GROUND BREAKIN SET FOR TODAY AT TAMMS PRISON SITE

TAMMS, Ill. -- Gov. Jim Edgar and Department of Corrections Director Howard A. Peters III will be here today to participate in ground breaking for a $7 million-plus prison work camp.

The ground-breaking ceremony, at the prison site about a mile and half northwest of Tamms, will be held at 5 p.m., three hours later than originally scheduled.

Also attending the ceremony will be other state officials, county, area and village officials, and representatives of various construction firms.

A pre-construction meeting will be held here at 10 a.m. Thursday. Plans call for completion of the 200-bed minimum-security work camp by spring 1995. Bids and construction for the super-maximum security prison are expected this fall, with a completion of the prison in spring 1996.

The more than 250 construction workers needed to build the work camp, which will be adjacent to the prison, will be hired from Illinois. Earlier this year Edgar announced that the Illinois Capital Development Board will require contractors and subcontractors who build the prison to sign binding labor agreements with regional unions to hire Illinois workers. The agreement will require Illinois trades people to build the camp and prison, said Edgar. The agreement also includes a pledge by local trade unions to not strike, slow down work, picket or allow other work stoppages of any nature.

When fully operational, the prison will house 500 of the state's most violent inmates. The facility will employ approximately 385 people and operate on a $17.5 million annual budget.

River City Construction of Benton, Ill., was low bidder on the general contract for the work camp.