ignored the other side of the issue.
"The office of the governor has received several hundred letters, both for and against the site. We have informed those citizens that they would be notified of a public information meeting which will be held prior to any decision being made on this or any other site," Leighty said.
"Your action undermines public confidence in the comment process, and is in direct conflict with the assurances given by the office of the governor to citizens of the region," he told Proffitt.
Leighty said the Department of Corrections is "in the very preliminary stages" of reviewing the merits of the site, as required by the Public-Private Education Facilities and Infrastructure Act of 2000, and public comments are still being taken.
The act allows the state to negotiate privately and without going through a bidding process for projects such as the prison. The process had been going on for nearly two years before county and state officials announced in November that the site was being considered for a prison.
Leighty noted that county supervisors are among those in favor of the prison because of its benefits to the local economy.
Grayson residents opposed to the New River site are not necessarily against a prison somewhere in the county.
"I sort of would like to see the prison go in Grayson County, just not on the river," Thomas Smith, a Mouth of Wilson resident, said Wednesday. "That's what I hope."
Public-Private Infrastructure is making an engineering study of the New River site to see if it can be used. It was one of three firms submitting proposals to the Department of Corrections to build a 1,024-bed prison for Virginia at the river site, and has secured an option on the property.
http://www.roanoke.com/news/nrv%5Cwb/100763>
Posted by lois at January 20, 2007 02:20 PM