The Virginia Department of Corrections is planning to put its growing Manassas probation program next door to a swimming club, outraging local residents.
“Didn’t they do their due diligence and find out what was next door?” Sudley Club President Mike Allen said.
The swimming and tennis club has 350 member families and bustles with children during the summer, Allen said, contending violent criminals reporting for meetings with their probation officers should not be drawn so close to the children.
The Prince William County Board of Supervisors has requested a public hearing to address community complaints and is planning to request a separate public hearing for another move in the Dumfries area Tuesday.
“We understand these concerns and we try to reassure all citizens through education,” Department of Corrections spokesman Larry Traylor said. “However, there is no limitation as to distance from any type of building or operation.”
Lease deadlines triggered the plan to move, Traylor said. The state must consider other office-space options after a lease expires to ensure competitive rent prices.
The state will hold public hearing soon, but a date has not been set. It is not clear if the public hearing would alter the outcome, officials said.
“I had some constituents who had concerns about putting a probation facility nextto a high school, an elementary school and a swim club,” Brentsville Supervisor Wally Covington said. “I don’t get to make a decision, but we can at least give our residents a chance to be heard.”
The probation system’s growth, which climbed 3.7 percent to 2,087 residents last year in the county, is not a factor in the move, Traylor said.
Area resident Beverly Humphreys, who can throw a rock into the building’s parking lot from her backyard deck, told The Examiner better options are available elsewhere. “I just think they need to reconsider where they want to put that.”
Probation cases
The probation system in Prince William County has grown steadily in recent years.
» 2003: 1,894
» 2004: 1,869
» 2005: 1,970
» 2006: 2,011
» 2007: 2,087
