Wetlands will be an issue regardless of which site is chosen to locate Page Middle School, but not an insurmountable one, the Gloucester County School Board was told Tuesday.
The board heard from Julie Steele, president of Environmental Specialties Group, who presented an update of the 2008 assessment she conducted when the board purchased approximately 138 acres along T.C. Walker Road near its intersection with Route 17. That site is the board’s choice for the construction of a campus to replace the tornado-ravaged Page Middle School, rather than rebuilding at the existing Page site of approximately 32 areas.
The Walker Road site has two arms of a spring-fed stream in its rear corner which Steele said are likely perennial streams and would be required to have a 100-foot buffer. There are also a few isolated wet spots along the Route 17 side and a patch near Walker Road which Steele said could be easily mitigated.
"It’s very viable for development," Steele said of the 138 acres, where the board would like to build a middle school for grades six through nine. "From an overall perspective, that’s a very limited area of wetland impact."
Steele agreed with division assistant superintendent John Hutchinson’s estimation that the site has about 19 acres of wetlands, including three in the stream area and 16 wet areas that can be mitigated, leaving about 100 acres for development.
"From my standpoint, if I were sitting in your chair, I would have voted to purchase the land," Steele said in response to a question from board member Jean Pugh. "There is very little property in Gloucester that does not have wetlands," she added.
That includes the present site of Page, where Hutchinson said demolition is beginning on the storm-damaged portions of the school. There is also a stream on this campus site, draining back from the vicinity of the water tower toward the rear of the property. Steele said this is also likely a perennial stream.
Responding to chairman Anita Parker, Steele said the Page site on Route 17 is not "grandfathered" and would be subject to wetlands regulations put in place since its construction. Steele said a wetlands delineation of the site would be required and may reduce its amount of useable acreage.
Limited acreage at the site is one reason why the board would prefer to relocate Page and use the Route 17 location for a school division administration and operations center. Its transportation operations are already located there and could be expanded to serve county-owned vehicles if space allowed.
The division’s food services office and warehouse, previously located on the Page campus, were completely demolished by the tornado. Those operations have been temporarily relocated in cramped quarters. In addition, moving the school administration to the location would free needed Court House area space for county offices.
In a related matter, the board approved application for $500,000 in Qualified School Construction Bonds that are part of federal stimulus funds. School division finance director Joann Wright said the bond money is virtually interest free, and that any interest due would be negligible and reimbursed by federal funds.
Wright said the money could be used toward the purchase of land, but that at least 25 percent of it must be spent on construction. She said using all of the money for construction was also an option.
In addition, Wright said one locality forfeited its QSCB bond award of $11.8 million, and the Virginia Department of Education has asked Gov. Bob McDonnell to allow Gloucester, and two other localities that have suffered recent catastrophic loss, to make application for the monies.
The School Board and county supervisors will continue to discuss the site and funding options for Page in a joint meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27, at Gloucester High School.