What impact will a jail have on the Choco Industrial Park? | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

Who told Mayor Mobley it would help?

    Over the last few weeks both Chocowinity Mayor Jimmy Mobley and Public Works Director Kevin Brickhouse have publically stated that they were told by Duke Energy and/or the consultants working with Duke on the site assessment study of the Chocowinity Industrial Park that, essentially, locating a jail in the park would not only not be a detriment to economic development but indeed may help facilitate it.

    The Beaufort Observer sent a written questionnaire to Mayor Mobley asking his to substantiate that position, including who he talked to that said that a jail would not hurt development prospects. He refused to respond.

    In conversations with John Nelms, Manager of Economic Development for Duke Energy, Nelms told us: "no one with Duke has made such a statement." He went on to explain to us that the Site Assessment was not going to address the issue of whether a jail should be located in the park.

    The video clip below is of a brief discussion during the Q&A session when the issue was raised about how the study considered the potential impact of building a jail on the site would have on future development. We'll let the video speak for itself.
   
    After the meeting, Commissioner Candidate Keith Kidwell and an Observer reporter talked more at length with Mr. Sweeney. He explained that it is impossible to predict with any degree of accuracy what impact a jail being on the site would have on potential tenants. "For one industry it may make no difference. For another it might be a deal-breaker. For others it might be a "tipping of the balance" one way or the other after other criteria are considered." He went on to say: "for me the question is: Why would you want to use property of this quality for a jail? What you usually want is companies that will bring jobs and increase the tax base. The question becomes, can the part of this site that would be used by a jail be put to higher and better use?"

    But none—not a single one—of the Duke officials or the McCullum Sweeney people even came close to saying what Mayor Mobley and Kevin Brickhouse said they said. One told us off the record: "To say that a jail improves the marketability of any site is absurd." We agree.

    But we've offered it before and we'll offer it again, to either Mayor Mobley or Mr. Brickhouse. You've got equal space to explain the basis of your claim as long as you explain also why you refused to identify your source of information and you answer the questions we posed to you.

poll#49