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| Group Contends Public Opposition, Not Federal Budget Stopped Prison Construction |
| By Shamokin News Item |
| Published: 03/18/2003 |
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The president of the group opposed to building a federal prison in Brush Valley, Penn. said public opinion, not federal budgetary concerns, led to the project being 'shelved.' 'We proved that when it came to the environment of this area, average citizens had a hand in making a decision,' John Faraguna, president of the Brush Valley Preservation Association (BVPA), said Wednesday. 'We are extremely glad to hear the news.' The News-Item reported February 26 that no money has been made available in the 2003 and 2004 federal budgets to construct new prisons; because of that, construction of a facility in Northumberland County will not happen for the next couple of years. However, the project has only been delayed, not scrapped, officials said. 'The reasoning they gave for no funding may or may not be true, but we believe that the public pressure put on by BVPA and the rest of the county stopped this; no doubt about it,' Faraguna said. 'The (federal) Bureau of Prisons and the governments don't want to admit that, but that's the truth.' Richard Subasic, executive vice president and general manager of Consumers Pennsylvania Water Company, Roaring Creek Division, which hopes to sell land between Bear Gap and Tharptown in the Trout Run section of Brush Valley to the government for the prison, sees it otherwise. 'We believe that the reason for the project's stoppage was strictly because of the budgetary concerns,' he said recently in response to Faraguna's statements. But there's no denying the power of the people, Faraguna insists. 'We showed that Brush Valley was a natural resource that needed to be protected with documentation that it could be put anywhere else in the county,' he said. 'If the promoters of building a prison believed half as strongly in doing it as they did in putting it in Brush Valley, it would have been built.' There was much debate over the past two years about whether there were other suitable sites in the county to build the prison. At points, however, there was outright opposition to a federal prison being built in the county, no matter it's location. 'No one wants to admit that before we got involved and even after Sept. 11 (2001), the funding was still there and everyone was going full bore to bring a prison to Brush Valley,' he said. 'When we announced that we were going to take it to court and that we have the backing of all the environmental agencies, the likelihood to build the prison diminished,' Faraguna said. Subasic had said in a story in the February 26 edition that, despite the delay, there will certainly be a need for more prisons and that Consumers Pennsylvania will continue to work with the Bureau of Prisons to secure a facility for the county. |
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