Kellie Wasko to speak with Lincoln County residents about new men's prison

Secretary of Corrections Kellie Wasko will be in Lincoln County Thursday evening to discuss the proposed new state men’s penitentiary site.

Her visit, arranged by the group Neighbors Opposed to Prison Expansion, or NOPE, Lincoln County, coincides with the group filing a lawsuit on Friday that would make the state request permission from the county for the land acquisition.

Madeline Voegeli, the Vice President of NOPE Lincoln County, said the goal of the meeting Thursday and the lawsuit is to get some answers about why the site was chosen.

“We're just seeking transparency,” she said. “How did this come to be? How was the site chosen? What was the process for the site being chosen?”

More: South Dakota landowners sue to put prison site in front of county zoning board

The lawsuit pushes for DOC to either apply for a conditional-use permit from the county or have a judge rule that the DOC has a right to build, according to South Dakota Searchlight.

In its reasoning as to why the state didn’t need to seek out the approval of Lincoln County is the legal opinion from then Attorney General William Janklow, who was also later elected governor.

Janklow asserted in his opinion that the state could use eminent domain and not use county zoning laws, according to Searchlight. The opinion came as a clarification to a state law giving counties to manage land use through zoning but not if the state had to comply with the local zoning rules.

More: Lincoln County residents voice opposition to proposed South Dakota State Penitentiary site

The lawsuit and Wasko’s visit come after DOC announced in early October that it had selected 320 acres in rural Lincoln County as the new site for the 1,500 bed men’s prison, meant to replace the current State Penitentiary located in Sioux Falls.

The land was already in possession of the state through the Office of Schools and Public Lands and DOC paid $7.9 million for the acreage.

When’s the NOPE meeting?

Wasko, along with Reps. Erine Otten, R-Tea, and Aaron Aylward, R-Harrisburg, and Lincoln County Commissioner Michael Poppens, will meet with county residents on Thursday at 6:30 p.m..

The meeting is scheduled to take place at the Canton Barn, located at 28079 481st Avenue in Canton.

More: Kellie Wasko pens letter explaining reasoning behind location of new prison in Lincoln County

Voegeli said that there will most likely be categories that the questions will be filtered into, with a predetermined set of questions plus time for audience members to ask their own.

“Lincoln County residents are just teeming with questions and people are feeling very excited, overwhelmed and emotional, to have their questions answered by these elected officials,” she said.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: SD Corrections to speak with Lincoln County residents on new prison