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January 18, 2007
VA: State corrections board opposes Grayson prison plan
The Roanoke Times 1/17/07
State corrections board opposes Grayson prison plan
By Paul Dellinger
The Virginia Board of Corrections passed a resolution today in Richmond that recommends against locating a new prison on the New River in Grayson County.
The resolution came after comments by several Grayson County residents who oppose the New River site. But the nine-member policy-making board does not determine prison sites, so the vote does not change the siting process now under way.
County supervisors and state legislators announced plans for the 1,024-bed medium-security prison at a Nov. 9 meeting in Independence.
The meeting drew a room full of people who objected to the prison being located on the river and in a rural community. Despite projections that the prison would bring 375 jobs and an annual payroll of $6 million to economically-stressed Grayson County, opponents said the facility would change the character of the Cox¹s Chapel community near the site and threaten the county¹s tourism potential.
³I sort of wanted to see the prison go in Grayson County, just not on the river,² Thomas J. Smith, a Mouth of Wilson resident, said after learning of the board resolution. ³That¹s what I hope.²
³All current sites are still on the table, and we are in no position to make a decision at this time,² Larry Traylor , public information spokesman for the Department of Corrections, said today.
Some of the opponents of the river site would still like to see Grayson get the economic benefits of the prison.
The county board of supervisors asked the state to consider Grayson County as the site for a state prison as far back as 2004. Besides benefiting from the jobs and payroll, the county would get state payments in lieu of taxes on the 80-acre site needed for a prison. At the suggested New River site, the prison would be a big enough water user to make a proposed regional water authority practical and affordable for parts of the county having water problems.
The state has hired a firm called Public-Private Infrastructure to make an engineering study of the New River site to see if it can be used. A bridge across New River to the prison has also been discussed as a means to get traffic to and from the site without affecting the community. It is opposed by county residents who want the river kept as it is.
http://www.roanoke.com/news/nrv/breaking/wb/100537
Posted by lois at January 18, 2007 06:06 PM