Council makes request to keep school in city

HUNTINGTON -- Fearing transportation problems and a loss of community support, Huntington City Council members adopted a resolution Monday requesting that the Cabell County Board of Education keep a planned middle school inside city limits.

One school board member, however, says there are not any sites in the city that are large enough to accommodate a new school.

The Board of Education has targeted land that it owns next to the Cabell County Career Technical Center as the location for the new school, which would consolidate Beverly Hills and Enslow middle schools. Board members have not approved the site yet, but could do so in the next few months. If the school board wants funding for a new middle school from the state School Building Authority, it must submit a proposal by December.

The thought of moving the school several minutes away from the neighborhoods that feed students into the two existing schools worries Councilman Jim Insco, the sponsor of the resolution.

For starters, the access road to the career technical center property floods, he said. He also said the windy, two-lane Norway Avenue is less than adequate for the buses that would drive on it every day.

Perhaps most damaging, Insco said, is the potential loss of volunteers and support that neighborhoods like Highlawn, Guyandotte and Beverly Hills provide to the two existing schools.

"There's no positives to putting a new school out on that road outside of the fact that the school board already owns the property," Insco said. "I have a son in the fourth grade who will be attending this school and I have grave concerns about it."

Upon questioning by Councilman Cal Kent, city attorney Scott McClure said the city fire and police departments would not be responsible for servicing the school unless they signed mutual aid agreements with a volunteer fire department or the Cabell County Sheriff's Department.

Even if that were the case, the emergency response time to the school would be slow because of an increase in traffic caused by Wal-Mart, Councilman Scott Caserta said.

Caserta and Insco were joined by council members Mary Neely, Teresa Loudermilk, Frances Jackson, P.D. Adkins, Jim Ritter and Sandra Clements in voting for the resolution. A resolution is not legally binding. Furthermore, City Council has no say in where the new school will be built.

Kent and Councilman Paul Farrell voted against the resolution. Councilman Garry Black was absent.

"I hesitate to tell another government entity how to run their business," Farrell said.

Insco said the resolution isn't intended to criticize the Board of Education or carry any hostility.

"One of the problems in our area is that government agencies don't communicate or work together," he said. "This is simply our way of speaking from one government agency to another."

School Board member Suzanne Oxley, who attended the meeting but did not speak, said afterward that exhaustive efforts have been made to find a new school site inside city limits. Rotary Park was a possibility, as was property behind the old Big Bear grocery store on 5th Avenue. But both sites have specific issues that cannot be resolved, she said.

"Certainly all of the board members would like to keep the school inside the city and we will continue exploring our options," she said. "But we've done our research at the (career technical center) site. It would be a 21st Century facility with playing fields on property we already own."

Oxley said if the school is built outside the city, she is in favor of allowing the city to annex it so that the city can provide fire and police protection.

She also acknowledged that owning the career technical center property is an advantage to building a new school there. The state School Building Authority does not provide funding for purchasing property, which would have to occur if the school board built a new school inside the city, she said.

Oxley also addressed concerns about what will happen to the Beverly Hills and Enslow buildings once they are no longer used as middle schools.

There have been informal inquiries about using Enslow as a recreation center or community center, she said. Beverly Hills could potentially be used for another school function.

"We as a board have said we don't want to leave these buildings vacant," Oxley said. "We want to be responsible citizens and make sure they are put to good use."