FORTY ILLINOIS CITIES EXPRESS INTEREST IN NEW PRISON

More than 40 Illinois communities have expressed an interest in a proposed new $60 million super-maximum prison.

Sept. 15 is the deadline for counties, cities, coalitions and other agencies to apply for the facility. The Illinois Department of Corrections expects to begin holding regional meetings by month's end to give applicants a chance to present their cases.

From there, the list will be trimmed to a handful of finalists, and hearings will be held in those communities, department spokesman Nic Howell said Friday.

"Hopefully, Corrections Director Howard Peters III will have a recommendation by mid-October to submit to Gov. James Edgar," he said.

The promise of hundreds of jobs with an estimated payroll of $11 million is apparently outweighing the fact that the new institution will house 500 of the state's most violent inmates.

Most of the applicants so far are from central and Southern Illinois, where a 4-month-old coal strike and a flurry of plant closings has thrown thousands out of work, Howell said.

In return for 300 permanent jobs and a business with an annual operating budget of $15 million, applicants are touting their willing - and available - work forces, wide open spaces and, in many cases, their proximity to other prisons and work camps.

Among applicants are some of the state's highest unemployment counties, including Perry, Pulaski and Alexander, where about one in five people are unemployed.

Pulaski and Alexander counties are among a five-county coalition which has been working on one application to entice the state to locate the prison in Southern Illinois.

"It's really ours to lose," said Jerry Reppert, head of the coalition made up of Union, Pulaski, Alexander, Johnson and Massac counties. "We've been working on it longest; we've got the best organization, and I have little doubt we've got the best package.

"We started our support drive the day we heard rumors about a new prison," said Reppert, president of the Union County Economic Development Corp. "It developed quickly into a multi-county effort."

Letters of support from business owners, organizations and individuals from all five counties have already been forwarded to officials," said Reppert. "The UCEDC committee will make a well-documented proposal to officials."

The group has emerged with seven sites two in Union and Pulaski counties, one each in Johnson and Alexander counties and one site along county line of Union, Johnson and Alexander.