http://www.timeswv.com/articles/2005/11/24/news/news03.txt Times West Virginian November 24, 2005 Commission hoping to stabilize former jail Members vote 2-1 to submit application for $96,000 grant By Misty Poe - Times West Virginian FAIRMONT - County Commissioner Alan Parks made an offer Wednesday. “If this commission wants to, budget me $15,000 and I'll have that jail on the ground in one week,” Parks said. But it wasn't the offer the commission chose to take when it met Wednesday. Instead, commissioners voted 2-1 to sign and submit an EDI Special Projects Planning Grant in the amount of $96,000 to help stabilize the former Marion County Jail. Last week, the application was left unsigned when Parks refused to second a motion made by Commissioner Randy Elliott. This week, all three commissioners attended the meeting, with Commission President Cody Starcher and Elliott voting in favor of the application and Parks against it. “I've always said that I've never seen a grant that I didn't like,” Starcher said. Engineering reports that questioned the structural integrity of the former jail led the commission to seek bids for its demolition last fall. The jail is recognized by the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing building to the downtown historic district. When the county discussed demolishing the jail, a group of citizens, including members of the Fairmont Historic Landmarks Commission, protested. Though several contractors expressed interest in the project, not one single bid was returned to the commission by its deadline, Starcher said. A month later, U.S. Rep. Alan Mollohan announced that $96,224 in U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funds were available to help stabilize the structure. “This battle has been fought for a longtime, and it is my understanding that it was decided to save the jail,” Elliott said. “This grant money is just the beginning, I understand, but it gives us a beginning that we didn't have before.” In the EDI application, the county listed the priorities for stabilizing the jail, including: Repairing the roof to prevent water from further damaging the building; reconstructing the railing along the edge of the roof; constructing a cabling system to secure the roof, if needed; and studying the foundation to determine the best course of action. “Preserving downtown Fairmont is like having a beautiful smile,” Elliott said. “Right now, all of the teeth are present. But if you kick one of the teeth out, you don't have that beautiful smile anymore.” Parks said he liked Elliott's analogy, but that he personally considered the jail to be “like a molar because it's in the back of the mouth and nobody can see it.” The jail was built in 1912 and was closed to prisoners in August 2001 when the state shifted from county jails to a regional jail system. A February 2004 report from Buckhart Horn Inc. stated that “based on historical construction data, demolition of the existing structure and constructing a new building would be less expensive than renovating, given the inherent risk associated with a structure of this age.” Once stabilized, the commission will work on a plan to transform the former jail into a facility to store records the county is mandated to keep. E-mail Misty Poe at mpoe@timeswv.com