Town Resolution Seeks To Keep School Open

Following a spirited comment period by citizens and councilmen, Halifax Town Council authorized Town Manager Carl Espy to draft a formal resolution petitioning the School Board to delay closing Halifax Elementary School for a year.
Councilman Charles Parker used the forum to question School Board member Joe Bailey’s representation of the town’s interests.
“Halifax is a school bus, you’re driving it and you fell asleep at the wheel,” Parker said to Bailey.
Parker said it was his understanding that if Council asked the School Board respectfully at the Board’s Monday meeting to delay the rezoning of the Halifax/Sinai zone, it would be granted.
“We got a delay in the vote (to rezone,)” he said. “Not a delay in closing the school.”
Parker said that while the new ‘alternative’ plan that would send all the elementary school students in Halifax to the new South Boston school has satisfied some, there are issues with the plan’s feasibility.
The alternative plan would still call for Halifax Elementary to be used for some other purpose and it would transform Sinai Elementary into a Pre-K facility for the two towns’ young students.
“Do you think that people who live in Brentwood want their kids bused to Sinai for Pre-K?” Parker asked, noting this alternative plan may end up making the original plan look better to South Boston residents.
Parker said he has experience with Pre-K busing. The councilman, who lives 300 feet from Halifax Elementary, said one of his children had to be bused to Wilson-Memorial because he was told Halifax’s Pre-K was full.
“What is the hurry about changing the school zones?” he asked.
Since Halifax was going to be used in some capacity next year anyway it’s not like the school system would be saving money on the heating or electric bill, Parker pointed out.
School Superintendent Paul Stapleton is also on record saying that no teachers would lose their jobs over the closing so that should not be an issue either, Parker said.
Parker also had questions about the proposed academy that would be housed in the school.
“Is there a written plan?” Parker asked Bailey. “I don’t think there’s a plan except in Stapleton’s mind. None of us know what it really is.”
Councilman Allen Stevens said if he’d known the new school would lead to the closing of Halifax Elementary that he would have donated the land necessary out of the 41 acres he owns in Centerville.
“The school system didn’t ask,” Stevens said. “They should have searched a bit harder.”
Stevens also said the new school should be renamed the Halifax/South Boston Elementary School if students from both towns end up attending the new facility.
He then said he has issues with the plan, noting the alternative plan calls for 910 students in a school whose capacity is stated to be 950.
“The new school will be pretty close to capacity,” Stevens said. “Room for growth has to be considered.”
During the public comment section of the meeting, Missy Slate Henderson, David Martin, Father David Booher and wife Leslie, Planning Commissioner Bill Confroy and Kimberly Parker all addressed Council.
Henderson said she and many other residents wanted a clearer explanation of what exactly the Law and Leadership Academy would be.
She also asked Bailey whom he had contacted in the town.
“Will others be contacted before you move something in?” she asked. “We need to know what they’d be doing there.”
Martin, the town’s police chief and former member of the Board of Supervisors, urged Council to do its own research on the costs and benefits of community schools.
He said he was on the Board during the closing of another community school in Virgilina.
Martin said the evidence shows that closing community schools does not save money and students perform better in schools “rooted in the community.”
“What I’m afraid of is in the future we’ll have lower test scores and less involved kids,” Martin said. “The budget is very important, but when you believe your mandate is to cut spending you’re making a grave mistake.
“The mandate is to provide services without frivolous spending,” he added.
Father Booher said that with all the fragmentation of religious denominations, schools have replaced churches as the “heart and soul of small towns.”
His wife Leslie added that a new academy at the elementary school would be like the STEM Academy with high school students coming and going during the day, whereas town residents have involvement with the younger kids.
Former economic development director Bill Confroy said the town should seriously consider the opportunity before them to get their children into the new South Boston school.
“I feel the best alternative for the town is to align themselves so residents of Halifax can use the new South Boston school,” Confroy said. “These new facilities are not just for the people here, but also for people we want to attract.”
This opportunity will not present itself again anytime soon, Confroy warned.
“You will not get this opportunity again for another 40 years,” he said. “Offer people the opportunity to send their kids to a first-class school.
“Let’s face it,” Confroy added. “It’s not up to par with what other communities are offering.”
Kimberly Parker, Councilman Parker’s wife, said she was concerned about the size of kindergarten classes at the new school with a projected class size of 25 students. She said she wanted to know the student-teacher ratio.
Resident Elizabeth Overton said a new school has nothing to do with the education the children receive.
Councilmen Phil Hollis and Jack Dunavant said they regretted that the debate over the school had got so acrimonious.
Hollis said he would also like to see the delay in the school closing and have time for another public meeting where residents could offer opinions.
Dunavant said he was contacted a couple months ago by Bailey and the response from constituents he got was that they didn’t seem to mind as long as the facility was kept open and maintained.
“Council had its hands tied while the School Board made a decision,” Dunavant said, noting it would be a good thing if the Board gave the town time for its residents to be heard. “I hope we can do that.”
Councilman Dick Moore said he wasn’t sure what decision was best for the town, but was sure that more than three days were needed to make a decision.
He said he supports a one-year delay so everyone involved can understand the decision.
Councilman Cabell Daniel said he was an employee of the school system for 25 years and in his opinion their decisions are based on what is best for the children of Halifax County.
He said he remembers when there were two schools in town and he doesn’t recall Council intervening when it was proposed that the Mary Bethune School be closed.
Mayor Leon Plaster said he received four phone calls about the school situation and all four were in favor of the alternative plan. The callers main concern were property values, he said.
In other business, Council appointed Tommy Reagan to serve on the town’s Planning Commission and scheduled a public hearing for its April 10 meeting to receive comment on a proposed ordinance to make pet owners clean up after their animals.

