The Mathews County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday discussed the possibility of abandoning plans to make Rappahannock Community College the county’s emergency shelter.

Chair Edwina Casey said that $200,000 has already been spent on equipping and studying the facility "and there’s still nothing we can use … it’s just good money going after bad."

Last year, the county partnered with the Virginia Department of Emergency Management to install a grant-funded generator switch at RCC that would enable VDEM to hook up one of its mobile generators in case the college was needed as a shelter. However, an RCC official halted the plan and called for a study to determine its feasibility. The study is being funded by a grant, not by the county.

Casey also expressed reservations about using Peasley Middle School, Gloucester County’s shelter, as an alternative. Having participated in a recent emergency operations exercise, she said she "got a bad feeling" that th...