Price is right

Published 12:00 am Saturday, August 18, 2007

WINDSOR – It’s final.

The Bertie County Commissioners will acquire the much-coveted property of C.G. White Middle School.

At the last meeting of the commissioners on August 6, the board voted unanimously to make an offer to the Bertie Board of Education (BOE) in the amount of $30,000.

That amount was the same number at which Bertie County Tax Administrator Hosea Wilson appraised the property last month.

Monday, at the BOE meeting, their board voted to accept the commissioners’ offer.

What happens next is up to the commissioners.

According to County Manager Zee Lamb, the commissioners will now form a committee to oversee just that.

&uot;We’re going to sit down again with the parties who were interested and try to figure out how to best utilize the building,&uot; he told the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald.

Those parties include the Town of Powellsville, the C.G. White Alumnae Association and Powellsville First Baptist Church.

The Town of Powellsville desires part of the facility for reasons having to do with saving them nearly a million dollars in water/sewer infrastructure renovation.

The Alumnae group wants to make sure the building’s historical integrity is preserved, since they are made up of members who attended the historically black school.

Powellsville First Baptist, which is adjacent to C.G. White, is attempting to ensure that their current ability to park using school property on Sundays isn’t compromised.

Bertie County also desires the property for its own use, as stated by Lamb in the joint meeting of the commissioners with the BOE back in July.

The Commissioners will most likely address the issue further at their next meeting at 7 p.m. on August 27.