Reporter-News Archives

Saturday, May 30, 1998

Regional prison warehouses planned for Snyder

By ANNA M. TINSLEY / Scripps Howard Austin Bureau

AUSTIN -- Texas prison officials are expanding plans for a regional warehouse in Snyder that will store everything from peanut butter to mattresses to farm equipment for West and North Texas prisons.

At first, plans called for renovating a 40,000-square foot warehouse.

Now, Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials have bumped that up to a 74,000-square-foot warehouse as well as two more warehouses: a 40,000-square-foot building for dry goods and a 20,000-square-foot freezer.

The Snyder Regional Warehouse has developed from a $1.5 million venture to an $8.6 million project that should be finished within a year, said Glen Castlebury, a TDCJ spokesman.

The payoff of the warehouse is expected to be great, prison officials say.

"We expect to save a minimum of $1 million a year just in transportation costs," Castlebury said. "When this is completed, we will be able to serve all of our West (and North) Texas prison units out of that warehouse and quit trucking stuff in from far away complexes."

For decades, prison officials have delivered most of the food and necessities to area prisons from the Huntsville distribution center.

But prison officials decided to build a second regional warehouse in Snyder so that less travel time would be needed to transport everything from potato chips and radios to farming supplies and fertilizer to area prison units.

Among the prisons that will be served by the Snyder warehouse are those in Abilene, San Angelo and Wichita Falls.

"This is good for taxpayers, good for the prison system and good for this area of West Texas," said Allan Polunsky, criminal justice board chairman.

A future third regional distribution center is planned for South Texas.

While plans for the Snyder warehouse were announced in 1996, little progress has since been made.

The expanded plans -- the warehouse and two additional storage buildings -- were approved by the TDCJ Board of Directors earlier this month. Bids will go out June 17, records show.

And officials say the warehouse should be built within a year.

"This is a tremendous increase from what had been envisioned originally," Castlebury said. "We regret that it has taken this long, but we feel good about the redesign and expansion. This warehouse is going to be something set to serve the area for a long time."