PVT FILE PHOTO Nye County Commissioner Joni Eastley RELATED STORIES Sheriff wants security pact before center's construction CCA agreement suggests limits Advertisement

Nye County Commission Chairman Joni Eastley spent a good part of Tuesdays quick county commissioner meeting reading six letters submitted by Mike Scaccia, suggesting different provisions to be added to the development agreement for the federal detention center.

Eastley said she would like to see Pahrump reap the economic benefits of the federal detention center but sympathizes with opponents of the project, like Scaccia, a local resident, and Pearl West, another vocal opponent.

"I have no problems with the prison either being built or opened. I really don't. My only problem has been the location. I don't support the location on Mesquite, I never have," Eastley said.

However, while some opponents view the development agreement as the last legal possibility to stop the project, Eastley thinks that would be a bad precedent for any future projects.

"This has been completely through the political process. My colleagues have decided the Mesquite site is a suitable location for that facilty and I refuse to ever put myself in the position of using a development agreement as a weapon. I will not do that. As soon as we use a development agreement as a weapon, you're going to see commercial development in Pahrump dry up and blow away," Eastley said.

The development agreement, first released Aug. 20 when Nye County commissioners announced the date of the public hearing Sept. 16, is described at this point as standard, boiler plate language by Nye County Planning Director Jack Lohman. Corrections Corporation of America simply filled in the blanks and handed the agreement back to the county.

Already, opponents of the project or skeptics leery of the impact on public safety in Pahrump are gearing up for the discussion.

Scaccia, in one letter, suggested, "CCA and its successors, assigns and heirs accept as a condition of the development agreement 100 percent liabiility for personal injury, lack of medical preparedness, lack of riot fallout preparedness, escapee repercussions, rape, murder and other crime related charges in lawsuits stemming from mismanagement."

Another one of Scaccia's suggestions was a pledge not to release any inmates in Pahrump. He also suggested CCA be required to provide medical tests and be able to administer to their medical and dental needs.

The original county code that prohibited a correctional faciility within 50,000 feet (9.5 miles) of a residence would allow enough distance for helicopters, horseback patrols and canine units to search for any escaped prisoners, Scaccia said. CCA should also be bound by provisions of the Freedom of Information Act, he said.

Eastley cast the sole vote against a motion to negotiate with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to build a county detention facility back in May 2007, stating she didn't want Pahrump to be known as a prison town.

The Nye County commission collectively took a number of steps last year to facilitate the placement of a federal detention center in Pahrump. They commissioned a phase one study on the environmental suitability of the Mesquite site.

They repealed the minimum distance requirement from residences and created a community facilities zone in the new zoning code in April 2007.

The CCA legal team will be working on the development agreement, according to Louise Grant, Corrections Corporation of America Vice-President of Markting and Communications. On the other side of the negotiations, Nye County retains Mark White, a Kansas City-based attorney, for work on development agreements.

Lohman said the approval of a development agreement was made a requirement of the rezoning before a building permit can be issued for the project.

Lohman has some unique experience in the matter. He was community development director for the city of Folsom, Calif., from 1984 to 1986.

Lohman said that maximum security prison in California made famous by singer Johnny Cash, was hidden from the city, buffered by landscaping and agricultural land, something some Pahrump residents would prefer.

"It's kind of an out-of-sight out-of-mind type of thing. They never had any problems relative to the community," Lohman said.

Dangerous prisoners, including Charles Manson, were kept inside a facility that resembled a fortress, he said.

"They made it as aesthetically possible to mitigate the impacts to the community. We didn't have a large glare, we buffered the view to make it as much like a campus as possible," Lohman said.

Lohman said "that's something we're going to attempt to do" with the Pahrump facility.

Eastley said she would also do her best to negotiate the best deal. Though she preferred a site farther out of town, like on Highway 95 at Pahrump Junction, or at the south end near Front Site Firearms Institute, she admitted the county would also take a great deal of heat if CCA walked away from Pahrump.

"I look at it this way: I'm standing in front of hell with two doors and Satan is poking me in the back with a pitch fork and saying, 'Come on, come on, you have to pick one door.' One is damned if you do, and damned if you don't," Eastley said.