Residents express doubts about medium-custody prison plans
By JONNELLE DAVIS
News & Record
EDEN, N.C. — Skepticism peppered a hearing about a proposed prison in the city.
Is the investment - as much as $1 million to provide utilities to the site - worth the return of about 300 jobs? Is a prison really the kind of industry the city wants?
“What they should be doing is bringing grocery stores and things in,” said Green Knolls resident Vicky Eggleston.
The city held a hearing Monday night about its bid for a state prison. The Department of Correction must build two medium- and one minimum-custody prison for adult men by 2016. The state plans to seek initial funds for two of those prisons during the next legislative session. Eden officials are courting a medium-custody prison that would bring with it about 339 jobs.
The city has identified property off Woodpecker Road where it would like to see the prison built. If Eden landed the prison deal, the land would be annexed into the city. It could cost the city about $540,000 to buy the 150 acres it needs for the prison.
City officials consider a prison attractive because the jobs, starting at about $27,000 a year for corrections officers, could withstand economic downturn.
Correction officials spoke to residents about their needs, and leaders from communities where prisons have been built were present to calm fears of security and deflated real estate values.
Steve Biggs, executive director of Bertie County’s Economic and Industrial Planning and Development Commission, said at the end of the meeting that a day care had opened within a half-mile of the prison there. An elementary school is within 1.5 miles of it, and a golf course community is also nearby, he said.
Mike Dougherty, Eden’s director of economic development, said no new industry has moved into the city from outside Rockingham County since 2004.
But Dougherty said he doesn’t believe landing a prison will solve all the county’s ills. “It’s just one aspect of what we need to do here,” he said.
Rockingham County Manager Tom Robinson said it could cost about $1 million to run utilities to the site. Dougherty said the city and county could obtain grants to offset those costs.
But some residents of the Green Knolls neighborhood, which is near the proposed site, questioned whether it was even worth pursuing. They pointed out that, should a prison be built here, it could not be guaranteed that the majority of its employees would be hired from within the county. State officials have said the percentage of new employees hired varies from prison to prison.
Nothing that Tommy Burroughs heard during the meeting changed his mind. He predicted a prison would “kill” housing values.
Eggleston said the prison could bring nuisances to their neighborhood, such as lights and noise.
“We’d get all the good stuff,” Eggleston said jokingly.
“And we don’t want it,” chimed in neighbor Judy Irving.
Contact Jonnelle Davis at 627-4881, Ext. 126, or jonnelle.davis @news-record.com
Copyright 2008 News & Record