IDA Submits $14.5M Budget

The Halifax County Industrial Development Authority voted Wednesday to submit a $14.5 million draft budget including county, rental and grant funds to supervisors for their consideration.
The IDA is seeking $514,399 from the county, up slightly from the $505,915 the county appropriated to the authority in last year’s budget.
In the proposed budget is a 1.7 percent increase in personal costs, keeping the IDA staff in line with the county’s mandate to keep personnel cost increases under three percent, IDA Executive Director Mike Eades said.
At $14,535,820 the budget is approximately $7 million less than last fiscal year’s $21, 183,188 budget.
The decrease in size is primarily due to the ABB expansion project, which accounted for $17,900,000 in the 2006-07 budget, but falls to $11,360,068 in the proposed 2007-08 budget.
The IDA is projecting to spend approximately $1 million at the former Georgia-Pacific site primarily on demolition and disposal of existing facilities.
On the income side, the IDA is projecting approximately $1 million in revenue from a Tobacco Commission debt service grant for Riverstone Technology Park Building One, $62,900 in rental income from Building Two and $97,580 rent collected for the Daystrom Building.
The IDA also voted to approve a three-percent pay raise for Eades following a performance evaluation that is called for in his contract.
The raise will take effect in July with the start on the IDA’s new fiscal year.

To Sell G-P Site For Transfer Station

The Industrial Development Authority voted Wednesday to sell a seven-acre site to the county for $1 with several stipulations for a proposed solid waste transfer station in the former Georgia-Pacific complex on Plywood Trail.
According to County Administrator Bryan Foster, no final decision has been made regarding the station’s location, but the county made the request of the IDA so it could keep moving forward.
Foster said a formal decision where to locate the station could come as early as Monday at the joint meeting of supervisors and the town councils of South Boston and Halifax and is expected no later than the supervisor’s April 2 meeting.
If the county moves froward with the G-P site, the IDA and county will work together developing the site and other sections of the complex for industrial development.
The IDA has asked the Board to form an oversight committee, according to IDA Chairman Larry McPeters, which will make sure the transfer station abides by its agreement and does not disturb other development in the G-P complex or neighbors.
During development of the site the IDA will also work with the county on the position of the facility, borders and signs for the station, according to IDA Executive Director Mike Eades.
The IDA also voted to reject the first amendment to a lease agreement with Cingular Wireless that would have allowed the wireless carrier to operate a tower rent free in Riverstone Technology Park until $97,802 in expenses incurred by Cingular were recouped from the original tower site that was rejected.
Board members agreed to continue to work with Cingular to find an acceptable site for a telecommunications tower site in the technology park.
IDA members then heard a marketing strategy presentation for Riverstone and Building One from Leak-Goforth Company consultants Bob Goforth and Robert Leak.
The consultants said that Halifax County and the technology park have many positive attributes working in their favor.
They wrote in their report, “This is a most impressive park and a high technology building seldom found in a semi-rural community.”
Leak and Goforth recommended that the IDA promote Halifax and Riverstone to entrepreneurs, looking to start a business, and to large companies looking to locate facilities outside or major urban areas.
A booming new business is ‘resiliency,’ according to the consultants.
Resiliency is backup, both of files and other facilities to continue conducting business in the event of a natural or man-made disaster that affects the company’s main office.
Riverstone, which is removed from major urban areas and interstates, would be an ideal location for companies based in Richmond, Washington D.C. or other northeastern cities to locate their resiliency facilities, the consultants said.
The IDA must also vigorously promote Halifax’s low cost of doing business and the Mid-Atlantic Broadband availability, which is rare in rural areas, the consultants said.
Leak and Goforth also said to improve Riverstone they recommend grading a hill near the park’s entrance that will improve the vista of the park and make the site ‘shovel ready’ for a multi-story building.
The consultants also recommended that Southern Virginia localities work together to market the U.S. 58 corridor, possibly calling it “Virginia’s industrial highway.”

