Beginning of the end
Media migration into city begins with crews, equipment
By Suzanne Risley
Tribune-Star
Crews for national media outlets parked their double-wide trailers and settled in Wednesday outside the U.S. Penitentiary, Terre Haute, to prepare for Timothy McVeigh's execution next week.
Generators were installed for lights. Platforms were built for on-air television personalities coming next week. Tables, chairs, portable toilets and communication lines also were set up as prison officials cruised the property perimeter in a utility vehicle.
"It went very smoothly. Everything is going really as planned," said Linda Smith, a Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman at the bureau's public information center at the entrance to the prison.
Trucks started lining up shortly after 6 a.m. Wednesday, she said.
Marybeth Cully, a Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman manning the media center at Holiday Inn, U.S. 41 at Interstate 70, said the first few hundred media badges were picked up Wednesday.
By late Wednesday afternoon, dozens of trailers dotted the landscape in front of the prison, with more pulling in.
"The federal government has not contracted to pay for any of this," Smith said about the equipment being installed.
"We're very conscious of cost and this is all being taken care of by the media. They're paying for everything."
Equipment such as platforms, tents, refrigerators, golf carts and fans are being rented from Complete Outdoor Equipment & Rental at 5009 S. U.S. 41.
"Things are progressing fine. It'll be a two-day project setting everything up and another two-day project taking everything down," said Jim Decker, rental manager for Complete Outdoor.
He has dealt with major networks, including some from Europe, a job that has taken most of his time for the last two months.
After realizing how many media outlets would need equipment to cover the execution, Decker decided to rent platforms and tents from a company in Pennsylvania, then subrent them out. He discovered only three companies in the country that had enough platforms. It took three trucks to bring them here, he said.
Complete Outdoor also is providing more than 200 tables and almost 600 chairs, Decker said.
Harold Smith watched the setup from his perch across the highway from the prison. He clutched a sign proclaiming "Jesus Loves Tim McVeigh," with a broken and bleeding heart pictured beneath the words.
Smith, 50, of Albany, N.Y., was the only protester apparent Wednesday.
"I'm here because I think I'm supposed to be here," he said, adding he wants McVeigh to know God loves him.
Smith said he understands the anger McVeigh felt about the stand-off between the government and Branch Davidians at Waco that ended in the death of more than 80 people, including children. However, Smith said he channeled that anger towards songwriting and spending time with youth, instead of seeking revenge.
Leaning against a wooden pole at the corner of Springhill Drive and Indiana 63, Smith said no one has told him he could not stay. The police have been friendly, he said.
"I'm pretty peaceful. I'm talking love, love, love," he said. "I don't support the death penalty, ever. I'm pro-life. But, I don't condemn those who abort or kill."
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