Town OKs permit to build new high school

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By Alex Bridges -- abridges@nvdaily.com

BERRYVILLE -- The Clarke County School Board received the go-ahead Thursday from town officials to move forward on a new high school.

The Berryville Town Council voted unanimously at a lengthy meeting Thursday to approve a special-use permit that allows for the construction of a high school on 45 acres off Business Va. 7 and Mosby Boulevard near Battlefield Estates.

"I'm very pleased," Superintendent Michael Murphy said Friday.

The project must comply with 18 conditions in the permit, including lighting of the facility, terminating Early Drive and issues of water and sewer lines. The superintendent said he was "not too keen on" two of the conditions, particularly the dedication of an extension of Mosby Boulevard within 30 days. The board felt this dedication could have been put in escrow, Murphy said.

The School Board and the town will save $1.5 million by having the Virginia Department of Transportation build improvements at Mosby Boulevard and West Main Street and entrance work for the facility, according to Town Manager Keith Dalton. VDOT also would try to improve the entrance to D.G. Cooley Elementary School close to the intersection of Westwood Road and West Main Street, he said.

"[The] Council's take on this was constructing Mosby in a timely fashion saves the school system a lot of money," Dalton said.

The council took some of the School Board's concerns into consideration and modified some of the conditions of the permit, the superintendent said.

"I think they certainly gave some," Murphy said. "We gave a lot. Potential right of ways and easements and stuff like that, but if the community's goal is to build a high school -- and I believe that is this community's goal -- then I think it was as close to a win-win as you could get."

A condition in the permit requires the School Board to file a final site development plan for the facility to the Berryville Area Development Authority within 30 days and then to council, which Dalton and Murphy said was the next major step in the process.