The Yadkin County Board of Commissioners decided to ignore a letter from Mount Airy City Commissioner Dean W. Brown Monday morning in support of a prison in Surry County.

Brown wrote Yadkin Board Chairman Chad Wagoner recently regarding the matter.

“As you probably know, Surry County has been lobbying for a state correctional institution to be located in Surry County,” Brown wrote Wagoner. “This is a process which has continued over the past two years. The number of jobs will also affect surrounding counties as well as Surry County.

“We have continued lobbying our legislators and elected officials to help our region of the state, which seems to have been overlooked in the past. If we as counties and organizations can support each other’s projects we will achieve much more than working alone.”

Brown included a brochure along with the letter.

“We need your support,” he wrote. “As a leader it would mean a great deal to have a personal letter from you. Copies of the letters are placed in a presentation book and given to key legislators when we visit Raleigh. State leaders are impressed with the work we have done at this point. No other county has worked at this project as intently as we in Surry County have. At our last meeting with Lt. Gov. Dalton, he stated we were moving in the right direction and that other counties were not working as hard or as creative as we in Surry County for the prison location.”

Wagoner said, “I really don’t care one way or another to be honest with you, but I really think we have enough problems with our own jail here.”

“I liken this to Fibrowatt,” said Board member Kevin Austin.

“This was not a request from the Surry County Board of Commissioners but by a Mount Airy Board of Commissioners member,” said Wagoner. The brochure reported the prison had been endorsed by all local boards.

“My opinion is that we let this one ride for the present,” he said.