EDGAR PICKS PRISON SITES; SOUTHERN ILLINOIS LOSES BID FOR BOTH

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Kewanee in northwest Illinois and Lawrence County in Southeast Illinois near the Indiana state line have been selected as prison sites in the state's latest prison derby.

A $45 million juvenile facility that will house 400 youths and provide up to 280 jobs will be built at Kewanee. A $69 million, 1,800-bed medium security adult prison that will provide up to 450 jobs will be constructed in Lawrence County, which borders the Ohio River.

Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar announced the sites Saturday, ending a two-month search for the two prisons sites.

Edgar was at the Lawrenceville Courthouse to announce that state officials were impressed by the size of support for having a new prison in Lawrence County. He also pointed to the high levels of unemployment and poverty.

The two-years it will take to build the medium security prison for men in Lawrence County will put about 250 trades workers to work.

Earlier Saturday, Edgar said Kewanee was chosen as the site of the medium security juvenile correctional center because it is near the Chicago area, where most juveniles in the prison system come from. Its proximity will allow parents to visit the incarcerated youths, he said.

Edgar made his announcement during a rally in front of the Kewanee High School attended by 300 local residents and officials.

Construction of the juvenile facility will employ as many as 225 trades people for two years.

Other finalists were Metropolis, Grayville, Carlinville, Schuyler County and the Savanna Army depot site. An eighth finalist, Harrisburg, dropped out of the competition.

The search, which started in early June, was narrowed to seven for the adult prison and six for the juvenile facility in July.

The list included a site along Interstate 24 at Metropolis, a city of 7,500 along the Ohio River in Southern Illinois.

The Metropolis site was the choice of the Southernmost Illinois Prison Committee, which developed out of the Union County Economic Development Corp., to attract one or both of the operations to Southern Illinois.

The Southernmost Prison Committee, headed by Union County businessman Jerry Reppert, helped attract a prison to the Tamms area in Alexander County more than two years ago. The group submitted five sites for consideration for one of the two newest facilities. The sites were in the Southern Illinois counties of Alexander, Johnson, Union, Massac and Pulaski.

"We were in the search until the last," Reppert told the Southeast Missourian recently. "Cooperation between the counties was strong."

Metropolis Mayor Beth Clanahan had said earlier it was an honor for Metropolis to be among the finalists.

Metropolis had offered its entire 201-acre industrial park near the intersection of Interstate 24 and Route 45.

A total of 19 areas entered the bidding for one of the two prisons last month. The Department of Corrections wants both facilities opened by 1999.

(Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press.)