By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
After what has seemed like a long wait, a warden and associate warden have been named for the medium-security phase of the Federal Correctional Institution at Forrest City.
The announcement was made Friday.
"One of the buzz words around here has been, 'when are we going to have a warden for the new facility?'" Cole Jeter, warden of the existing facility, told a meeting of the Community Relations Board. "Today, I'm happy to say, we've got one."
The warden will be Linda Sanders. She is currently warden of the medium security facility at FCI-Ashland, Ky.
An associate warden has also been named. She is Amy Carlton, and is currently camp administrator for a federal center in Fort Worth, Texas.
Both are expected to assume their new duties in early to mid-February.
"Upon their arrival, the activation process will start," said Jeter. "There will be some nine months of tuning and preparation and hiring of the staff. We're hoping that by this time (or) a little earlier next year, we'll be seeing a good number of inmates at the new facility."
Noting that there is always interest in any new jobs, Jeter said that new employees will come from the community and also be transferred in.
"We anticipate about 300 additional staff with the activation of the facility," said Jeter. "Specifically how many of those will be transferred in and how many of those will come from the surrounding area is not certain at this point, but I can assure you that more than half of them will come from the surrounding area."
Terry Rush, human resources specialist at FCI-Forrest City, talked some about hiring. He said there are two web sites where people can check on jobs. One is at usa.opm.gov, where there will be periodic job announcements, and a limited time (10 days) to apply.
The other web site is the Bureau of Prisons site, at bop.gov, "which is open continuously throughout the year. You don't have to wait until there is a job announcement to apply."
On another subject, Jeter said the low-security facility and minimum-security camp are experiencing population explosions.
"We're beginning to feel a little population crunch here at the institution," Warden Cole Jeter told a meeting of the Community Relations Board. "We've added 100 beds inside, and 30 more in the (minimum security) camp, so our count has gone up 130 in the last 90 days. That is a very significant number for us, and we are in the neighborhood of 2,250 inmates."
He said beds are being put into conventional TV rooms.
"And we have another 100 inmates in the pipeline, which means they have been designated to this facility but are not yet here," he said, adding that there are also inmates who are finishing their sentences or going on to halfway houses. However, he said even with some prisoners rotating out, the facility is still about 31 percent overcrowded.
"Our staff continues to do an outstanding job managing the complexities of the additional inmates," said Jeter. "You can imagine -- there is more mail, more health service issues, more food. It just dominoes throughout the facility."
The Forrest City City Council on Friday failed to ratify an architect for the multi-purpose building to be located at the Municipal Sports Complex.
A special meeting was called for Friday afternoon because the council had not had a quorum for its regular Tuesday meeting time. Only two items were on the agenda -- paying the bills and ratifying the architect.
The bills were paid with little discussion. However, there was more discussion centered around the architect.
There were several candidates, and a select committee, which included citizens and some members of the council, had narrowed the list to three. Those were Woods and Caradine of Little Rock, Taggart Architectural of North Little Rock, and Bob Beavers and Associates of Forrest City.
The committee members scored each of the candidates on an interview, and the Woods firm had the highest score. Taggart had the second highest and Beavers was third.
Alderman Roger Breeding said he felt that a project for such a facility should go to a local architect, and said Beavers has helped the city out on many occasions.
"I just hate to see a local architect not get it," he said.
The committee recommendation had been to accept the Woods firm.
On a motion to accept the committee's recommendation, the vote was split. Aldermen Cecil Twillie, Mary Jeffers and Breeding voted yes. Aldermen John Gadberry, Steve Hollowell and Brent Ponder voted no.
Aldermen Louise Fields and Roy Hancock were not present at the meeting.
There were no further votes. Mayor Larry Bryant said the issue would be studied more.
Santa has received his list and he's checking it twice, but just to make sure he gets all the details, the Times-Herald is printing a copy of the letters to Santa in today's and tomorrow's editions.
The letters not printed in today's edition will be printed on Tuesday.
This year's Santa Letters are sponsored by the following local businesses:
A/C services, Al Miller Insurance, Antique Rose, Apex Communications, Arkansas Concrete, Baptist Memorial Hospital, Battery Warehouse, Russell Berry, DDS, Best TV & Satellite, Bonanza Family Restaurant, Bondol Laboratories, Calvary Christian Bookstore, Chez Weenie, City of Palestine, Clark Oil Company, Classic Flowers & Weddings, Colvin's Country Carpets, Cook's Electric, Counseling Services of Eastern Arkansas, Crestpark Retirement Inns, Crowleys' Ridge Technical Institute, Debbie's Flowers, East Arkansas Community College, East Arkansas Insurance, Entergy, Evans TV.
Farm Bureau Insurance Co., Farm Credit Midsouth, Forrest City Area Chamber of Commerce, Forrest City Bank, Forrest City Refrigeration, Forrest City/St. Francis County Abstract Co. Inc., First National Bank of Eastern Arkansas, First National Bank of Wynne at Forrest City, Food Giant, Game Day Sports Wear, Gehring Veterinary Hospital, Gray's Service Center, Sen. Steve Higginbotham, His & Hers Hair Salon, Holiday Inn and Denny's, Imperial Real Estate and Management Co., Jayroe and Company, Larry's Auto Care, Lower Deck Gift Shop, M&M Miller Insurance, Machen Ford, McDonalds, Mikes Family Restaurant, National Carpet One, Northside Liquor Store, Pearson Insurance Agency, Ross Ford & Toyota
St. Francis County Elected Officials, St. Francis County Food Pantry, Shelter Insurance Paul Spears, Skating Star, Smith Construction, Sonic Drive-in, Southview Liquor, Steven's Funeral Home, Superior Vending Co., Taco Bell, Taylor Glass, The Music Shop, Times-Herald Printing, Times-Herald Publishing, Vel-Rich Jewelers, Wal-Mart Supercenter, White Motor Co. Wrecker Service, Wholesale Metal Supply Co. Inc., W.L. Laws Contracting, Woodhouse Mortuary, Woodruff Electric Co-Operative Corporation.
King Disposal recently announced their holiday schedule for garbage collection.
St. Francis County residents with Thursday pick-up will be handled on Wednesday and Forrest City residents with Thursday pick up will be pushed back to Friday.