Town officials discuss Jail Annex project

By Mark Wineka

mwineka@salisburypost.com

GRANITE QUARRY — Town officials are keeping Rowan County's talk of a satellite jail at the corner of Heilig and Faith roads at arm's length for now, unsure whether the land would even come under Granite Quarry's extraterritorial zoning jurisdiction.

The town's zoning line might not take in all of the county's 84 acres at the intersection.

If it does, the question then becomes whether the county will have to go through the town's zoning board of adjustment or a planning board process to have the industrial land zoned for a jail.

Granite Quarry's zoning ordinance does not specifically include correctional facilities as a use.

Planning and Zoning Administrator Sue Closner said Monday night the county might have to request a special-use rezoning that would go to the planning board for a recommendation to the Board of Aldermen.

For now, aldermen are in a wait-and-see mode, pending some more research and discussion. Closner said she was contacted last Wednesday by an engineering firm for the county asking about stormwater drainage requirements on the site.

Mayor Mary Ponds and fellow town board members are not overly enthused with prospects of a county jail annex close to Granite Quarry.

Neither is Mark Huddleston, a Campbell Avenue resident. He said the county property at Heilig and Faith roads is "a strategically wrong place" for a jail.

Better locations would be county-owned properties on Julian Road or at the Rowan County Airport, he suggested.

Because of jail overcrowding, the county wants to build a 25,000-square-foot, dormitory-style facility that will house 160 inmates and cost roughly $6 million.

County Manager Gary Page said last week a committee planning the jail project, officially called the "Jail Annex," ranked the Heilig Road site above two others, also county-owned properties.

The other sites under consideration include a 10-acre tract off Airport Road on National Guard Road. The site was once targeted for a quarter-midget race track. Another 25-acre tract on the south side of Julian Road is on land currently used for fairgrounds parking.

Page said among the positives with the Heilig Road site are its room for expansion.

As much as 50 acres is usable for the jail project and other possible future county projects, he said.

The Granite Quarry Board of Aldermen also talked briefly Monday night of the quarter-cent sales tax proposal that will be on a countywide Nov. 3 ballot, when municipal residents also go to the polls.

Unlike most towns, Granite Quarry does not have a contested race this year. Incumbent Alderwoman Eloise Peeler and Alderman Brad Kluttz are unopposed.

The sales tax increase proposed in Rowan County would raise revenue for the jail annex and telecommunications improvements.

Ponds spoke in support of the tax for the radio improvements, which will help volunteer fire departments across the county, but she said she would rather see other revenue from the tax going toward schools.

"Then we wouldn't have to be building jails," she said.

A sales tax increase would be a better way to pay for more jail space over a property tax increase, Mayor Pro Tem William Feather said.