Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 14, 1993 TAG: 9303120075
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-9 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE LENGTH: Medium
DISABILITIES ACT MAKES REGIONAL JAIL LOOK BETTER
The idea of a regional jail is looking better to Wythe County all the time.Pulaski, Floyd, Giles and Wythe counties and the city of Radford have been studying the feasibility of a regional jail for their localities and have gotten together to pay for a needs-assessment study prepared by the New River Valley Planning District Commission.
The idea has been to see if a regional jail could be operated more efficiently than each locality could run its own jail. But the Wythe County Board of Supervisors got a new reason to like the idea Tuesday.
Richard W. Houchins, with the Wise-based engineering firm of Thompson & Litton, reported on a survey the county hired his company to do on its public buildings.
The survey showed what architectural work must be done to bring the buildings into compliance with Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The total cost is estimated at $500,000.
All localities must have a plan in place by 1995 to make their buildings accessible to everyone, including people in wheelchairs and those with vision problems or other handicaps.
Some of the bigger costs for Wythe County include elevators in two of the county buildings where no other kind of wheelchair access is possible. But the building offering the biggest compliance problem is the county jail.
Houchins said he would not even suggest that the county try to bring the second floor of the aged two-story jail into compliance with the act, because the expense would be prohibitive. He suggested pursuing the regional jail idea.
"Before you, as a county, spend a tremendous amount of money on the jail, you might want to evaluate your long-term goals," he said.
It would cost more than $100,000 to fix the ground floor, according to the survey. And even that has drawbacks.
Work on converting cells, adding access ramps and widening doors would disrupt jail functions, he said. It also would reduce the number of cells, since at least two of them would be converted into a single handicapped-access cell under the recommended plan.
The cost of a 300-bed regional jail is estimated at $13.6 million. A committee from the jurisdictions studying the idea has not chosen a site for it.
With the needs assessment completed, the next step is a state study of the project's feasibility. But the state has a moratorium on regional jail projects until 1994.