CHARLESTON, W.Va. --  The Pendleton County Commission will host a meeting tonight<co thurs> at the Franklin Community Center to discuss possible construction of a new federal detention center for nonviolent undocumented immigrants.

The Winchester, Va.-based GSI Professional Group is proposing to build the center between Brandywine and Sugar Grove. GSI predicts it will create between 250 and 300 new jobs.

Pendleton County Clerk Linda Rexroad said the 7 p.m. meeting will be moderated by Jennifer Taylor-Ide, a local resident.

"She will take questions from the audience. They have also invited speakers who may include Delegate Harold Michael [D-Hardy] and George Barlow, who heads GSI Professional Corrections.

"It will be an informational meeting. It is hard to say if the detention center will be built here or not. The planning is being done way ahead. It may never show up," Rexroad said.

Pendleton County Administrator Karen Pitsenbarger previously told The Daily News Record in Harrisonburg, Va., that GSI Professional Corrections approached Pendleton County officials with the idea to build the center.

County officials decided to move ahead with the project, Pitsenbarger said. She did not return telephone calls to her office on Wednesday.

GSI Professional Group and GSI Tax and Accounting registered to do business in West Virginia in 2000, according to the Secretary of State's Web site. The registration of both companies has expired.

Neither George Barlow, president and director of the GSI companies, nor Patrick Casey, director of business development for GSI, returned several telephone calls on Wednesday placed to their Winchester and Chesapeake, Va. offices, as well as to their cell phones.

 Gene McConnell, a resident of Circleville who plans to attend tonight's meeting, said, "When there is potential for economic progress, we have to evaluate it. But we have to make sure it is the right kind of economic development.

"We have quiet communities here. So we have to be careful about bringing in something that will upset and negatively impact our quality of life.

"The potential impact on the county is significant. Maybe this should be put up to a special election where everyone gets to vote," McConnell said.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. --  The Pendleton County Commission will host a meeting tonight<co thurs> at the Franklin Community Center to discuss possible construction of a new federal detention center for nonviolent undocumented immigrants.

The Winchester, Va.-based GSI Professional Group is proposing to build the center between Brandywine and Sugar Grove. GSI predicts it will create between 250 and 300 new jobs.

Pendleton County Clerk Linda Rexroad said the 7 p.m. meeting will be moderated by Jennifer Taylor-Ide, a local resident.

"She will take questions from the audience. They have also invited speakers who may include Delegate Harold Michael [D-Hardy] and George Barlow, who heads GSI Professional Corrections.

"It will be an informational meeting. It is hard to say if the detention center will be built here or not. The planning is being done way ahead. It may never show up," Rexroad said.

Pendleton County Administrator Karen Pitsenbarger previously told The Daily News Record in Harrisonburg, Va., that GSI Professional Corrections approached Pendleton County officials with the idea to build the center.

County officials decided to move ahead with the project, Pitsenbarger said. She did not return telephone calls to her office on Wednesday.

GSI Professional Group and GSI Tax and Accounting registered to do business in West Virginia in 2000, according to the Secretary of State's Web site. The registration of both companies has expired.

Neither George Barlow, president and director of the GSI companies, nor Patrick Casey, director of business development for GSI, returned several telephone calls on Wednesday placed to their Winchester and Chesapeake, Va. offices, as well as to their cell phones.

 Gene McConnell, a resident of Circleville who plans to attend tonight's meeting, said, "When there is potential for economic progress, we have to evaluate it. But we have to make sure it is the right kind of economic development.

"We have quiet communities here. So we have to be careful about bringing in something that will upset and negatively impact our quality of life.

"The potential impact on the county is significant. Maybe this should be put up to a special election where everyone gets to vote," McConnell said.

Donna Hoover, who lives in Brandywine, said, "We live right in the community where they are going to put the prison. We just don't want it. Our property values will go down.

"We will be afraid of escapees, of people that will follow them here and what it will do to our school system. We don't want it in our community.

"Barlow said he will not build it if local people are against it. But it was already in the works before our citizens ever knew about it," Hoover said.

Seth DiStefano, an organizer for the American Civil Liberties Union in West Virginia, said, "From what I have heard, the opposition from citizens in Pendleton County seems to be pretty significant.

"The building of this type of facility in a place like Pendleton County does not make a whole lot of sense.

"You may have 1,000 or more undocumented immigrants who can only stay there for 90 days. But you only have a handful of lawyers at WVU or in Harrisonburg who could handle their cases. You might have to bring in a truckload of lawyers from Washington every day to represent them."

In the near future, federal laws related to visas and green cards for undocumented immigrant workers may be relaxed.

"Are they planning to build a facility that will not have any use in a couple of years?" DiStefano asked. "It is difficult to find out anything about the proposed facility."

Some Pendleton business leaders have supported the new project. But the Pendleton County Chamber of Commerce did not return a telephone call on Wednesday.

New employment at the proposed detention center would include jobs in security, transportation, administration, cooking and cleaning.

Pendleton County would also receive a $20,000 monthly check from the federal government, according to an agreement already signed by County Commissioners Judy Hott, Robert G. Armentrout and Carl Hevener.

Reach Paul J. Nyden at pjny...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5164.