By JENNIFER McKEE
Gazette State Bureau
HELENA - The dispute over a 464-bed jail sitting empty at the edge of
Hardin was on stark display here Tuesday as hundreds of Hardin-area
jail supporters filled the Capitol rotunda for a rally.
Led
by Greg Smith, executive director of the Two Rivers Authority, the
economic-development arm of the city of Hardin, supporters took an
adversarial tone, arguing that state interference has prevented them
from opening the jail and offering more than 100 new jobs in their
economically depressed area.
"We don't want a handout," Smith
told the boisterous crowd, which included three teenage dancers from
the Lodge Grass High School Indian Club along with a traditional
drumming group. "But we do want some assistance."
But state
officials, who met with the protesters for more than an hour after the
rally, said that it is state law and the lack of need for jail space
that has the facility mothballed and in danger of defaulting on $27
million in revenue bonds issued to build the jail.
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