Wednesday, April 17, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- One of the potential sites for a 400-bed women's prison is in a rural area near Nellis Air Force Base.
Wackenhut Corrections is bidding to build and operate the prison. The firm is going before the Clark County Planning Commission April 18 to ask for a zoning change for the 41 acres owned by Ann Beesley Partnership.
Wackenhut is among four companies bidding to build the prison. A winning bid may be chosen within a week, according to Prison Director Bob Bayer. He said the bids will be rated so that if the top firm turns down the contract, the second in line will be selected.
Sources say the four bidders all exceed the state's estimated cost and that Bayer will have to negotiate to lower the price.
William Noall, attorney for Wackenhut, said the proposed site "sits off by itself and there are no surrounding residential residences."
It is on the south side of Ann Road and the west side of Mt. Hood Street, just west of the Las Vegas Speedway, which is under construction. A concrete products manufacturing plant is to the southwest. The site is about 2,000 feet north of Las Vegas Boulevard North. Interstate 15 is located about 1 1/4 miles to the north.
The staff of the planning commission said it has no opposition to the zone change from rural open land to public facility, as long as certain conditions are met.
There must be right-of-way dedication, a drainage study, driveways and curbs and the gates have to be approved by the Clark County traffic engineer.
Noall said the 41-acre site fits all conditions for a prison. It is not located near a school but medical and other services are within allowable distances.
In the bidding document, the prison department agreed to keep all the sites confidential until an approval by the state Board of Examiners.
Wackenhut Corrections, however, filed for a zoning change March 8, making the site public.
Sources say two other sites are also in the same rural area.
A controversy developed when it was revealed all information would be kept confidential until the contract is approved by the examiners board. Bayer said initially there would be hearings before local zoning boards to give the public a chance to comment, but later, he and Gov. Bob Miller said there will be a prison public hearing on the site before the bid documents are presented to the examiners board for approval.
Secretary of State Dean Heller had asked Miller to permit the state Prison Board to hold a public hearing before the contract is awarded. Heller said he had no objection to the procedure outlined by Bayer for a prison public hearing, even though it did not involve the Prison Board.
The other bidders were Corrections Corp. of Nashville, Tenn.; Management Training Corp. of Ogden, Utah, and Cornell Corrections of Ventura, Calif.
Management Training Corp., had proposed to build the prison in North Las Vegas, but citizens complained about the location near Cheyenne Avenue and Martin Luther King Boulevard. The proposed site was withdrawn.
archive
