New Kent Charles City Chronicle

News for New Kent County and Charles City County, Virginia | March 28, 2024

CC board turns down church request, considers tower

By Alan Chamberlain | March 26, 2008 2:44 pm

Charles City’s School Board has denied a request from leaders of a yet to be built church to tap into the county school’s system’s water/sewer system.

Last November, officials from Charles City Community Church approached board members concerning the proposal. Plans call for the church’s new home to be built on land directly across Route 155 from the school complex.

During their March 18 meeting, board members voted 4-1 to reject the proposal. Henry Hollimon cast the lone dissenting vote.

Board chairman Barbara Crawley said the board previously turned down two similar requests, citing anticipated growth at the school complex and its impact on water/sewer capacity. The recently completed school bus garage will be hooked into the system, and there are plans for adding a gymnasium to the middle school, she said.

But the church’s pastor, the Rev. Charlotte Harris, said county public works staff reports that the existing water/sewer system has enough capacity to serve the schools, a church, and the entire neighborhood.

“What better entity to have across from a school than a church?” she told board members. “I can’t think of anything that would lead to denial of this request.”

Crawley replied that while Harris voiced good points, school officials are not seeking to create a precedent.

“We don’t want to open a Pandora’s box and have everyone coming in and wanting to tap into our system,” she said.

Harris charged that board members were leaning on “bogus reasons” for denying the request. She added that county schools are not experiencing rapid growth and that any future growth will progress at a slow pace.

Board member Roy Campbell disagreed, saying potential for growth in the county is great.

“It’s not anything bogus we’re giving you,” he told Harris. “It’s just that we know things that we’re not at liberty to say, but Charles City is not going to be the same.”

A delegation of more than two dozen church members sat in on last week’s meeting. Several addressed the board during a public comment session held after the board’s vote. All expressed disappointment, but at the same time pledged they would continue to support the school system.

In other matters last week, board members are considering a proposal by a Richmond-based communications tower construction company to build a 195-foot monopole cell phone tower on school property.

National Communications Towers proposes to build the tower on a wooded site behind the elementary school, just southwest of the high school’s football stadium. An alternate site is open land off Route 155 between the middle school and the recently completed school bus garage.

Company president Elliott Harrigan is proposing a lease agreement for a 125×125-foot site. He told the board that the school property is an ideal location for filling cell phone reception gaps along the Route 5 corridor and north along Route 155.

The tower would house antenna space for up to five cell phone carriers. Space would also be provided for school or county use, Harrigan said.

Board members took no action, but indicated they will study the proposal and could vote on the matter during their April meeting.