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High school site choice set for July 28
Final results from engineering tests on one of two sites under consideration as the location for a new county high school are in hand and results for the other are expected on July 17, School Board Chairman Robina Rich Bouffault told county planning commissioners and supervisors in separate updates on July 11 and July 14, respectively.
The available results are for slightly more than 38 acres owned by the Ketoctin Land Company north of Route 7 near the Battlefield Estates subdivision in Berryville.
The tests, done by Gannett Flaming, Inc., of Fairfax, show that “there was nothing there that would have precluded the (Ketoctin) site as a potential new high school (location),” Bouffault said.
The firm did environmental and additional resistivity tests and took soil samples, as well as made borings on a portion of the Ketoctin site where a school could be built, Bouffault noted.
School Board members also are scheduled to get an update during their regular meeting July 21 at 7 p.m. at Clarke County High School. By that time, they hope to also have test results on land behind the existing high school on Westwood Road in Berryville where an addition is proposed, Bouffault said. No soil or environmental tests were done on that land, she said, because it is already owned by the county.
The test results will be used to help determine the cost of building the school on either site, Bouffault said. The board hopes to have cost estimates by July 23 for work that would have to be done both on-site and off-site at each location, she added.
A special meeting is scheduled for July 28 at 7 p.m. at the high school “to make the determination of the final site selection,” Bouffault said.
Saying that the School Board recognizes that the community would prefer a new high school rather than an addition onto the current one, Bouffault said, “It’s all going to come down to the cost estimates.”
The School Board has approximately $30 million remaining from $33 million that was borrowed from the state to pay for the project, she said. The board that preceded the current one reported spending money to explore the feasibility of building the school on a 71-acre site offered by the Salvation Army just south of the existing school.
One environmental concern cited in the engineering firm’s report is whether an old, leaking underground storage tank at Berryville Primary School could have an effect on groundwater quality at the Ketoctin site, Bouffault said.
“Due to the topography of the area surrounding the target property and the unpredictable nature of petroleum releases, there is a small chance that this release may have impacted the soil and groundwater of the subject property,” the report states.
Although the Ketoctin site would be connected to the Town of Berryville’s public water supply, the school system might want to drill wells to irrigate fields there, Bouffault said.
Contact the reporter at rmarlow@timespapers.com
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