FREDERICKTOWN WANTS TO BE IN RUNNING FOR NEW PRISON

FREDERICKTOWN -- The city of Fredericktown wants to be in the running for whatever plans the Missouri Department of Corrections comes up with for a new women's prison facility.

"We have already sent in two proposals as a potential site for a new women's prison," said Fredericktown Mayor Willard LaPlant. "We have a site, a group from the state has looked at it, and it fits into the prerequisites established earlier this year by the state."

The Missouri Department of Corrections had selected Fredericktown, Montgomery City, New Florence, Sullivan and Vandalia as possible sites for a new 500-bed prison which would house medium- and maximum-security inmates to replace Renz Correctional Center near Jefferson City. Renz would be converted to a minimum-security prison for up to 400 men.

"We're back to the drawing board for a new facility now," Stan Brown, deputy director of the Department of Corrections, said Friday.

Brown said, "The flood of 1993 has all but wiped out the Renz facility. It's under eight to 10 feet of water right now, and prisoners are being lodged in various other facilities."

Renz Correctional Center (RCC), located about three miles north of Jefferson City, was converted to a maximum security facility for women in 1989, and housed more than 350 prisoners before flood waters forced evacuation in early July.

"Plans at that time were to construct a new maximum security facility while converting the Renz facility into a minimum security prison," said Brown.

Initial estimates to repair the Renz facility range about $10 million, noted Brown. "The real question now is do we want to spend that kind of money and go back into a flood plain area.

"We're back to the drawing board on the whole thing," said Brown. "Plans for any new facility are `wide open.' But, we have to get moving soon," he said. "We have an urgent need for the facility. We're in the process of looking at what to do. We're kind of crowded now."

"Whatever they do, we still want to be in the running," said LaPlant. "Our site fulfills the prerequisites."

Mayor LaPlant described the site: "It's located on a hill and falls into the criteria required for the prison facility. It is surrounded on one side by a mountainous area; another side by the St. Francis River; still another side is surrounded by trees; and on the fourth side is a manmade border, a highway. The site committee was impressed with the site when it visited here."

Criteria for the applications also includes the site and its preparation, the availability of utilities and medical care, utility rates, access to transportation and topography.

LaPlant said he would update Fredericktown's new administrator, Joseph R. Smith, on the proposal.

"We're excited about our new administrator, who starts his new job here Monday," said LaPlant.

Smith will fill the position left vacant following the resignation of Don S. Maddux in March. Smith was serving as assistant administrator at Ellsworth, Kan., which has one of the top correctional facilities in Kansas.

Smith, a graduate of Nevada High School, served in the military, and has a master's degree in public administration from Wichita State University.

LaPlant says a new prison facility would be a big economic boost to the area, offering more than 200 jobs.