Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 1, 1990 TAG: 9003310369
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By NEAL THOMPSON NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The city needs to build new facilities or add to existing buildings, the study says.
"All existing facilities - police headquarters, jail and court, including the clerk's office - are grossly inadequate as are certain city office facilities . . . and in some places [are] deplorable," the report says.
The study, given to members of City Council and city department heads this week, was done by a six-member committee of citizens.
The committee looked at overcrowding and decay in the century-old jail and police headquarters on First Street and the 22-year-old municipal building on Second Street, which houses courtrooms and offices for the Circuit Court and the Juvenile and Domestic Relations and General District courts.
"Our initial feeling was that overall existing facilities should be adequate with only minor improvements," the committee's March 11 report said. "That opinion changed dramatically during the early days of the study."
The report further states that the only solution is to spend money on new or expanded facilities, which would require raising taxes or borrowing money. It did not give any cost estimates.
The building that houses the police department and jail was built in 1892 and remodeled after a fire in 1951.
Police have said it is too old and cramped for their needs. Offices and closets are crammed with boxes of files and evidence for court cases, confiscated bicycles and police equipment. The basement, which houses detectives' offices, has dirt floors in some areas and often floods when it rains.
According to the report, the brick and stone building is not only old, but also insecure and unsafe.
"Security is virtually nil," the report says. "Facilities for holding persons being detained are almost useless."
Furthermore, there is a lack of security in the courtrooms, which do not have secure rooms for judges, witnesses and criminal suspects.
The study of the city's facilities was prompted by a letter last July from Radford Circuit Judge Duane Mink that said the city's court and jail facilities were old, outdated and crowded. The committee was appointed in September.
"The committee did an excellent job in studying the situation that we have here," Mink said this week. "I concur with their observations."
City Council will study the recommendations listed in the report and will decide in the next few months which recommendations to pursue.
Some of those recommendations include separating city and court offices, which share the same building, starting a "sinking fund" to finance construction and converting paper files into microfilm to save space.
City Manager Robert Asbury said if council accepts and adopts the committee's report, the city will inventory how much space the city has for police, jail and court facilities and determine how much space will be needed.
"And if new construction is needed, then they'll adopt a program for that and hire an architect and draw up plans and all that . . . but there's still quite a bit to do," Asbury said.
No date has been set for public review and comment on the report, Asbury said.
"This is just the beginning," Mink said.
The city has set aside $15,000 for a professional study for a criminal justice complex. The March 11 report will be used as the basis for that study, which was approved by council in November as part of its five-year plan.
by CNB