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The official ground breaking for the Nevada Southern Detention Center has been scheduled for 10 a.m., June 5, Corrections Corporation of America announced this week.

CCA took out a building permit Monday for the 198,772-square-foot detention center and a 2,968-square-foot maintenance building. By comparison, the Pahrump Walmart store covers 150,000 square feet.

The company paid $296,257 in fees, including $180,457 in impact fees, $92,540 for their construction building permit and $23,259 in permits for electrical, plumbing and mechanical work.

The bulk of the impact fees, $168,441, goes for streets and highways. Commercial businesses aren't required to pay impact fees for parks or a fee to the Nye County school district.

The general contractor is DCK North America, based in Pennsylvania.

Some members of Concerned Citizens for a Safe Community are planning a protest during the ground breaking.

CCA was given the notice to proceed April 7. The company hopes to begin accepting inmates by the fall of 2010 for the $80 million facility. It is expected to house up to 1,072 inmates.

Louise Grant, vice-president of marketing and communications, said the company will issue about 100 invitations to local, state and federal political leaders for the ground breaking. A bevy of company officials will be there, including Chief Executive Officer John Ferguson, President Damon Hininger and others.

"We also hope this week that the biologist will give us official approval for clearing so we can begin clearing the land," Grant said.

CCA already has a grading permit. Local subcontractor Wulfenstein Construction has been doing some grading of the site to make room for a construction trailer. A desert tortoise fence has also been erected.

The company won't begin hiring for the Nevada Southern Detention Center until about three months before completion of the project, Grant said.

CCA just completed a career fair for a federal prison opening in Natchez, Miss., in July. That larger facility, built for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, will have 400 jobs which will also pay federal prevailing wages, Grant said.

"We had a three-day career fair. We received during that one week span 1,800 applications. That was just completely out of the norm. We were thrilled with the number of applicants, quality of applicants. It leads us to believe in Pahrump, assuming the economy is flat or uncertain, the number of applicants we would anticipate being very, very high," Grant said.

The 1,800 applicants were just for correctional officer positions, she said. Another 2,577 applications were received for other positions.