PRISON SITE DISAPPOINTS NEIGHBORING OFFICIALS

Shackled by high unemployment, Fredericktown Mayor William Powell was hoping his city could land a $94.3 million state prison and secure almost 600 new jobs.

But that hope was dashed Friday when Gov. Mel Carnahan selected Bonne Terre as the new prison site over eastern Missouri competitors Fredericktown and New Florence.

Now Powell has charged the selection wasn't based on merit, but on politics.

State Sen. Danny Staples, D-Eminence, disagrees. Bonne Terre is the right site for the prison, he said Saturday, because it is closest to St. Louis and prisons in Farmington, Potosi and Pacific.

Bonne Terre is in Staples' 20th Missouri Senate District. In 1991, Fredericktown was moved from the 20th to the 27th District.

Carnahan's decision was a serious blow to the Madison County community, which has been vying for a state prison for five years and was passed over twice before.

Staples supported Fredericktown's earlier efforts to attract a women's prison when the county was part of Staples' district.

"I understand in politics that there is a lot of trading going on, but is this right?" Powell asked.

Carnahan awarded a women's prison to Vandalia in December and then in March chose Bowling Green as the site for a men's prison.

The latest prison is the Eastern District Diagnostic Center, a maximum-security prison.

It will be the first stop for all of Missouri's male prisoners on the eastern side of the state.

The state will use the center to determine where each prisoner will serve his sentence.

Of the 1,820 beds, 820 will be used for the diagnostic operation. The rest of the facility will house inmates generally serving less than life sentences.

In choosing Bonne Terre, the governor followed last Monday's recommendation of the Joint Committee on Corrections, a House-Senate panel that studied all three proposed sites.

"We feel it to be unfair not only to our community, but to the taxpaying Missourians," Powell wrote in a letter to Carnahan last Wednesday.

Powell said annual operating costs would be $300,000 less at the 180-acre Fredericktown site than at the 165-acre Bonne Terre site. Less than 40 miles separates the two sites on Highway 67.

Both towns are similar in size, with populations just under 4,000.

"In this era of government accountability, we feel this cost savings to the taxpayer can't be ignored," Powell wrote.

The mayor also argued that the state should build prisons in areas where jobs are desperately needed.

Madison County has a 9 percent unemployment rate, but neighboring Wayne County has a 19.4 percent unemployment rate, Powell said.

In contrast, Powell said St. Francois County, where Bonne Terre is situated, has a 4.4 percent unemployment rate. The April jobless rate was 7.1 percent.

Staples said he understands the disappointment of both Fredericktown and New Florence, a town of about 800 people along Interstate 70 in Montgomery County.

"They worked hard on these proposals, but it is virtually impossible to select three prison sites when you are only going to build one," he said.

Staples said that only two of 11 lawmakers on the committee voted for the Fredericktown site. The Fredericktown site was then eliminated and the committee voted 6-5 for Bonne Terre over New Florence.