PENDLETON COUNTY, W.Va. — Uncertainty is what a Pendleton County delegate sees ahead for his community if Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin opts to pass on an offer of the U.S. Navy’s Sugar Grove Station in Pendleton County for use as a state prison.
“It’s whether or not you want to help or not,” Delegate Isaac Sponaugle (D-Pendleton, 55) said. “I certainly would think that the Governor would not throw the entire community into uncertainty and, basically, a Russian roulette game.”
The deadline for a decision comes at the close of this week.
On Tuesday, a 9 a.m. ceremony will be held at the Sugar Grove Station to mark the end of the Navy’s work there ahead of the official planned base closure that’s scheduled for Sept. 30.
What happens next is still not clear.
The National Security Agency will continue to operate from part of the property which includes 122 acres and 105 buildings. As for the rest of the property the NSA is not using, those with the state Division of Corrections have proposed repurposing it for a maximum security prison for women with as many as 600 beds at an estimated cost of $19 million.
The federal government would sign over the property itself at no cost only if it’s used for a prison, according to the proposal being considered.
Those in Mason County, though, home to Lakin Correctional Center, which currently houses 500 female inmates, have pushed back against the possibility of replacing that women’s prison with a men’s prison to ease statewide overcrowding.
If West Virginia passes on the prison offer, the property will then be sold at auction.
KVC Health Systems, a nonprofit group based in the Midwest, has been pursuing the Sugar Grove site as a possible location for a specialized career college aimed at young people who are transitioning out of foster care.
But Sponaugle said there are too many “what ifs” associated with such a possibility.
“You have no idea if anybody is going to be able to purchase that property or who may end up getting it all, it’s total uncertainty,” he said on Monday’s MetroNews “Talkline.”