Italy City Council hears proposal for commercial development

Monday evening at 6:30 pm the Italy City Council met to have a work session regarding a commercial development proposal with the City of Italy. All council members were present.

James Parkey along with associates Kent Bratcher and Gary McKibben of James Parkey Associates presented their proposal of a detention center for illegal immigrants for all nationalities to be built in Italy. They would like to put it on fifty acres. He stated the building would look like a school. There would be no guard houses, no guard dogs, but would be a gorilla proof facility with a fence. The facility would only be used as a processing center and would be designed to current building codes.

Parkey explained it would be a five hundred bed facility and would provide approximately one hundred and fifty jobs. The hired employees would be put through training and at the end of their training they would be a licensed correction officer.

The idea is for the City of Italy to be a partner and not view the facility as a burden. Parkey said it would double the growth of Italy and bring in revenue.

After several questions about what it would look like, how it would effect the city, effect the police department, Parkey suggested a field trip to the facility they have built in Haskell, Texas.

He said he could load up anyone that would like to go to Haskell in a thirty six passenger van. That way everyone could see the building and talk to Haskell city officials and see what they think about the effects of the facility to their city.

Parkey proposed leaving Italy at 8:00 am and would be in Haskell by noon, have lunch, see the facility and be back in Italy between 6:00 -7:00 at night. It was decided that Parkey would meet with Terri Murdock (city administrator) and pick a date and time to go to the Haskell facility.

The city council was given a sample proposal which will be reviewed by the city attorney and the city administrator. If the attorney says that it looks good then it would be put before the city council for discussion.

The session ended at approximately 7:20 pm. (Cindy Sutherland May 18, 2:30 p.m. Italy City Council) http://www.italyneotribune.com/stories/italy-city-council-hears-proposal-for-commercial-development

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