CHARLESTON CHOSEN FOR NEW STATE PRISON

City leaders celebrated in Charleston and Licking Thursday after learning that Gov. Mel Carnahan had chosen their towns as sites for two maximum-security prisons.

In Charleston, they toasted the news with apple cider at city hall; in Licking, they sounded the tornado alarm.

"Everybody is excited," said Charleston civic leader Betty Hearnes, a former state representative and wife of former governor Warren Hearnes.

Betty Hearnes helped lead the effort to land a prison in Charleston. The prison will be built on a 120-acre site south of Interstate 57 and the city limits.

Dave Brewer, Charleston city manager, joined in the celebration.

"We have been looking forward to this for quite some time," he said. "We just kept our fingers crossed and never gave up hope."

Brewer said Charleston made its pitch without hiring consultants or lobbyists. "We just all got together and got it done."

Charleston's population is about 5,000; Licking's about 1,400.

The governor passed over Trenton in northern Missouri. The three cities had competed for months to land one of the prisons.

Carnahan made the decision Wednesday, but didn't announce it until Thursday.

The governor followed the recommendations of the Department of Corrections and the Office of Administration in selecting Charleston and Licking.

Carnahan selected Charleston even though it is in the district of state Sen. Peter Kinder. The Cape Girardeau Republican has been a vocal critic of the governor.

Charleston, however, is the county seat of heavily Democratic Mississippi County.

By choosing Licking, Carnahan pleased Senate Appropriations Chairman Mike Lybyer. The town is in Lybyer's district.

Left behind was Trenton, where voters recently elected a Republican in a special contest for a House seat long held by a Democrat.

Kinder welcomed the governor's Charleston decision. "I am elated," he said.

Kinder said some Democratic lawmakers had suggested that Charleston could be passed over because of his efforts to override Carnahan's veto of a controversial anti-abortion bill. The veto override was unsuccessful.

Despite comments of others, Kinder said he always believed the governor wouldn't link the two issues.

Chris Sifford, the governor's spokesman, said politics wasn't a factor.

Carnahan said it was a difficult decision because all three cities had good proposals. They all offered free land and free utility hookups.

But Carnahan said in a prepared statement that there are "significant advantages" in putting prisons in regions where none exist.

The two 1,500-bed men's prisons will bring hundreds of permanent jobs to areas plagued by double-digit unemployment. Short term, it will result in numerous construction jobs, officials said.

The state plans to spend about $146 million to build the two prisons, but state Sen. Danny Staples, D-Eminence, said the final price tag could be higher. Each prison could cost as much as $85 million to build, said Staples.

He cited the case of Bonne Terre where a new prison is under construction. The cost of that prison has escalated from $96 million to $135 million, he said.

Carnahan said the new prisons will be patterned after the Crossroads Correctional Center in Cameron, saving time and money in the design phase of construction.

Both prisons are scheduled to open in 2000. Each prison will employ 439 people with an estimated annual payroll of more than $10 million.

Staples headed up the legislative committee that submitted the three sites to the governor. But Staples repeatedly voiced his support for Charleston and Licking, citing the high unemployment in those areas. Trenton, he said, had low unemployment.

Staples said the state, from the very beginning, wanted to build the prisons in areas most in need of economic development.

Brewer, Charleston's city manager, said the prison jobs will pay from $10 to $17 an hour.

He said they are needed in an area where overall unemployment is about 10 percent and black unemployment is even higher.

The prison would become the city's largest employer. Brewer said it would mean jobs for people in a four-county area.

Missouri Delta Medical Center in Sikeston has agreed to provide a "secure wing" to house inmates from the prison who need medical care.

A hospital spokesman said the state has yet to notify the medical center of specific requirements, such as number of beds.

Brewer said he expects the prison will attract other businesses to the region, including those that provide prison-support services such as a laundry service.

He said he expects the prison will spur population growth. The city of Cameron doubled in size after it landed a maximum-security prison, he said.