Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 16, 1995 TAG: 9503160044
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Judge Willis Woods has set a March 24 hearing for Supervisor Charles Dix to show cause why he should not be removed from office.
A petition to remove Dix from office had 182 signatures; the county registrar verified that 177 of those were registered voters in the Black Lick District. Ten percent of the number of voters who cast ballots in Dix's election, or 148 signatures, was required for a show-cause hearing to be held.
Signatures also are being gathered in an effort to oust the other supervisor, Olin Armentrout.
The dispute stems from a trip the two supervisors took to meet with Corrections Corporation of America executives at company headquarters in Nashville, Tenn. They were flown at CCA expense to Cleveland, Texas, where CCA has a minimum-security prison, to talk to residents there.
But board Chairman Mark Munsey this week showed that one of the petitions' accusations is groundless.
Opponents charged that the two men ignored Munsey's instructions to visit a CCA prison in Clifton, Tenn., which Armentrout agreed had problems. Several prison opponents had cited escapes from Clifton in recent years and the stress the prison has put on law enforcement and social service agencies.
But at Tuesday's board meeting, Munsey distributed a transcript of his instructions to Dix and Armentrout. The instructions did not tell them to visit the Clifton prison specifically, but to visit a CCA prison site.
The petitioners also claim the two supervisors exceeded Munsey's instructions in negotiating with CCA on other issues.
Armentrout and Dix brought back negotiated agreements to raise salaries for many prison jobs and to sell the unused part of the 533-acre site back to the county for $1 to ensure that the prison would not be expanded.
The two supervisors reported that Cleveland citizens with whom they spoke had positive comments about CCA and its operation there; the local chamber of commerce even depicted the CCA prison at the center of its logo. After hearing that report last month, the board voted 4-3 to invite CCA to proceed with its 1,500-bed medium-security prison in Wythe County.
When some prison opponents caught up with Gov. George Allen during his visit to Chilhowie last week, he told them the state would rely more on the local governing body to reflect public opinion than on those protesting the prison. State Public Safety Director Jerry Kilgore, meeting with a delegation of opponents in Richmond last month, also stressed the importance of the board's stand, although he said letters of protest would be considered.
Members of Citizens Against the Prison, organized in response to CCA's announced plans to build the facility two miles east of Wytheville, had hoped to persuade Allen and Kilgore not to offer a contract to CCA to house state prisoners.
The Wythe County supervisors on Tuesday passed a motion by Tom DuPuis, 6-1, stating the governing body's support for Armentrout and Dix, and acknowledging their right to vote on issues as they choose. John Davis cast the dissenting vote.
Prison opponents filed another petition, with more than 1,200 signatures, with Wytheville Town Council this week asking the town not to extend water and sewer facilities to the proposed prison site. So far, council has gotten no formal request from CCA for the utilities.
Citizens Against the Prison is planning an anti-prison rally in April near the proposed site.
by CNB