County sets aside money to buy land for new high school

Craven County’s next high school will most likely be between New Bern and Havelock near the site used for a drive-through nativity off U.S. 70 just past Thurman Road.

On Monday, Craven County commissioners unanimously approved putting $25,000 in an escrow account toward the purchase of 51.5 acres in that area for $32,000 an acre, a total of $1.648 million.

Buying the land, if the deal is completed after being researched by county attorney Jim Hicks, does not mean a new high school will come quickly to the site.

“We’re looking at a 10-year or longer period, depending on growth patterns and the economy,” County Manager Jack Veit said. “And just how the county will finance it has not been decided.”

The tract owned by Turf Club, LLC, with local lawyer John King as a principle owner, has enough room fronting U.S. 70 West for an entranceway and fronting Old Cherry Point Road for two access areas.

It is one of several land tracts considered in that general area over the last several years. A 75-acre wooded tract available in 2007 on the same side of U.S. 70 for about $750,000 was what started the land search for a school. School leaders at the time said the county would need to accommodate overflow at New Bern High School and anticipated growth at Havelock High School related to the military.

That tract had too many low-lying areas and wetlands but, since then, county officials have considered other nearby sites including several on the U.S. 70 East side of the highway, including one in Carolina Colours, one on Old Airport Road, and one that was the site for a Catholic high school.

Discussion of prices and reasons for choosing this site over others has all been done in closed session allowed by the state open meetings law for consideration of buying property.

In open session on Monday, commissioners unanimously approved the motion to buy the Turf Club tract “for education purposes” that are presently “the potential site for a new high school.”

Veit said the need to buy the land was targeted and some money was set aside to do so in 2007.

“This has been complicated by the fact that there is not a lot more suitable land in that area,” Veit said.

When the search began, about $815,000 remained in the school’s capital account after completion of Creekside Elementary and renovations at J.T. Barber Elementary and Grover C. Fields Middle School.

A fourth high school in the county has been at least discussed by Craven County Schools for a number of years, including an initial plan that called for an opening of a new high school along the U.S. 70 corridor between Havelock and New Bern in 2010 or 2011.