Purchase of jail land finalized

By Ben Orcutt - borcutt@nvdaily.com

FRONT ROYAL -- Members of the Rappahannock Shenandoah Warren Regional Jail Authority are pleased they have closed on the land north of Front Royal where the facility will be located.

"Over the past two weeks we have been able to close on the initial borrowing of $6 million and on the two properties that make up the regional jail site," Warren County Administrator Douglas P. Stanley, who is chairman of the regional jail authority, says in a Friday e-mail. "The funding will carry us through the property acquisition and design process. These are two significant milestones in the process of construction of the new regional jail facility. Over the next several months we are hoping to be able to get the design architect on board and begin the design process."

Stanley said the regional jail authority closed on two roughly 14-acre parcels Monday. One was owned by Frank Brugh, trading as Brugh-Thru, and sold for just over $1.24 million.

According to a news release issued by Adams-Nelson & Associates Inc. of Winchester, the close of the sale of the other adjacent 14 acres off U.S. 340-522 also went through.

"Michael Silek, Senior Commercial Specialist with Adams-Nelson & Associates Inc. facilitated the sale," the news release states. "RSW Regional Jail Authority purchased the property for $915,000 from The Bank of Clarke County Trust Department, Executor of the Estate of Homer Gilliam Jr., and plans to construct a 375-bed regional jail three miles north of I-66 near Fairground Road in Warren County."

In April, the General Assembly approved $32.8 million in bonds to pay for up to half of the construction costs, the release says.

The release goes on to say that the design phase is expected to begin next month and be completed within a year. Regional jail officials hope to break ground on the Rappahannock Shenandoah Warren Regional Adult Detention Center in 2012, with completion set for 2014, according to the release.

Other officials also were excited that the purchase of the site has been completed.

"I'm not aware of any objections to the site and it is a necessary and essential first step in the process of moving towards the construction of a regional jail and so, as a member of jail authority representing Shenandoah County, we're certainly very pleased that we've reached this point of being able to close on a property so we can move forward with the design and construction of the facility," said Shenandoah County Administrator Doug Walker.

Rappahannock County Administrator John W. McCarthy, also a member of the regional jail authority, spoke in a similar vein.

"We're pleased that the overall project is moving forward," McCarthy said. "This is one of those milestones to get the property that it's going to be built on and we're glad it reached conclusion and thank Warren County for their leadership getting us here."  

Archie A. Fox, chairman of the Warren County Board of Supervisors, also is pleased that a tangible facet of the project has been completed.

"I'm pretty satisfied," Fox said. "We have now closed on both the loan and the property so the property now belongs to the regional jail authority. I think it's excellent news. I know that we talked about this, I guess it's been going on for three or four years, and to actually get it to where things are starting to happen materially I think it's just excellent. It's an excellent way for the county to go."

North River District Supervisor Glenn L. White, who also is a member of the regional jail authority, is part of a committee that will select the architect for the facility.

"The next step is we're going to have to hire an architect," White said. "We've already started working on that. There's a committee of four who will be deciding on which of the two architects that remain in competition that we're going to select. The next step after [that] would be to, in concert with the selected architect ... put together some rough and immediate needs in terms of the space and so on and then they'll put together the plan and the specs and then we'll put it out for bid."