Published: March 26, 2008 09:29 pm      

With federal prison months ahead of schedule, Rahall tours progress

WELCH — Walls are being erected at the site of McDowell County’s $232 million federal prison construction project.

U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., joined county officials Wednesday on a tour of the 400-acre Indian Ridge Industrial Park and the federal prison construction site near Welch. Rahall was interested in seeing the progress made to date on the federal prison construction, county commissioner Carl Urps said.

“The congressman called, and said he just needed an update,” Urps said. “We are just going to take him up there to see the progress. We are just going to bring him up to date on what is going on in our county.”

When completed, the prison will include 1,280 beds for inmates, including 1,152 at the medium-security facility and 128 at an adjacent work camp. The prison is expected to pump up to $35 million in new revenue annually into the economy of McDowell and Wyoming counties. More than 30 subcontractors are expected to be involved with the prison construction, according to earlier reports by Clark Construction Company.

“It (the construction) is still ahead of schedule,” Urps said. “I don’t know how much ahead, but the last time I talked to the Clark Construction Company people, it was two or three months ahead of schedule. As I understand it, they are building foundations and walls. I think they’ve got a couple of the walls up and some of the administrative buildings.”

The county is working toward an Oct. 2009 completion date for the federal prison.

In the meantime, the commission is still hoping to expand the existing Stevens Correctional Center — a state prison — in Welch.

Urps said the commission is hoping to purchase property behind the state prison for the purpose of expanding the facility.

“We are in the process of expanding the Stevens facility,” Urps said. “We are still trying to buy that property behind the facility and expand our facility to accept another 135 inmates. But we’ve got a lot of work to do on that. We are trying to get our architect to give us a proposal.”

— Contact Charles Owens at cowens@bdtonline.com