Planning is in the final phase for an $800,000 chapel at the stateprison in Gunnison, funded by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The chapel will be used by other denominations as well."We are probably looking at bid openings about July 1. The committee has been pushing for this for three years," said Darrell Warren, who is called bishop even though the unit is actually the Gunnison LDS 4th Branch and its leader is a branch president, not bishop.
"There isn't a lot of excavation to be done, and we are hoping to be in the chapel by Christmas," he said.
Warren gives much of the credit to Steven Buchanan for pushing to get a chapel for the Central Utah Correctional Facility. Buchanan, a former LDS branch president at the prison, is now a stake president.
The LDS Church was asked to fund the chapel, and $800,000 was budgeted through Bishop H. David Burton of the Presiding Bishopric.
Church authorities then approached state officials with the proposal and pledge for financing. The Utah Legislature approved the project in January 1994.
"The church put up the money and then turned it over to the state," Warren said. Architect Dan E. Haltinner, representing the LDS Church, and Dave Rees of Campbell Rees Architects in Salt Lake City, who has represented the state, have worked well together in developing plans for the chapel, Warren said.
The new chapel will be built adjacent to the prison's multipurpose room. It will seat up to 200 and can be expanded to seat another 100 by opening a partition door between the two rooms.
The chapel will also provide four classrooms and offices for the church and other denominations, Warren said. With the multipurpose room, a larger number of people can be accommodated when attending such events as graduations, orientations, drama and musical performances.
Warren and other committee members are also excited about a new computer room. "We probably do as much genealogy as any stake in the church, and the inmates love it," he said. "We will have a direct line with the church, so we won't have to be using floppy discs."
Haltinner said the project has the full support of the LDS Family History Department in Salt Lake City, which provides materials from that budget.
The LDS branch at the prison has 60 to 70 members who regularly attend services and church activities.
"They are the cream of the crop (among inmates) and are interested in religion and making something of themselves after they get out of prison," Warren said. "We feel the church has been a leveling influence for them."
He added, "Our bishopric meets with them individually and collectively."
Additional religious instruction is also given LDS inmates through the Snow College Institute.
The branch president and his counselors, Jay Childs and Reed Roberts, spend most of their Sundays with inmates as well as a couple of nights each week. Roger Jensen is the clerk.
Principal members of the building committee are Irvin Mathews, counselor in the Gunnison Stake presidency, Warden Fred Van DerVeur, the architects and Warren. The committee has also included prison administrative and maintenance personnel as well as others who have had a keen interest in the chapel project.