JACKSON – The Woodland Clinic has seen its last patient.

Last week, the Northampton County Commissioners voted to close the Health Department clinic located in Woodland Olney Apartments.

“The Northampton County Health Department has evaluated the cost versus the benefit of retaining the Woodland Clinic,” said Health Director Sue Gay. “Staff, travel and maintenance costs exceed the benefits of running the clinic.

The patient attendance had dwindled in the past year and the clinic averaged less than six patients a month.

Gay explained to the commissioners a tornado touched down near the previous mobile site and did damage to the clinic. She added it took a few years to get the clinic going again in free space offered by CADA (Choanoke Area Development Association) within the Woodland Olney Apartments

“I think they (the patients) chose to go somewhere else,” she said.

Commissioner Fannie Greene (D-5th) questioned if the clinic was used by residents of the apartments.

Gay said it was not because the clinic was geared toward pediatrics.

Commissioner James Hester (D-1st) made a motion to close the clinic, followed by Greene. The motion passed without objection.

The closing of the clinic is effective immediately.

In other business, the commissioners approved the removal of abandoned graves to be reinterrred in two separate church cementaries, after a public hearing for the topic was held.

The gravesites are located near the NC 48 and I-95 interchange near Brewers Crossroads and are being disinterred because the land was purchased by I-95 Enterprises.

The action taken by the board will allow the graves be re-interred back into the cementaries of two churches in two different counties, including Halifax County and a county in Virginia.

A genealogist was brought in to identify family members of those in the grave sites and efforts have been made to notify those relatives.

The relatives of those that have been identified are in agreement with the disinter and reinter of the graves.

The commissioners also approved two proposed amendments to the Northampton County Zoning ordinance. The first proposed amendment was to add a definition of the word “pave” to current industry standards to the ordinance to clarify the intent of the word.

Commissioner Chester Deloatch (D-3rd) showed dislike for the ordinance by saying it made it harder for the average person to pave their property.

Greene asked Deloatch if he understood he was voting against the definition, not the ordinance.

He said he did.

“I want it to go on record Deloatch is against it,” he said.

The proposed amendment was passed in a 4-1 vote with Deloatch giving the only “nay.” The second proposed amendment passed was to add provisions for airports and landing fields to the Light Industrial and Heavy Industrial

of the zoning ordinance.