Town Approves Final Agreements for High School Construction
The Berryville Town Council convened Wednesday night to vote on the final issues that stood in the way of building the new Clarke County High School. The meeting represented the culmination of months of back and forth negotiations between the the Town of Berryville and the School Board on a complex special use permit required by the town.
The issues at hand revolved around cost sharing and easements. Lawyers for each side had passed agreements back and forth for review for months in an attempt to iron out disagreements in the final language. As the clock ticked away, the School Board suggested a joint meeting between lawyers and representatives from both sides in a face to face setting to finalize the documents. Both sides agreed to and participated in that meeting last week. As a result the final documents were approved by the School Board on Monday of this week and the documents before the Council Wednesday were, for all intents and purposes, pre-approved.
The first item was the cost sharing agreement for the difference between the 8″ waterline the school is required to install across its property and the upgrade to a 12″ pipe that the town wants installed. The Town Council approved the agreement unanimously.
The next two items on the agenda dealt with easements. Construction of the high school will require new easements as well as vacating some existing easements for sewer, water, trails, and construction. Also in these agreements were provisional easements for the temporary entrance. These required many revisions before being finalized because of the timings of filing easements and vacating easements. These agreements were approved unanimously as well.
The whirlwind twenty-seven minute session provided the School Board with the final approvals needed for construction on the new Clarke County High School to begin.
After the votes Mayor Kirby took a moment to congratulate the School Board on their accomplishment. “On behalf of the Council I would like to congratulate the School Board in working with us, I know it has been a long process and there have been some tense moments, but we endured so congratulations on getting the approval from the Council.”
School Board Chair Robina Bouffault responded to the Council and said, “We wish to thank the town council for these approvals which will allow us to accept the lowest bidder which appears to be Shockey.” Ms. Bouffault added, “We hope that this will be a school that both the town and county citizens can all be proud of.”
Posted by Mike Dowling
on Jun 24 2010. Filed under Feature, News.
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Alright…let’s turn some dirt.
“Congratulations” ? The Town got what they wanted at the expense of the students. That’s a little like a mafioso saying “Congratulations, we don’t have to break your legs now that you paid us.”
Well said. The Mayor’s line about how they “endured” and now can approve it all is rather telling, too…
HAHA..Well said Michelle!
Some people are never happy…
Guess I can put my Git-R-Done t-shirt in the Valley Trader now…
I think some people are confused. The town was looking out for it’s citizens.I don’t think our taxes should support the school project. Don’t forget we also pay county taxes.
You’re kidding, right? You don’t think your taxes should support the school project? You think stuffing almost 800 kids into a campus designed for less than 500 is a good idea? What planet are you from?
For your info RW I’m not afraid to use my real name. I said my town taxes not county taxes. If you live in the town limits you are lucky enough to pay both.
But, it’s OK for the county to fund the Town’s obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Right…the town saw a way to demand that infrastructure improvements (which it itself had repeatedly put off) be made on someone else’s dime. Right…that’s cause for “celebration.”
yep I agree with allen! OH and big deal something got done! for a change!
I have to agree with Allen. Making me pay twice as much for the same County high school as my County neighbors would be wrong and unfair. The Town is paying for the upgrades to Town stuff, while the SB is paying the same or less than Alton Echols would have to have paid for building on the same site. Town residents already get to pay double taxes — Our choice for living in town with public water, sewer, a PD, etc., and I don’t regret it, except when the County acts like they’re doing me a favor by “sharing” costs for their projects with the Town.