Obituaries

Roland Garwood Adcock

Roland Garwood Adcock, 90, of Farmville, formerly of South Boston, died March 13, 2007.
Mr. Adcock was born in Oxford, N.C. the son of the late Robert and Nancy Maurry Adcock and was married to the late Viola Grubb Adcock. He was a United States Army Veteran and pilot in World War II, was a member of Faulkner Masonic Lodge of South Boston, a member of South Boston Baptist Church, and was a retired hospital administrator and retired as a Federal employee.
Survivors include a daughter, Jacquelyne Bush of Buckingham; one brother, James Adcock of Oxford; one grandson, Mark Bush of Texas; and his special friends, Curtis and Linda Melvin and children.
Graveside services for Mr. Adcock will be held tomorrow, March 17, at 11 a.m. at Oak Ridge Cemetery in South Boston.
The family will receive friends this evening, March 16, from 7 until 8 at Doyne-Burger-Davis Funeral Home in Farmville.

Priscilla Ann Bouldin

Priscilla Ann Bouldin, 53, of Philadelphia, Pa., formerly of Halifax County, died March 7, 2007.
Mrs. Bouldin was born in Newport News on January 6, 1954, to the late Paschal Earl Womack and Mattie Sue Terry Womack and was married to Ernest Melvin Bouldin.
Survivors include her husband of South Boston; two daughters, Morshica L. Bouldin and Denise M. Wingate, both of Philadelphia; five sisters, Willie Pearl Terry of South Boston, Louise M. Bradley of Norfolk, Dorothy M. Wright of Oxon Hill, Md., Lorraine Womack and Kimmy A. Cole, both of Chesapeake; two brothers, Paschal E. Womack Jr. of Danville and Wilson Cash Jr. of Bridgeport, Conn.; one son-in-law, William D. Wingate; her mother-in-law, Queen E. Bouldin; and four grandchildren.
Funeral services for Mrs. Bouldin will be held today, March 16, in Philadelphia. Tomorrow, March 17, the remains will lie-in-state at Jeffress Funeral Home Chapel from 1 until 3 p.m., after which the burial will be in Christ Temple Blue Rock Holiness Church Cemetery.

Ioyyler Rollin Mayo

Ioyyler Rollin Mayo, 93, of South Boston died March 13, 2007, at South Boston Manor.
Ms. Mayo was born in Omega on August 31, 1913, to the late Robert M. Mayo and Martha Ann Wilkerson Mayo. She was a member of Jeters Chapel Baptist Church.
Survivors include several nieces and a nephew. Three sisters, Maylon D. Mayo, Martha Mayo Hall and Virginia M. Mayo; and one brother, McKenzey Mayo, preceded Ms. Mayo in death.
Funeral services will be held tomorrow, March 17, at 11 a.m. at Jeters Chapel Baptist Church with the Rev. Antori Brown officiating. Burial will be in the family cemetery.
The family will receive friends at the home of Martha Hall, 4249 East Hyco Road, South Boston.