October 14, 1999

Robert Kellam

School Board Chairman

By Michele Sullivan

Members of the Town Council said Tuesday night they would reconsider letting the School Board build its bus maintenance facility at Ressie Jeffries Elementary School, but defiantly won’t be giving up the 8-10 acres school officials say are needed to build the garage on the old Avtex parking lot.

Council members, who met with the Board of Supervisors and the School Board in a three-way work session to try and resolve the matter Tuesday night, were adamant in their decision. They had never promised the schools 10 acres of Avtex land, they said, despite what the schools assumed, and the schools weren’t going to get it.

Council members said the schools could have the western 5.3 acres of the 10 acre lot, but that the town wanted to keep the eastern, paved portion for town institutional uses.

School Board Chairman Robert Kellam said the western strip of the parking lot is heavily wooded, crisscrossed with ravines, and would cost way too much money to level and pave.

"Our job is to be stewards of the public’s money and the best use of the public’s money is to spending it on excavation," Kellam said. "This land will not work."

The Council wants to hold onto the level, paved part of the parking lot for future use that it says will be consistent with the town’s comprehensive plan. The plan calls for a mix of commercial and light industrial on the parcel. Putting a school bus garage and parking lot there would not be consistent with that use, said Council members.

Besides, said Vice Mayor Tony Carter, the Avtex redevelopment project will draw national attention as a model of what can be done with a Superfund site, and a bus maintenance facility might not be the most aesthetically pleasing thing to see when driving by.

"We’re trying to put in a nice redevelopment project here, and have to think ‘What would fit in?’" he said. "We’d like to keep that part for some institutional use for the town or maybe for an office building."

Happy Creek Supervisor Brackenridge "Brack" Bentley said he had heard from a reliable town source that the town wants to relocate its own maintenance facility there.

Carter, who was speaking for the entire Council, neither confirmed nor denied Bentley’s question, except to repeat that the town wanted to retain the land.

North River District Supervisor Branlet "Brett" Haynes. Jr. pushed the Council for an explanation of their usage plan for the land.

"Is it commercial? Is it light industrial? Is it institutional? Is it for the town? What does the town want to do with it?" Carter couldn’t answer.

"There’s nothing definite planned for it."

Comments like those drove Kellam to raise his voice in frustration. The School Board has been trying to relocate its bus facility for more that two years, he said. The Town Council has nixed every promising in-town location because of concerns about noise and traffic.

"Every time we try to do something in town, your board has been nothing but a roadblock and a thorn in our side," he said.

After seeing that the Council had no intention of changing its position, North River district Supervisor Bradley ‘ Brett’ Haynes Jr. suggested looking at alternatives.

"I don’t like it any more that you do," he told the School Board. "The Council has stated their position and that’s the way it is. I don’t want to sit around here all night debating this. We need to determine where the School Board can go."

The supervisors then asked if the Council would reconsider the site proposed last year on the Ressie Jeffries Elementary School land. The town had nixed the site, even though the School Board owns the land. Because it deemed the maintenance facility a light industrial use incompatible with neighborhood zoning. Also, resident of the area complained at the public hearing, saying they didn’t want the noise or traffic associated with the facility.

Haynes asked if there could be an informal poll of Council members to indicate there willingness to reconsider the site.

"No," said Carter.

School board member Linda Poe proposed splitting the bus fleet and parking only 40 buses at the school to help eliminate resident concerns about bus traffic.

"I’d be willing to consider that," said Carter. But Kellam exploded in frustration.

"I’m tired of your consideration," he said. "It’s no use to keep shuckin’ and jivin’ and wastin’a lot of time on this."

The School board has already lost one mechanic who refused to work under current conditions, said Superintendent Nancy Vance. The mechanics can’t pull their buses fully into a garage, and so are forced to work on them outside in all kinds of weather.

"You should have seen them last week out there in the pouring rain," she said. "We’ve lost one mechanic and another has severe arthritis from working in the cold and damp. These are not young men. They don’t have the facilities we need to insure the proper safety of these busses. This is serious stuff."

Serious to the schools and the county, but not, apparently, to the Town council, said Board Chairman James McManaway, He also reminded the Council that, as joint owners of the Avtex land, the supervisors will have to approve any plans the town has for the Avtex parking lot.

"So why don’t we just scratch each other’s backs and get these school buses lit?" he said.

Carter said the Council wold reconsider the Ressie Jeffries site, but, on advice of Town attorney Todd Benson, would have to go through the entire public hearing process again.

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