What do you get when you put a room full of long time residents of an RV Park and a man representing a company presenting a prison proposal into a small room? Well I'm sure there's a really good punch line for that, but honestly it was a very loud (I'd say 80% were wearing hearing aids), and lively attack on the representatives.
The latest excitement around here is the idea of building a prison about 8 or so miles up the road. It was communicated to me through the "grapevine." Someone told someone, who told someone.....In a nutshell, the company that specializes in privately run/owned medium security prisons is looking at this location to present a proposal to the city and county to build. They notified residents with in a 1200 ft radius about the proposal and last night's informational meeting.
Well if you're familiar with the desert territory, 1200 ft within this expansive terrain doesn't reach too far when you're trying to contact people. We're pretty spread out here on purpose. So the only ones that were contacted were the residents of a long ago established RV park that borders the southern perimeter of the proposed site, and the foreclosed golf course to the west. As to whether the guys at the golf course picked up and ran as they heard news of what was coming or if they just failed due to the economic climate, I don't know. Needless to say the 1200 ft radius did not inform many residents that this would effect. But those gals at the RV park got busy and told everyone at church and passed the word, so that the ten chairs that the prison guys set up in the tiny room at the Francisco Grande didn't meet the needs of the attendees. It was standing room only.
The fact that the meeting started with the very impressive presentation by the marketing guy telling us about the fabulous accomodations provided for the prisoners (the CAD education program, good food, and GED incentive program), hit a sour note with a good majority of the attendees, didn't get things off to the start they probably wanted. I have to admit when he got done talking about the place I was ready to sign my girls up, forget the expenses of college. Shoot they wouldn't have to survive on mac n cheese while they were getting their education, oh but this is an all male facility. It just didn't sit right telling a bunch of struggling ranchers and fixed income seniors of the benefits these criminals would receive. Don't get me wrong I am not suggesting torture for these wrong doers, just not a luxury retreat.
The tenor was set when the seniors started screaming out in their wavering voices, "Speak up, I can't hear you." The volume for the rest of the meeting was very high, which gave a certain agitation to the overall feel of the meeting.
There were two people that thought that the prison was a good idea as proposed. Of course one admitted that she probably wasn't going to live long enough to see it built so it would really impact the others that were going to survive.
Overall, the design and philosophy is good, just not up the road from us. They admitted that they had had escapes in the past, and the criminals were potentially murderers that have learned to work the system and behave so that they could get transferred to a lesser security prison. They were probably a little put off by the angry crowd telling them they came across as underhanded and secretive by not informing people in advance and only a limited number.
The benefits to the city if a facility were to be built as a result of an annex that would have to take place for the property to be considered Casa Grande, would be nice. Unfortunately, none of those benefits would extend to the rest of us that would be stuck with the facility glaring at us as we drove home, locking our doors as we read the signs posted not to pick up hitch hikers.
The company will present this to the city April 19 and the county June 2, all the way over in Florence. That is a good drive for us. The dates, conveniently for the prison reps, will eliminate some of the attendees as a result of the migratory patterns of our snow birds that inhabit the RV park for the winter. By the way, the name of the RV park is "Rustler's Roost: Escapees Park." I just loved that one!
I have the meeting dates in my calendar and will probably attend those meetings as well. I really find the disruption to my schedule inconvenient, but I don't want this to slip through and building to begin the end of summer as proposed. I am sure this topic will re-emerge in the future.
As for the ranch, the daily chores will take up most of the morning. I will have to take the little tractor with its bucket down to a water spigot and fill the bucket with water. I will then drive to the recently planted trees on the perimeter of the property and pour the water on each of the eight. I believe they all show signs of life despite the band of Indian horses that took the liberty of pulling them all out of the ground and throwing them to the side. Yes that is another story for another time. As for my precious trees, I am happy to report that my Mulberry trees planted 2-3 years ago, have greened up and look a tiny bit bigger this season. I am going for the "park like" setting around the equestrian section of the property. I find myself chanting, "grow little trees, grow little trees."
Time for chores.
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