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Families Gearing Up For Rally
BY JIM REAGEN
Jessie L. Logan spent Wednesday evening with her friends making signs for Friday's rally to oppose closing the Ogdensburg Correctional Facility.
Like a lot of area teenagers, she's worried what will happen if the prison closes.
"We don't like it," the Ogdensburg Free Academy eighth-grader said as she stood next to a sign, "Save Our Dad's Job."
"We could lose our best friends if the prison closes and our friends have to move," she said. "I don't want the jail to close because I'll have to move."
She said she's hoping the community will come out on Friday at 4 p.m. at Ogdensburg city hall to join her at the rally.
"The more people we have, the better the chance to keep it open," she said.
Chad J. Stickney, sector chief for the New York State Correctional Officer and Police Benevolent Association (NYSCOPBA), said about 120 people were in and out of the Odd Fellows on Wednesday, helping to paint signs for Friday's rally.
"We need to come together as a community on Friday," he said.
Mr. Stickney said a large turnout will help send a signal to leaders in Albany that the community is united behind the prison and its employees.
He said his union is determined to fight to keep the prison open.
"We'll fight this all the way to the end," he said.
"It's been pretty steady," Mr. Stickney said of the families that came in Wednesday to help paint signs. "They've been coming in since two o'clock."
Stickney said he was pleased by the strong turnout for the sign making event.
Karen S. Rogers said her husband has spent years working outside of Ogdensburg at other prisons, hoping that he'll eventually be able to transfer to a prison closer to his family in Ogdensburg.
If Ogdensburg Correctional Facility closes, he and many other corrections employees commuting to distant prisons will find it unlikely that they can transfer to a prison closer to their families.
She and her daughter, Katie, painted a sign saying "I Need My Dad Home."
"We need the jail to stay open so he can come home," she said.
