Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 11, 1990 TAG: 9005110460
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK MORRISON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
This does not mean the county plans to definitely build the school. That depends on how enrollment grows in booming southern Botetourt.
But School Board members suspect the county eventually will need the school and feel it's prudent to buy the site now while they have the chance.
Otherwise, if enrollment grows as expected and the county finds itself needing property a few years down the road, officials fear suitable land won't be available then.
"It's a sweet piece of property," said School Board member Ray Sprinkle. "I think it's a good deal and we're lucky to get it."
Sites large enough to accommodate a school are becoming harder to find around Cloverdale and Daleville, Sprinkle said, because of the intensive development demand for land.
The 23-acre future-school site is located on Read Mountain Road, formerly Virginia 654, between the Apple Tree Village and Runaway Village subdivisions.
Botetourt developer David Hale owns the land and is planning to build an adjoining 80-acre subdivision that will surround the school site.
Essentially that would mean the school, if built, would be at the center of a neighborhood rather than on Read Mountain Road, a busy thoroughfare.
"It's the best tract," Hale said. "They cut the middle of the pie and didn't get any crust."
He said his price for the land is $230,000.
Although the site hasn't been purchased yet by the county, Sprinkle called it "pretty much a done deal."
Hale and County Administrator John Williamson confirmed that negotiations are under way and both sides are near an agreement.
Meanwhile, the School Board on Thursday agreed in executive session to declare a piece of land it owns in Blue Ridge surplus property to be given to the Board of Supervisors.
In exchange, school Superintendent C.S. McClure said the supervisors have promised to make the Cloverdale site available if and when it is needed for a middle school.
The Blue Ridge site would have been too costly and difficult to turn into an adequate school site, officials say.
But it could be sold or developed into a neighborhood recreation center. About 15 acres of the land already has been leased to a Blue Ridge community group for use as a temporary ball field.
Sprinkle said enrollment growth projections indicate the county may need a middle school in southern Botetourt within five years.
Students in seventh and eighth grades now attend Botetourt Intermediate School in Fincastle, which has been moving toward the middle-school concept. Sixth-graders still attend elementary schools.
Sprinkle added that if enrollment doesn't increase as anticipated and the School Board doesn't need the site after all, the county could easily sell the land.
"Or say our priorities change for whatever reason, that property would be easy to unload," he said.
by CNB